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You have gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). This is a problem where food and fluid flow back (reflux) into your esophagus. Other treatments have not brought relief. Your doctor is now recommending a surgery called fundoplication. Read on to learn more.
Your lower esophageal sphincter (LES) is a one-way valve at the top of the stomach. It keeps food and fluid from flowing backward. Your LES is weak. It does not close off the top of the stomach. This allows food and fluid to reflux into the esophagus. During fundoplication, the LES is remade. This is done by wrapping the very top of the stomach around the lower part of the esophagus.
The surgery is most often done with laparoscopy. But it may also be done with open surgery.
Laparoscopy: This is surgery through a few small incisions. A thin, lighted tube called a laparoscope is used. The scope allows the doctor to see inside the body and work through the small incisions.
Open surgery: This is surgery through one larger incision. The doctor sees and works through this incision. It may be used if your doctor feels it isn’t safe to continue with laparoscopic surgery.
An intravenous line is put into a vein in your arm or hand. This line gives you fluids and medications. You are then given anesthesia. This is medication to keep you free from pain during surgery. Most often, general anesthesia is used. This puts you into a state like deep sleep during the surgery. Once the surgery begins:
The doctor makes 2 to 4 small incisions in the abdomen. The scope is put through one of the incisions. The scope sends live pictures to a video screen. This allows the doctor see inside the abdomen.
Surgical tools are placed through the other small incisions.
Your abdomen is inflated with carbon dioxide. This gas provides space for the doctor to see and work.
The opening in the diaphragm that the esophagus travels through is called the hiatus. If the hiatus is too large, it’s called a hiatal hernia. If this is present, the hiatus is tightened with a few stitches.
The stomach is wrapped around the outside of the esophagus. The wrap is stitched into place.
When the surgery is done, all tools are removed. Any incisions are closed with sutures or staples.
Injury to the liver, spleen, esophagus, or stomach
Increased gas or bloating
Inability to vomit
Failure to eliminate GERD | 3.190185 |
PLL frequency synthesizer
A frequency synthesizer is a circuit that generates one or more output signals whose frequency bears a prescribed relation to the frequency of an input reference signal. Such circuits are used as accurate frequency sources in a wide variety of electronic apparatus. Frequency synthesizers are widely used in modern radio communication systems. Such devices typically make use of a single quartz-controlled reference oscillator combined with a phase-locked loop to provide a multitude of output frequencies traceable to the highly stable reference from the oscillator. A phase looked-loop (PLL) frequency synthesizer uses a feedback loop for synchronization in frequency and phase with a certain reference frequency signal and generates a signal of a target frequency by multiplying the reference frequency signal or by combining the reference frequency signal with another reference frequency signal. A PLL frequency synthesizer comprises a reference signal generator, a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), a variable frequency divider, a phase frequency comparator, low pass filter, and a control voltage supplying circuit. The reference signal generator generates a reference signal with a reference frequency. The phase comparator detects a phase difference between an output frequency of the reference oscillator and an output frequency of the voltage controlled oscillator. A signal corresponding with this phase difference is supplied as a control voltage to the voltage controlled oscillator through the low pass filter. The phase difference signal causes the output signal from the VCO to change in frequency so as to minimise the phase difference between the frequency divided signal and the reference signal.
There's no product listing here. Be the first to
submit your product information. | 3.308858 |
Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research, Regent's College, Inner Circle, London NW1 4NS, United Kingdom (3.95 British pounds).
Guides - Classroom - Teacher
Based on widespread teacher perceptions that British upper secondary school students entering advanced language courses are poorly prepared, an approach for making the transition to advanced language instruction is suggested. Teachers are invited to use existing syllabuses creatively to develop language awareness as well as language skills. Four aspects of curriculum design and development are discussed: (1) the need to create a new model of progression through language learning; (2) beginning with and building on students' existing strengths and knowledge level, emphasizing collaboration, self-assessment, and study skills; (3) progressing from known to unknown in syllabus content; and (4) incorporating grammar into a syllabus designed around topics and skills. Specific examples of classroom techniques and activities are provided in French, Spanish, and German. (MSE)
1 - Available on microfiche
Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research, London (England). | 3.262152 |
Nuclear research reactors can be used to assist in the manufacture of nuclear weapons in several ways. The most direct link is the use of research reactors for plutonium production, though it is impossible to produce plutonium-239 weapons from zero-power test facilities. The highly enriched uranium (HEU) research reactor fuel can be diverted for weapons production, and HEU can be extracted from spent research reactor fuel. The 6.5 MW RA reactor and hot cells at the Vinca Institute were apparently part of a nuclear weapons development effort initiated by Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito.
On October 5, 1958 the Vinca heavy-water research reactor had a criticality excursion, and one person died as a result of this accident. In principle, this reactor could have produced sufficient plutonium for one weapon over a period of several years. According to some reports laboratory-scale separation of plutonium took place at Vinca in the 1960s, although apparently less than one kilogram of plutonium-239 was separated in the hot cells at the facility. Romania also produced plutonium under the Ceausescu regime, and Iraq separated about five grams of plutonium before the 1991Gulf War.
The RA research reactor was closed in 1984. Some 40 kilograms of fresh HEU and 40kg of heavily corroded HEU are stored at the Vinca Institute of Nuclear Sciences. The HEU, enriched to 80 percent Uranium-235 for the RA research reactor, was supplied by the USSR after 1976. The 40kg of spent HEU fuel is stored in four basins with 200 m3 of water.Yugoslavia signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1970. In 1996, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) personnel went to the Vinca research reactor near Belgrade to evaluate the safety of the spent fuel pool. The 1997 IAEA mission to Yugoslavia was concerned with the spent fuel pool at the Institute of Nuclear Science at Vinca. Remedial actions have started in the pool in accordance with a plan developed with the Agency's assistance.
The 60 kilograms of 80 percent highly enriched uranium at the Vinca Institute constitutes enough material to make two nuclear weapons of the implosion-type design, or one of the simpler-to-make gun-type design. There is no indication that Serbia has proceeded with activities associated with weaponization of this material. The HEU could be used as a radiological weapon, a conventional munition to which powdered radioactive material would be added. The area on which such a projectile fell would be contaminated with long-lasting radiation.
Yugoslavia had one nuclear plant in Krško, Slovenia. This 630 MWe PWR was built by Westinghouse in 1981. During the war in former Yugoslavia there were threats of missile or terrorist attacks against the plant several times. Under current plans the reactor will be shut down in September 2000. In 1986 Yugoslavia's international call for bids covered four plants to be built by the year 2000 at an estimated cost of $10 billion. This request attracted 10 bids, including a proposal by Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL) for a CANDU nuclear program. The nuclear expansion program eventually collapsed.
During the IAEA Director General’s visit to Serbia in July 2009, Serbia agreed to the Additional Protocol. In cooperation with the United States, European Commission, and IAEA, Serbia began the Vinca Institute Nuclear Decommissioning (VIND) Program in 2002, which was completed in 2010. With the completion of the VIND Program in 2010, no more spent fuel and weapons-grade materials that were left over from the former Yugoslavia remained in Serbia.
Maintained by Jonathan Garbose
Updated Thursday, May 31, 2012 3:57:7 PM | 3.437439 |
Unidentified Submerged Object
An Unidentified Submerged Object, or USO, is an object of unknown origin observed under water.
In about the year 1800, a very strange thing
happened in Japan and not known
very much in our Western world. In the library in Iwase
Bunko, an interesting documentation was found about the
event describing an Unidentified Submerged
Object, as it washed up on the shore. Out of the capsule
a woman walked out, but she spoke
a language not known to the locals.
Local people could not figure out where she had come from. The Iwase Bunko Library has in its possession a document describing this event, which happened at Harashagahama in Hitachi-no-kuni (Japan). The woman was perfectly decorated and had red eyebrows.
"Bloop" is the name given to a peculiar sound that was recorded in the Pacific Ocean several times in 1997 and its source is unknown, albeit scientists have technology for identification of sounds. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which recorded the above-mentioned sound, used special recording devices that had been originally developed for detecting Soviet submarines. NOAA said that the sound "was of sufficient amplitude to be heard on multiple sensors at a range of over 5,000 km". Scientists who studied this phenomenon confirmed that if an animal produced the sound, it would have to be an animal much larger than Blue Whale, which is the largest known animal living on our planet. You can listen to this sound here.
Shag Harbour Incident
Shag Harbour is the place (a tiny village in Nova
Scotia, Canada) where a USO crash was reported
and it was also examined by the Canadian military and Canadian government.
It is one of the few cases where
a country's government formally recognized an UFO. What happened?
On October 4, 1967, approximately about 11:20 in the evening (local
time), an unknown object fell into the sea - this is what people reported
(a USO sighting). It is not clear whether this was a crash or not
(because of little evidence that the public has), but the incident
is easily searchable (on the Internet) under the key words Shag
Harbour Crash. What we know for sure is that an unknown object
was seen to have disappeared in the waters and that the incident has
more than a mile wide paper trail both in the media and in the Canadian
Government and military documents. | 3.1426 |
The above headline comes from Science Daily on May 20, 2009. The ensuing article reports on research presented at the International Conference of the American Thoracic Society that stated that children who get the flu vaccine are more at risk for hospitalization than those children who do not.
In this study researchers followed 263 children ages 6 months to 18 years, who were evaluated at the Mayo Clinic and had laboratory-confirmed influenza between 1996 to 2006. The researchers determined who received the flu vaccine and who did not. They then looked at their asthma status and who did and did not require hospitalization. The records were reviewed for each child with influenza-related illness to see if they had the flu vaccination preceding the illness and if they required hospitalization during that illness.
The researchers found that children who had received the flu vaccine had three times the risk of hospitalization, as compared to children who had not received the vaccine.
Avni Joshi, M.D., of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, responded in the Science Daily article by noting, "The concerns that vaccination may be associated with asthma exacerbations have been disproved with multiple studies in the past, but the vaccine's effectiveness has not been well-established." Dr. Joshi, continued, "This study was aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of the TIV (vaccine) in children overall, as well as the children with asthma, to prevent influenza-related hospitalization." He continued by explaining that this study does not mean that the cause of the hospitalizations was the vaccine, "While these findings do raise questions about the efficacy of the vaccine, they do not in fact implicate it as a cause of hospitalizations." | 3.09738 |
Commands such as C-x C-f (
find-file) use the minibuffer
to read a file name argument (see Basic Files). When the
minibuffer is used to read a file name, it typically starts out with
some initial text ending in a slash. This is the default
directory. For example, it may start out like this:
Find file: /u2/emacs/src/
Here, ‘Find file: ’ is the prompt and ‘/u2/emacs/src/’ is the default directory. If you now type buffer.c as input, that specifies the file /u2/emacs/src/buffer.c. See File Names, for information about the default directory.
You can specify the parent directory with ..: /a/b/../foo.el is equivalent to /a/foo.el. Alternatively, you can use M-<DEL> to kill directory names backwards (see Words).
To specify a file in a completely different directory, you can kill the entire default with C-a C-k (see Minibuffer Edit). Alternatively, you can ignore the default, and enter an absolute file name starting with a slash or a tilde after the default directory. For example, you can specify /etc/termcap as follows:
Find file: /u2/emacs/src//etc/termcap
Emacs interprets a double slash as “ignore everything before the second slash in the pair”. In the example above, /u2/emacs/src/ is ignored, so the argument you supplied is /etc/termcap. The ignored part of the file name is dimmed if the terminal allows it. (To disable this dimming, turn off File Name Shadow mode with the command M-x file-name-shadow-mode.)
Emacs interprets ~/ as your home directory. Thus, ~/foo/bar.txt specifies a file named bar.txt, inside a directory named foo, which is in turn located in your home directory. In addition, ~user-id/ means the home directory of a user whose login name is user-id. Any leading directory name in front of the ~ is ignored: thus, /u2/emacs/~/foo/bar.txt is equivalent to ~/foo/bar.txt.
On MS-Windows and MS-DOS systems, where a user doesn't always have a home directory, Emacs uses several alternatives. For MS-Windows, see Windows HOME; for MS-DOS, see MS-DOS File Names. On these systems, the ~user-id/ construct is supported only for the current user, i.e., only if user-id is the current user's login name.
To prevent Emacs from inserting the default directory when reading
file names, change the variable
nil. In that case, the minibuffer starts out empty.
Nonetheless, relative file name arguments are still interpreted based
on the same default directory.
You can also enter remote file names in the minibuffer. See Remote Files. | 3.563712 |
Question: "What is a 'dark night of the soul'?"
Answer: The phrase “dark night of the soul” comes from a poem by St. John of the Cross (1542-1591), a Spanish Carmelite monk and mystic, whose Noche obscura del alma is translated “The Dark Night of the Soul.” This eight-stanza poem outlines the soul’s journey from the distractions and entanglements of the world to the perfect peace and harmony of union with God. According to the poet, the “dark night of the soul” is synonymous with traveling the “narrow way” that Jesus spoke of in Matthew 7:13-14.
The monk taught that one seeking God will cast off all attachments to this world and live a life of austerity. Before attaining union with God, however, the soul must pass through a personal experience of Christ’s passion. This time of testing and agony is accompanied by confusion, fear, and uncertainty—including doubts of God—but on the other side are Christ’s glory, serenity, and a mystical union with God.
The dark night is not pleasant, but to the end that it allows one to approach nearer to God and His love, the poet calls it a “happy night” and a “night more lovely than the dawn.” At the end of one’s journey, he concludes, God takes away all feeling, leaving the traveler senseless to everything except the presence of God Himself.
From a theological standpoint, the concept of a dark night of the soul fits with the Catholic teaching of the necessity of purgatory and of earning God’s favor through penance and other works. However, the idea of a step-by-step process of self-denial and affliction culminating in glory is not taught in Scripture. Jesus predicted that His followers would face persecution (John 15:20), but He also gives His peace to those same followers (John 14:27). A believer has God’s peace now; he doesn’t have to experience a “dark night” first (Romans 5:1). The child of God is already seated “in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6). Neither Jesus nor the apostles ever taught a “dark night of the soul.”
The ideas contained in “The Dark Night of the Soul” have been applied in contexts outside of Catholicism. Protestants have been known to use the phrase to describe a period of questioning one’s salvation. And the phrase is sometimes used generically to describe any type of mental, emotional, or spiritual anguish.
© Copyright 2002-2013 Got Questions Ministries. | 3.164642 |
In his right hand, Don Sada clutches a simple kitchen sieve; in his left, he holds a Tupperware container. As I look on, the 58-year-old ecologist from Reno's Desert Research Institute plunges into a thick stand of watercress that obscures the headwaters of Big Springs Creek, an exuberant stream that issues from multiple springs at the southern end of Snake Valley, along the flanks of the Snake Range in east-central Nevada. "Let's see what's here," he says, stooping to part the watercress and drag his sieve through the stream's pebble-strewn bottom. "I've got springsnails," he shouts.
Peering into the container, I see about a dozen dots that appear as animate as baby peppercorns. The dots are snails, so small that the whorls that mark their shells are all but invisible. These diminutive gill-breathers belong to a species -- Pyrgulopsis anguina -- found near the source of just three springs, all of them in Snake Valley.
The snails are part of an ancient assemblage of aquatic organisms found here and in other Great Basin valleys. Fifteen thousand years ago, agile minnows now confined to spring-fed pools and streams swam through the shallows of great lakes and rivers. Springsnails, and the type of habitat they occupy, may have existed here for some 5 to 6 million years, ever since the end of the Miocene, the geological epoch during which Nevada's corrugated basin-and-range began to form. But now many of these little spring dwellers are in trouble, due largely to us, the brash newcomers who, barely two centuries ago, began pushing into the territory west of the 100th meridian.
Between the late 1800s and the start of the 21st century, Sada says, habitat destruction and the introduction of non-native species caused the extinction of a dozen genetically unique Great Basin fishes along with at least three mollusks. Still other extinctions have been but narrowly averted. Of some 4,000 springs Sada and his colleagues have examined, barely 60 can be considered remotely pristine. The rest have been subjected to unremitting abuse, notably by cattle and wild horses, which have trampled riparian margins, and by ranchers and farmers, who've canalized spring brooks and diverted their water.
"This spring looks pretty healthy," Sada says of Big Springs, "but if you look, you can see it's been disturbed. All those grasses over there are non-native, as is this clover. And over there, it looks like it's been dug out." Not far from Big Springs is Needle Point Spring, which used to spill into a trough and pond used by cattle and wild horses. Its flow faltered in 2001, shortly after nearby wells started withdrawing groundwater for irrigation.
Now, Snake Valley's springs face a new threat: the Southern Nevada Water Authority's controversial plan to pump groundwater from Snake and other remote valleys and ship it south, to the Las Vegas metropolitan area. A decade or so from now, a 285-mile-long pipeline could carry more than 100,000 acre-feet of water south each year -- more than enough to flood a city the size of Las Vegas to the depth of one foot. (See sidebar: Vegas forges ahead with pipeline plan).
In another era, a project this stunning in scale might have been hailed as smart, imaginative, even visionary. But that was before the environmental consequences of extracting large amounts of water from arid Western lands became so apparent. Across the region nowadays, rivers are in trouble, as are many aquifers. In extreme cases, water tables have dropped by several hundred feet, causing streams to dwindle, spring flow to wane, trees and shrubs to wither. Many rural and urban areas now suffer from land subsidence. As groundwater is removed, surrounding sediments can compact and slump, undermining buildings and highways. Parts of the Las Vegas Valley have sunk as much as six feet, and areas in Arizona and California have dropped anywhere from 15 to 30 feet.
This dismal track record casts a long shadow over the planned water diversion and lends credibility to those who question its eventual costs. The concern is further magnified by the size of the planned withdrawal. According to hydrological models submitted to the Nevada state engineer by project opponents, the utility's pumps will likely cause a severe water table drop across a very large area, extending well beyond the targeted valleys. And yet the full picture of the impacts may not emerge for decades, even centuries.
Where springs are concerned, what worries Sada most is the potential for harmful synergy -- the cumulative impact of all the strain being placed on the small, vulnerable ecosystems he has spent the past quarter-century studying. | 3.336058 |
The original painting - The Angelus (1859) by Jean Francois Millet
The Angelus was reproduced frequently in the 19th and 20th centuries. Salvador Dalí was fascinated by this work, and wrote an analysis of it, The Tragic Myth of The Angelus of Millet. “In June 1932, there suddenly came to my mind without any close or conscious association, which would have provided an immediate explanation, the image of The Angelus of Millet. This image consisted of a visual representation which was very clear and in colors. It was nearly instantaneous and was not followed by other images. It made a very great impression on me, and was most upsetting to me because, although in my vision of the afore-mentioned image everything corresponded exactly to the reproductions of the picture with which I was familiar, it appeared to me nevertheless absolutely modified and charged with such latent intentionality that The Angelus of Millet Suddenly’ became for me the pictorial work which was the most troubling, the most enigmatic, the most dense and the richest in unconscious thoughts that I had ever seen.”
Dali thought that there was something hidden in the canvas due to the presence of a feeling of anguish. Confirming Dali’s own interpretation of the picture, an X-ray examination of Millet’s canvas has revealed a geometrical shape between the two figures, the coffin of their dead child. This part was painted over by the artist to make the picture more saleable.
Dali had been obsessed with the image as a child, finding parallels between that and two cypress trees that stood outside his classroom. He also began to see The Angelus in “visions” in objects around him: once in a lithograph of cherries, once in two stones on a beach. The Architectonic Angelus of Millet was based upon this latter “vision”. The tragic myth of Millet’s Angelus is one of Dali’s most profound fantasies.
In The Architectonic Angelus (1933) the Angelus couple are transformed into two huge, white stones that loom over the Catalonian landscape. Dali pointed out that although the male stone on the left appears to be dominant due to its size, the female stone is the aggressor here, pushing out a part of herself to make physical contact with the male. The often-used image of the young Dali with his father can be seen sheltering underneath the male stone.
The Angelus of Gala (1935) contains two versions of The Angelus: the first is the unusual portrait of a double Gala, the second is the reproduction of The Angelus above Gala’s head. Looking at the pictureof The Angelus above Gala, the female perches on the wheelbarrow, as does the main figure. The female in The Angelus is sexually aggressive; like a praying mantis, ready to devour her mate after receiving the attention that she hunts for.
In Archeological Reminescence of Millet’s Angelus (1935) the original two Angelus figures have been transformed into towering architectural ruins, which probably were inspired by Dali’s visits to the Roman ruins near his childhood home. The third figure of the dead son is absent in this rendition of Dali’s obsession with the original Millet painting. Instead, the female has been made to look even more like a praying mantis, thus reinforcing Dali’s association of sex with death. Dali spent time on the plain of Ampurdan, and has added elements from that landscape into this one.
The other Dali’s paintings with the motif of Millet’s The Angelus are: Gala and the Angelus of Millet Preceding the Imminent Arrival of the Conical Anamorphoses (1933) and Atavism at twilight (1933).
Edited by Redcarmoose - 1/25/12 at 12:33am | 3.113685 |
Catecholamines is a general term for several hormones that naturally occur in your body, mainly dopamine, norepinephrine, and epinephrine. Your body produces more catecholamines during times of stress. They make your heart beat faster, your blood pressure rise, and in general prepare your body to respond to stress.
The catecholamine blood test determines whether the level of catecholamines in your blood is too high.
Most likely, your doctor has ordered a catecholamine blood test because he or she is concerned that you might have a pheochromocytoma. This is a tumor that grows on your adrenal gland, where catecholamines are released. Most pheochromocytomas are benign, but it is important to have them removed so they do not interfere with regular adrenal function.
Your child’s doctor may order a catecholamine blood test for your child if he or she is concerned your child has neuroblastoma, a common childhood cancer. According to the National Cancer Institute (NCI), two-thirds of cancers in children below the age of five are neuroblastomas. (NCI). The sooner a child is diagnosed with neuroblastoma and begins treatment, the better his or her chances of beating the disease. According to the Ped-Onc Resource Center, 90 percent of children under the age of 1 who are diagnosed with neuroblastoma will survive (Ped-Onc, 2011).
The symptoms of a pheochromocytoma are:
- high blood pressure (although not everyone with high blood pressure has a pheochromocytoma)
- rapid heartbeat
- unusually hard heartbeat
- heavy sweating
- weight loss
- severe headaches off and on for an extended period
- pale skin
- unexplained weight loss
You might also feel unusually frightened for no reason, or feel strong, unexplained anxiety.
The symptoms of neuroblastoma are:
- painless lumps of tissue under the skin
- abdominal pain
- chest pain
- back pain
- bone pain
- swelling in the legs
- high blood pressure
- rapid heartbeat
- bulging eyeballs
- dark areas around the eyes
- any changes to the shape or size of eyes, including changes to the size of pupils
- unexplained weight loss
Because catecholamines are related to stress—even small amounts of stress—the level of catecholamines in your body changes based on whether you’re standing, sitting, or lying down (supine).
The Mayo Clinic Medical Laboratories list the normal, adult levels of catecholamines as:
- Norepinephrine: supine: 70 to 750 pg/mL; standing: 200 to 1,700 pg/mL
- Epinephrine: supine: undetectable to 110 pg/mL; standing: undetectable to 140 pg/mL
- Dopamine: less than 30 pg/mL (no postural change)
Children’s levels of catecholamines vary dramatically and change, in some cases, by the month, because of their rapid growth. Your child’s doctor will know what the healthy level is for your child.
High levels of catecholamines in adults or children can indicate the presence of neuroblastoma or a pheochromocytoma. Further testing will be needed.
Your doctor may tell you not to eat or drink anything for six to 12 hours before the test. Follow your doctor’s orders carefully. Your test results could be incorrect if you don’t.
What Might Interfere With Readable Test Results?
There are a number of common medications, foods, and beverages that can interfere with catecholamine blood test results. Coffee, tea, and chocolate are examples of things you might have recently consumed that make your catecholamine levels rise. Over-the-counter medications like allergy medicine could also interfere with the reading. Your doctor should give you a list of things to avoid before your test. Make sure to tell your doctor all the medicines you are taking, both prescription and over-the-counter.
Since catecholamine levels in blood are affected by even small amounts of stress, some people’s levels may rise because they are nervous about having a blood test.
Breastfeeding mothers also need to check with their doctor about their intake before their child’s catecholamine blood test, since catecholamines pass from mother to child through breast milk.
A small sample of blood is taken from your veins. You will probably be asked to remain quietly seated or to lie down for as long as half an hour before your test.
The person assisting your doctor will tie a tourniquet around your upper arm and look for a vein large enough to insert a small needle in. When they’ve located the vein, they will clean the area around it to make sure no germs are introduced into your bloodstream. Next, they will insert a needle connected to a small vial into which some of your blood will collect. This could sting a little. The collected blood is sent to a diagnostic lab for accurate reading.
Sometimes, the person taking your blood sample will access one of the veins on the back of your hand instead of inside your elbow.
Your test results should be ready in a couple of days. Your doctor will read them and discuss likely next steps.
The catecholamine blood test is not a definitive test for a pheochromocytoma, neuroblastoma, or any other condition, but it does help your doctor narrow down the list of ailments that could be causing your symptoms. More testing will need to be done, including possibly a catecholamine urine test. | 3.42736 |
Sangiran Early Man Site
Highlights of Sangiran Early Man Site
Introduction to Sangiran Early Man Site
Sangiran is a well-known archaeological excavation site located on the island of Java in Indonesia. It is in the Solo River Valley about 15km north of Surakarta. During excavations first carried out in 1936, this unique site revealed a number of fossils of some of our earliest human ancestors, . The findings, known as ‘Java Man’ and Homo Erectus, and a further 60 human fossils were discovered on this 56km2 site along with the remains of many of the animals that these primitive humans are known to have hunted. In total, almost half of the world’s known hominid fossils have been found at this key site which is one of the most visited in the country. Sangiran holds vital evidence to further understanding human evolution.
Sangiran Early Man Site Gallery
Guide to Sangiran Early Man Site
Sangiran Museum is a well visited attraction in Sragen. It consists of two small villages separated by the Cemoro River on the border of the Sragen and Karanganyar provinces. There are various fossils on display which were found in the area, dating back thousands of years. The Museum keeps the collection in 15 vitrines and is known as the Conservation Centre of Early Man Site. Details of each fossil are on each vitrine, although not in English. There are fossils of fish and water creatures including turtles, crabs, crocodiles and hippopotamus. Animal fossils include buffalo, ancient elephants, deer, tigers, pigs, rhinoceros and the Pithecanthropus erectus VIII fossil which is the most complete human skull fossil ever found.
The museum also has a section which describes the life of our cave-dwelling pre-historic Homo Erectus ancestors. There is also a watchtower overlooking the Sangiran site where the fossils were excavated. There have been a total of 50 finds of Meganthropus palaeo and Pithecanthropus erectus/Homo erectus.
The first fossilized cranium to be discovered by Eugene Dubois became known as Pithecanthropus I and later as Trinil 2. Although many of the features were worn flat, the cranium was distinctively elongated and the forehead was flat. A heavy browridge was evident along with a sagittal keel which was distinct from the sagittal keel of the Paranthropus species. It was only later reassigned as Homo erectus, the cranium of early man. The cranial capacity has been measured at approximately 815cc, which is significantly smaller than the Trinil individual was believed to be. Speculation suggests that the individual was a juvenile at the time of death, or perhaps a small female. The low, broad cranial vault and the ‘flexed occiput’, the nub-shaped part at the back of the skull are characteristic of Homo erectus.
Sangiran 2 is the fossilized upper cranium or braincase of early man which was discovered at Sangiran in 1937 by G.H.R. von Koenigswald. It is estimated to be 700,000 to 1.6 million years old. Its characteristics include a long low plane behind the orbits and inwardly sloping sides. It has a supraorbital torus or indentation over the left eye and is more complete than the Trinil braincase.
Dating the fossils at Sangiran is very difficult. Sediment ages based on different methods and localities place the dates of Trinil 2 somewhere between 700,000 years and 1.8 million years old, although an older limit of 1.6 million years is agreed to be more likely. Many scientists, including Von Koenigswald, believe the age is close to 700,000 years old.
Video of Sangiran Early Man Site
History of Sangiran Early Man Site
The Site of Sangiran represents one of the most important human fossil sites in the world. Physician Eugene Dubois was the army surgeon for the Royal Dutch East Indies Army in Sumatra. Convinced that the evolutionary evidence of human history lay in East Asia, he had no success in finding any fossils in Sumatra and in 1890 he moved on to Java. His excavations brought him to Solo River where he discovered a heavily mineralized cranium or skull belonging to an early human. It became known as Trinil 2. In 1893 Dubois named the specimen Pithecanthropus erectus. Despite the finding, Dubois moved on to East Java where he discovered the skull and fossils of ancient men in Trinil.
In 1930 J.C. van Es studied Sangiran more seriously and his work was continued by Von Koenigswald, who found more than 1000 tools which would have been used to cut, spruce spear heads and trim objects and are termed ‘flake tools’.
Sangiran was initially excavated between 1936 and 1941 and again after the completion of World War 2 in 1945 by G.H.R von Koenigswald. In 1936 he found jaw fossils of Meganthropus paleojavanicus and the following year the skulls of Pithecanthropus erectus. To date the fossils of more than 40 individuals have been discovered there. Von Koenigswald initially followed Dubois in assigning most of the fossils to the species Pithecanthropus erectus. In the 1950s Ernst Mayr proposed that the Javanese Pithecanthropus erectus and the Chinese Sinanthropus specimens were not only the same species but were actually members of the human species. The fossils were then reassigned to the Homo erectus species. Trinil 2 is the type specimen of this same species. Research institutes then became involved including the American Museum of National History, the Biologisch Archeolosgisch Instituut Groningen, Netherlands, the Tokyo University, National d’Historie Naturelle Paris, the Centre for Research and Development of Geology, Bandung, the National Research Centre for Archaeology and the Archaeology Centre of Yogyakarta.
Koenigswald enlisted the help of local chief, Toto Marsono and the local villagers who uncovered many more fossils and bones and stored them in the village hall which was the beginning of the Sangiran Museum which was established in 1974. In 1977 the site became a cultural conservation area and in 1996 it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The most recent discovery in Sangiran was when villagers found fossils of the skull of a pre-historic elephant of Stegodon trigonocephalus in Dayu village, Karanganyar regency. Early examination showed that the elephant lived between 700,000 and 800,000 years ago. The fossil was 1.02 meters high, 46 cm wide and 69 cm high. A total of 960 fossils of ancient elephants have been found to date.
Getting to Sangiran Early Man Site
Sangiran has some guesthouses built by the Sragen administration for researchers who want to stay there and for tourists who wish to see the site and enjoy the rural location.
Jakarta International airport is 63km away. There is a local international airport at Adisumarmo, 27km from Sangiran.
From Adisumarmo airport follow local signs for Jalan Laksamana Adi Sucipto. After 8km turn left at Jalan Boyolali to Karanf Anyar. After 3 km turn left at Jalan Kapten Piere Tendean and continue onto Jalan Solo – Purwodadi for a further 16km.
Take a Damri or BERSERI bus from Solo’s Jalan Riyadi to Kalijambe (Rp500), then either wait for a yellow angkuta (Rp200) or hire a motorcycle (Rp1500) to take you to the village.
Sangiran Early Man Site News
Sangiran Early Man Site Tours
Sangiran Early Man Site Weather | 3.346133 |
American Livestock Breeds Conservancy
Definition of a Heritage Turkey
All domesticated turkeys descend from wild turkeys indigenous to North and South America. They are the quintessential American poultry. For centuries people have raised turkeys for food and for the joy of having them.
Many different varieties have been developed to fit different purposes. Turkeys were selected for productivity and for specific color patterns to show off the bird’s beauty. The American Poultry Association (APA) lists eight varieties of turkeys in its Standard of Perfection. Most were accepted into the Standard in the last half of the 19th century, with a few more recent additions. They are Black, Bronze, Narragansett, White Holland, Slate, Bourbon Red, Beltsville Small White, and Royal Palm. The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy also recognizes other naturally mating color varieties that have not been accepted into the APA Standard, such as the Jersey Buff, White Midget, and others. All of these varieties are Heritage Turkeys.
Heritage turkeys are defined by the historic, range-based production system in which they are raised. Turkeys must meet all of the following criteria to qualify as a Heritage turkey:
Beginning in the mid-1920s and extending into the 1950s turkeys were selected for larger size and greater breast width, which resulted in the development of the Broad Breasted Bronze. In the 1950s, poultry processors began to seek broad breasted turkeys with less visible pinfeathers, as the dark pinfeathers, which remained in the dressed bird, were considered unattractive. By the 1960s the Large or Broad Breasted White had been developed, and soon surpassed the Broad Breasted Bronze in the marketplace.
Today’s commercial turkey is selected to efficiently produce meat at the lowest possiblecost. It is an excellent converter of feed to breast meat, but the result of this improvement is a loss of the bird’s ability to successfully mate and produce fertile eggs without intervention. Both the Broad Breasted White and the Broad Breasted Bronze turkey require artificial insemination to produce fertile eggs.
Interestingly, the turkey known as the Broad Breasted Bronze in the early 1930s through the late 1950s is nearly identical to today’s Heritage Bronze turkey – both being naturally mating, productive, long-lived, and requiring 26-28 weeks to reach market weight. This early Broad Breasted Bronze is very different from the modern turkey of the same name. The Broad Breasted turkey of today has traits that fit modern, genetically controlled, intensively managed, efficiency-driven farming. While superb at their job, modern Broad Breasted Bronze and Broad Breasted White turkeys are not Heritage Turkeys. Only naturally mating turkeys meeting all of the above criteria are Heritage Turkeys.
Prepared by Frank Reese, owner & breeder, Good Shepherd Farm; Marjorie Bender, Research & Technical Program Manager, American Livestock Breeds Conservancy; Dr. Cal Larson, Professor Emeritus, Poultry Science, Virginia Tech; Jeff May, Regional Manager & Feed Specialist, Dawes Laboratories; Danny Williamson, farmer and turkey breeder, Windmill Farm; Paula Johnson, turkey breeder, and Steve Pope, Promotion & Chef, Good Shepherd Farm. | 3.649128 |
Belgium mobilized its armed forces beginning on 25 August 1939. With the outbreak of the war, the government immediately reaffirmed the nation's neutrality, retaining the right to strengthen its military to prevent attack. Belgian King Leopold III acted as commander in chief of the armed forces, which consisted of an army of 18 infantry divisions, 2 partly motorized divisions, and 2 motorized cavalry divisions in May 1940. In all, the army numbered some 600,000 men. Although impressive on paper, the army suffered from serious weaknesses. Both its men and officers were poorly trained and equipped. Further, the army had virtually no antiaircraft artillery and only 54 tanks (42 British Carden-Loyd M1934s and 12 French Renault AMC-35s). The navy consisted of only a few small coastal defense vessels.
In hopes of remaining neutral, King Leopold had prevented significant military coordination with the French and British military staffs. Although British and French forces did come to the aid of Belgium when it was invaded by German forces on 10 May 1940, the Germans breached the initial Belgian defensive line along the Albert Canal that same day. King Leopold then withdrew the bulk of his forces to a line east of Brussels. British and French troops reinforced the new line, but the German strike through the Ardennes flanked it. Soon, the Allies were forced to abandon Brussels and the surrounding area.
By 24 May, the Belgian army had regrouped in western Flanders, where it was again supported by both French and British forces. The only major battle of the campaign occurred there, on 24–25 May, with Belgian forces again unable to hold off the superior German forces. On 28 May, King Leopold surrendered his army. In addressing the House of Commons on 4 June concerning the Belgian defeat, British Prime Minister Winston L. S. Churchill said that the surrender was given "suddenly, without prior consultation, with the least possible notice" and that this action had "exposed our whole flank and means of retreat." Although Leopold's decision was definitely not the cause of the German victory, it rendered the British military position untenable and led to the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force at Dunkerque.
In the 18 days of fighting during the campaign, the Belgian army nonetheless fought bravely, with limited resources. Belgian casualties amounted to some 7,500 killed and 15,850 wounded. An additional 2,000 who had been taken as prisoners of war died in German captivity. Some Belgian soldiers and airmen managed to escape to Britain, where they formed the Independent Belgian Brigade and operated under the British for the remainder of the war.
Bitsch, Marie-Thérèse. Histoire de la Belgique. Paris: Hatier, 1992.; Bond, Brian. France and Belgium, 1939–1940. London: Davis-Poynter, 1975.; Mollo, Andrew, Malcolm McGregor, and Pierre Turner. The Armed Forces of World War II: Uniforms, Insignia, and Organization. New York: Crown Publishers, 1981. | 4.010761 |
Our physical reality is made up of four dimensions. There are three spatial dimensions: height, width, and depth. The fourth dimension is time. We have many devices which are involved with the measurement of time: clocks, watches, calendars, hourglasses, etc.The measurement of time involves counting of repeated cycles from a predetermined start point. There are many divisions used to count cycles of time. They range from relatively short durations such as nanoseconds to long durations such as a Great Year (The precession of the equinoxes which takes approximately 26,000 years). For everyday living we generally pay attention to the measure of minutes, hours, days, and years.It is easy enoughto take a measurement of time thanks to observers who noted the cycles thousands of years ago.
Yet time is a bit more slippery than measurements of repeated cycles indicate.
as "I lost track of time" or "Time flies when you're having fun"
indicate there is a bit more to time. Time has biological,
psychological, and spiritual components.
The biological component of
time is involved in the circadian rhythm of the body. The circadian
rhythm is linked to the 24 hour solar day. This cycle most notably is
what tells the body it is time to sleep or wake up by triggering
chemical releases in the brain and body. Experiments have shown that
when a person or animal is put into an artificial environment
completely cut off from the sun, the circadian rhythm will change. One
notable experiment involved a woman who stayed in a cavefor four
months. In a short amount of time her average day became 35 hours long,
she slept for six hours a "day," and when she left the cave at the end
of the experiment she was quite certain she lived there for only two
months. The circadian rhythm is a biological function of time which
links us to the measurement of the day.
The psychological component
of time is not quite so dependent on measurements. Try this experiment
on your own. You will need a watch or clock which has a seconds counter
and a friend. When your friend tells you to begin, close your eyes.
When you feel that one minute has gone by open your eyes. Don't try to
be tricky and count seconds, but simply try to feel the passing of
time. When you open your eyes, tell your friend. Now your friend will
tell you how much time has really passed. How did you do? Too fast? Too
slow? Almost ontarget?......
Andy Monkman: The "Flower of Life" can be found in all major religions of the world. It contains the patterns of creation as they emerged from the "Great Void". Everything is made from the Creator"s thought. After the creation of the Seed of Life the same vortex"s motion was continued, creating the next structure known as the Egg of Life. This structure forms the basis for music, as the distances between the spheres is identical to the distances between the tones and the half tones in music. I...What is Alchemy ?
Anthony North: Of all the esoteric arts, none are more controversial than alchemy. Indeed, the standard image we have of the Magician – pointy hat, wise look on his ancient face, and surrounded by books and glass vials – is really that of the Alchemist. Existing in a world of mystery, the Alchemist seemed to be a dark, occult shadow over much of Europe from Medieval times to the birth of the modern world. And his claims were quite often fantastic.Famous alchemists: Europe produced many alchemist...Archimedes Death Ray device put to the test
Massachuessets Institute of Technology: Ancient Greek and Roman historians recorded that during the siege of Syracuse in 212 BC, Archimedes (a notably smart person) constructed a burning glass to set the Roman warships, anchored within bow and arrow range, afire. The story has been much debated and oft dismissed as myth. TV's MythBusters were not able to replicate the feat and “busted” the myth.Intrigued by the idea and anintuitive belief that it could work, MIT's 2.009ers decided to ap...Cracking the alchemists' secret recipe
A 500-year old mystery surrounding the centerpiece of the alchemists' lab kit has been solved by UCL (University College London) and Cardiff University archaeologists. Since the Middle Ages, mixing vessels – or crucibles – manufactured in the Hesse region of Germany have been world renowned because of their ability to withstand strong reagents and high temperatures. Previous work by the team has shown that Hessian crucibles have been found in archaeological sites across the world, including ...The eternal now
Anthony North: Foretelling the future is one of the trickiest areas of the paranormal. Within known theorizing, there is very little of a concrete nature that can suggest it is possible. Hence, much skepticism is placed on the subject. For my own research, I"ve looked at the idea that possible future outcomes can be gleaned by unconscious knowledge and intuitions in the present. However, I won"t bore the reader by going over these "mechanisms" again. I want to look further than that.: For whilst...Feng shui creates better websites
Could someone or
something switch us off? Could it possibly be true that our world is just a
computer program, or a hologram, or a dream? Although it's about the weirdest
thing you could think of, there are some tantalizing clues this might indeed be
the case. The stuff we call 'reality' simply isn?t very real after all.
Welcome to the outskirts of reality. Welcome to the place where theoretical
physics and philosophy meet, and where religion and science loose their meaning.
...UFOs or Magick?
UFO War: Etheric Excursions &
Alien Abductions and
Aleister Crowley?s Lam & the Little Gray
Men: A Striking Resemblance by Ardane Steward
:This report presupposes two things: that there
are ?aliens,? and that some people (occultists) have ?magickal powers.? It is
not the point of this report to prove there are or are not such beings or
powers. What is known is that there are people who believe that there are such
beings and bel...The Alchemists
To most of us, the word "alchemy" calls up the
picture of a medieval and slightly sinister laboratory in which an aged,
black-robed wizard broods over the crucibles and alembics that are to bring
within his reach the Philosopher's Stone, and with that discovery, the formula
for the Elixir of life and the transmutation of metals. But one can scarcely
dismiss so lightly the science -- or art, if you will --that won to its service
the lifelong devotion of men of culture and ... | 3.492074 |
Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten of Aldeburgh
Britten, Benjamin, Baron Britten of Aldeburgh, 1913–76, English composer. Britten is widely considered the most significant British composer since Purcell. Britten's most characteristic expression is found in his vocal music. His many song cycles and choral works include A Boy Was Born (1933) and A Ceremony of Carols (1942). Britten's great War Requiem (1962), based on the bitter war poems of Wilfred Owen, was sung at the dedication in England of the reconstructed Coventry Cathedral, destroyed during World War II. In his operas, which include Paul Bunyan (1941), Peter Grimes (1945), The Rape of Lucretia (1946), The Beggar's Opera (1948), The Turn of the Screw (1954), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1960), and Death in Venice (1973), he displayed a sensitivity to text and a fondness for variation techniques, dynamic dissonance, and the use of ground basses. Britten's instrumental works, some composed when he was a youth, display considerable technical brilliance and colorful orchestration. A notable and popular example, The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (1946), written for a film, is based on a theme by Purcell. In 1976 Queen Elizabeth II named him a life peer.
See biographies by I. Holst (2d ed. 1970), E. W. White (new ed. 1970), and H. Carpenter (1992); study by P. Evans (1979).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Music: History, Composers, and Performers: Biographies | 3.212384 |
On June 8, 2006, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the drug Gardasil. Gardasil is a vaccine against certain types of human papillomavirus (HPV) which is the primary cause of cervical cancer in women.
- Several state and local governments have proposed requiring the vaccine for school girls entering the 6th grade.
- Gardasil is approved for girls as young as nine years old, despite the fact that the youngest girls participating in clinical trials were 11-12 years old.
- A recent study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, also questioned the general effectiveness of Gardasil. Additionally, there has not been a chance to study long term side effects of the vaccine.
Judicial Watch, concerned about the rush to market and mandate a drug with possible serious adverse effects, filed its first Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request on May 9, 2007, and received 1,637 adverse event reports on May 15, 2007. These reports are submitted to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) and used by the FDA to monitor the safety of vaccines.
On August 20, 2007 Judicial Watch filed a request for updated adverse event reports and received 1,824 reports on September, 13 2007. Judicial Watch then filed a complaint against the FDA on October 3, 2007 for failing to fully respond to the May 9, 2007 FOIA request.
Judicial Watch has posted links to the adverse event reports below and continues to monitor VAERS reports submitted to the FDA in relation to Gardasil.
The case was closed in April 2010. | 3.032653 |
Forecasting the weather for Mars is a very daunting task for any space meteorologist. The planet’s conditions may not work the same way as Earth, which makes it a lot harder to predict what is going to happen. Luckily for scientists in charge of the Curiosity rover landing last night, Mars’ atmosphere is pretty similar to ours.
Like Earth, Mars also has cold and warm fronts that move around the surface of the planet in the direction of the planet’s rotation. Clouds form at the equator higher from ice crystals that are in the atmosphere of the planet. Temperatures are a little bit warmer at the equator, though overall are much colder than Earth. They can get as high as 60°F at the equator and as low as -200°F at the poles during winter. Even Mars has dust devils and dust storms like Earth! The only difference is that these dust storms have the capability to expand to cover the entire hemisphere of the planet. Wind speeds can be sustained at 50 mph at times at the surface, though gust higher than 125 mph during a dust storm. One thing Earth has and Mars doesn’t is rain. With Curiosity, scientists will be able to bring back soil samples and test for water.
How do space meteorologists predict what is going to happen on Mars? Just like Earth meteorologists use computer models. Satellites and telescopes that surround Mars give space meteorologists some data that aids in forecasting the weather. Granted, it isn’t as accurate or predictable as Earth weather, but it gets pretty close. When Curiosity landed yesterday evening, the weather was exactly as it was predicted to be: cold, dry, and slightly dusty. | 3.979087 |
Why are the seeds of this species difficult? The seeds may have physical dormancy, which would have to be overcome before they will germinate. The seeds can be scarified so that they imbibe water.
This species has Orthodox seeds - dry to 15-20% eRH and store at -20ºC, or as cool as possible.
The seeds of this species may be Physically Dormant (based on other species in same genus).
Chip seeds with a scalpel before placing on agar, germination paper or sand. Germinate under a constant temperature of 25ºC or with an alternating temperature regime of 30/20ºC (with an 8/16hr photoperiod).
The fruit is a capsule (50–250 mm × 10–50 mm), round in cross-section with a pointed end. The fruit has up to 100 seeds, which are spherical or ovoid (3–6 mm in diameter), marked with minute warts in concentric rows, more densely than A. callei.
When immature, the fruit varies in colour from purple-red and reddish-green to dark green, and from pale green to yellow. The pods turn brown in colour and begin to split into segments when mature. Within a single fruit, there may be seeds at various stages of ripening.
See images of this species at VIRBOGA (The Virtual Botanic Garden) and at PROTAbase (Plant Resources of Tropical Africa database).
Accepted name: Abelmoschus esculentus Moench
Synonyms: Hibiscus esculentus L.
Common name: common okra, gombo, lady's fingers
References and Links
- Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (1994). Genebank standards. FAO/IPGRI, Rome, Italy.
- International Seed Testing Association (2010). International Rules for Seed Testing: edition 2010. ISTA, Bassersdorf, Switzerland.
- Rao, N.K., Hanson, J., Dulloo, M.E., Ghosh, K., Nowell, D. and Larinde, M. (2006). Manual of seed handling in genebanks. Handbooks for Genebanks No. 8. Bioversity International, Rome, Italy.
- Schippers, R.R. (2000). African Indigenous Vegetables: an overview of the cultivated species. Natural Resources Insitute/ACP-EU Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation, Chatham, UK.
- AFPD (African Flowering Plants Database) - Conservatoire et Jardin Botaniques de la Ville de Genève, Switzerland, and South African National Biodiversity Institute, Pretoria, RSA: Abelmoschus esculentus.
- AVRDC - The World Vegetable Centre, Taiwan: fact sheet on Abelmoschus esculentus.
- PROTAbase (Plant Resources of Tropical Africa database) - Wageningen, Netherlands: Abelmoschus esculentus.
- SID (Seed Information Database) - Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK: Abelmoschus esculentus.
- Tropicos - Missouri Botanical Garden, USA: Abelmoschus esculentus. | 3.272595 |
Lesson Plans and Worksheets
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Lucille Clifton Teacher Resources
Find teacher approved Lucille Clifton educational resource ideas and activities
Students complete a variety of activities related to the book "My Friend Jacob" by Lucille Clifton. They complete a graphic organizer web about friendship qualities, and participate in a discussion about friendship. In small groups they create a commercial about friends, and complete journal entries about point of view.
You might not be able to choose your family, but with this presentation, you can certainly choose your relatives - relative pronouns, that is. Help students differentiate between "who," "which," "that," and the dreaded "whom." The slideshow might seem long, but each slide is doubled (question on the first slide, answer on the second) and the final eleven slides are an activity.
Elementary learners explore African American culture by reading children's poetry. They read the book, The Palm of My Heart which features poetry by an assortment of young African American boys and girls. Students define several vocabulary terms from the book and answer study questions based on the poems and book. | 3.886333 |
I. How does a bill become a law?
A. Member of the House or Senate drafts a bill, it is introduced in the relevant chamber, and it is assigned a number.
B. Bill goes to Committee (where it can die!)
C. The Committee may request comments from government agencies, hold hearings, or assign a bill to a sub-committee which produces a report. The Committee votes and produces a report and a dissenting report for the full chamber. (If a lot of changes were made to the bill, it is assigned a new number and becomes a "clean bill.")
D. Bill is debated and voted on by full body.
E. If it passes, it goes to the next chamber where it is debated and voted on by the full body.
F. If a different version is passed, the two versions go to a "conference committee" made up of members from each chamber, who come to a compromise, and write a report submitted and voted on by both chambers.
G. If that passes, it goes to the President to sign into law or not.
H. If he signs it into law, it is assigned an official number and becomes a public law.
II. How do I find all of this stuff?
A. Thomas: Legislative Information Online (http://thomas.loc.gov):
1. Find full-text of bills back to 101st Congress (1989/1990) and summary of bills back to 93rd Congress (1973/1974). May search by keyword, subject term, sponsor, and combine terms, etc. Also includes summary, where it is in process, amendments, related bills, timeline of legislation, etc.
2. Must search one legislative session at a time.
3. Find the corresponding public law for the bill you are interested in.
4. Find Committee reports and homepages of Committees.
5. Search Congressional Record back to 1989 for voting history.
NOTE: Thomas includes:
House Floor This Week
House Floor Now (current day)
Quick Search of Text of Bills
Bill Summary & Status, Bill Text
Public Laws by Law Number
Votes (House and Senate Roll Call Votes)
Congressional Record and Congressional Record Index
Committee Reports, Committee Home Pages; House and Senate Committees
(Please see About Thomas and use the FAQ to find basic instructions on finding
bills, coverage information about congress, etc.)
III. GPO Access (http://www.gpoaccess.gov/index.html) includes: the Federal Register, the Congressional Record, Congressional Bills and other Federal Government information.
The Legislative section of GPO Access:
A. Find full text of bills back to 103rd Congress (1993/1994). Search by keyword.
B. Find full text of Hearings and Committee Prints back to 105th Congress (1997/1998)
C. Find history of bills (but not full text) back to 1983.
D. Allows searching across legislative session.
The following is a favorite resource of mine…
IV. LEXIS-NEXIS --Congressional Universe (http://web.lexis-nexis.com/congcomp), a database which provides comprehensive legislative information and analysis. Most coverage begins in the 1989, but some information, such as Legislative Histories, are available from 1970 onwards.
With this database you can…
A. …do keyword searches, or a subject search with the INDEX, and also more advanced searching for full text of bills, voting records, Congressional Record text, hearings, committee reports, voting history, Congressional publications, etc.
B. …search Congressional indexes back to 1789 (not full-text)
C. …search across legislative sessions.
D. …find “hot bills”, links to news items and tracking feature.
NOTE: The GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS LIBRARY (http://www.library.illinois.edu/doc/) has lots of links to resources that will be very helpful in researching policy issues.
Be sure to see this Gov Docs Library page for a better understanding of government information: http://www.library.illinois.edu/doc/researchtools/guides/general/introduction.html | 3.163936 |
Posted by Expert Tips, Orthopedics | Posted on 12-07-2012| Posted in
For many people, staying healthy means exercising, eating a well-balanced diet and making positive lifestyle decisions to prevent future health conditions such as cancer and heart disease. Too often, however, little or no thought is given to bone health and the prevention of osteoporosis.
Osteoporosis is a disease of the bones in which the bones become porous or spongy, creating low bone mass. Randy Wise, RN, an orthopedic research and outcomes nurse at Memorial Medical Center, said an estimated 10 million to 25 million Americans have been diagnosed with osteoporosis and millions more are at risk because of low bone mass.
“Bones are like cells in the body — there is a constant process where bone cells are dying and regenerating,” he said. “If there is an imbalance in this process to the point where the bones just cannot regenerate fast enough, osteoporosis occurs. At that point, the bones start to become porous and more fragile and susceptible to fracture over time.
“A lot of times, it’s called a ‘silent disease’ because there are no warning signs that you have osteoporosis, or are at risk.”
The elderly are at the greatest risk of developing osteoporosis and suffering bone fractures. According to Wise, there are several factors associated with an increased risk of developing osteoporosis.
- Risk Factors for Osteoporosis
- A poor diet, or a diet low in calcium and vitamin D
- Individuals who lead a sedentary lifestyle
- A family history of osteoporosis
- Consuming an excessive daily amount of alcohol and caffeine
- Certain medications
- Certain pre-existing medical issues
Upon completion of a comprehensive physical exam by your healthcare provider, a bone density exam may be ordered to diagnose osteoporosis. This is a painless X-ray procedure to provide a picture of the overall bone health.
Though there is no known cure for osteoporosis, there are ways to prevent, slow or even stop its progress. No matter how old you are, it is never too late to start improving your bone health, Wise said.
- Osteoporosis Prevention Tips
- Talk to your doctor about bone health.
- Learn about specific medications for treating osteoporosis. Some medications have been shown to increase bone density, while other medications slow down the loss process.
- Make dietary changes to include more calcium and Vitamin D.
- Exercise regularly.
- Reduce other risk factors such as smoking, alcohol and caffeine consumption.
“If you suspect you are at risk for osteoporosis, the first thing to do is get a complete physical exam,” Wise said. “Your doctor will be able to develop a comprehensive plan to reduce your risks, or even reverse the damage.” | 3.471343 |
Two days a week researcher Jack Kasselwitz and the Jungle Island animal care team work with the orangutans, teaching them to use a high tech tool, iPads Their goal; open up new lines of communication with the primates.
“We want to understand them. We should be able to speak something of a common language cause we have so much to learn from them,” said Linda Jacobs of Jungle Island.
The orangutan is highly endangered. Caregivers feel that better communication with the apes could help save them.
“They understand your voice commands they really understand everything your saying. To the point where we often spell when we don't want them to know what were saying. Much like you do with your human child,” said Jacobs.
Kasselwitz used IPA's on a similar project with Dolphins; also highly intelligent animals.
“Were not trying to make these guys humans. We want them to tell us about our world so we can make their world better,” said researcher Jack Kasselwitz.
Jungle Island wants people to know just how smart these apes are.
“Their intelligence is overwhelming. Their compassion is what always amazes me. They are so compassionate and sometimes they are mischievous too,” said Jacobs.
“The greatest lesson we can learn from animals at jungle island Miami or in the wild is we are not alone on this planet,” said Kasselwitz. | 3.075577 |
Aplite in petrology, the name given to intrusive rock in which quartz
and felspar are the dominant minerals. Aplites are usually very fine-grained, white, grey or flesh-coloured, and their constituents are visible only with the help of a magnifying lens. Dykes and threads of aplite are very frequently to be observed traversing granitic bosses; they occur also, though in less numbers, in syenites, diorites, quartz-diabases and gabbros.
Without doubt they have usually a genetic affinity to the rocks they intersect. The aplites of granite
areas, for example, are the last part of the magma to crystallize, and correspond in composition to the quartzo-felspathic aggregates which fill up the interspaces between the early minerals in the main body of the rock. They bear a considerable resemblance to the eutectic mixtures which are formed on the cooling of solutions of mineral salts, and remain liquid till the excess of either of the components has separated out, finally solidifying en masse when the proper proportions of the constituents and a suitable temperature are reached. The essential components of the aplites are quartz
and alkali felspar (the latter usually orthoclase
or microperthite). Crystallization has been apparently rapid (as the rocks are so fine-grained), and the ingredients have solidified almost at the same time. Hence their crystals are rather imperfect and fit closely to one another in a sort of fine mosaic of nearly equi-dimensional grains.
Porphyritic felspars occur occasionally and quartz
more seldom; but the relation of the aplites to quartz-porphyries, granophyres and felsites is very close, as all these rocks have nearly the same chemical composition. Yet the aplites associated with diorites and quartz-diabases differ in minor respects from the common aplites, which accompany granites. The accessory minerals of these rocks are principally oligoclase, muscovite
and all ferromagnesian minerals rarely appear in them, and never are in considerable amount. Riebeckite-granites (paisanites) have close affinities to aplites, shown especially in the prevalence of alkali felspars. Tourmaline also occurs in some aplites. The rocks of this group are very frequent in all areas where masses of granite
are known. They form dykes and irregular veins which may be only a few inches or many feet in diameter. Less frequently aplite forms stocks or bosses, or occupies the edges or irregular portions of the interior of outcrops of granite
. The syenite-aplites consist mainly of alkali felspar; the diorite-aplites of plagioclase
; there are nepheline-bearing aplites which intersect some elaeolite-syenites. In all cases they bear the same relation to the parent masses. By increase of quartz
aplites pass gradually, in a few localities, through highly quartzose modifications (beresite, &c.) into quartz
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Wikipedia the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit. | 3.773304 |
Rolls-Royce gas fueled engines power five new ferries that went into service on two routes on the west coast
of Norway in January 2007.
Norway is dependent on passenger/vehicle ferries to connect sections of the road network. Deep and wide fjords cut far into the country and the new ferries provide two essential connections in the E39 highway up the west coast.
Traditionally, diesel power
ed ferries have provided this link and the decision to use liquefied natural gas (LNG) as fuel was influenced by several factors.
Because of the mountainous and difficult nature of the terrain and the long coastline, sea transport plays a much larger part in the Norwegian economy than in most countries. Exhaust gas pollution from the maritime sector is therefore a larger proportion of the total. Moving some of this transport system to natural gas fuel will cut emissions substantially.
A second factor is that Norway is a major producer and exporter of natural gas, yet domestic consumption is small. The new ferries will provide a base load consumption which helps to justify the building out of a natural gas distribution infrastructure.
Rolls-Royce has long experience with gas fuelled engines. Its Bergen lean burn spark ignition technology was first developed more than fifteen years ago and has proved very popular for power generation on land. Engines in service burn natural gas and also other fuels such as gas derived from landfill and from fermentation of effluents. More than 420 engines are now in service in many countries.
These medium speed engines share many components with the Bergen marine diesel engine range but it is only now that gas fuelled engines are becoming popular for marine propulsion. Bergen gas engines are approved either for generator set power or for direct mechanical transmission to propellers. In the case of the Norwegian ferries, the engines are supplied as complete generator sets in a diesel electric propulsion system.
Three of the five ferries are operating on the Halhjem-Sandvikvåg route south of Bergen. The other two operate across Boknfjord near Stavanger further south. The vessels are very similar but the three on the northern route are powered for a 21 knot service speed to give the required departure frequencies and total transport capacity. The two on the southern route required a 17 knot service speed and consequently substantially less power.
Ferry operator Fjord 1 won the contract to provide the ferry service. The vessels were designed by LMG Marin and built by two of the Aker Yards shipyards in Norway. They are double ended ferries with an open vehicle deck shielded by high sides and bow visors. The passenger decks and wheelhouse are located amidships above the vehicle deck. The overall length is 128.8m with a maximum beam of 19.1m and a draught of 4.5m. A maximum of 198 cars can be carried, or alternatively a mixture of cars and other vehicles, for example 12 articulated trucks and 150 cars. Five hundred and thirty six passengers can be transported. Loading and discharge are over linkspans at the terminals. Several lanes of vehicles can be loaded simultaneously and passengers are segregated from vehicles as they board and disembark.
On the faster ferries four Rolls-Royce Bergen generator sets provide power for all purposes. There are two KVGS-16G4 sets each producing 3,535kW at 1,000rpm plus two engines of the same type, but with twelve instead of sixteen cylinders, each developing 2,650kW. A 21 knot service speed requires about 8,300kW so that the vessel can maintain schedule on three generator sets. The 17 knot ferries have two Bergen KVGS-12G4 generator sets developing together 5,300kW. The four knot difference in speed represents a large increase in power for the faster vessels but it enables the route to be served by three ferries instead of four, so the chosen solution was the most economical overall and was also not worse in terms of emissions.
Rolls-Royce gas engines produce much lower emissions than diesel engines of the same power. Using LNG as fuel cuts CO2 emissions by about 20% compared with an engine running on marine diesel and producing the same power. NOx emissions are reduced by about 90% and sulphur oxide emissions, which are important in coastal traffic, become practically zero.
The new ferries are fuelled by road tanker and the gas on board is carried in a large insulated flask. The liquefied gas is drawn off as needed, warmed to evaporate it and fed to the engines as a gas, the whole installation meeting both DnV class rules and Flag State requirements.
Rolls-Royce gas engines have also been selected for other ship types. A 7,500m³ gas carrier
has been ordered by the Dutch ship
owner Antony Veder. This vessel will carry a variety of liquefied gases and is to have a hybrid propulsion system. When LNG is available as fuel it will run on its Bergen gas engines. There may be occasions when gas is not available and it is also equipped with a Bergen diesel engine.
Applications of Rolls-Royce gas fuelled engines to date have all been as generator sets for electric transmission to the propulsion system. However, the gas fuelled engines can also be coupled direct to CP propellers via reduction gearboxes because the combustion system and controls can handle the rapid load changes involved with this type of system when maneuvering. | 3.022192 |
Currently, there are 35 million people over the age of 65 in the United States, and by 2050, this population will double to more than 70 million. Unfortunately, in addition to dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, behavioral health disorders such as depression and anxiety are not uncommon in older adults. Here, Dr. Rajesh Tampi, Director of Behavioral Health for Masonicare and an expert in the field, discusses these disorders and explains how identifying and treating the symptoms can greatly improve a person’s quality of life – and his or her family’s as well.
Clinical depression in the elderly is a widespread problem, but only about 10% of individuals receive treatment for their depression. There are a few reasons. One is that symptoms of depression in the senior population can be displayed in a variety of ways, making it harder to diagnose, or the symptoms can be confused with illnesses and the affects of the array of medicines used to treat them. As a result, early depression may be ignored or mistaken for other conditions common in the elderly. It is very important to address these symptoms, however, as they can lead to poor healthcare outcomes.
Anxiety disorders are the most common of all psychiatric disorders across the life span. Among seniors, clinically significant anxiety is seen in about one-fifth of the population. Phobias (irrational fears) are the most common of all anxiety disorders in older adults, followed by generalized anxiety disorder (excessive worry) and posttraumatic disorder (significant worry after a trauma). In later life, anxiety often occurs along with depression. A third of seniors have both clinically significant anxiety and depression.
Depression and anxiety are more common in older women. These two disorders also tend to be genetic, with certain families having a greater prevalence. Risk factors include social problems, psychological disorders, medical illnesses, and the use of substances such as alcohol, cannabis and cocaine. Higher rates of these disorders are seen in older adults who have suffered from personal losses, moved from their place of stay to a nursing home or hospital, and have limited financial or social support. Medical conditions, such as thyroid disease, heart attack or stroke, are known risk factors. The use of prescription drugs, such as those used to treat thyroid disease or cancer, can lead to depression, and asthma medications, for example, can cause significant anxiety in the elderly.
If untreated in older individuals, depression and anxiety can have serious consequences. Evidence indicates that without appropriate treatment, older adults with these disorders suffer from significant physical and cognitive decline. Untreated depression and anxiety increases the rate of suicide in older adults. When untreated, these conditions can be extremely costly to the individual and society in terms of loss of productivity, overall cost of care, and the loss of life from suicides.
Most older adults who want treatment for their depression and anxiety tend to seek it from their primary care providers, not from a behavioral health specialist, and only one half are correctly diagnosed. Only one third of the elderly with depression or anxiety are evaluated by a behavioral health specialist. Common screening tools, such as the SF-36 health survey, can help identify symptoms of depression and anxiety and is recommended for use during routine visits to the primary care physician.
Once the symptoms of depression or anxiety have been identified, clinicians can use specific rating scales as diagnostic tools and have several options available to treat these conditions. Psychotherapies (also known as talk therapies) have been effective, and antidepressants can be useful, either alone or in combination with psychotherapy. When symptoms are severe, combinations of medications with or without psychotherapy may be needed to treat the symptoms. Electroconvulsive Therapy (also known as shock therapy) is another treatment option, and evidence indicates it can be as effective as it is in younger adults. More than three quarters of seniors with depression and anxiety show significant improvement with treatment. Because these are recurring disorders, however, regular follow-up visits with a healthcare provider are essential to properly monitor progress.
Depression and anxiety are common conditions among older adults, and if left untreated, they can cause significant problems. Early diagnosis and treatment of these conditions will reduce unnecessary suffering – for the individual and for his or her family as well.
If you or a loved one is having prolonged feelings of stress, grief or sadness, have trouble sleeping, or have lost interest in life’s daily pleasures, help is available through Masonicare Behavioral Health. The practice is conveniently located in theMedicalOfficeBuildingon the Masonicare campus inWallingford. For additional information or to schedule a confidential evaluation, please call 203-265-5720. | 3.179324 |
July 22, 2011
Dear Mayo Clinic:
My 5-year-old daughter recently had a hearing test at school. She was found to have hearing loss in one ear. What are our next steps? Can it be treated? If not, how will this affect her as she gets older?
A range of possibilities exist for what's causing your daughter's hearing loss. To identify the source of the problem, the first step is to have her primary care physician examine her ear. After that, a formal hearing evaluation may be necessary. Treatment for hearing loss depends on the underlying cause.
A visit to her doctor is a good first step because hearing loss in one ear could be due to a simple problem, such as earwax or an object blocking the ear canal. Another common cause of single-sided hearing loss in young children is fluid buildup caused by an upper respiratory infection or allergies. Fluid or some other type of blockage can often be easily identified and treated, restoring hearing to normal.
If one of these simpler problems is not the cause, then a hearing test (audiogram) should be conducted by an audiologist. An audiogram can help determine the type of hearing loss and what part of the ear is affected. Damage or problems within the inner ear, the ear canal or the eardrum can cause hearing loss. Another factor could be that the bones of hearing — the hammer, anvil and stirrup — in the middle ear are not working properly.
After the audiogram, your daughter should see a physician specializing in hearing (otorhinolaryngologist, ENT), who can review the test results and conduct a more thorough ear exam to determine a diagnosis.
When hearing loss is related to middle ear fluid (ear infections or a problem with the eardrum), those issues usually resolve on their own, or they can be treated with medication or surgery. If the exam and audiogram point to an inner ear problem, more testing is usually required, such as head CT or MRI scans, to arrive at an accurate diagnosis.
In children, minor malformations of the inner ear structure can put the ear at risk of hearing loss. In that situation, even though a child's hearing may be normal at birth, the loss may progress later. Many genes are also involved in hearing, and abnormalities in those genes can result in hearing loss, most commonly in both ears. Although surgical or medical therapy can't restore hearing that was lost as a result of inner ear malformations or genetic causes, a hearing aid can be helpful. More serious problems, such as tumors or brain disorders, also can cause hearing loss, but they are very rare. Another consideration is that the specific cause of hearing loss may not be identifiable.
If your daughter's hearing loss cannot be resolved, her daily life may be affected in several important ways. First, when hearing in one ear is damaged, a person can hear sounds but can't determine their origin. That can be a serious safety issue for a child. Second, when we hear with both ears, our brain can filter background noise and focus on sounds we want to hear. Children have to deal with a lot of background noise in places like classrooms, lunchrooms and playgrounds. When hearing in one ear is compromised, environmental noise can significantly interfere with a child's ability to understand what's going on around her.
Fortunately, several devices can help when hearing is permanently damaged. Hearing aids, cochlear implants, and devices that transmit sound from one side of the head to the other are possible options.
Before you think too much about the long-term effects of hearing loss, though, see your daughter's doctor. In many cases, hearing loss in children can be effectively resolved or managed.
— Colin Driscoll, M.D., Otorhinolaryngology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. | 3.648282 |
School Nurse Program
The Health Services component of a Coordinated School Health Program includes services provided for students to appraise, protect, and promote health. These services are designed to ensure access or referral to primary health care services, or both, and to foster appropriate use of primary health care services, prevent and control communicable disease and other health problems, provide emergency care for illness or injury, promote and provide optimum sanitary conditions for a safe school facility and school environment, and provide educational and counseling opportunities for promoting and maintaining individual, family, and community health. Qualified professionals such as physicians, nurses, dentists, health educators, and other allied health personnel provide these services.
Source: National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. | 3.179913 |
Certain Cognitive Skills May Be Enhanced By Video Game 'Exercise' On Tasks That Use Similar Mental ProcessesMain Category: Psychology / Psychiatry
Article Date: 15 Mar 2013
Playing video games for an hour each day can improve subsequent performance on cognitive tasks that use similar mental processes to those involved in the game, according to research published in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Adam Chie-Ming Oei and Michael Donald Patterson of Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
Non-gamer participants played five different games on their smartphones for an hour a day, five days of the week for one month. Each participant was assigned one game. Some played games like Bejeweled where participants matched three identical objects or an agent-based virtual life simulation like The Sims, while others played action games or had to find hidden objects, as in Hidden Expedition.
After this month of 'training', the researchers found that people who had played the action game had improved their capacity to track multiple objects in a short span of time, while hidden object, match three objects and spatial memory game players improved their performance on visual search tasks. Though previous studies have reported that action games can improve cognitive skills, the authors state that this is the first study that compared multiple video games in a single study and show that different skills can be improved by playing different games. They add that video games don't appear to cause a general improvement in mental abilities. Rather like muscles that can be trained with repetitive actions, repeated use of certain cognitive processes in video games can improve performance on other tasks as well.
Original article posted on Medical News Today.
Articles not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today | 3.790407 |
Automobile with two wheels: on 29 August 1885 Gottlieb Daimler filed a patent for his “riding car”
- The first road-going vehicle with combustion engine controlled by a human being
- The dream of automotive travel becomes reality
- In 1886 Carl Benz invents the three-wheeled Patent Motor Car, Gottlieb Daimler the four-wheeled Motor Carriage
The birth of a car as we know it today took place in 1886. Independently of one another, the two founding fathers of the company now known as Daimler AG, Carl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler, invented a vehicle with internal combustion engine – Benz his three-wheeled Patent Motor Car, Daimler the four-wheeled Motor Carriage. However, the previous year, in late summer 1885, Gottlieb Daimler’s two-wheeled “riding car,” also equipped with an internal combustion engine, travelled under its own power. In the original sense of the term, therefore, it could also be considered an automobile, since the word derived from the Greek auto (“self”) and the Latin mobilis (“mobile”). Only later did the word automobile establish itself as a generic term for multi-track vehicles.
In the sum of its features, the riding car was the most important precursor to individual mobility, thereafter rendered possible by the advent of the automobile. It was proof on wheels that the internal combustion engine was capable of powering a road vehicle –and that a human being could fully control it. Indeed, in the case of the riding car, by sitting astride the engine he was seen to take complete control of the machine with the objective of locomotion. By means of just a few levers he was able to set the vehicle in motion. The riding car therefore gave an important and lasting signal of what could be achieved.
The compactness of the riding car also sent out another important signal, for it used the smallest and most powerful combustion engine available capable of being fitted to a two wheeled vehicle – it would have been impossible at the time to build a smaller vehicle than the riding car equipped with combustion engine.
The most important prerequisite for the riding car, simultaneously the world’s first motorcycle, was Gottlieb Daimler’s four-stroke, single-cylinder engine, which he registered for patent on 3 April 1885. This was a milestone in the history of technology, since the unit was small and powerful compared with other combustion engines of the day for stationary operation. Daimler’s priority, on the other hand, was the engine’s mobile application. He applied for a patent for his riding car with “gas or petroleum engine,” as it was described in the patent specification, on 29 August 1885 (German Patent No. DRP 36423 was awarded on 11 August 1886).
The riding car was proof on wheels that the internal combustion engine was capable of driving a human-controlled road vehicle. Moreover, it provided an impressive demonstration of the size and power of the Daimler engine. For the riding car was a highly compact vehicle, and therefore sent out an important message about the large and unwieldy stationary internal combustion engines of the day.
Two inventors – one idea
The founding fathers of Daimler AG, Gottlieb Daimler in Cannstatt and Carl Benz in Mannheim, were working on an identical problem at the end of the 19th century – the invention of a vehicle that would give man the ability to travel without reliance on being pulled by a horse. They worked away independently, without knowing what the other was doing – and one can only assume the two had never met. Their places of work were separated by a distance of 120 kilometres – at least a whole day’s journey in the late 19th century.
They both reached their objective almost simultaneously, though with different solutions: Benz built his three-wheeled Patent Motor Car, for which he was awarded the German Patent No. DRP 37435 on 29 January 1886. And shortly afterwards Daimler presented the first four-wheeled motor vehicle, a carriage chassis in which he had integrated the combustion engine that had proved so effective in the riding car.
Daimler pursued the vision of motorising a whole range of vehicles, on land, on water and in the air. He demonstrated the engine’s potential for universal application, for example, by fitting it in a boat in 1887, and in an airship designed by Friedrich Hermann Wölfert in 1888. Neither was Benz idle: by 1887 he had also completed a first motorboat, and aero engines followed later. But by this time, both inventors were already involved in the series production of automobiles. | 3.316598 |
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Technique for detecting and determining the distance and direction of underwater objects by tracking acoustic echoes. The name derives from sound navigation ranging. Sound waves emitted by or reflected from an object are detected by sonar apparatus and analyzed for information. In active sonar a sound wave is generated that spreads outward and is reflected back by a target object. Passive systems consist simply of receiving sensors that pick up the noise produced by the target (such as a submarine or torpedo). A third kind of sonar, used in communication systems, requires a projector and receiver at both ends. Sonar was first used to detect submarines in 1916. Modern nonmilitary uses include fish finding, depth sounding, mapping of the ocean floor, Doppler navigation (seeDoppler effect), and searching for wrecks or other objects in the oceans.
This entry comes from Encyclopædia Britannica Concise. For the full entry on sonar, visit Britannica.com. | 3.812276 |
The act of laying the first coat of plaster on brickwork or stonework.
The coat of plaster thus laid on.
Plastering on the outside of a wall, often lime-washed. (Kenyon, John R. Medieval Fortifications, 211)
The first coat in plastering or general term for most finishes applied to external wall surfaces, may be smooth or rough cast.
Rendering (or a rendering coat) is a layer of plaster or cement which is often applied to the outside surface of a wall as a protection against the elements.
A wall covering. Internally usually plaster and externally usually cement but sometimes pebbledash, stucco or Tyrolean textured finish.
a coat of stucco applied to a masonry wall
Covering a wall with quarter to half an inch thick layer of sand and cement, both externally and internally before plastering.
Vertical covering of a wall either plaster (internally) or cement (externally), sometimes with pebbledash, stucco or Tyrolean textured finish.
Coarse material applied to a wall to cover the brick or stonework. | 3.19552 |
Hunebedden (Dutch Dolmens)
Text: H. Meijer - Dolmens in the Netherlands
The Funnel Beaker Culture
During the Neolthic period (roughly between 5300 and 2000 BCE) there lived a group of people in the North of the Netherlands known as the Funnel Beaker People, named after their claywork. During this period they build great buildings, not as great as Stonehenge or Skara Brae, but still great buildings: seemingly countless numbers of dolmens are shattered across the land. Nowadays only 54 of them survive, most of them in the province of Drenthe.
The largest of the Dutch Dolmens is "D27" in Borger. There also is the Dutch Dolmens Information Centre (Nederlands Hunebedden Informatiecentrum - NHI), worth to visit. There must have been many more dolmens in the Netherlands but our ancestors were practical people: they simply used the big stones from the dolmens to build dikes, churches and other buildings. They probably did not even realize they were desecrating graves.
Recently Dutch scolars found out that dolmens are not necessarily built by great numbers of people, they concluded this after a few of building experiments. A small group of people were capable of lifting great stones with simple levers and build a dolmen.
The pottery found in the dolmens (and gave the people their name) is covered with carvings, but no one has yet found out what it means, if it means anything at all. One scholar thinks that the carvings on the pottery have to do with the rank or position of the ones buried in that grave.
One of the many 'hunebedden' found in the north of the Netherlands
courtesy: Dolmens in the Netherlands
Mysterious Megalithes in Drenthe, Netherlands
Everyone has heard of Stonehenge in England and dolmens and menhirs in France. But who knows of even older and more numerous megalithes in Holland..? Even most of the Dutch themselves are unaware of the richness of the prehistoric monuments in their own country. But they exist..!,and they are there for over 5000 years. Older than the Egyptian pyramids! Built of huge granite stones, some of them weighing over 25,000 kilograms, dragged to the spot and piled up to form a rectangular stonegrave. Unbelievable, but true.
There are still 54 of them. 52 in the province of Drenthe and 2 in the adjacent province of Groningen. "Hunebedden" as they are called in Holland. But not built by Hunen (or huynen = giants) and not beds but graves as we know now. So Drenthe, in the northern part of the country, is the hunebedden-province. It's a province of outstanding beauty with sanddunes, woods, moors, heather, picturesque villages, 200 years old farmhouses with thatched roofs. And mysterious stonegraves..!
In Drenthe there are no mountains or rocks. But hunebedden are made of huge stones. Where did they come from..? The answer is: from Scandinavia. About 200,000 years ago, during an ice-period, Holland and most of northern Europe was covered by a thick layer of ice. The big boulders of which the hunebedden are made of have been transported to Holland by slow moving ice-glaciers. Even today, digging in Drenthe's soil, smaller and bigger stones emerge.
About 4000 BC the hunters that visited Drenthe before, changed their culture and lifestyle radically. They learned to grew wheat, to domesticate cattle and to build farmhouses. They settled here as the first farmers in the region. Archaeologists call this period the Neolithics or New Stone Age. This did not happen only here but also in the south of Sweden, in Denmark and the northwest of Germany. These farmers cut the woods with stone axes and cultivated the arable land. About 3450 BC they started building huge stonegraves using the big boulders that were scattered all over the place. They also made all sorts of earthenware, many of them in the form of a funnel. Because of that archaeologists say this people belong to The Funnel Beaker Culture.
So there is no mystery after all..? Yes there is. The big question remains unanswered. Why did these simple farmers make such a tremendous effort to drag those heavy boulders to a construction site and pile them up to making a huge stonegrave? And how on earth did they do this..? There are several theories but even today it would be a hell of a job..! A feeling of great astonishment and admiration remains.
N.B. To be exact, hunebedden in Holland are "Passage Graves" rather than dolmens, Dolmens are in fact smaller and have no passage stones for an entrance. | 3.393012 |
The "Catch Can" Explained
Added Aug 22, 2011, Under: Engine,General Automotive
Modern engines feature a variety of emission control devices and systems to reduce the toxic gases released into the atmosphere. One of these is called the Positive Crankcase Ventilation (PCV) system. During the combustion process a small amount of gases leak or “blow-by” the piston rings and create a positive pressure in the crankcase. The PCV system vents these gases along with oil mist from the crankcase and routes it back into the intake manifold so it can be burned off. The problem is, over time the excess oil vapor collects along the inside of the intake tract and forms a “gunk”. This can lead to a variety of issues including carbon build up, retarded timing, detonation, and power loss.
An oil-air separator is an aftermarket device that will condense and collect the oil vapor before it has a chance to reach the intake system. As the gases and oil vapor enter the can they typically pass through a screening mechanism that gives the oil vapor something to adhere to. As the droplets form they drop harmlessly into the bottom of the reservoir so that they can later be drained. The other gases are allowed to pass through so that they can be burned off as intended. These devices are often referred to as “catch cans”, though that term is truly more accurate when describing a fluid overflow tank designed to just capture leaking or overflowing fluids.
When it comes to selecting a catch can you will get what you pay for. Cheap catch cans (less than $100) are plentiful but they are often little more than an empty can with two ports. These will capture a small amount of oil but the vast majority passes straight through. Be sure that the can is designed to be opened so that it can be periodically drained and cleaned. | 3.177513 |
The fashion for Indian calico prints grew so rapidly that the East India Company was unable to meet the European demand. The obvious solution was to start reproducing the printed cloth in Europe. In 1640, Armenian merchants, armed with the secrets of the Indian techniques, introduced Textile Printing into Europe; The French Port of Marseille was the starting point for European Printing, closely followed by England, around 1670 and Holland in 1678.
In France, the phenomenal success of the first Textile Print works was soon to be challenged. The well established wool and silk manufacturers objected strongly to this unexpected rivalry from the Indian continent. As well as the French home market, the revenue gained from the exportation of woolen and silk cloth was considerable. In order to protect the status quo, the importation, manufacture, and usage of any Indian Calico Printed cloth was forbidden by Royal Ordinance in 1686.
In spite of the heavy penalties including imprisonment and banishment, the fashion for Indian Prints carried on growing.
Faced with such a strong resistance prohibition was gradually
relaxed, and in 1759, textile printing based on the Indian techniques was proclaimed legal in France.
A new industry grew throughout France. Nantes, Paris and Rouen in the
North, Lyon and Marseille in the South became important manufacturing
sites. Mulhouse was a Free City until 1798, thus allowing the development of printing onto textiles
early. The first manufacturer based in Mulhouse dates from 1746.
England, Holland and Switzerland quickly followed the French lead, and the European textile printing industry was launched.
Until the end of the 18th Century, design ideas were limited. Motifs were directly copied from original Indian works, some geometric designs were used. However the large majority of designs were floral. Flower painters were commissioned by manufacturers to produce intricate designs, adapting their art to the demands of this new and exciting industry. The
famous landscapes with figures best known as "Toiles de Jouy", were an exception to this, and were almost exclusively destined for furnishing purposes. Allegorical, literary and historical references were numerous, as were hunting scenes and views of everyday life.
Most often monochrome, drawn in perspective and using delicate "chiarascuro" techniques, the composition of these designs was masterful, and the end result with it's three dimensional aspect pleased as much at this time as it still does today. As always art and technique were combined. The delicate line quality, and the exceptional end result were due to the invention of printing using an engraved copper plate. | 3.294334 |
What Dr. King's message might be today
I think Dr. Martin Luther King would be particularly pleased with the extraordinary political and economic achievements of some people of color. During Dr. King's life, the civil rights issues essentially amounted to holding America to its founding promise by attacking rampant discrimination and Jim Crow laws in the south. The most pressing issues today confronting minority communities have little to do with Jim Crow.
But today, Dr. King would know that America is still faced with seemingly overwhelming problems: homelessness, poverty, crime, drugs, hypertension, disparities in health care, economic inequality, inequality of the criminal justice system, social injustice, and educational inequality. And, of course the intractable war in Iraq and the obscene inattention to the genocide in Darfur.
Dr. King would elaborate with riveting eloquence on all of these social, human, and civil rights issues, and he would implore the United States Congress to use its legislative power to be more responsive in confronting these problems aggressively.
I think that Dr. King would speak openly about things that many people, particularly what the culturally conservative, find exceedingly distasteful or discomforting; and that is confronting certain behaviors that can lead to the spread of HIV, because the new struggle is against AIDS, which disproportionately affects those who are primarily poor and nonwhite.
Dr. King would urge the black community, the government, and people from all races to realize that no community is an island, and that a health crisis engulfing America's most vulnerable citizens is ultimately a threat to America itself.
One of the most important facts about human beings is that we are not all alike. Yet if we are to survive, we must live in a world composed not only of differing individuals, but also of differing groups. And, if we are to adjust ourselves to such a world, we must understand what such differences mean, and how they may determine our individual and group destinies. We still have deep ethnic, religious and racial prejudices in every community in America.
In light of the recent horrific anti-Semitic and racial rants by Mel Gibson and Michael Richards, Dr. King would ask us to examine our own prejudices and ask what this tells us about ourselves, and what it means, and how it affects our children.
Whether or not hateful remarks are made in stressful situations or in private social settings, we must be mindful of how inappropriate and damaging these intolerant remarks are and how they affect our daily lives and the lives of our children and others.
I think Dr. King would ask all of us to actively and sincerely work in our own communities, to eliminate ethnic and racial biases.
And we here, on Martha's Vineyard, can do our part to work toward Dr. King's dream of a world where every man, every woman, and every child can live in peace, with honor and respect.
Marie B. Allen was president of the Martha's Vineyard chapter of the NAACP, from 2004 to 2006. | 3.01632 |
Joined: 03 Oct 2005
|Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 10:15 am Post subject: Using Functionalised Organic Nanotubes in Drug Systems
|Scientists at University of Missouri-Columbia Create Functionalised Organic Nanotubes for Use in Drug Delivery Systems
Carbon nanotubes and buckyballs, made solely of carbon atoms linked to one another, have become a subject of intense study among cancer researchers attempting to develop new nanoscale drug delivery and diagnostic agents. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri-Columbia have developed a method of making similar structures out of more complex organic molecules. The resulting structures give investigators a new set of nanomaterials with a wide variety of physical and chemical properties.
Reporting its work in the journal Angewandte Chemie, a team headed by Jerry Atwood, Ph.D., showed how organic molecules could be coaxed into assembling themselves into hollow nanoscale spheres or tubes. The ultimate shape of the resulting nanocapsule depends on the exact conditions used to assemble these nanocapsules, and the researchers found that they could purposefully convert one shape into another. Most importantly, the investigators showed that these hollow structures were stable in water, a key for their use in biological systems.
Close examination of these nanostructures revealed that there are two discrete microenvironments within the nanotubes. The researchers note that this property could be used to encapsulate more than one type of molecule within a single nanotube and keep them separate from one another. This property could be useful in delivering multiple drugs to the same cell.
This work is detailed in a paper titled, “Toward the isolation of functional organic nanotubes.” An investigator from Nottingham Trent University in the United Kingdom also participated in this study. This paper was published online in advance of publication. An abstract of this paper is not yet available.
Source: NCI Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer.
This story was posted on 18 January 2006. | 3.056407 |
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Assessment of Corrosion Education
The 2001 report Corrosion Costs and Preventive Strategies in the United States noted that technological changes and the wider use of available corrosion management techniques have improved corrosion mitigation.2 However, better corrosion management can also be achieved using preventive strategies in nontechnical and technical areas. These preventive strategies include (1) increase awareness of the large costs of corrosion and the potential for savings, (2) change the misconception that nothing can be done about corrosion, (3) change policies, regulations, standards, and management practices to decrease corrosion costs through sound corrosion management, (4) improve education and training of staff in recognition and control of corrosion, (5) improve design practices for better corrosion management, (6) advance life prediction and performance assessment methods, and (7) advance corrosion technology through research, development, and implementation. Although there are likely to be many reasons why these strategies are not routinely followed, in the committee’s view strengthening corrosion education would be a major step toward improved corrosion control and management. An engineering workforce that is ill-equipped to deal with corrosion problems begs the question, What are engineers being taught about corrosion? Is it sufficient? This study was commissioned to do two things:
Assess the level and effectiveness of existing engineering curricula in corrosion science and technology, including corrosion prevention and control, and
Recommend actions that could enhance the corrosion-based skill and knowledge base of graduating and practicing engineers.
From the perspective of assessing corrosion education, the workforce of graduating and practicing engineers is divided as follows:
Technologists who perform repeated critical tasks;
Undergraduate engineering students in materials science and engineering (MSE), who upon graduation should be knowledgeable in materials selection;
Undergraduate students in other engineering disciplines; and
MSE graduate students, who upon graduation should be very knowledgeable in materials selection.
Advances in corrosion control are integral to the development of technologies that can solve the engineering grand challenges related to the sustainability | 3.114834 |
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Content Standard: K—12
Unifying Concepts and Processes
STANDARD: As a result of activities in grades K-12, all students should develop understanding and abilities aligned with the following concepts and processes:
Systems, order, and organization
Evidence, models, and explanation
Constancy, change, and measurement
Evolution and equilibrium
Form and function
Developing Student Understanding
This standard presents broad unifying concepts and processes that complement the analytic, more discipline-based perspectives presented in the other content standards. The conceptual and procedural schemes in this standard provide students with productive and insightful ways of thinking about and integrating a range of basic ideas that explain the natural and designed world.
The unifying concepts and processes in this standard are a subset of the many unifying ideas in science and technology. Some of the criteria used in the selection and organization of this standard are
The concepts and processes provide connections between and among traditional scientific disciplines.
The concepts and processes are fundamental and comprehensive.
The concepts and processes are understandable and usable by people who will implement science programs.
The concepts and processes can be expressed and experienced in a developmentally appropriate manner during K-12 science education.
Each of the concepts and processes of this standard has a continuum of complexity that
Marking the culmination of a three-year, multiphase process, on April 10th, 2013, a 26-state consortium released the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), a detailed description of the key scientific ideas and practices that all students should learn by the time they graduate from high school. | 3.602036 |
(NaturalNews) Even though one in seven U.S. residents struggles to get enough food, the nation's supermarkets throw away tons of produce and other food products every single year.
According to a study by the California Integrated Waste Management board, 63 percent of the average supermarket's waste stream is food. This comes out to 3,000 pounds per store per year.
The bulk of this food is not unsafe for consumption. It includes foods that have become less visually appealing, like bananas that have started to get brown spots or potatoes that have started to turn green; perfectly unblemished, unspoiled food that is thrown away merely to make room for a new shipment; and packaged food approaching its sell-by date.
Food recovery groups seeking to get such food into the hands of the hungry note that even food past its sell-by date is still safe for human consumption. Even meat can be good for several months past this date if frozen.
"All the 'daily specials' -- cooked food like ham and ribs were dumped each night," said former Safeway deli employee John Wadginski. "I had to throw out 10 pound hams that weren't even touched. It was easily 50 pounds of food a night."
In an attempt to stop supermarkets from wasting food while people go hungry, the Bill Emerson Federal Good Samaritan Food Donation Act went into effect in 1996, protecting supermarkets from litigation should someone become sick from donated food. The only exceptions to the law are cases of gross negligence or deliberate malice. Numerous states have passed similar laws.
Yet even though such laws have never been challenged, stores continue to cite fears of litigation and bad press as a reason for throwing away edible food
rather than giving it to those who need it. Many go as far as installing trash compactors to keep people from pulling the edible produce out of their dumpsters.
"Today I threw out 20 bags of lettuce" said an employee at a Ralph's in Long Beach, Calif. "The code date was for yesterday -- but I would have purchased any one of those bags."
Sources for this story include: http://www.alternet.org/story/146487/how_the_top_5_supermarkets_waste...
Have comments on this article? Post them here:
people have commented on this article. | 3.072817 |
reading this section you will be able to do
the experiment below and explain why the wave reacts differently
depending on what surface it hits.
how echoes are made.
when a sound wave hits a concave shaped surface?
sound reflected back to the source from a concave shaped surface
more or less than that reflected from a flat surface?
when a sound wave hits the porous surface?
when a sound wave hits an irregular surface?
When sound reflects off a special curved surface called a parabola, it will bounce out in a straight line no matter where it originally hits. Many stages are designed as parabolas so the sound will go directly into the audience, instead of bouncing around on stage. If the parabola is closed off by another curved surface, it is called an ellipse. Sound will travel from one focus to the other, no matter where it strikes the wall. A whispering gallery is designed as an ellipse. If your friend stands at one focus and you stand at the other, his whisper will be heard clearly by you. No one in the rest of the room will hear anything.
Reflection is responsible for many interesting phenomena. Echoes are the sound of your own voice reflecting back to your ears. The sound you hear ringing in an auditorium after the band has stopped playing is caused by reflection off the walls and other objects. A sound wave will continue to bounce around a room, or reverberate, until it has lost all its energy. A wave has some of its energy absorbed by the objects it hits. The rest is lost as heat energy.
Everything, even air, absorbs sound. One example of air absorbing sound waves happens during a thunderstorm. When you are very close to a storm, you hear thunder as a sharp crack. When the storm is farther away, you hear a low rumble instead. This is because air absorbs high frequencies more easily than low. By the time the thunder has reached you, all the high pitches are lost and only the low ones can be heard. The best absorptive material is full of holes that sound waves can bounce around in and lose energy. The energy lost as heat is too small to be felt, though, it can be detected by scientific instruments.
How does sound reach every point in the room?
Since sound travels in a straight path from its source, how does it get around corners? You already know that if you and your friend are standing on either side of a wall and there is an open door nearby, you will be able to hear what your friend says. Because you would not hear your friend if the door was closed, sound is not traveling through the wall. Instead, it must be going around the corner and out the door.
You hear your friend because of sound diffraction. Diffraction uses the edges of a barrier as a secondary sound source that sends waves in a new direction. These secondary waves overlap and interfere with each other and the original waves, making the sound less clear. Working together, diffraction and reflection can send sounds to every part of a room. | 4.380626 |
Weevils, which can devastate soft fruit crops by nibbling at their roots, have been thwarted by Europe's first crop of genetically engineered strawberries. Julie Graham and colleagues at the Scottish Crop Research Institute in Invergowrie near Dundee equipped the plants with an anti-weevil gene from cowpeas. The gene produces a protein that blocks a digestive enzyme in larvae, preventing them from feeding. "The roots of the engineered plants were untouched, whereas the control plants were devastated," says Graham, who is due to publish results of the trials later this year.
To continue reading this article, subscribe to receive access to all of newscientist.com, including 20 years of archive content. | 3.246068 |
"So What?": Encouraging Stewardship
An archeologist talks about artifacts during teacher training at Fort Frederica. (SEAC)
The National Park Service is charged with the management of some of our nation’s most significant cultural resources. The goal of the interpretation of archeology is for visitors to develop an ethic for stewardship through finding personal meaning in the resources. This isn’t necessarily as hard as it might seem: A recent poll by Harris Interactive suggests that the American public’s curiosity about archeology lays the groundwork. The poll shows that people think archeology has educational value and informs modern life; they also agree that laws should protect archeological resources. Interpretation plays an important role in cultivating the public’s curiosity and building a stewardship ethic.
We want visitors to move away from using the phrase “So what?” to express indifference for the resources. We want them to use “So what?” in another way, one that demonstrates critical thinking and personal involvement and dialogue in a subject. An ethic for understanding and protecting archeological resources comes from such connections.
Effective interpretation moves a visitor to realize the relevance and significance of resources in contemporary life and how he or she plays a role in protecting them. Archeologists can take the opportunity to encourage stewardship by the public as a way to spread the message of the importance of the field.
For Your Information
Why do people value resources like nature centers, battlefields, reservoirs, or scenic wonders? Your colleagues said:
“These resources all have realness. They provide authentic experience and the sense of being there. People value them because they create context and perspective. They reframe aspects of an individual’s life.”
“They are special places that give us the chance to connect with things bigger than ourselves.”
“They provide signs and instructions for the future.”
The relationship between resources, audience, and interpretation is key:
- Resources possess meanings and relevance, but they are complicated to interpret because individuals see different meanings in the same resources.
- Audiences seek something special about resources, something of particular value or resonance to them that is interesting, unique, or entertaining. While the interpreter’s primary goal is to provide accurate, balanced access to meanings and interpretation’s primary goal is to inspire audiences to care about the resources, audiences must be allowed to form their own passions and understandings aside from the interpreter.
- Interpretation, then, facilitates a connection between the interests of the visitor and the meanings of the resource. Audience interest and preservation go hand in hand: The public must care about a resource before people will value its preservation and, as a result, archeological resource preservation depends on the audience’s access to the meanings of the resources.
Ancient Architects of the Mississippi
This web site interprets how universal concepts such as sustenance, social hierarchy and ceremony influenced how and why Native Americans molded the earthen mounds found in the Mississippi Delta. Today, the legacy of the moundbuilders is at risk. Most earthworks are worn down to unassuming shapes in the overgrowth along remote fields and tributaries. Many have been looted or damaged by farming and construction.
This website is part of an effort to preserve the legacy that survives along the banks of the lower Mississippi.
Interpretation connects the resource and the audience by presenting broadly relevant meaning. To attain this goal, “So what?” can be distilled into three steps within the interpretive process that are important for archeologists to understand and use successfully:
- Define the relationship between resource, audience, and interpretation
- Link tangible resources to intangible resources and meanings
- Communicate universal concepts
Archeologists and interpreters should emphasize stewardship of archeological resources in any visitor exchange, from tours of archeological sites to exhibitions to discussions of ongoing fieldwork. Through effective preservation and protection, archeological resources can continue to convey their important history about people from the past to present and future generations of Americans.
Interpretive programs reach park visitors when they are still forming their opinions, value, and ethics. Long-term survival of park resources depends upon a stewardship ethic among the general population. The majority of threats to the resource are, by definition, caused by humans. Establishing a bond between visitors and the park can create a sense of shared ownership and lifelong commitment to park ethics.
Caring for Sites
Take a look at this site from the Archeology Program to learn about private and public site stewardship.
Stewardship: Archaeology as a Public Interest
Making Archaeology Teaching Relevant in the XXI Century (M.A.T.R.I.X.) posts this educational unit about archeology and stewardship among its teacher resources. It also includes several readings.
Archeology Features Our online features explore the National Monuments, African American archeology, ancient Native American history, the growth of public archeology, and more.
The Public Benefits of Archeology
This site introduces some of the many publics who use and enjoy archeology. Let your imagination be your guide through the scenarios and into the case studies.
For Your Information
Telling the Stories: Planning Effective Interpretive Programs for
Properties Listed in the National Register of Historic Places
This National Register Bulletin, rich with case studies, offers valuable information for individuals and institutions working to convey the meaning of historic places to the public.
Component for Module 101: Why We Do Interpretation: Meeting the NPS
This component establishes the foundation for Module 101: Fulfilling the NPS Mission: The Process of Interpretation, by defining the interpreter as integral to the development of the profession. It provides a set of ground rules to establish a personal interpretive philosophy and articulate ways in which interpretation contributes to resource protection and stewardship.
Maria Ramos and David Duganne, Harris Interactive
2000 Exploring Public Perceptions and Attitudes about Archeology , Society for American Archeology
The Harris poll outlines public attitudes toward archeology. Check it out for useful insights into what the public thinks about the field. Consider how interpretive programs can respond to gaps in understanding. | 3.403272 |
On May 30, 1881, Frederick Douglass delivered a memorable oration on the subject of John Brown at the Fourteenth Anniversary of Storer College. Especially notable was the presence among the platform guests of Andrew Hunter, the District Attorney of Charles Town who had prosecuted Brown and secured his conviction. In his oration, Douglass extolled Brown as a martyr to the cause of liberty, and concluded with the following passages:
"But the question is, Did John Brown fail? He certainly did fail to get out of Harpers Ferry before being beaten down by United States soldiers; he did fail to save his own life, and to lead a liberating army into the mountains of Virginia. But he did not go to Harpers Ferry to save his life.
"The true question is, Did John Brown draw his sword against slavery and thereby lose his life in vain? And to this I answer ten thousand times, No! No man fails, or can fail, who so grandly gives himself and all he has to a righteous cause. No man, who in his hour of extremest need, when on his way to meet an ignominious death, could so forget himself as to stop and kiss a little child, one of the hated race for whom he was about to die, could by any possibility fail.
"Did John Brown fail? Ask Henry A. Wise in whose house less than two years after, a school for the emancipated slaves was taught.
"Did John Brown fail? Ask James M. Mason, the author of the inhuman fugitive slave bill, who was cooped up in Fort Warren, as a traitor less than two years from the time that he stood over the prostrate body of John Brown.
"Did John Brown fail? Ask Clement C. Vallandingham, one other of the inquisitorial party; for he too went down in the tremendous whirlpool created by the powerful hand of this bold invader. If John Brown did not end the war that ended slavery, he did at least begin the war that ended slavery. If we look over the dates, places and men for which this honor is claimed, we shall find that not Carolina, but Virginia, not Fort Sumter, but Harpers Ferry, and the arsenal, not Col. Anderson, but John Brown, began the war that ended American slavery and made this a free Republic. Until this blow was struck, the prospect for freedom was dim, shadowy and uncertain. The irrepressible conflict was one of words, votes and compromises.
"When John Brown stretched forth his arm the sky was cleared. The time for compromises was gone - the armed hosts of freedom stood face to face over the chasm of a broken Union - and the clash of arms was at hand. The South staked all upon getting possession of the Federal Government, and failing to do that, drew the sword of rebellion and thus made her own, and not Brown's, the lost cause of the century."
The address was subsequently published, with proceeds of its sale earmarked for the endowment of a John Brown Professorship at Storer College. | 3.102157 |
Workshop Title: Passamaquoddy History and Culture: A Teaching Kit for Grades 5-8
Date: Saturday, October 20, 2007
Time: 9:00 – 3:30 p.m.
Location: Roberts Learning Center, University of Maine – Farmington
Hosted by: the National Park Service and the University of Maine at Farmington
Audience: Middle school teachers, both in-service and pre-service, with a Social Studies and or Maine Studies focus. Others welcome on stand-by.
Recommended grade level: 5 - 8
- Meg Scheid: workshop facilitator, National Park Ranger (Saint Croix Island International Historic Site)
- Joseph Charnley: Guest teacher, Portland School District; Co-facilitator for LD291; Co-facilitator of the Native Students Committee; Workshop presenter of Wabanaki Connections: an intro to LD291 and how to implement it in classrooms; publisher of monthly Wabanaki Connections enewsletter; and more!
- Margaret Apt: Guest teacher; Research Assistant for the Passamaquoddy Dictionary Project; Passamaquoddy language educator (Shead High School); member of the Passamaquoddy Tribe
Short Description: Experience the National Park Service’s new learning tool for Maine teachers: Passamaquoddy History and Culture: A Teaching Kit for Grades 5-8!
Teachers attending this workshop will:
- participate in kit activities and be introduced to the hands-on teaching tools in the kit
- learn how to build a Passamaquoddy kit for their own classroom, or borrow one of several kits available for loan
- meet a member of the Passamaquoddy tribe who speaks the language, teaches it, and works toward preserving it
- discover the history of the Passamaquoddy language and its importance in preserving the Tribe’s culture, while testing his/her skill at learning and speaking Passamaquoddy words
- hear from a teacher who successfully uses the Passamaquoddy Kit in his class to help meet the requirements of LD 291
- garner a greater understanding of Saint Croix Island International Historic Site – Maine’s second National Park Unit - and the important relationship that developed between the French and Passamaquoddy in 1604
- interact with presenters and other teachers, in order to share ideas and excitement about ways to incorporate Passamaquoddy culture and history into the minds and hearts of their students
Teachers will receive free of charge:
- six contact hours for workshop participation
- handouts related to Passamaquoddy history and culture
- a CD of the kit’s Teacher’s Guide and the entire trunk’s contents, and more!
- handouts that link the kit’s activities to specific Maine Learning Results
Scaled stipends/scholarships are available for in-service and pre-service middle school teachers. For more information on how to apply, contact Meg Scheid at 207-454-3871.
Cost: Participants commitment to spread the word about this resource!
Lunch: Bring your own; beverages and snacks served
How to register: Email Meg Scheid with your name and address for the next three months, school name, home and school phones, teaching what grade(s), specify if you are a pre-service (student) or in-service teacher, your permanent email address, and the date of the workshop you would like to attend. Registration will be confirmed by email.
Registration deadline: October 12, 2007, or call if later
Maximum number of participants: 30 - first come, first served
Contact information: Meg Scheid, 207-454-3871 | 3.112556 |
Environmental Issues: Health
All Documents in Health Tagged diesel buses
- Cleaning Up Today's Dirty Diesels
Retrofitting and Replacing Heavy-Duty Vehicles in the Coming Decade
- Stringent new federal standards for diesel fuel and emissions will provide significant health benefits. But these benefits will not be fully realized for 20 years unless effective programs are put in place to replace and retrofit today's fleets of dirty diesel vehicles, concentrating on urban areas, where people are exposed to more vehicle pollution, and on cleaning up the oldest, dirtiest vehicles first.
Documents Tagged diesel buses in All Sections
- What Parents Need to Know About Diesel School Buses
If your kids are riding a diesel bus to school, chances are they're being exposed to unacceptable cancer risk.
- Answers to questions including: What are the health effects of diesel exhaust inside school buses? Are all diesel buses equally dangerous? What can I do to reduce my children's exposure to diesel exhaust?
- No Breathing in the Aisles
Diesel Exhaust Inside School Buses
- This February 2001 study from NRDC and the Coalition for Clean Air shows that children who ride a diesel school bus may be exposed to up to four times more toxic diesel exhaust than someone traveling in a car directly in front of it. The study found that excess exhaust levels on school buses were 23 to 46 times higher than levels considered to be a significant cancer risk according to the U.S Environmental Protection Agency and federal guidelines.
For additional policy documents, see the NRDC Document Bank.
For older publications available only in print, click here.
Sign up for NRDC's online newsletter
NRDC Gets Top Ratings from the Charity Watchdogs
- Charity Navigator awards NRDC its 4-star top rating.
- Worth magazine named NRDC one of America's 100 best charities.
- NRDC meets the highest standards of the Wise Giving Alliance of the Better Business Bureau.
- Bipartisan bill would improve reporting of information about antibiotic use in animal feed
- posted by Avinash Kar, 5/8/13
- Marine Plastic Pollution Producer Responsibility Bill Passes California Assembly Natural Resources Committee
- posted by Leila Monroe, 4/30/13
- EPA Hearing: Citizens Urge Agency to Finalize Cleaner Gasoline and Tailpipe Standards
- posted by Luke Tonachel, 4/25/13 | 3.095753 |
Edited by: William C. Ritz
|$23.96 - Member Price |
$29.95 - Nonmember Price
A Head Start on Science: Encouraging a Sense of Wonder
2008 Winner of the AEP Distinguished Achievement Award
The Distinguished Achievement Award, from the Association of Educational Publishers, recognizes each year’s most outstanding materials in the field of teaching and learning.
|Type of Product:||NSTA Press Book (also see downloadable PDF version of this book)
based on 9 reviews
|Grade Level:||Elementary School
|Read Inside:||Read a sample chapter: Introduction
Our reviewers—top-flight teachers and other outstanding science educators—have determined that this resource is among the best available supplements for science teaching.
[Read the full review]
For the littlest scientists, the whole wide world can be a laboratory for learning. Nurture their natural curiosity with A Head Start on Science, a treasury of 89 hands-on science activities specifically for children ages 3 to 6.
The activities are grouped into seven stimulating topic areas: the five senses, weather, physical science, critters, water and water mixture, seeds, and nature walks.
Because the activities have been field-tested by more than a thousand Head Start teachers over 10 years, you’ll find this collection unusually easy to use in a variety of settings, including elementary schools, pre-K programs, and day care. In addition to clear background and a helpful materials list, you get step-by-step procedures and help preparing for comments and questions children may pose. Each activity ends with a reproducible Family Science Connection—in both English and Spanish—to send home so the whole family can share a learning experience that’s both simple and pleasant.
Thanks to a focus on the fun of exploration and discovery, children probably won’t be the only ones who find these activities irresistible. As Editor Bill Ritz writes in the Introduction, “We hope your own sense of wonder will be heightened as you observe children and as their curiosity leads them to answer their own questions about everything they see, hear, smell, and touch.”
(mouse over for full classification)
Scientific habits of mind
Using scientific equipment
|Intended User Role:||Curriculum Supervisor, Elementary-Level Educator, Informal Educator, Learner, Parent, Teacher
|Educational Issues:||Assessment of students, Classroom management, Cultural awareness, Curriculum, Educational research, Equity, Inclusion, Informal education, Inquiry learning, Instructional materials, Interdisciplinary, Learning disabilities, Parent involvement, Professional development, Science safety, Student populations: Emotionally challenged, Student populations: English as a second language (ESL), Student populations: Latinos, Teacher preparation, Teaching strategies
About the Editor
Section 1: The Senses
Useful Hand Lenses
Looking at Me
Light to See
Sound: Shake, Rattle, and Roll
A Sound Walk
A Touch Collage
Matching by Touch
Section 2: Weather
A Wind Walk
A Windy Day
Air That Moves
Shadows on My Playground
Where Did the Shadows Go?
What Is the Weather Like Today?
Snow Tracks and Traces
Snow on the Go
Keeping Warm: Coats
Section 3: Physical Science
Magnetic Scavenger Hunt
Magnetic Force Through Objects
The Magnet Contest: Which Magnet Is Stronger?
My Favorite Rock
All Kinds of Rocks
Building With Blocks
Will It Roll?
Bubbles Raising Raisins
Section 4: Critters
Critters: Observing Earthworms
Critters: Jumping Crickets
Critters: Swimming Fish
Making a Giant Spiderweb
Looking for Birds
Feeding the Birds
Building Bird Nests
Section 5: Water and Water Mixtures
Looking Through Water
Water Drops as Art
Section 6: Seeds
Seeds in Our Food
Where Do Seeds Come From?
How Are Seeds Alike?
Seeds to Plants
An Ear of Corn
Popping Up Some Change
Seeds as Food
Pondering Pumpkins: The Outsides
Pondering Pumpkins: The Insides
Section 7: Nature Walks
Adopting a Tree
Visit to a Nursery
Leaves: Falling for You!
“Head Start Child Outcomes Framework”
“A Head Start on Science” Project Staff and Other Collaborators
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National Standards Correlation
This resource has 55 correlations with the National Standards.
- Physical Science
- Properties of objects and materials
- Objects have many observable properties, including size, weight, shape, color, and temperature. (K-4)
- The observable properties of objects can be measured using tools, such as rulers, balances, and thermometers. (K-4)
- Objects can be described by the properties of the materials from which they are made. (K-4)
- The properties of objects can be used to separate or sort a group of objects or materials.
- Materials can exist in different states--solid, liquid, and gas. (K-4)
- Properties and changes of properties in matter
- A substance has characteristic properties, such as density, a boiling point, and solubility. (5-8)
- Position and motion of objects
- Sound is produced by vibrating objects. (K-4)
- The pitch of the sound can be varied by changing the rate of vibration. (K-4)
- Light, heat, electricity, and magnetism
- Magnets attract and repel each other and certain kinds of other materials. (K-4)
- Life Science
- The characteristics of organisms
- Organisms have basic needs. For example, animals need air, water, and food; plants require air, water, nutrients, and light. (K-4)
- Organisms can survive only in environments in which their needs can be met. (K-4)
- Each plant or animal has different structures that serve different functions in growth, survival, and reproduction. For example, humans have distinct body structures for walking, holding, seeing, and talking. (K-4)
- Organisms can survive only in environments in which their
needs can be met. (K-4)
- The world has many different environments, and distinct
environments support the life of different types of organisms. (K-4)
- Life cycles of organisms
- Plants and animals have life cycles that include being born, developing into adults, reproducing, and eventually dying. The details of this life cycle are different for different organisms. (K-4)
- Plants and animals closely resemble their parents. (K-4)
- Many characteristics of an organism are inherited from the parents of the organism, but other characteristics result from an individual's interactions with the environment. Inherited characteristics include the color of flowers and the number of limbs of an animal. (K-4)
- Structure and function in living systems
- Living systems at all levels of organization demonstrate the complementary nature of structure and function (5-8)
- Important levels of organization for structure and function include cells, organs, tissues, organ systems, whole organisms, and ecosystems (5-8)
- Regulation and behavior
- All organisms must be able to obtain and use resources, grow, reproduce, and maintain stable internal conditions while living in a constantly changing external environment. (5-8)
- Behavior is one kind of response an organism can make to an internal or environmental stimulus. (5-8)
- Behavioral response is a set of actions determined in part by heredity and in part from experience. (5-8)
- An organism's behavior evolves through adaptation to its environment. (5-8)
- How a species moves, obtains food, reproduces, and responds to danger are based in the species' evolutionary history (5-8)
- Diversity and adaptations of organisms
- Millions of species of animals, plants, and microorganisms are alive today. (5-8)
- Species acquire many of their unique characteristics through biological adaptation, which involves the selection of naturally occurring variations in populations. (5-8)
- Biological adaptations include changes in structures, behaviors, or physiology that enhance survival and reproductive success in a particular environment (5-8)
- Earth Science
- Properties of earth materials
- Earth materials are solid rocks and soils, water, and the gases of the atmosphere.
- Changes in earth and sky
- Weather changes from day to day and over the seasons.
- Weather can be described by measurable quantities, such as temperature, wind direction and speed, and precipitation.
- The sun appears to move across the sky in the same way every day, but its path changes slowly over the seasons.
- Structure of the earth system
- Clouds, formed by the condensation of water vapor, affect weather and climate. (5-8)
- Earth in the solar system
- The sun, an average star, is the central and largest body in the solar system. (5-8)
- The sun is the major source of energy for phenomena on the earth's surface, such as growth of plants, winds, ocean currents, and the water cycle. (5-8)
- Science as Inquiry
- Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry
- Ask a question about objects, organisms, and events in the environment. (K-4)
- Employ simple equipment and tools to gather data and extend the senses. (K-4)
- Use data to construct a reasonable explanation.
- Communicate investigations and explanations.
- Use appropriate tools and techniques to gather, analyze, and interpret data.
- Develop descriptions, explanations, predictions, and models using evidence.
- Think critically and logically to make the relationships between evidence and explanations.
- Use mathematics in all aspects of scientific inquiry.
- Understandings about scientific inquiry
- Types of investigations include describing objects, events, and organisms; classifying them; and doing a fair test (experimenting).
- Simple instruments, such as magnifiers, thermometers, and rulers, provide more information than scientists obtain using only their senses.
- Scientists develop explanations using observations (evidence) and what they already know about the world (scientific knowledge). Good explanations are based on evidence from investigations. (K-4)
- Science and Technology
- Abilities of technological design
- Implement a proposed design.
- Process Standards for Professional Development
- Introduce teachers to scientific literature, media, and technological resources that expand their science knowledge and their ability to access further knowledge. (NSES)
- Uses learning strategies appropriate to the intended goal. (NSDC)
- Content Standards
- Prepares educators to understand and appreciate all students, create safe, orderly and supportive learning environments, and hold high expectations for their academic achievement. (NSDC)
- Family Involvement
- Provides educators with knowledge and skills to involve families and other stakeholders appropriately. (NSDC)
- Teaching Standards
- Teachers of science plan an inquiry-based science program for their students.
- Select teaching and assessment strategies that support the development of student understanding and nurture a community of science learners.
- Teachers of science guide and facilitate learning. In doing this, teachers
- Encourage and model the skills of scientific inquiry, as well as the curiosity, openness to new ideas and data, and skepticism that characterize science.
- Orchestrate discourse among students about scientific ideas.
- Teachers provide students with the time, space, and resources needed to learn science.
- Create a setting for student work that is flexible and supportive of science inquiry.
- Make the available science tools, materials, media, and technological resources accessible to students.
||Encouraging a Sense of Wonder
||Reviewed by: Gilbert Lori (Enola, PA) on June 23, 2009
||I found this book to be a great resource for early childhood education teachers. The introduction was very informative and gave an excellent overview of what to consider when teaching young children science. I especially liked the part of the introduction that explained the role of questioning and how to use questions effectively throughout each activity. The author provides 89 well-organized hands-on, inquiry-based activities within 7 different science contents: senses, weather, physical science, critters, water and water mixtures, seeds, and nature walks. I also liked how each of the activities allowed for children to have science connections not only in the classroom, but also outside of the classroom. Each activity has a family science connection that allows the family to be involved with their children and to understand what their children are learning in science within the classroom. The author uses the assessment outcomes and possible indicators component to guide teachers in assessing student's progress and to relate their progress to the 8 general domains within the "Head Start Child Outcomes Framework". This book allows educators of young children to provide a discovery-focused, inquiry-based learning environment for all children ages 3-7. All the activities are student-centered and teacher guided to provide a fun, multi-sensory approach to learning science.
||A good resource for pre-service teachers
||Reviewed by: Laura Anderson (Cleveland, TN) on July 19, 2008
||I teach pre-service educators on the undergraduate level. This book is a great source as it is developmentally appropriate and well organized. I especially like the way it includess the science indicators and a rubric for assessment for each.
||Small Wonders Is Full of Wonder
||Reviewed by: Harriet Teplitzky (yack, NY) on July 16, 2008
||This book is a gem! With recent research indicating that children are becoming "disconnected" from nature, Small Wonders: Nature Education for Young Children by Linda Garrett and Hannah Thomas is an invaluable resource for anyone who works with young children. Small Wonders is divided into three inter-displinary themes: Growth & Change; Animal Homes; and Connections to Nature. Within each broad topic, there are eight units. A wealth of background information is included for each unit, including comprehensive literature connections. Small Wonders is a breath of fresh air in the current spate of environmental curriculum for children. Rather than focus on the "gloom and doom" aspects of the modern environmental crisis, Small Wonders is a "wonder"-ful guide to fostering a sense of wonder and appreciation for the natural world. As the Senegalese poet Babr Dioum Dioum has written: " We will conserve only what we love." Small Wonders takes large steps toward developing the love of nature in our youngest citizens.
||A Head Start in Tampa.Florida
||Reviewed by: Clara Shoe (Zephyrhills, FL) on July 15, 2008
||I really like the layout of the activities provided, including the indicators/assesments that one can write into their plans, along with the literature connections.
As my school's science resource teacher, I feel my teachers will be confident with implementing these lessons.
I only saw two lessons that were going to be a challenge in the weather section, as we don't often get snow in Tampa (snicker), but we do have a snow cone machine!
||Excellent resources for Early Childhood Teachers
||Reviewed by: Cheryl Stephens (Houston, TX) on July 15, 2008
||I have referred this book to countless Early Childhood Teachers. This resource provides teachers with research based comprehensive instructional strategies,assessments, and appropriate material resources that are used in science for early childhood students.
||Great EC Science Resource
||Reviewed by: Stacy B (New Oxford, PA) on May 7, 2008
A Head Start on Science- Encouraging a Sense of Wonder
This book is an excellent resource for any early childhood classroom. The 89 activities within this text are organized into 7 exciting categories that will spark the interest of all your young scientists. The 7 sections included are: (1) Senses, (2) Weather, (3) Physical Science, (4) Critters, (5) Water and Water Mixtures, (6) Seeds, and (7) Nature Walks. Each section has a general list of internet resources, and a brief introduction to every topic. Activities are appropriate for children ages 3-7, and easily can be adjusted to meet individual students’ needs.
Each activity has a universal lesson plan layout. Within this format the author has provided guided questions, identified process skills, connections linking the topic to other centers, and suggested literature. Individual activities are divided into several parts to assist the activity coordinator with useful information in presenting an inquiry-based experience for young learners.
In addition, the author has provided a valuable introduction to guide teachers in creating the best science experience for students. The introductory section identifies the importance of using adequate questioning and processes, safe practices, and differentiated instruction within science education. Each activity also includes assessment outcomes and indicators (aligned with the 8 domains of the Head Start Child Outcomes Framework), a rubric to assess student proficiency, and a family page. The family page (available in English and Spanish) provides an extension activity that can be reproduced, and sent home with students.
Overall, this text is well-organized, and filled with a variety of inquiry-based activities. The author provides numerous resources for his readers, and has organized a materials list for all activities. Moreover, the book offers teaching aides that are easy to create, and fun to use.
||Science for Young Children
||Reviewed by: Rosalind Charlesworth (Ogden, UT) on November 2, 2007
||This is an excellent resource for Early Childhood Teachers. I found the introduction's presentation of NSTA's guidlelines for early childhood science very helpful. This section clearly explains how science for young children should support their exploration of the world. The lessons are set up with open-ended questions, materials and assessments. Family activities are in English and Spanish. A valuable resource for teachers of children 3-7.
||Encouraging a Sense of Wonder
||Reviewed by: AnnaLee Tully (Belton, TX) on November 1, 2007
|| The Role of Questioning in Science is a powerful piece of this book.Found in the introduction, these comments and questions will encourage young children to take part in conversations and to use higher level thinking skills when sharing their thoughts and ideas. Students will also be encouraged to engage in scientific processes.
||Developmentally Appropriate Approach to SResource
||Reviewed by: Lorraine Kinney-Kitchen (Oriskany, NY) on May 26, 2007
||Finally, a resource that presents science in a developmentally appropriate way! I knew I would love it when I read that children will learn science through play and exploration better than through instruction! This is filled with information that has very practical application in the preschool classroom. The activities are all spelled out and explain to even the rooky preschool teacher what the child in learning and how to evaluate what a child got out of the process.
If you wish to add your review, click here. | 3.254612 |
From Ohio History Central
This wonderful carved pipe was found in the Adena mound in Chillicothe. It shows us an Adena man wearing typical clothing and jewelry.
The Adena Mound was located in Chillicothe at the base of the hill where Governor Thomas Worthington built his home. "Adena" is the name Worthington gave to his estate. The Adena culture (800 B.C. to 1 A.D.) of prehistoric Native American people is named for the Adena Mound.
The Adena Mound was nearly 27 feet tall and 140 feet in diameter. In 1901, William C. Mills excavated the Adena Mound. At the time, Mills was the Curator of Archaeology of the Ohio Historical Society. Mills discovered a number of artifacts in the mound. He and his team of workers found copper bracelets and rings, slate gorgets, spear points made from Flint Ridge flint, and many bone and shell beads. The most remarkable artifact found in the Adena Mound was the Adena effigy pipe. It is a tubular smoking pipe carved in the shape of a man wearing a decorated loincloth and a feather bustle. The Adena pipe is made of catlinite or pipestone.
The Adena Mound is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
- CERHAS. EarthWorks, Virtual Explorations of the Ancient Ohio Valley. The Center for the Electronic Reconstruction of Historical and Archaeological Sites (CERHAS). Cincinnati, OH, 2006.
- Greber, N'omi "A Study of Continuity and Contrast Between Central Scioto Adena and Hopewell Sites." West Virginia Archeologist 43:1-26, 1991
- Lepper, Bradley T. Ohio Archaeology: An Illustrated Chronicle of Ohio's Ancient American Indian Cultures. Wilmington, Ohio, Orange Frazer Press, 2005.
- Mills, William C. "Excavations of the Adena Mound," Ohio Archaeological and Historical Publications, Volume 10, pp. 452-479, 1902.
- Pangea Productions. Searching for the Great Hopewell Road. N.p.: Pangea Productions, 1998.
- Woodward, Susan L., and Jerry N. McDonald. Indian Mounds of the Middle Ohio Valley: A Guide to Mounds and Earthworks of the Adena, Hopewell, Cole, and Fort Ancient People. Lincoln: The University of Nebraska Press, 2002. | 3.438738 |
by Jane Smith
Learning to speak a foreign language is very difficult. Not only do you have to understand what another person is saying, you have to think quickly enough to figure out how to respond. It can be frustrating to feel like you have a handle on a foreign language, only to try speaking it with someone from that background and come out on the other end completely turned around. What many people don't realize, though, is that one of the best ways to successfully speak a new language is to learn how to write it. Why? Basically, when it comes to a foreign language, if you can write it, you can say it.
In the simplest sense, writing practice is the ultimate way to really learn new vocabulary and practice verb construction. It's easy enough to memorize new nouns and verbs, but it's quite another animal to use them fluidly in speech. Practicing new words in writing is a perfect way to engrain them in your mind and remember how to use them again. You will also understand how to integrate them into full sentences.
Writing practice is also the best way to learn how to speak your mind in a new language. Most language courses handle daily conversation and academic writing and do a great job of preparing students for speaking to people of a completely different background. Unfortunately, they cannot prepare anyone for the reality of actually figuring out how to say what you want to say at a moment's notice, in a completely new language. Most beginners struggle with never feeling like they can completely convey their true thoughts, because they just don't have the words. That's why writing is so important. Writing long-form articles or essays in a foreign language is one of the only ways to practice making an argument or conveying a point of view.
Finally, what writing ultimately does for new language speakers is give them time to think and practice the language at the same time. Because there is no opportunity to sit and think about how to actually use a language when you have to speak it in conversation, writing helps you develop the ability to truly communicate. No matter what you would like to say, once you've taken the time to figure it out on your own, write it down and read it over, it will be much easier the next time when you want to make a point out loud. In fact, the more often you write, the more your brain will be able to memorize your unique communication style. After truly learning how to write in a foreign language, you will find your own, personal style of communication and sentence structure.
Instead of struggling with speaking until you find yourself more and more overwhelmed, try to combine learning to speak with learning to write. Not only will you find yourself understanding more of what others are saying, you will find that you're actually able to reply.
Jane Smith's informative blog posts can help you make sense of any personal history situation. Whether you are pursuing a tenant background check or pulling an employee's criminal record, feel free to email her at [email protected].
Hosted by Kualo | 3.009295 |
Through her research, Jean Chatzky has found that optimism is a key trait of financially secure people in her book, The Difference.
For the past few decades, academics have used the Life Orientation Test to measure optimism. It was developed by Michael F. Schier, department head and professor of psychology at Carnegie Mellon University, and Charles S. Carver, distinguished professor of psychology at the University of Miami. Frederick G. Crane, executive producer of entrepreneurship and innovation at the Northeaster University Collage of Business Administration, first shared the revised version with Jean.
Indicate the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statements below. Please be as honest and accurate as you can throughout. Try not to let your response to one statement influence your responses to other statements. There are no correct or incorrect answers. Answer according to your own feelings, rather than how you think most people would answer.
Published on March 09, 2009
Most Popular in Money | 3.0756 |
Fruit Fly Infestation
Fertilized fruit flies lay their eggs on damaged or overripe fruit and are most common in the spring and summer. (Read more about the fruit fly life cycle. They are brought into the home on fruit and vegetables. Many species of fruit flies are small enough to pass through standard screens. They might also be seen flying in the home.
Sanitary efforts may be taken to prevent an infestation. Refrigerate and limit access to any fruit or vegetables within your home. Vigorously clean all food preparation areas, including counters and tabletops.
If these measures are taken and a fruit fly infestation does not die out within two to three weeks, it is likely that they have found another source within which to lay their eggs. Make sure that trash cans are clean and fitted with airtight lids. Search for areas likely to harbor fruit flies, such as cupboards, pantries and other food storage areas. Observe drains that may be coated with sticky debris. Bacteria-eating rinses may be employed to clean soiled drains.
Schedule a free pest control inspection for prevention and treatment options. | 3.355474 |
Misconception: A feature of the Rosh Hashanah tashlich ritual is the throwing of bread or other food into a body of water, to be eaten by the fish and ducks.1
Fact: For the performance of tashlich, a custom which is symbolic of numerous things, it is customary to seek out a body of water that harbors fish and to shake out one’s pockets over the water. One should not, however, feed the fish (or ducks) on yom tov.
Background:2 Ideally, tashlich should take place at a flowing, natural body of water that contains fish and is located outside the city boundaries (MA 583:5; Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 129:21). At the water, one recites the final three verses from Michah (7:18-20) that are, in essence, a summary of the Thirteen Divine Attributes. Over the years, other prayers, such as those composed by the Chida, have been added.
The name of this ceremony is derived from the verse in Michah (7:19) which states, “and cast [tashlich] into the depths of the sea all of their sins.” Though it is clearly meant as a metaphor, Jews began the custom of literally “casting their sins” into the sea every Rosh Hashanah.
The earliest recorded source for tashlich is found in the writings of the Maharil, Rabbi Yaakov Moelin (Germany, 1365-1427). He notes that after the Rosh Hashanah meal people would go to lakes or rivers3 to “cast off” their sins. He further notes that this ritual is in commemoration of Akeidat Yitzchak, a main theme of the Rosh Hashanah liturgy. In Yalkut Shemoni (Vayera 99), the story is told that when Avraham and Yitzchak were on the way to perform the Akeidah, they were confronted by the Satan, who attempted to block their path by assuming the form of a river. Avraham would not be deterred and plunged into the river, which reached up to his neck. Avraham then recited Psalms 69:2: “Save me, O God, for water has come up to my soul.” In response, God dried up the “river” so that they could proceed. According to some, this episode occurred on Rosh Hashanah. Tashlich serves to recall Avraham’s sacrifice and to request that God grant the Jews forgiveness based on the patriarch’s merit and on our willingness to emulate him.
This custom was soon adopted by many Ashkenazic communities, albeit with variations. Tashlich is mentioned by the Rema (OC 583:2); since the Arizal also approved of the practice, a kabbalistic component was added, and it soon spread to Sephardic communities as well, although not to Yemen.
Over the years, different meanings have been ascribed to the practice. In addition to citing the Maharil’s explanation, the Rema in Darkei Moshe (OC 583) offers an explanation based on the Sefer Minhagim of Rabbi Tirna: the appearance of live fish represents the berachah that Bnei Yisrael should proliferate like fish, and that just as fish are immune to ayin hara, so too should the Jews be protected. Providing a psychological rationale, the Rema in Torat HaOlah (3:56) explains that when one goes to the river or sea and observes the majesty of God’s creation, he is struck by the glory of God as creator of the world. This will cause the person to regret any misdeeds, and God will thus forgive his sins, which will then be “thrown into the depths of the sea.”
Rabbi Mordechai Jaffe (known as the Levush; 1530-1612), a student of the Rema, notes yet another link between fish and Rosh Hashanah (Levush HaTechelet, no. 596). Fish can, at any moment, can get trapped in a net; the precariousness of their lives reminds us that a human being can similarly be abruptly ensnared in the net of death and judgment, as expressed in Unetaneh Tokef.
A central motif of the Rosh Hashanah liturgy is the crowning of God as King. It is one of the three special themes that comprise the Mussaf Amidah and it also has been associated with tashlich. In the first Book of Kings (1:33, 38), King David instructs that his son Shlomo be brought to the Gihon Spring to be coronated. From here the Talmud (Horiyot 12a) derives that all kings are anointed at a body of water. This is to symbolize that the new king’s reign should have continuity, just as a spring flows continually.4 After Shlomo’s anointing, Tzadok the Kohen blew a shofar (I Kings 1:34, 39). Similarly, on Rosh Hashanah we coronate God as King by a body of water and blow a shofar (see Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 129:21).5
Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Ehrenreich6 creatively connects the notion of zechut Avot, our prayers for mercy in the merit of our forefathers, to our prayers at a water source. He asks, why, if we are truly righteous, there is a need to invoke zechut Avot. If, on the other hand, we have drifted from the path of the Avot, we would hardly be deserving of their merit. He suggests that zechut Avot only help if we exhibit the trait of humility, which the Avot exemplified. By doing so, we demonstrate that we are indeed their descendents and that even if we’re not righteous, we are at least trying to emulate them. The Talmud notes that water is reminiscent of humility since it always flows to the lowest level; thus, the custom of reciting prayers at a water source is an attempt to relate our humility to that of the Avot.
Feeding the Fish
From the earliest days of tashlich, there was a practice of throwing bread to the fish, which was supposed to represent the casting away of our sins. Indeed, John Pfefferkorn (1469-1521) describes7 how the people would go to the water, shake the food from their garments, and while throwing it to the fish, say “we throw our sins to you [the fish].” However, this practice was looked upon disapprovingly by many rabbinic authorities. The Maharil objected to throwing food to the fish. Similarly, the Mateh Efraim writes that the water should have fish in it (because of the symbolisms mentioned earlier), but he criticizes the practice of feeding them (598:4-5). The Machatzit Hashekel (1738-1827; 583:5) notes that the “inferior” practice of throwing bread into the river is forbidden.
The Maharil, the first to discuss this, objected to the practice for two reasons: It involves both carrying outside of the eruv and feeding untrapped fish. Even though there is no prohibition against carrying needed items on yom tov (OC 495:1), because the fish are muktzah, the food is therefore not needed, and thus it is forbidden to carry it outside of the eruv.8 While one is not only permitted, but is, in fact, obligated, to feed his pets and farm animals on Shabbat and yom tov, the Talmud clearly prohibits feeding other animals on these days9 (Shabbat 155b). In clarifying the issue, the Talmud distinguishes between animals that are dependent on man for sustenance and those that are not, and between animals for which one has responsibility and those for which one does not. The Shulchan Aruch (OC 324:11-12) codifies the prohibition against feeding animals that are not one’s own, and the Mishnah Berurah (324:29) clarifies that even if the animals belong to you, if they can get food on their own (e.g., bees) it is forbidden to feed them.10 The Shulchan Aruch provides an additional reason as to why one should not feed animals on yom tov. He writes (OC 497:2) that it is prohibited to do so, lest one come to trap them.
While many condemn the practice of feeding the fish, the Rema and many other authorities do not mention it. From their silence on the matter, it is unclear if they were in favor of the practice, if they felt powerless to abolish it and therefore didn’t mention it or if they were simply unaware of it. No sources, however, explicitly justify the practice.
Certain leniencies, however, are mentioned in regard to feeding animals on Shabbat and may be relevant to tashlich. Firstly, the prohibition against feeding applies only to placing food directly in front of the animal, but placing it at a distance is permitted (Beir Heteiv 497:2; Mishnah Berurah 497:5; MA, OC 497:2). Secondly, feeding animals is only prohibited when there is a fear of trapping them, a fear that is essentially irrelevant with regard to tashlich.
It is hard to believe that such a widespread custom originated in the fifteenth century without an earlier basis. The Rashban (OC 210) thus suggests that tashlich is based on a Biblical precedent. He cites the anointing of King Solomon (mentioned earlier) as well as Ezra gathering the people at the “water gate,” the nearest gate to the water source, on Rosh Hashanah for a public reading of the Torah (Nechemiah 8:1).
This idea has been expanded into the theory11 that tashlich actually existed in modified forms in ancient times. Philo (early first century) describes a prayer recited at the seashore on Hoshanah Rabbah, another solemn day of judgment; Tertullian (late second century) describes a similar ceremony that took place on Yom Kippur.12 There is evidence of similar practices that took place on Pesach.13 Jacob Lauterbach explains that there was an early belief, traceable all the way back to Bereishit 1:2 (“God’s spirit hovered over the surface of the water”), that God can be found near sources of water. Josephus (Antiquities 14:10, 23) even records that there was a custom to build shuls at the seaside.
Rashi (Shabbat 81b, s.v. hai parpisa) reports a custom that may also be viewed as a precursor to tashlich (and also resembles kaparot). He describes, in the name of the Geonim, that two or three weeks before Rosh Hashanah the Jews would make baskets from palm leaves and fill them with dirt. Then, each person would plant beans in his basket.14 Erev Rosh Hashanah he would swing the basket over his head seven times, declare it to be in place of himself, and then toss the basket into the river.
Shaking Out One’s Garments
While the feeding of fish was widely condemned, the symbolic shaking of the corner of one’s garment over the river is mentioned approvingly by rabbinic authorities. However, the Kitzur Shnei Luchot Habrit (Rabbi Yechiel Michal Epstein Ashkenazi, who lived in the second half of the seventeenth century; see p. 279 in 5758 ed.) objected to this practice. Rashban (OC 210) argues that the practice is part of an ancient tradition, dating back to the prophets, of symbolically enacting an obligation or request. Rashban writes that it is thus common practice to eat symbolic foods on Rosh Hashanah (based on Horiyot 12a), such as fatty meat and sweet foods. This custom originated with Nechemiah, who told the people to eat such foods on Rosh Hashanah (the custom was late codified by the Rema, OC 583:1 and Ben Ish Chai, Netzavim 5). Similarly, Rashban explains that the act of shaking out one’s garments or pockets is to symbolize God’s shaking “those who do not fulfill the Torah.” The Rashban further notes that the practice of throwing something into the water is a symbolic enactment of the central verse of the tashlich ceremony—“tashlich bemetzulot hayam, and cast into the depths of the sea all of their sins.” He does not state whether or not the item should be food. The Mateh Efraim (598:4) and Kitzur Shulchan Aruch (129:21) both explain that the shaking out of the pockets is a symbolic act of ridding oneself of sins.15
Tashlich on Shabbat
Possibly because of the concern of carrying food to the water, the Kitzur Shnei Luchot Habrit (ibid.) instituted a radical change in the performance of tashlich: when the first day of Rosh Hashanah falls on Shabbat, tashlich is observed on the following day to avoid the possibility of violating Shabbat. This change was accepted by some communities, to the extent that if the first day of Rosh Hashanah was on Shabbat, sometimes tashlich was cancelled altogether. Others saw no reason to adopt this change. Rabbi Yaakov Reischer (d. 1733; Shvut Yaakov 3:42) was asked in 1725, a year in which Rosh Hashanah fell on Shabbat, when to perform tashlich; he maintained that there was no reason to postpone it. Rabbi Reischer quotes the Maharil, who explicitly states that one should perform tashlich on Shabbat. Rabbi Reischer then notes that the Kitzur Shnei Luchot Habrit, which had been recently published, includes a directive not to perform tashlich on Shabbat without providing a source or a reason for the ruling. There is no reason, Rabbi Reischer concludes, to accept everything written in every new book, and therefore tashlich can be performed on Shabbat.
Rema does not mention the issue of performing tashlich on Shabbat at all, while the Mishnah Berurah (583:8) states that in certain places, tashlich is postponed when Rosh Hashanah falls on Shabbat. He suggests that this might be because of the concern of carrying machzorim.
The Mateh Efraim (598:4), who was from Brody, Ukraine, states that one should recite tashlich on Shabbat, while the Elef Hamagen, who was from Warsaw, says that his community’s custom was not to (see his work by the same name, 598:11). The Ben Ish Chai (Netzavim 5) rules that it should be recited on the first day of Rosh Hashana even if that day happens to be Shabbat. At least one authority suggests that because tashlich historically consisted of only a few verses, there was less of a concern about carrying a machzor (Yabia Omer 4, OC 47).16 As more verses were added over the years and people started bringing machzorim along, the concern about Shabbat desecration arose, resulting into today’s custom of delaying tashlich when Rosh Hashanah falls on Shabbat.
It is interesting to note that there were those who did not practice tashlich at all. The Gra reportedly did not perform tashlich, nor did his star pupil Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin.17 The Chayei Adam fails to record the custom. From the Aruch Hashulchan (OC 583:4) it seems that tashlich was far from a universal custom; furthermore, the Aruch Hashulchan has an ancillary problem with the custom. He advises women not go to tashlich so as not to create a mixed scene. If they do go, he suggests the men should stay home.18 Evidently, the custom was not very important to him.19
In the final analysis, God doesn’t desire only the symbolic act of tashlich or just the davening and fasting on Yom Kippur. He wants true repentance, as found in the words of Yonah (3:10) used by the town elder on public fast days (Ta’anit 2:1): “And God saw their deeds that they had repented from their evil ways, and the Lord relented of the evil that He had spoken to do to them, and He did not do it.”
Rabbi Dr. Zivotofsky is on the faculty of the Brain Science Program at Bar-Ilan University in Israel.
1. Sephardim apparently do not throw bread into the water, and thus this misconception does not apply to them, although the rest of the discussion does.
2. An exhaustive collection of the laws, customs and explanations for tashlich can be found in Sefer Pnei Hamayim by Rabbi Shmuel Hakohen Schwartz of Satu-Mare, Romania, published in 5699 (1939). See also Jacob Z. Lauterbach, “Tashlik: A Study in Jewish Ceremonies,” HUCA 11 (1936): 207-340, a 134-page tour de force on the history of this practice.
3. It is interesting to note that in Europe, the Jews lived in areas that had many rivers and streams, while in Israel, especially Jerusalem, there is a dearth of such natural water sources. The Kaf HaChaim (583:30), who calls tashlich an “Ashkenazic custom,” notes that the early-twentieth-century custom of Jerusalem’s Beit El kabbalist yeshivah was to say it near a well, even if it was totally dry.
4. The Talmud similarly states that Rav Mesharshiya advised his son to study at a place near a river because “just as water flows continually, so too should his studies flow continually.”
5. Others find a textual basis for tashlich in the story in I Samuel 7:5, where water was symbolically poured out.
6. In his approbation to Sefer Pnei Hamayim.
7. Cited in Lauterbach, p. 296.
8. The key word here is “needed” (see Rema, OC 518:1). Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch (Teshuvot Vehanhagot 1:346) advises saying tashlich early in the day because carrying a machzor right before the end of yom tov cannot be justified. He suggests it be said right after the meal, or at least before Minchah. And because many say it after Minchah, he makes the recital of Minchah on Rosh Hashanah earlier than usual in his shul. He further questions the permissibility of carrying for the sake of tashlich, a mere custom that is not even accepted by all authorities (Moadim u’Zemanim 1:34, note A).
9. This prohibition is also relevant to the custom of placing bread for the birds on Shabbat Shirah. For reasons behind this custom, see Aruch Hashulchan OC 324:3 and She’arim HaMetzuyanim BeHalachah 87:8. Among those who criticized this practice were the Magen Avraham (324:7); Rabbi Yaakov Emden (Siddur, Sha’ar Hagai, no. 7, p. 371 in 5664 ed.; who called the practice “foolish and prohibited”); Shulchan Aruch Harav (OC 324:8); Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 87:18; Chazon Ish (Orchat Rabbeinu, Shabbat 201, vol. 1, p. 152); Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky (Shoneh Halachot 324:12); and the Mishnah Berurah 324:31. Shemirat Shabbat Kehilchatah (27:21) is also against it, but offers a way to avoid the problem. The author suggests that one may shake out a tablecloth outdoors (in a place with an eruv), even if doing so will allow the birds to get the crumbs. However, the Maharsham (Da’at Torah 324); Aruch Hashulchan (324:3) and She’arim HaMetzuyanim BeHalachah (87:8) justify the practice of feeding the birds. Tzitz Eliezer (14:28) notes that placing food for birds on Shabbat Shirah is an old Yerushalmi custom practiced by distinguished individuals and should not be challenged. Note that despite all those who defend the Shabbat Shirah practice, no one defends feeding the fish during tashlich.
10. Details regarding feeding animals on Shabbat and yom tov can be found in Shemirat Shabbat Kehilchatah 27:21-23.
11. By Lauterbach.
12. Ibid., pp. 230-237, 239.
13. Ibid., p. 320.
14. This custom, using wheat in lieu of legumes, was actually practiced by a segment of Egyptian Jewry until just several decades ago.
15. Eliyahu Rabba (596:3, cited in Ta’amei Haminhagim) gives a kabbalistic reason for the shaking. He says it is to shake off the kelipot that adhere to us because of our sins.
16. See Yalkut Yosef, vol. 5 (Moadim, Hanhagot Yom R”H: 12, p. 34) for a summary of Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef’s opinion as to when to say it on Shabbat, and Yabia Omer (ibid) for a complete survey of the sources on the subject. Kaf HaChaim 583:31 brings sources on both sides of the issue and then says that the custom in Jerusalem is to say it on Shabbat.
17. Ma’aseh Rav 209 and note from Tosefet Ma’aseh Rav, 202:60. Many who generally follow the customs of the Gra nevertheless do perform tashlich (Moshe Harari, Mikra’ei Kodesh, Hilchot R”H, chap. 14, end of note 4).
18. Similar sentiments are found in Elef Hamagen (583:7).
19. I found no sources explicitly against tashlich, just those that ignore it. | 3.008761 |
Searching for Undiscovered Particles Around Black HolesCategory: Science & Technology
Posted: June 22, 2012 11:03AM
Discovering new particles can be very difficult because of their small size and smaller lifespan. Take neutrinos for example; these particles are so small they will whiz through matter without ever interacting with it but also have such a short lifespan that if it were not for relativity, we would be unable to detect those made by the Sun. In our massive accelerators it is even more difficult though as we sometimes do not find a particle by detecting it but by detecting what it decays into. Now researchers at the Vienna University of Technology are looking to find one kind of particle hanging around black holes using gravitational waves.
Called axions, these proposed particles have extremely low mass and have yet to be detected. What the researchers have proposed is that we can use their low mass, which translates to low energy as well, to find them around black holes. Those massive structures have so much energy in and around them that some of it can easily transform into axions. These particles would then be orbiting the black hole in a similar way to how electrons orbit a nucleus, but with on major difference. Electrons are fermions while axions should be bosons.
A property of all fermions is that they obey the Pauli Exclusion Principle which forbids two fermions to have the same quantum state at the same time. This is why electron orbitals have certain capacities. Bosons, which include photons, do not obey this principle and can coexist in the same place. This means it would be possible for a cloud of axions to form and orbit a black hole. This cloud may not be stable though and eventually it will collapse. This sudden event would vibrate spacetime in such a way as to make gravitational waves that we can detect.
According to General Relativity, spacetime can be distorted by gravity. You can think of it as a sheet partially stretched out. If you drag your finger along the sheet, you cause it to stretch out more where your finger is and the wrinkles that stretching causes are gravitational waves. Researchers have built massive facilities to detect these distortions, but they are not accurate enough to discern a gravitational wave from a normal vibration. Hopefully that accuracy can be achieved by 2016, but until then, the knowledge of axions and particles like it will have to wait. | 3.499193 |
Q. I've decided to let my kids have cell phones, but I'm serious about making sure they use them not only responsibly, but also politely. What are the cell phone use ground rules I should be teaching them?
A. Before handing cell phones over to your children, ask them what rules of etiquette they believe should apply to cell phone use. Talk to them about rules for public situations and rules for social and family settings. Make your own list of rules.
To begin your discussion, use the following list regarding public places:
- Not in libraries, movies, elevators, museums, cemeteries, theaters, dentist or doctor waiting rooms, places of worship, auditoriums, hospital emergency rooms, or public transportation.
- Never during meetings or in restaurants.
- No annoying ring tones.
- Never when shopping, banking, waiting in line, or when conducting other personal business.
- Never when driving.
- Never talking when less than 10 feet from others present.
Regarding social or family situations, discuss with your kids:
- When should an incoming call take priority over the situation at hand?
- What if someone taking a call is just trying to impress others?
- What would happen if everyone had unbridled use of their cell phones -- think of the chaos during dinner, birthday parties, holiday celebrations, or when watching a movie together.
- Would it be okay to let incoming calls interrupt conversations regarding values, discipline, or when reviewing the family calendar?
To Answer or Not to Answer
It's important to let your children know that when a person steps out of a social or familial situation to use a mobile phone, they keep themselves from experiencing the moment; cell phones can become a constant pending (and sometimes realized) distraction. With voice messaging, there's no need to take every call or even to check to see who's calling.
You'll need to teach your children to make a call by excusing himself or herself. When anticipating an important call, teach them to warn the people they're with that an important call will be coming in and, therefore, you'll need to step away to receive it.
Together develop cell phone protocol for inside your home. You might want to establish "quiet zones" and "phone-free" areas and times.
Are You Chatting in Front of the Kids?
Of course, you'll need to model appropriate mobile phone use; quality time with your kids does not count if you're on the phone. It's not okay to take your kids to the park or on a walk to spend your time yakking on the phone. One of the best times to talk with children (before they acquire their own licenses) is when driving in the car. If you're on your cell phone, how can you carry on a conversation with your child sitting next to you?
Technological changes lead to social change, but there's always a lag. While members of society are busy using cell phones, manners for doing so need to reflect this increased use. Most important, teach your child that having loud cell phone conversations in public or in your own home is simply rude. The convenience of cell phones has led many to become lazy and to lose awareness of themselves, others, and their surroundings: Try to avoid this phenomenon with your kids.
Jan Faull, MEd, is a veteran parent educator and the author of four parenting books, including Darn Good Advice -- Baby and Darn Good Advice -- Parenting. She writes a biweekly parenting advice column for this site and a weekly parenting advice column in the Seattle Times. Jan Faull is the mother of three grown children and lives in the Seattle area.
Originally published on HealthyKids.com, August 2006.
The information on this Web site is designed for educational purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for informed medical advice or care. You should not use this information to diagnose or treat any health problems or illnesses without consulting your pediatrician or family doctor. Please consult a doctor with any questions or concerns you might have regarding your or your child's condition. | 3.313761 |
Welcome to the 2012-2013 school year!
We are ready for blast off into the outer reaches of space.
New life forms will be studied, discussed and written about.
Fasten your seat belts. The rocket boosters are starting to ignite!
This first grading period, we will be focusing on the following TEKS:
Fig.19F Making Connections/Schema (All Genres)
Fig.19A Purpose for Reading (All genres)
Fig.19C Monitor Comprehension “Fix-Up Strategies” (All Genres)
6.2B Vocabulary Development/Context Clues and Multiple Meanings (All Genres)
6.2E Vocabulary Development/Dictionary, Glossary, Thesaurus
6.6A Plot (Fiction)
6.6B Characterization (Literary Text, Fiction)
6.6C Point of View (Fiction)
Fig. 19E Summary (Fiction)
6.3A Theme (Fiction)
6.3B Stylistic Elements (Literary Text, Traditional and Classical Literature)
6.3C Setting (Literary Text, Historical and Cultural)
Six Traits Focus: Ideas
6.16 Personal Narrative and Journal Writing
6.15 Imaginative Story
Ai Focus, Plot, Point of View
Aii Believable Setting
6.14A-E Writing Process (On-going all year)
A) Plan a First Draft
B) Develop Drafts
C) Revise Drafts
D) Edit Drafts
E) Revise Final Draft and Publish
6.19 Ai Verbs
6.19 Aii Nouns
6.19 Aiii Adjectives
6.19 Aiv Adverbs
6.19Av Prepositions and Prepositional Phrases
Social Studies (Homeroom only):
Will include Constitution Day & Celebrate Freedom Week
Comparisons of selected world societies to the United States are made with each content unit of study.
Apply units in this period to North America including the United States and Canada.
Ms. Parsons' Website
3121 Manvel Road | 3.09178 |
Native American Sites in the City of Philadelphia
Elusive but not Gone
The following program provides information about the rare discoveries of Native American archaeological sites within the City of Philadelphia. There are currently only about a dozen such sites documented within the boundaries of Philadelphia, with the majority located in the peripheral, less disturbed parts of the city. Only four of these known sites have been identified to date within the core downtown parts of center city.
Native sites in Philadelphia and the artifacts they contain represent one of the primary ways for learning about Native American cultural heritage and lifeways before the founding of our city. This program presents an overview of the Native American encampments found within the central, most heavily developed parts of the city as a way of sharing knowledge about these discoveries, and to show how these most fragile of sites have managed to survive in forgotten corners beneath our modern streets.
- The Original Landscape
- The Altered Landscape
- The Sites
- Federal Detention Center and National Constitution Center Sites
- Blockley Almshouse Site
- Old Original Bookbinders Site
- Learn More
Lenape warriors and village
"Where we stand, perchance to pause, rest the ashes of a Chief, or of his family; and where we have chosen our sites for our habitations, may have been the selected spots on which were hutted the now departed lineage of many generations. On yon path-way, seen in the distant view, climbing the remote hills, may have been the very path first tracked, from time immemorial, by the roving Indians themselves.
"Nay, it is very possible, that on the very site of Coaquanock, by the margin of the Dock Creek, on which their wigwams clustered and their canoes were sheltered, — on the very spot where Henry, Hancock and Adams since inspired the delegates of the colonies ... with nerve and sinew for the toils of war, — there may have been lighted the council fires of wary Sachems, and there may have pealed the rude eloquence of Tamanend himself, — and of the Shingas, Tadeuscunds and Glikicans of their primitive and undebauched age!"
–John F. Watson, Annals of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania in the Olden Time (1857), Vol 1: 41 | 3.457286 |
Human skin is primed for touch — even minuscule pressure from a fly is enough to make you flinch. This ability does not yet extend to artificial limbs, however, and robots are a long way from having sensitive tactile abilities.
Now two California research teams have announced pressure-sensitive artificial skin made of tiny circuits, both of which could lead to better artificial limbs and helper robots.
One artificial skin, made by researchers at Stanford University, is 1,000 times more sensitive than human skin and is based on organic transistors. It sandwiches an elastic rubber layer between two parallel electrodes, and can detect the slightest touch — even the ephemeral sensation of an alighting butterfly.
It works because it acts as a spring, according to Stanford’s news service. The rubber stores an electrical charge, and when it is compressed, the amount of charge is changed. The electrodes sense this change and then transmit how much pressure the skin is “feeling.”
The second artificial skin, made by researchers at the University of California-Berkeley, works in a similar manner although it is made of inorganic nanowire circuits.To build the “e-skin,” the researchers printed nanowire hairs onto an 18-by-19 pixel square matrix measuring about 2.7 inches square. The nanowire transistors were then connected to a layer of conductive rubber, which changes its electrical resistance when compressed. The researchers say their fabrication process can potentially be scaled up to larger materials.
It can detect pressure from 0 to 15 kilopascals, which is the range of force required from typing to holding something in your hand. This range could help robots adapt to the amount of force required to grasp a range of objects — from fragile eggs to a heavy frying pan, the Berkeley researchers say.
Both types of artificial skin can register pressure in a tenth of a second over a large range, as the BBC notes. The numbers rival the response of human skin, meaning artificial limbs and flapjack-flipping robots will be a lot more sensitive in the future.
Five amazing, clean technologies that will set us free, in this month's energy-focused issue. Also: how to build a better bomb detector, the robotic toys that are raising your children, a human catapult, the world's smallest arcade, and much more. | 3.785497 |
In zoology, one of two principal cnidarian body forms and, sometimes, an individual in a bryozoan colony. The cnidarian polyp body is a hollow cylindrical structure. The lower end attaches to another body or surface. The upper, or free, end is directed upward and has a mouth surrounded by extensible tentacles that bear stinging structures called nematocysts. The tentacles capture prey, which is then drawn into the mouth. The polyp may be solitary (see sea anemone) or colonial (see coral). The body wall consists of three dermal layers. The other cnidarian body form is the medusa.
Learn more about polyp with a free trial on Britannica.com.
In zoology, a polyp is one of two forms of individuals found in many species of cnidarians. The two are the polyp or hydroid and the medusa. Polyps are approximately cylindrical, elongated on the axis of the body. The aboral end is attached either to the substrate by means of a disc-like holdfast if the polyp is solitary, or is connected to other polyps, either directly or indirectly, if the polyp is part of a colony. The oral end bears the mouth, and is surrounded by a circlet of tentacles.
The sac-like body built up in this way is attached usually to some firm object by its blind end, and bears at the upper end the mouth which is surrounded by a circle of tentacles which resemble glove fingers. The tentacles are organs which serve both for the tactile sense and for the capture of food. By means of the stinging nettle-cells or nematocysts with which the tentacles are thickly covered, living organisms of various kinds are firmly held and at the same time paralysed or killed, and by means of longitudinal muscular fibrils formed from the cells of the ectoderm the tentacles are contracted and convey the food to the mouth. By means of circularly disposed muscular fibrils formed from the endoderm the tentacles can be protracted or thrust out after contraction. By muscle fibres belonging to the same two systems, the whole body may be retracted or protruded.
We can distinguish therefore in the body of a polyp the column, circular or oval in section, forming the trunk, resting on a base or foot and surmounted by the crown of tentacles, which enclose an area termed the peristome, in the centre of which again is the mouth. As a rule there is no other opening to the body except the mouth, but in some cases excretory pores are known to occur in the foot, and pores may occur at the tips of the tentacles. Thus it is seen that a polyp is an animal of very simple structure, a living fossil that has not changed significantly for about half a billion years (per generally accepted dating of Cambrian sedimentary rock).
The external form of the polyp varies greatly in different cases. The column may be long and slender, or may be so short in the vertical direction that the body becomes disk-like. The tentacles may number many hundreds or may be very few, in rare cases only one or two. They may be long and filamentous, or short and reduced to mere knobs or warts. They may be simple and unbranched, or they may be feathery in pattern. The mouth may be level with the surface of the peristome, or may be projecting and trumpet-shaped. As regards internal structure, polyps exhibit two well-marked types of organization, each characteristic of one of the two classes, Hydrozoa and Anthozoa.
In the class Hydrozoa, the polyps are indeed often very simple, like the common little freshwater species of the genus Hydra. Anthozoan polyps, including the corals and sea anemones, are much more complex due to the development of a tubular stomodaeum leading inward from the mouth and a series of radial partitions called mesenteries. Many of the mesenteries project into the enteric cavity but some extend from the body wall to the central stomodaeum. | 3.872336 |
The second installment of The New Yorker magazine's climate series has more monitory news. Here are a few segments:
…since our species evolved, average temperatures have never been much more than two or three degrees higher than they are right now. [Predictions cited in the article call for increases of 4.9 to 7.7 degrees.]One of the scientists quoted models the effects of global warming on rainfall patterns. The entire continental United States ends up in varying degrees of drought and severe drought as a result of the warming.
...A possible consequence of even a four- or five-degree temperature rise--on the low end of projections for doubled [concentrations of carbon dioxide]--is that the world will enter a completely new climate regime, one with which modern humans have no prior experience.
...It is believed that the last time carbon dioxide levels were in this range was three and a half million years ago, during what is known as the mid-Pliocene warm period, and they likely have not been much above it for tens of millions of years.
Much of the article discusses emerging science in paleoclimatology (the study of the climate of the past) which tells us that civilization after civilization has fallen at least, in part, due to rapid and severe climate change.
(Comments are open to all. See the list of environmental blogs on my sidebar.) | 3.022637 |
The answer is basically "not a chance". No Earthbound telescope can see the flag on the Moon. Why not? For openers, the Earth's atmosphere is never steady enough to allow resolution below about one arc second for most locations. Beyond that, the telescope required to "see" the flag would need to be absolutely huge! Here is some basic analysis to show what would be needed:
Method 1 will use simple proportions to show what would be needed. The Moon's diameter is approximately 2160 miles. The Moon is nominally about 239,000 miles from Earth, and at this distance it subtends a diameter of about 30 arc minutes in the sky as seen from Earth. There are 60 arc seconds per arc minute, so the Moon is about 1800 arc seconds across. Let's figure out how many arc seconds represent one mile. The calculation is straightforward: if 1800 seconds = 2160 miles, then 1 mile = .83 arc seconds (basically just divide 1800 by 2160).
So, now we know that 1 mile is about .83 arc seconds. How big is the flag? I do not know for sure but let's assume it is 3 feet long on the long side. How many arc seconds is this? We know that 1 mile = .83 arc seconds; the flag is 3/5280 miles wide (or about 5.682e-4 miles). To find out the arc seconds, we simply multiply this value by .83 to get 4.716e-4 arc seconds. A long time ago someone named Dawes determined that the resolution of an optical telescope is basically 4.56 divided by the telescope's diameter (in inches). So, from that we can rearrange the equation to say that the diameter of the telescope needed (in inches) is 4.56 divided by the resolution required (arc seconds). Dividing 4.56 by4.716e-4 comes out to be 9669 inches. Converting this to feet yields about 805 FEET! And this would be the required telescope diameter to JUST BARELY see the flag at all! And, it would only be just visible as a small dot, it would not "look" like a flag at all.
Let's say we really want to see the flag and have it look like a flag. We'll have to make some assumptions again. Let's assume that the stripes on the flag are 1.5 inches wide and we want to just be able to see them. Using the same method as above we can come up with an answer. In this case we need to be able to see something that is 1.5/12/5280 miles wide, or 2.367e-5 miles. We multiply this by .83 to get the resolution (1.965e-5). Dividing 4.56 by this number yields 232065 inches, or about 19388 FEET! This value is also about 3.6 miles. Clearly it is not possible to build an optical telescope of this size. So, basically the Flag on the Moon remains "invisible" to us here on Earth.
Method 2 will use trigonometry to show the same basic result as above. If you do not have a background in basic trigonometry then this method may seem intimidating as we do show some basic math. As we previously mentioned, the Dawes
Limit for resolution of an optical telescope is as follows:
Below we examples of the formula for two different size telescopes:
In order to figure out what size scope we need to see the flag on the Moon we have to know how big the flag actually is. For purposes of this analysis we will assume that the flag is 3 feet wide. The diagram below shows some
information regarding the ratios of the dimensions of the American Flag:
We decided on using a flag width (dimension B in the diagram) of 3 feet (36 inches). Therefore A = 36/1.9 = 18.95 inches. Each stripe on the flag is 1/13th of A, so for our flag one stripe is 18.95/13 = 1.457 inches. we will round this up to 1.5 inches for purposes of our example.
OK, now we have established that the flag stripe is 1.5 inches wide, so what size telescope do we need to see this? First we need figure out how many arc seconds the width of a flag stripe represents at the distance of the Moon.
Before we do that, let's take a look at the basics of the Earth-Moon geometry:
The above diagram shows that the Moon subtends an angle of a little more than half a degree. So how about the flag? Obviously it will subtend a much smaller angle. The following diagram shows the calculations for figuring
how many arc seconds one stripe of the American Flag subtends at the distance of the Moon:
As powerful as Hubble is (above the limits of the Earth's atmosphere), it has no chance of seeing the Flag on the Moon. What could it see? Well, Hubble has a mirror that is 94.5 inches in diameter. That gives it a resolution of 4.56/94.5 or about 0.0483 arc seconds. If one does the math, this translates to a resolution of about 295 feet at the distance of the Moon. So, Hubble could just detect an object that was 295 feet across on the Moon. To see any detail on an object, it would have to be somewhat larger. To put this in perspective, if a typical pro football stadium was located on the Moon Hubble could make out some basic details (the field could just barely be made out as a dot in the center of a very small oval).
Hubble is in orbit at a height of about 375 miles up. If we work the math, it can be shown that Hubble could just make out something that is 5.56 inches wide on Earth. Basically Hubble could just make out the size and shape of a car license plate (assuming it was laying flat on the ground). However, reading the numbers would be out of the question!
People who believe that the Moon landings were a hoax often raise the question "Why can't we see the flag on the Moon [from Earth] with our most powerful telescopes?". The analysis provided on this page shows that even Hubble not anywhere near powerful enough to see something the size of a flag (about 3 feet wide) when it is at the distance of the Moon. The laws of optics dictate that even Hubble's 94.5 inch mirror can never see such a small object at that distance. Even much larger Earth bound telescopes are far away from being capable of seeing the Flag! If you are someone who does believe that the Moon landings were staged, I most probably cannot convince you otherwise. Regardless of that, the analysis here clearly shows that seeing the flag on the Moon from Earth is not possible with any technology we have today.
Check out this story: LRO Sees Apollo Landing Sites. The reason this spacecract can see the landers is that it is MUCH closer to the Moon.
As of today, spotting the Flag on the Moon (from Earth using a telescope) remains impossible. The only method that could be used to (in theory) see something as small as the Flag on the Moon would be to use two optical telescopes set
(for example) 1000 miles apart. This would easily provide the required resolution, the huge problem however is combining the images from both telescopes in such a way to realize the resolution. As far as I know right now that
technology is not available. Even if the technology was available, the unsteadiness of the Earth's atmosphere would likely render the method useless.
Use your browser's "back" button, or use links below if you arrived here via some other path:
This page is part of the site Amateur Astronomer's Notebook.
E-mail to Joe Roberts
Images, graphics and HTML text © Copyright 2007-2009 by Joe Roberts. Please request permission to use photos for purposes other than "personal use". | 3.403957 |
The upper respiratory tract (upper airway) consists of the nose, mouth, sinuses, and throat. The lower respiratory tract consists of the trachea, bronchial tubes, and the structures inside the lungs.
Last Revised: June 13, 2011
Author: Healthwise Staff
Medical Review: E. Gregory Thompson, MD - Internal Medicine & W. David Colby IV, MSc, MD, FRCPC - Infectious Disease
To learn more visit Healthwise.org
© 1995-2012 Healthwise, Incorporated. Healthwise, Healthwise for every health decision, and the Healthwise logo are trademarks of Healthwise, Incorporated. | 3.098009 |
The answer, of course, is "as little as possible."
Fortunately, with the data provided in today's strip, readers need only assume the size and luminousity of the star to work things out for themselves. Unfortunately, they may also have enough motivation to do this math, since the author is going to offer sketches to the first five answers deemed correct by his panel of judges.
Assume that the star is identical to Sol - it weighs 1.9 x1030 kilograms, and puts out 3.8 x1026 joules/sec. At the current rate of deceleration, the sail-ship will approach to within 90 million miles of the star in exactly eight months. The sail is 102,000 kilometers in diameter, and only an insignificant portion of that surface is in shadow. When it crosses the center of the system (assume a mercurially-close passage), the sail-ship will have exceeded stellar escape velocity by a factor of three.
Given this information, you ought to be able to determine the current velocity and mass of the sail-ship, as well as its current distance from the star.
You also ought to be able to resist the temptation to spend this much time on math. After all, the author did, and you're certainly a better person than he is, right? | 3.381792 |
Pearl Harbor Web Links
- Grades: 3–5, 6–8
This page includes links outside of Scholastic.com
World War II Timeline Starting Page
Take a year-by-year, month-by-month look at World War II events.
The Presidents of the United States of America
Biographies of each President, including fun facts and text of inaugural addresses.
Imperial Japanese Navy Page
Pictures and information on Japanese warships, including detailed information about the officers who led them in combat.
Pearl Harbor Remembered
Remember Pearl Harbor from memorials, photographs, graphics, and personal accounts.
"Pearl Harbor": Based on a True Story
Using primary sources, this Web site contains a rich collection of firsthand U.S. government records documenting the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
The Perry-Castaneda Library Map Collection
Find current and historical maps of most places in the world.
An On-line History of the United States: The Age of Imperialism
This on-line history covers the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when the U.S. was extending its political and economic influence around the globe.
USS Arizona - "That Terrible Day"
Listen to U.S.S. Arizona's bell while you learn all about this famous battleship that served with pride and distinction in the U.S. Navy from 1916 until 1941.
Pearl Harbor Overview Map
A map of Pearl Harbor as it looked on December 7, 1941.
The Battle of Midway
Follow the chronology of events before and during Midway. | 3.556443 |
From Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research
Stable power supply thanks to wind turbines Wind turbines can help keep the voltage in the electricity network at a constant level. The power electronics in the turbines can effectively correct peaks and dips in the mains voltage. This is the conclusion reached by NWO-funded researchers.
Modern wind turbines are a good means of coping with fluctuations in the mains voltage. Such fluctuations occur when the demand for energy increases suddenly (for example when a factory turns on heavy machinery) or the supply decreases (for example if a nearby power station suddenly goes off line).
The electrical engineers at Delft University of Technology base their conclusion on a model which they developed to study fluctuations in the electricity network on a time scale running from seconds to minutes. At the moment, the task of maintaining the stability of the mains voltage is left entirely to power stations. In future, sustainable energy will become more important. Wind turbines and other sustainable energy sources will then need to help stabilise the mains voltage.
A large number of modern wind turbines are equipped with a power electronics converter that ensures that they produce the same voltage at all times, regardless of the rotor speed. Minor alterations to the power electronics and the controller can also ensure that the mains voltage is adjusted. The electronic system makes clever use of the properties of alternating current. In alternating current, the voltage crosses zero a hundred times a second. By sending electricity into the network at that moment, the power electronics can boost the voltage. Strangely enough, this does not need to cost much energy. ‘Reactive power compensation’, to give it its proper technical name, even works when there is no wind and the rotor blades are not rotating. In that case, the power electronics can extract the necessary energy from the network, precisely between two zero-axis crossings.
Not all types of wind turbine can help stabilise the mains voltage. One type is not equipped with the power electronics converter which is necessary. The principle behind this type of turbine is that the rotational speed of the rotor is constant and independent of the wind speed.
The NWO research team intend extending their model of fluctuations in the electricity network so as to have it model the influence of other sustainable energy sources, such as solar cells. The energy sector will be able to use the model to calculate what the maximum contribution of various sustainable energy sources can be without endangering the stability of the power supply. The model can also indicate what additional technology is necessary to ensure stability. | 3.446067 |
Nov. 28, 2008 Researchers at Linköping University in Sweden have succeeded in creating electrical wires consisting of protein fibers encased in plastic. The 10 nanometer thin fibers are self-organizing and compatible with biological systems.
"For the first time, we have created proteins that conduct current extremely well but can also function as semiconductors in transistors, for example," says Mahiar Hamedi, who developed the technique together with Anna Herland and associates at the Division for Biomolecular and Organic Electronics. The technology is described in his doctoral dissertation.
Last year Mahiar Hamedi made headlines with his invention of conductive textile fibers, which can be used to produce electronic cloth. Now he has scaled down that technology by a factor of about a thousand.
These nano fibers are produced in ordinary test tubes. One component is amyloid fibers, long, stable protein fibers that occur naturally in living organisms and can cause, among other things, nerve disorders in humans and animals. The other component is a conjugated polymer (PEDOT-S), a plastic material that conducts current. When the two are mixed in water, the plastic attaches to the fibers and forms a conductive shell that is merely a handful of atoms thick.
"The beauty of the self-assembly process is the ease under which PEDOT-S binds onto the amyloid fibrils directly in water without the need of any heat, and in a matter of a few minutes" Hamedi writes in his dissertation.
By providing the fibers with charged outgrowths, it is possible to get the molecules themselves to form desired structures. This can be an inexpensive and effective way to create extremely tiny three-dimensional electronic circuits.
Using their nano fibers as a channeling material, Mahiar Hamedi and his associates have constructed fully functional electrochemical transistors that work in the area of 0-0.5 volts.
The dissertation also describes a method for creating nano patterns in conductive plastic. As organic material is beginning to be used in more and more advanced electronic circuits, there is a need to fit a huge number of components in a tiny area. The solution is to form the plastic in a mold with structures that are smaller than the wavelength of visible light - and therefore invisible!
The dissertation Organic electronics on micro and nano fibers - from e-textiles to biomolecular nanoelectronics was publicly defended November 21, 2008. External examiner was George Malliaras, Cornell University, USA.
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HUANCAVELICA, Peru – Sonia Salazar’s house, like most in her neighborhood, is built of adobe bricks made from mud that soaked up centuries of emissions from mercury smelters.
Now scientists are trying to determine whether those houses – in the shadow of a hill that once held the hemisphere’s largest mercury mine – pose a health hazard to their inhabitants.
In the 16th and 17th centuries, mercury furnaces blasted day and night around this town high in the Andes Mountains. Eventually the town expanded over smelter sites and waste piles.
The researchers already have found high levels of mercury contaminating the soil as well as adobe walls, dirt floors and the air inside some houses. They are now analyzing people’s hair to measure their mercury exposure.
Salazar, who is raising her four children in one of those houses, is among the residents waiting to hear whether they are being poisoned by their own houses.
“It’s worrisome,” Salazar said. “It’s like an illness that gets into children.”
Huancavelicans call their town the tierra del mercurio – the land of mercury – and even the mayor recalls having played, as a boy, with little silver balls that oozed out of the sides of ditches or building foundations.
The capital of a region with some of Peru’s highest poverty, malnutrition, and infant mortality rates, Huancavelica grew up around a plaza still flanked by colonial buildings. Residential neighborhoods gradually spread along the river and up the hillsides.
“Eighty percent of the houses are made of adobe. Those are the people who have the fewest resources,” said Rubén Espinoza, an archaeologist and anthropologist working with the mercury study team.
The study, which combines historical detective work with scientific analysis, might never have happened had it not been for the bizarre behavior of a priest.
Historian Nicholas Robins, director of the non-profit Environmental Health Council and a teaching assistant professor at North Carolina State University, was researching an 18th century Indian rebellion in Peru when he stumbled across a colorful description of Juan Antonio de los Santos. The priest’s erratic behavior and violent outbursts terrified parishioners and led a colonial government official to suggest that his superiors commit him to an insane asylum.
The priest had spent years in Potosí, Bolivia, at the foot of Cerro Rico, the “rich hill” that for centuries supplied the silver that fueled global trade. Like small-scale miners today, colonial miners used mercury to extract silver from ore, sending tons of toxic vapor wafting over the city.
Robins wondered if the colonial cleric might have been suffering from mercury poisoning. The question led him to examine historical records of the amount of silver produced in Potosí and the mercury used to extract it.
Robins estimates that miners in the Bolivian town used some 39,000 metric tons of mercury to produce silver between 1574 and 1810. Much of that mercury came from Santa Barbara Hill, which looms over Huancavelica, about 12,000 feet above sea level. The main mine portal, now sealed, still sports a colonial arch and Spanish coat of arms.
The Spaniards’ forced-labor system sent tens of thousands of Andean Indians into Santa Barbara’s labyrinth of tunnels to dig cinnabar ore. So many workers perished that Santa Barbara became known as “the mine of death.”
When cinnabar ore is heated, the mercury that vaporizes can be condensed, captured and stored as a liquid. Based on colonial records, Robins calculates that miners in Huancavelica produced about 68,200 metric tons of mercury in the 16th and 17th centuries, and about one-fourth of that was released into the atmosphere from smelters. | 3.652471 |
North Sea Faces Collapse of its Ecosystem
Fish stocks and sea bird numbers plummet as soaring water temperatures kill off vital plankton
By Richard Sadler and Geoffrey Lean
Originally issued by the Independent (www.independent.co.uk) 19 October 2003
The North Sea is undergoing "ecological meltdown" as a result of global warming, according to startling new research. Scientists say that they are witnessing "a collapse in the system", with devastating implications for fisheries and wildlife. Record sea temperatures are killing off the plankton on which all life in the sea depends, because they underpin the entire marine food chain. Fish stocks and sea bird populations have slumped.
Scientists at the Sir Alistair Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science in Plymouth, which has been monitoring plankton in the North Sea for over 70 years, say that an unprecedented heating of the waters has driven the cold-water species of this microscopic but vital food hundreds of miles to the north. They have been replaced by smaller, warm-water species that are less nutritious.
"A regime shift has taken place and the whole ecology of the North Sea has changed quite dramatically", says Dr Chris Reid, the foundation's director. "We are seeing a collapse in the system as we knew it. Catches of salmon and cod are already down and we are getting smaller fish. "We are seeing visual evidence of climate change on a large-scale ecosystem. We are likely to see even greater warming, with temperatures becoming more like those off the Atlantic coast of Spain or further south, bringing a complete change of ecology.
"Some of the colder-water fish species that people like to have with chips are at the southern limit of their range, and if the warming trend continues, cod are likely to become extinct in the North Sea in the next few decades." This year stocks of young cod were at their lowest for 20 years. The numbers of wild salmon have almost halved over the past two decades and this year the numbers returning to British rivers to spawn fell to a record low. Meanwhile, warm-water fish such as red mullet, horse mackerel, pilchards and squid are becoming increasingly common. Overfishing has played a part in the decline, but scientists have been surprised to see that stocks have not made their expected recovery after severe cuts in fishing quotas. They say that continued warming will effect all forms of marine life, including seabirds and dolphins.
Research by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds has established that seabird colonies off the Yorkshire coast and the Shetlands this year suffered their worst breeding season since records began, with many simply abandoning nesting sites.
The society puts it down to a record slump in sand eels, which normally breed in their millions, providing the staple diet for many seabirds and large fish. The eels depend on the plankton that are now being pushed out by the warming waters.
The survey concentrated on kittiwakes, but other species that feed on the eels, including puffins and razorbills, are also known to be seriously affected. Dr Euan Dunn of the RSPB said last week: "We know that sand eel populations fluctuate and you do get bad years. But there is a suggestion that we are getting a series of bad years, and that suggests something more sinister is happening."
He too pointed the finger at global warming and added: "Everything points to the conclusion that there are major ecological changes going on in the North Sea."
Microscopic creatures found in their billions in every square foot of sea. As the base of the marine food chain, they are vital to young cod, salmon and sand eels. As North Sea temperatures have risen, cold-water plankton have moved hundreds of miles to the north, disrupting ecology. Warmer-water species tend to be smaller and less nutritious.
Crab and lobster fisheries are thriving in the warmer water around the UK and on warm-water plankton which have taken the place of cold-water species.
An RSPB survey this summer shows east coast colonies of kittiwakes, guillemots, puffins and razorbills had the worst breeding season on record. Nest counts in east Yorkshire and Shetlands show kittiwakes not laying or hatching eggs because of a severe shortage of their favourite food - sand eels. Some colonies have even been abandoned.
Populations of common seal were hit in the late Eighties by viral infection. Numbers had almost recovered when they were hit by a second outbreak last winter. Both viral outbreaks coincided with influxes of warm Atlantic water into the North Sea, and some scientists believe that two events might be linked.
Numbers estimated to have almost halved in 20 years, and this year adults returning to UK rivers fell to a new low. Studies show salmon are highly dependent on plankton on their journey to feeding grounds in the north Atlantic.
As seas have warmed, large numbers of Mediterranean species, such as red mullet, squid and sardine, have moved into UK waters. Red mullet, popular in Spain and France, are now being caught commercially in the North Sea. In the Channel there are emerging sardine fisheries.
Make up between a third and half of the weight of all fish in the North Sea. Caught in huge quantities by Danish factory ships, which turn them into food pellets for pigs and fish. This summer, the Danish fleet caught only 300,000 tonnes out of its 950,000-tonne quota - a record low.
Stocks of young cod this year at their lowest for 20 years. Waters around the UK are the southern limit of their range. The International Council for the Exploration of the Seas says numbers are lower than previously thought, and has called for a ban on cod fishing in the North Sea and Irish Sea. | 3.117803 |
Trees are an underappreciated and underused aspect of the garden. Their 'bendy' form means they can be manipulated and pruned into fantastic shapes, which can transform a garden from ordinary to entirely unique. The authors, Ivan Hicks and Richard Rosenfeld, show how trees and shrubs can be turned into practical and fun towers for children to play in, bent over as pliable saplings to create bridges, arches, tunnels and temples, planted in semi-circles or pairs to create arbours and arches or even transformed into conceptual sculptures. Accessible and practical, this text is accompanied by the author's original concept sketches and a wealth of beautiful photos showing the sculptures in situ. These inspirational ideas are supported by lists of trees and horticultural information suitable to the related project.
The book is divided into seven main chapters: chapter one covers how trees grow and the basic points of arboriculture; chapter two lists the best trees to use for the many projects included; chapters three through to six cover the many forms one can create and includes tricks suitable for the urban gardener or those with small balconies or terraces; the final section comprises a comprehensive plant directory. With many simple tricks and quick ideas, as well as more challenging projects, "Tree Sculpture" will inspire readers to view trees and shrubs as potential design aspects of their garden. | 3.000693 |
The Fifth and Sixth were in the British force in Portugal under Sir Arthur Wellesley at the break-up of the French outposts at Rolica, and were joined by the Twentieth at Vimiera - a victory which resulted in the signing of the Convention of Cintra whereby the French agreed to evacuate Portugal. These three Regiments were also to fight alongside each other at the Battle of Corunna, where the French Marshal Soult, despite numerical superiority, was held off in a fighting withdrawal. After returning home, they all took part in the ill-fated Walcheren campaign.
The four Regiments all formed part of the British force in the Second Invasion of Spain in 1812. The Twentieth or 'Young Fusiliers', as it was nick named, was in the same division as the Seventh. The 1st and 2nd Battalions of the Seventh, and 1st Battalion of the Royal Welch Fusiliers, comprised the Fusilier Brigade under command of Sir William Myers at the Battle of Albuhera, 16 May 1811, where in a fierce counter-attack they routed a greatly superior force by storming the heights which had been captured by the French. This brigade was later to be commanded by Maj-Gen Ross, lately Colonel of the Twentieth. The fate of the French was sealed at Vittoria-a battle in which all four Regiments took part and which they carry as a battle honour to this day. The Regiments continued to fight alongside one another, each gaining the honours 'Pyrenees', 'Nivelle', 'Orthes', 'Toulouse' and 'Peninsula'.
In May 1836 the Fifth was made Fusiliers, having previously gained affiliation with Northumberland in 1784. The Sixth had previously become affiliated to Warwickshire in 1782 and become a Royal Regiment in 1832. The Twentieth, after nearly 100 years' connection with Lancashire, was renamed the Lancashire Fusiliers in 1881.
The Seventh and Twentieth served together in the Crimea but the next time all four Regiments served in the same theatre was in South Africa 1899-1902, although they did not all fight alongside each other in any particular battle of that campaign.
With 163 Battalions serving in the Great War it was always probable that the four Regiments would serve alongside each other again. The first of such battles was Le Cateau, followed by the Retreat from Mons, Marne 1914, Aisne 1914, 1918, Ypres 1914-15-17-18, Somme 1916, 1918, Arras, Passchendale, Cambrai 1917-18, and Gallipoli, to name a few. It was in the Gallipoli campaign that a Fusilier Brigade was in action again. 86 Brigade, comprising a battalion of the Seventh and of the Twentieth, achieved immortal glory at the landing on 25 April 1915. A Lancashire Fusilier Brigade subsequently joined them in the campaign, as did battalions of the Fifth and the Sixth.
The historic connections and affiliations between the four Regiments were continued in many theatres during the Second World War, notably in North West Europe, Tunisia, Italy and in Burma. These associations culminated in April 1958 when the Fifth, The Royal Northumberland Fusiliers, the Seventh, The Royal Fusiliers, and the Twentieth, The Lancashire Fusiliers, formed the Fusilier Brigade. They were joined on 1 May 1963 by the Sixth, The Royal Warwickshire Regiment, when that Regiment also became Fusiliers. The four Regiments worked very closely together, adopting the same uniform, badges and insignia.
After WWII the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers and Royal Fusiliers fought in Korea and all four regiments saw service in one of the many trouble spots around the world from Malaya to Kenya.
Since 1968 and the Regiments formation, Fusiliers have seen service across the world and found themselves at the sharp end in countries as diverse as Northern Ireland and Cyprus, More recently the Regiment served in the Balkans and took part in the first and second Gulf wars.
Today, Fusiliers both Regular and TA have served from Iraq to Afghanistan and are ready for deployment anytime, anywhere. | 3.018352 |
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Viral gastroenteritis facts
From the Center for Disease Control and Prevention
What is viral gastroenteritis?
Viral gastroenteritis is an infection caused by a variety of viruses that results in diarrhea. It is sometimes mistakenly referred to as the "stomach flu."
What are the symptoms of viral gastroenteritis?
The main symptoms of viral gastroenteritis are watery (not bloody) diarrhea and vomiting. The affected person may also have headache, fever, and abdominal pain. Sore throat and muscle aches can sometimes occur. In general, the symptoms begin 1 to 2 days following exposure to a virus that causes gastroenteritis and may persist for 1 to 10 days depending on the virus causing the illness.
What causes the infection?
Viral gastroenteritis can be caused by many different viruses, including rotaviruses, adenoviruses, caliciviruses, astroviruses, Norwalk viruses, and a group of Norwalk-like viruses. Viral gastroenteritis differs from diarrheal disease caused by bacteria (such as Salmo/nella or Escherichia coli) or parasites (such as Giardia), or by medications or other medical conditions. Your doctor can determine if the diarrheal disease is caused by a virus or by something else.
Who is at risk for viral gastroenteritis?
Viral gastroenteritis can occur in people of all ages and backgrounds. However, some viruses tend to cause diarrheal disease primarily among people in specific age groups. Rotavirus infection is the most common cause of diarrhea in infants and young children. Rotaviruses affect nearly every child by the time he or she reaches 4 years of age. Adenoviruses and astroviruses cause diarrhea mostly in young children but older children and adults can also be infected. Caliciviruses and Norwalk and Norwalk-like viruses are more likely to cause diarrhea in older children and adults than in younger children. Adults who are particularly at risk include the elderly and those who have problems with their immune system, such as organ transplant recipients, those with severe medical illnesses, or those taking medications that suppress their immune system.
Is viral gastroenteritis a serious illness?
People who are affected by viral gastroenteritis almost always recover completely without any long-term adverse health effects. However, a small number of infected persons must be treated for dehydration because of more severe or persistent diarrhea and vomiting, sometimes requiring hospitalization.
Where can I get more information?
If you have additional questions, please consult your physician or your local health department. You can also contact the CDC Public Inquiries Office at (404) 639-3534 or the CDC Viral Gastroenteritis Section at (404) 639-3577.
Prepared by: Viral Gastroenteritis Section, Mailstop G-04 Respiratory and Enteric Viruses Branch, Division of Viral and Rickettsial Diseases National Center for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road, N.E. Atlanta, Georgia 30333, June 1996.
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Our body needs energy to function. To create energy fuel is needed. Food is the fuel for our bodies. And here is the start point of every discussion on this matter: whether the food we provide for our bodies is well proportioned or not results in our health condition. In the following we will draw some lines of nutrition information to understand some basic principles.
Quality feeding must provide a specific proportion of nutrients to respond to the needs of our body. Nutrients are obtained when foods are digested and absorbed. Food nutrients: protein, fat, carbohydrate, vitamins, minerals, water.
Lately it was agreed upon the fact that one of the most important factors affecting health and body weight is the Glycemic Index(GI) of food. GI is a classification of carbohydrates on a scale from 0 to 100 according to the level to which they raise blood sugar levels after eating. This theory comes to complete the traditional one according to which, for weight to remain stable, the energy intake must equal the consumed energy.
Energy expenditure consists of:
- the amount of consumed energy for burning calories while at rest (REE) — 60-70% of the energy output,
- the energy used for physical activity,
- the energy spent for metabolizing food and maintaining the body temperature (especially for cold-induced thermogenesis) => only a small amount of energy is consumed.
Energy is measured in calories or joules. Although calories apply to anything containing energy, they are often associated with food and dieting. Talking about food calories we refer to the amount of potential energy that a food contains. On food packages the mentioned amount of calories refers in fact to kilocalories (1 kcal=1,000 cal). Sometimes, the word “Calorie” is capitalized to show the difference but most times it is not.
Each person's calories necessity is influenced by age, gender and activity; it increases with age up to adolescence and then a decrease follows. Children's needs increase in the first year of life from around 520 kcal/day (varying with gender) to around 1,000 kcal/day, reaching at preschool age around 1,600 kcal/day. By the age of adolescence, their energetic needs reach around 2,800kcal/day for boys — the same as for active men and very active women — and 2,200kcal/day for girls — the same as for active women, and many sedentary men; women who are pregnant or breastfeeding may need somewhat more. For many sedentary women and some older adults around 1,700kcal/day is about right.
A very good source of information on energetic needs is The food guide pyramid.
Some nutrients are energy-providing. Varying with particular needs, a good proportion of energy-generator nutrients must be maintained in a diet in order to keep the balance and the body weight constant.
Besides providing energy, nutrients are also needed for the body to build and maintain tissues, hormones, etc. and to regulate the body functions of the blood, heart, brain, liver etc.
Main Food Groups
A healthy diet is one that supplies enough nutrients in the right proportion. The human body needs over 40 different nutrients each day. A diet containing a varied range of nutrients can be achieved by eating a variety of foods from all main food groups:
Whole grain and enriched products are advised (bread, cereal, rice, and pasta). According to the traditional recommendations, this group of foods was to prevail in our diet. This is the group that contains the biggest amount of carbohydrates (together with the sweets) and recent studies have settled the inconveniences of a diet based on high carbs level. However they should not be entirely removed from our foods list but should be eaten in moderation. The proportion is changed from the traditional recommendations of 5 to 6 servings a day to 2-3 servings each day.
Vegetables and Fruits
Dark green vegetables and orange fruit and vegetables are recommended. Fruit — two to four servings each day. Vegetables — three to five servings each day.
Dairy (milk, cheese)
Low fat products are recommended. Two to three servings each day. The low carbs foods in this group should be consumed up to 4-5 servings a day.
Meat and Alternatives
Lean meat, poultry and fish, as well as dried peas, beans and lentils are recommended. The traditional recommendations were two to three servings each day. In the light of the new nutrition approach, the low carbohydrate content is a point in favour of larger quantities, up to 5 servings a day.
Fats, Oils and Sweets
Fats and oils are needed for a good functioning of the body but only good fats — unsaturated ones are recommended. Sweets are to be used sparingly — in small amounts and not very often.
Specifications for the status of the main food groups in the light of the South Beach Diet can be found in the article The Main Food Groups and the Diet
Here is some orientative data regarding the amount on one serving(the amount may vary with individual necessities but must not surpass reasonable limits):
|Grain Products||Vegetable||Fruit||Dairy Products||Meat and Alternatives|
|1 slice of bread||1 cup of raw leafy vegetables||1 medium apple, banana, orange||1 cup of milk or yogurt||2-3 ounces of cooked lean meat, poultry, or fish|
|1 ounce of ready to-eat cereal||1/2 cup of other vegetables, cooked or chopped raw||1 medium apple, banana, orange||1-1/2 ounces of natural cheese||1/2 cup of cooked dry beans or 1 egg counts as 1 ounce of lean meat|
|1/2 cup of cooked cereal, rice, or pasta||3/4 cup of vegetable juice||3/4 cup of fruit juice||2 ounces of processed cheese||2 tablespoons of peanut butter or 1/3 cup of nuts count as 1 ounce of meat.|
Everyone needs the same nutrients but in specific proportions, varying with individual needs, which are determined by particular factors such as age, gender, size, activity level and general health. | 4.12069 |
Who Owns the Moon?
Earth's moon — Lawyers are debating the legal link between the two worlds.
Nearly 40 years after the U.S. flag was planted on the moon, a global rush to the final frontier has some pondering property rights out there.
India, Japan and China are now circling the moon with their respective spacecraft ? to be joined next year by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Then there's the Google Lunar X Prize, a $30 million competition for the first privately funded team to send a robot to the moon, travel some 1,640 feet (500 meters) and transmit video, images and data back to Earth.
The legal profession sees a brief in the making.
Extraterrestrial real estate
Laws tend to build on precedent. Since there's little precedent for lunar laws, some look to the sea for suggestions. That is, the use of ocean floor minerals beyond the limits of national jurisdiction. Such valuable resources are designated by some as a Common Heritage of mankind, not subject to national appropriation.
Could the Common Heritage concept work as the basis for a Moon Treaty?
Virgiliu Pop is a research specialist at the Romanian Space Agency. He has for years been keeping a legal eye on the area of space property rights, and his new book, "Who Owns the Moon? - Extraterrestrial Aspects of Land and Mineral Resources Ownership" (Springer, 2008) was published this month.
Pop has been delving into what has shaped the law of extraterrestrial real estate, and the norms which express this law. And in his view, the norms and rules regarding property rights in the celestial realm are rather limited, even failing to define basic concepts such as what is a celestial body.
Pop favors property rights over group hugs.
"Despite the noble ideals of equity and care for the have-nots, the Common Heritage paradigm of the Moon Treaty has more faults than merits," Pop told SPACE.com.
"A refutation of the Common Heritage principle does not mean, however, that the developing world will, or should, be left behind in the space era," he said. "China, India and Brazil are living proofs that a developing country can, through its own effort, join the spacefaring club. Instead of freeloading on the efforts of the older spacefarers, the have-nots should pool their meager financial resources into a common space agency or into regional ones, and proceed at exploiting the riches of outer space for themselves."
The Frontier Paradigm, on the other hand, has proven its worth on our planet, Pop adds, and it most likely will do so in the extraterrestrial realms.
"Homesteading is likely to transform the lunar desert in the same manner as it transformed the 19th Century United States," he said. "Space is indeed a new frontier calling for individualism rather than collectivism, and its challenges need to be addressed with a legal regime favorable to property rights."
Much remains to be discussed and perhaps decided upon by various nations, of course, as space law evolves over time.
"Property rights are a useful engine and, in all likelihood, a precondition for pushing forward the development of the extraterrestrial realms," he said. "Securing property rights would be more beneficial to humankind, compared to the alternative of keeping the extraterrestrial realms undeveloped."
Sphere of the concrete
Pop feels that the new trends in the privatization of space endeavors and the planned return of humans to the moon will shift the subject of property rights in outer space "from the field of Byzantine discussions into the sphere of the concrete."
Beyond the moon, Pop also ponders in his book whether asteroids and comets are immovable land-like territorial extensions that cannot be legally appropriated. Or, are they "floating movable goods," capable of being captured and reduced into private ownership?
Pop offers up a suggested rallying cry for spacefarers: "Countries of the world unite ? you have nothing to lose but the chains of gravity?the skies are open."
- Video ? Lunar X Prize
- Scientists See Moon as Research Outpost, Training Ground
- Lunar Land Grab: Celestial Real Estate Sales Soar
Leonard David has been reporting on the space industry for more than four decades. He is past editor-in-chief of the National Space Society's Ad Astra and Space World magazines and has written for SPACE.com since 1999.
MORE FROM SPACE.com | 3.152234 |
Agrarian Culture - Gold Rush
An attempt was made to keep the prospectors out of the Hills according to the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, but by 1875, and the confirmation of gold in the Hills by the Custer Expedition of 1874, it became a futile exercise as people poured into the Hills. A clash of the nomadic and agrarian cultures ensued. The outcome is a story retold throughout the world in the ages of man as the dominant Agrarian Culture prevailed.
The "gold rush" of 1876 brought hundreds of miners through the Canyon west-to-east in route to the lure of gold surrounding an area known later as Lead and Deadwood. Many say the historic name Savoy was given by one of those miners who while viewing the Canyon for the first time reminded him of back home in the richly forested and mineralized Savoy area of the southern Italian Alps.
The Canyon was impassable north-to-south. However, it was possible to 'slowly' ride horseback down the Canyon to where Little Spearfish Creek met Spearfish River (as it was then known). The convergence of these two water bodies created one of the most spectacular water falls in the region. The thunderous roar of the falls and the huge clouds of spray rising one hundred feet into the tree line easily marked the natural wonder. But from this point to Maurice seven miles away, it was impossible to travel through the rugged terrain with dense thickets and undergrowth, even by horseback. From the lower end of the canyon near Spearfish, travelers could reach Maurice where Homestake had built a steam power plant.
Tie & Timber Sawmill
In 1891, Mr. George Belshaw built a one room cabin which was used as an office by Mr. McLaughlin and Mr. Lepke who in 1892 established a sawmill across the road where the new Spearfish Canyon Lodge now resides. This cabin later became the original first room of the Latchstring Inn.
The mill, owned by the Tie and Timber Company, employed many local ranchers and logging men for the sawing and hewing of the heavy timbers to be used in the building of the railroad which was at that time laboriously crossing the Hills from Deadwood. In the succeeding decade, much of the surrounding forest was cut to accommodate the great expansion demands made by the railroad and by the ranchers, homesteaders, miners, and prospectors for their expanding operations in the northern Hills.
Chicago Burlington Quincy Railroad
In 1893, Spearfish Canyon, for the first time, was opened by the railroad. This engineering marvel consisted of three hundred and seventy five curves of sheer up and down hill climbing. In all, the thirty two mile "Spearfish Spur" left Deadwood, rose 1,886 feet in six miles to Trojan ( then known as Portland), then down 2,778 in twenty-five miles spanning thirty-three bridges to Spearfish. The ties were bedded in rock the whole way and the freight cars had to be chained to the siding to keep them from rolling to the bottom at Spearfish. The Grand Island & Wyoming Line built the spur but then sold it to the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy a short time later for more than $2-million. In an early brochure citing the breathtaking engineering accomplishments, the Burlington called the Canyon trip, "for sheer artistry of description, it need bow to no other."
The railroad was very accommodating in those days. The schedule was one train a day, and the crew was most happy to let the fisherman, sightseers, picnickers, berry pickers, and the like off at any place they chose and pick them up again on the return trip.
One of the most scenic and thrilling spots on the Spearfish Canyon train ride was Spearfish Falls. The crew would stop the train on the vibrating trestle spanning the falls offering a thrilling sight of the waters thundering impact below.
With much of the local timber resources depleted, and the necessary relocation of the Tie and Timber Company in 1906, Mr. Glen Inglis of Deadwood bought the office as a fishing and hunting cabin. Soon after, he married Dorothy Smith, and they established Glendoris (Glen and Doris) Lodge, the first resort in Spearfish Canyon. Six deserted miners and logger cabins were converted to sleeping accommodations. During this time, many cowboys, ranchers, miners, and varied guests would ride to the Glendoris, spent the night, and catch the train to Spearfish, Lead or Deadwood. The increased business necessitated the building of six more rooms known as "Hard Boiled Alley." During this period, Teddy Roosevelt and Seth Bullock, sheriff of Lawrence County, often visited to hunt, fish, and enjoy the beauty of Spearfish Canyon.
With the success of Homestake Mining Company in Lead and the expansion of its operation and employment, in 1916, the company constructed a six mile pipeline through the Canyon which diverted much of the waters of the Big and Little Spearfish Creeks to the hydroelectric plant at Maurice. The water was then released for a short distance and then funneled into a large tunnel four and one-half miles long to a Homestake electric plant in Spearfish. The water was then released and ran through the city of Spearfish before being used as irrigation by ranchers downstream.
In 1919 two young ladies, Martha Railback, a graduate of DePauw University from Indianapolis, Indiana, and Maude Watts of Belleville, Ontario while taking a trip through the West stopped at the mountain inn. They were so taken by the Glendoris and its surroundings that they decided to purchase it. As all the doors were opened by latchstrings, they renamed the resort, The Latchstring Inn. By then, Savoy consisted of the mountain Inn, six miner's cabins, a general store, a post office, and railroad station.
A familiar visitor at Latchstring Inn was Potato Creek Johnny, famous for finding the largest gold nugget in the Hills.
By the early thirties, the automobile was becoming the accepted means of travel, trucks were being developed for hauling, and roadways were beginning to span the Black Hills. In 1933, a heavy flood washed away two miles of track and trestle of the railroad. By then the railroad had lost their interest in resuming the line and it was abandoned and the track removed in 1934. During the period 1933 to 1950, a rough, chuck-holed and tiring mud road was the only means available for the weary traveler to reach the Latchstring.
By 1950, a new roadway, once the paths made by wagon wheels, railroad spurs, and the automobile tires, had been built and blacktopped and the number of vacationers increased and business flourished. More services were added to the Inn including a coffee shop (1956), chapel, (1957), and four new cabins (1960).
Over the years, decay had taken its toll and preservation architects could not preserve the historic facility. In 1989 the Latchstring Inn was replaced with a modern log building called the Latchstring. It houses a restaurant, gift shop, and lounge. In 1995 the historical tradition of public sleeping accommodation was preserved by the construction of a new and beautiful 54-room lodge on the site of the old McLaughlin Sawmill.
The history of Latchstring and the progress of civilization in Spearfish Canyon overcame many natural barriers with engineering marvels. Sawmills had reaped their harvest of timber and rotting stumps remain under the new and revitalized forest canopy. The railroad came, prospered, outlived its usefulness, and then was abandoned leaving behind occasional charming contours of rail beds and trestles. Disappointed miners left gaping prospector holes and mounds of spent ore on the hillsides which over the years have been naturally reclaimed and are part of the inspiring landscape. Some of the rapid waters of Spearfish River were harnessed and put to work generating electrical power for the largest underground mine in the nation, Homestake Mining Company. But that too had an end as Homestake began closing procedures in 2002. Despite its seemingly pristine appearance, the hardy Canyon has been the scene of much human activity over the years, and yet it endures. | 3.465108 |
General Breast Health
Many Women fail to perform breast self-examination because they don’t know how their
breasts should feel and how to recognize changes. Normal breast tissue often feels nodular
(lumpy) and varies in consistency from woman to woman. Even within each individual
woman, the texture of breast tissue varies at different times in her menstrual
cycle, and from time to time during her life. Understanding the normal anatomy of
the breast will help you to become familiar with the normal feel of your own breast, and
to gain confidence in your ability to do BSE correctly; you will be able to distinguish
between suspicious new lumps and ordinary breast tissue that sometimes feels lumpy.
Interior Structure: Your breasts lie on top of, and are loosely attached to, the pectoral muscles on the front of your chest. The breasts move with these muscles which extend from the breastbone up to the collarbone and into the armpit, and do the major work of your upper arm and shoulder. Except for tiny ones in the nipples, there are no muscles within your breast; their form and structure are supported by a framework of fibrous, semi-elastic bands of tissue called Cooper's ligaments (after the physician who first identified them). These ligaments partition the breasts into a honeycomb of interconnecting pockets, each containing mammary glands surrounded by lobules of fatty tissue. During breast feeding the mammary glands ("milk lobes") produce milk, which is collected by a system of ducts which empty into the nipple. Your breasts are surrounded by two chains of lymph nodes – small, kidney-shaped glands that defend your body against disease and infection by filtering out invading organisms from surrounding tissues. A large chain of lymph nodes extends from the lower rim of the breast up into the armpit, with a smaller chain reaching deeper in, toward the breastbone.
External Contours: You may notice that there is a slight difference in the size of your breasts or even in the size or shape of the nipples – this is normal. The shape and size of your breasts depend on your heredity, your weight, and the supporting ligaments. If the proportion of fibrous tissue is high, ligaments will be strong and not excessively stretched and the breasts will feel firm and retain their shape. If the proportion of fatty tissue is higher, breasts are heavy or pendulous and feel softer. Though the nipples may vary in size or shape, they are usually roughly symmetrical (unless one breast is markedly larger than the other). The areolae, or pigmented area around the nipple, may be any color from light pink to black, and may vary in size from a very narrow ring to one which covers as much as half of a small breast. Areolae, too are generally symmetrical.
Normal Breast Changes
Puberty: Normal changes in the breasts, including enlargement of the areolae, begin when the breast begin to grow, before the onset of menstruation. Growth is controlled by the female hormones, estrogen and progesterone, which continue to produce normal changes in breast tissue throughout a women’s lifetime. Such regular variations including swelling, tenderness and increased nodularity (lumpiness) just before the menstrual period, when hormone levels are highest; breast feel least nodular after menstruation. (The breast of young girls who have not yet begun to menstruate are seldom nodular at all.)
Pregnancy brings changes similar to those occurring before the menstrual period: breast become tender and swell with fluid; mammary gland and ducts enlarge; areolae may enlarge as well. The breasts generally become about one-third larger.
At menopause, mammary glands decrease in size, fibrous breast tissue loses strength and elasticity, and breasts become softer and sag with age. The skin of the breast, normally smooth, may become wrinkled as the supporting ligaments slacken.
At any age, our breasts will increase or decrease in size with changes in your weight; because they are largely composed of fatty tissue, their shape and texture may alter as well if your weight loss or gain is dramatic.
Most normal changes, take place in both breast, simultaneously and roughly symmetrically (that is, in the same relative position or are in each breast.) Such changes are less likely to indicate trouble than those occurring in one breast only.
Diet and Exercise
The National Cancer Institute, the American Cancer Society and the American Academy of Sciences have all issued guidelines recommending a reduction in fat consumption from 40% to 30% in the average woman’s diet, as well as decreasing the total caloric intake.
International differences in the incidence of breast cancer correlates with variations in diet, especially fat intake. Those countries where the diet is high in fat have a higher incidence of breast cancer.
However, a newly released Harvard study, that included over 335,000 women from four different countries all of whom followed a very low fat (less than 20% of their calories came from fat) diet, did not bear this out. The study found that test women on extremely low fat diets, had no more protection from breast cancer than women who ate the typical American diet, which contains more than 30% fat calories. Additional studies are being conducted. In the meantime, there is no question that a lower fat diet reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease and possible colon cancer.
The American Journal of Public Health, (November 1, 1988) reported that getting a "lot" of fiber in your diet lowers your risk of breast cancer (as well as other types of cancer).
These findings were the result of a survey of 7700 women where it was found that women who frequently were constipated, (often the result of low fiber diets), were more apt to get breast cancer as well as colon cancer. The rational behind this is that when you are constipated, the toxins found in food have more time to be absorbed into your body, and the effects of these toxins are not limited to just the colon.
Studies conducted at Harvard Medical School and the National Cancer Institute have linked the consumption of alcoholic beverages with an increased risk of breast cancer. However, two studies, one conducted in 1988 by Dr. Susan Chu of the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, George, and another study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute in 1989, could not confirm this link.
More recent studies however, have again linked alcoholic drinks with an increased risk of breast cancer. A study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 1993 showed that women who consumed an average of two drinks per day had higher levels of estrogen in their blood and urine than they did when they did not drink at all. (Their diet remained the same). Estrogen is known to be a potent hormone that promotes the growth of cells in the breast and the reproductive organs and many experts think the continual exposure of breast tissue to estrogen is probably at the root of breast cancer. Since all women do not get breast cancer, obviously other factors also play a role. Therefore, women who are already at increased risk for breast cancer would be advised to eliminate alcoholic beverages entirely.
At a recent symposium on breast cancer sponsored by the University of California, San Francisco, one of the speakers reported there are clear indications that the way to prevent breast cancer is to reduce the levels of the female hormones estrogen and progesterone.
Regular exercise dramatically reduces the risk of breast cancer in young women according to an article published in the November 1, 1994 issue of OB-GYN News.
Why exercise provides this protective effect is not fully known but any factor that reduces the frequency of ovulation would decrease the risk of breast cancer since investigators believe it is the cumulative exposure to ovarian hormones that appears to increase the risk of breast cancer. Exercise has been shown to shorten the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle. It is during this phase that ovulation and the production of progesterone are stimulated.
A study of 1000 women matched for: age at the onset of menstruation, race, number of children born, history of breast feeding and family history of cancer, found that the risk of breast cancer decreased as the number of hours of exercise increased. Those women who exercised 4 hours per week (35 minutes per day) have over 50 percent less breast cancer than sedentary women. A diet very low in fat and high in fiber is also known to decrease the risk of breast cancer.
A radically new contraceptive system being developed will hopefully reduce estrogen and progesterone levels.
This new contraceptive system is now in clinical trials. By using this new contraceptive system for several years, the expectation is it will reduce the risk of breast cancer much like the current oral contraceptives have reduced the risk of ovarian cancer.
Other investigators confirm the apparent link between diet, exercise, and breast cancer. Additional studies are needed to verify this common link.
Several studies have indicated smokers are at increased risk of breast cancer, with the risk increasing as the number of cigarettes smoked a day increases. These studies suggest smokers may have impaired immune systems.
Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) is the smoke breathed out by a smoker and includes smoke from the tip of a burning cigarette, also increases the risk for serious health problems including impairing the immune system.
Numerous studies have found that oral contraceptives offer protection again ovarian and endometrial cancers.
However, the relationship between oral contraceptives and the increased risk of breast cancer is less clear. There have been a number of conflicting studies reported regarding a link between oral contraceptives, and breast cancer. While most studies have found no such link, a report of three recent studies indicating such a risk may exist has raised more concern.
Though the authors of the three aforementioned studies emphasize their findings are not conclusive, they do indicate there may be some subgroups of women at greater risk – for example, women who have never borne children, women with a strong family history of breast cancer, and women who were taking oral contraceptives for over seven years. However, the evidence is still inconclusive and conflicting.
Therefore, the Food and Drug Administration advisory panel, the Centers for Disease Control, The World Health Organization and advisory committees from other health agencies have recommended no change in prescribing practices.
A large, long-term study of women taking estrogen plus progestin from 2 to 10 years or longer, showed no statistically significant increase in the risk of breast cancer. This study was reported in a February 1996 OB-GYN abstract.
Since the question of a link between oral contraceptives and breast cancer is still not resolved, feel free to ask your doctor any questions you nay have on both the advantages and disadvantages of using oral contraceptives so you can make an informed decision. If you are still uncomfortable with taking oral contraceptives, as your doctor to recommend an alternate method of birth control.
There have been recent studies evaluating HRT with the incidence of breast cancer. The results of these studies were mixed. According to an article appearing in the OB-GYN News, August 15, 1995 issue, there is still no agreement among experts on whether hormone replacement therapy increases breast cancer risk, in spite of a recent study showing no overall relationship between two hormone replacement regimes and breast cancer. | 3.551872 |
Answer: Many different viruses.
There are many different viruses that cause the stomach flu (viral gastroenteritis). Usually no one has any idea which one they have. These are the main culprits:
Rotavirus1 is the leading cause of vomiting and diarrhea in young children. Its incubation period is about 48 hours. Rotavirus lasts longer than other gastroenteritis viruses, and children are generally sicker with rotavirus than with other gastroenteritis viruses. They may have vomiting for 2-3 days and then diarrhea for an additional 4 days. The diarrhea is particularly stinky and can look greenish. Rotavirus is extremely contagious. The virus is shed in feces, vomit, and nasal secretions. Rotavirus is found in feces for about 2 weeks after symptoms have stopped so people are contagious for at least that long. My son got rotavirus when he was 22 months old and was sick for 1 full week. The diarrhea didn’t start until the 3rd day after the vomiting was over. The diarrhea was so watery it couldn’t be contained in any type of diaper. Many children (including my son) are so sick with rotavirus that they have to go to the hospital to get an IV to prevent dehydration. Hand sanitizers that are 62% ethanol do kill rotavirus after 30 seconds of contact time2. Infection is thought to produce partial immunity. That means that a child can get rotavirus again but it is usually not as bad the next time. Adults usually don’t get rotavirus but it is possible3. I did not get rotavirus when my son had it, and he vomited all over me, so I was definitely exposed. I would like to hear from any adults who did get rotavirus from their children so please e-mail me your sad story.
Caliciviruses4 are a family of viruses that include the non-enveloped Norovirus5 (Norwalk6 virus and others) and Sapovirus. All of these cause gastroenteritis and they are thought to be the main cause of viral gastroenteritis in adults. Norovirus strain GII.4 Sydney seems to be causing the most trouble in 2012-2013 but it is not the only norovirus going around. They generally have a 12-72 hour incubation period and affect children and adults. The illness typically lasts 1-3 days. Norovirus is frequently a foodborne illness. It is also extremely contagious from person-person. The viruses are present in feces and vomit. People with norovirus are contagious for at least 3 days after symptoms have stopped. These viruses withstand freezing; one outbreak of norovirus on a cruise ship was attributed to the ice cubes7. Boiling kills this virus in food. The CDC recommends using a minimum of a 2% chlorine bleach solution to kill norovirus on household surfaces. Regular 62% ethanol gel hand sanitizers do not do a very good job killing norovirus8! Yikes! Some people are less susceptible to noroviruses than others. In a study where volunteers were infected with Norwalk virus9 (anyone want to volunteer for that?) 82% became infected and 18% did not (lucky ducks). Of the 82% that became infected about 1/3 were asymptomatic and did not get sick (more lucky ducks). However, these asymptomatic people were carrying and transmitting the virus without knowing it. So, you can catch norovirus from someone who is not even sick. Having asymptomatic carriers makes containing the spread of these diseases even more difficult. In addition blood types are thought to play a role in norovirus infection10. For the Norwalk virus strain, it has been determined that people with type B blood are less susceptible and people with type O blood get the sickest11. However, for another strain of norovirus, people with type O blood were less affected12. After you are sick with norovirus, you are thought to be immune for a few months but only from that exact same strain. After a few months even that same strain can get you again. Norovirus does not play fair. Go to the CDC's web site for a wealth of information on norovirus.
Astrovirus13causes gastroenteritis primarily in children and is usually milder in adults. Its incubation period is usually 1-5 days. There are 7 types of astrovirus14. By age 5-10 years 75% of children have antibodies to at least 1 type astrovirus15. This evidence SUGGESTS (but does not prove) that infection with astrovirus MAY lead to permanent immunity from that particular strain. By “permanent”, I mean “until you are old”. There tend to be outbreaks in nursing homes, so those people have lost their immunity.
Adenovirus16 is another type of virus that causes gastroenteritis in children and adults. There are many types of adenoviruses and only 2 are known to cause gastroenteritis (Adenovirus type 40 and 41). Adenoviruses 3117 and 5218 are also suspected to cause gastroenteritis and are being investigated. The incubation period for adenovirus is about 1 week19. Adenovirus can be a tough illness because diarrhea can last 1-2 weeks20.
Enteroviruses are a large family of viruses that cause many different illnesses including polio, hand-foot-mouth disease, and respiratory illnesses . Some of these viruses also cause gastroenteritis21. They are extremely common. Many people infected with enteroviruses have no symptoms. However, some people, especially babies and children, can become very ill.
Don’t let this list fool you into thinking that there are only a few different viruses that cause the stomach flu. Each of these viruses has many strains and no one knows exactly how many particular strains of gastroenteritis viruses there are. Just to give you an idea, there are 70 different strains of adenovirus type 4122. There are hundreds of different strains of norovirus23. I’m sure there are also many gastroenteritis viruses yet to be discovered, and the known viruses are always mutating and changing. So, if you were hanging onto the hope that once you “get them all” you‘ll be “done”, I’m sorry to disappoint you. Your best bet is to try to avoid a few of them. For more scientific information about all of the gastroenteritis viruses, including some I did not mention, go to this virology web site.
--Annie Pryor, Ph.D. | 3.306976 |
Listers, the Roman Missal is a more than a Sunday aid, it is a daily spiritual guide to the rhythm of the liturgical year. However, if the wisdom of Holy Mother Church contained therein is obscured by unfamiliar terms, then the spiritual benefits are lost.
The following terms comes from the USCCB’s helpful glossary for the Roman Missal.
The liturgical assembly is all of the faithful – priest, assisting ministers, and congregation – gathered for the celebration of the Mass or one of the other liturgical–sacramental rites of the Church.
The one, normally a bishop or priest, or in certain circumstances, a deacon, who officiates and presides over the celebration of the liturgy.
Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments (CDWDS) –
The department of the Holy See responsible for regulating and promoting the Church’s sacred liturgy and sacraments; the CDWDS also reviews, revises, and approves liturgical texts and translations.
A translation principle which aims to translate basic thoughts rather than words. The original words and form are important only as a vehicle for the meaning; therefore, it is the meaning alone that is truly important in the translation. This method was used during the preparation of the first and second editions of the Roman Missal, but was replaced in 2001 in favor of formal equivalency (see below).
The Eucharistic prayer is the words used for consecration, the changing of bread and wine to the body and blood of Christ (transubstantiation). In the third edition of the Roman Missal, there are 10 different Eucharistic prayers.
A translation principle approved by the CDWDS in its 2001 document Liturgiam authenticam for use in the third edition of the Roman Missal and all future liturgical books. This method aims to translate texts “integrally and in the most exact manner, without omissions or additions in terms of their content, and without paraphrases or glosses.” The original Latin text is thus rendered into English more literally.
International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL)
Committee chartered to prepare English translations of liturgical texts on behalf of the conferences of bishops of English-speaking countries. Currently, 11 conferences of Bishops are full members of the Commission: the United States, Australia, Canada, England and Wales, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Scotland, and South Africa.
Editio Typica (Typical Edition)
Latin text of the Roman Missal from which vernacular translations are written. The editio typica tertia is Latin for “third typical edition,” the version of the Roman Missal being implemented in late 2011.
Document produced by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments (Vatican) which discusses the use of vernacular languages in the publication of the books of the Roman Liturgy, providing the guiding principles for translation.
An authoritative approval of texts which grants permission for their use.
Roman Missal/Missale Romanum
The ritual text for the celebration of the Mass, which contains the words and actions completed by the assembly and the celebrant during Mass. Missale Romanum is the Latin name of Roman Missal.
General Instruction of the Roman Missal
The introductory material in the Roman Missal, containing the general outline and ordering of the celebration of the Mass, including detailed instructions about what the priest, the deacon, the other ministers, and the congregation do during the various parts of the Mass. | 3.093574 |
The Worst Rock in the World?Maybe. I'm sure there are plenty of candidates and personal "favorites."
Breccia is rock composed of other rock fragments that have been cemented together. Though it sometimes is stable, breccia is often hideously loose even though it is beautiful to look at, as it often forms spectacular cliffs and spires. The rock often looks like a knob-studded conglomerate seemingly made for climbing, but those knobs pull out easily and frequently, making climbing on them treacherous. Some hardened Wyoming mountaineers refer to the substance as "kitty litter." The name fits, as anyone who has climbed on it can surely attest.
Breccia can be igneous, sedimentary, tectonic, hydrothermal, or even impact-related (think meteorites) in origin. The breccia I have encountered in Wyoming is volcanic in origin, a hardened ash.
Breccia is abundant in the Southern Absarokas of Wyoming, and this album collects many breccia images from that range, though I have found a few from other areas and attached them. However, please feel free to add any breccia pictures you have from other mountain ranges, as Northwestern Wyoming is hardly the only place breccia is found.
[ View Gallery - 16 More Images ] | 3.012332 |
Web server logs contain a lot of information regarding site usage, which can be handy when you're investigating application problems. In this article, I examine Web server logging and its contents.
Standards exist for Web server logging; these standards apply to what is contained within the log files. It's important to know that a Web server may have one or more log files. For example, the Apache platform has an access log, as well as referrer and agent logs.
- The access log is the most important file when you're curious about the who and why of site visitors. An entry is made in the access log every time someone requests a file from your Web site regardless of whether the access attempt is successful.
- The referrer log contains data on where a client was before coming to the site.
- The agent log tells you the name and version of the browser that requested a file on your server.
Who asked for what?
Developers are often interested in what was requested and the status of the request when debugging page problems. With that said, the access log is the most important file as it identifies all requests and the status of the requests. The access log has two formats: common and extended. The common log format contains the following data columns:
- The first column identifies the host computer (IP address) requesting the Web server resource. The value in this field is either the fully qualified domain name or the remote host.
- The second column identifies users by their username per RFC 931. It is rarely used, so it is common to see a hyphen (-) in its place.
- The third column is the user authentication field.
- The fourth column contains the timestamp of the request. The format for the timestamp field is: DD/MM/YYYY:HH:MM:SS OFFSET.
- The fifth column is the HTTP request, which has information on: the method (Post, Get, etc.) the remote client used to request the information; the file the remote client requested; and the HTTP version the client used to retrieve the file.
- The sixth column identifies the status of the request. Using this value, you can easily determine whether a resource was correctly transferred, not found, and more.
- The seventh column indicates the number of bytes transferred to the client as a result of the request. If a status code other than a success code (200) is used in the sixth column, this field will contain a hyphen (-) or a zero to indicate that no data was transferred.
- The final column contains the user agent or browser used by the client.
The extended format adds two more columns with the referrer address of the page accessed before the resource request in the eighth column.
These standards are supported by Apache and most other Web platforms. If you are using Microsoft IIS, the common and extended formats are available along with custom options. IIS does default to the extended format.
Putting it to use
You can use the access log data to debug application requests. One personal example is a recent stint with a client who had two Web applications on two different Web servers in two cities. Each application interfaced with the other via ASP.NET Web services to exchange data. There seemed to be a communication problem between the applications as certain operations were not occurring as planned.
I began to debug the application with a glance at the Windows event log on each server to locate any possible application errors that kept them from functioning. The next step was a survey of the Web server log on each side to investigate whether the requests were actually received by the server and how they were processed (if they were received). Listing A contains an excerpt from one of the logs.
The sample is from a Windows 2003 Server running IIS using the extended log format. The first line shows it was requested on September 1, 2006 from the 192.168.1.100 address using a post request for the specific resource. The status returned for each request is 500, and the final column displays the user agent used for the request. In order to properly review the request, you need to have a basic knowledge of the status codes.
There are five basic classes of status codes:
- 1XX: continue or protocol change
- 2XX: success
- 3XX: redirection
- 4XX: client error/failure
- 5XX: server error
Each class contains its own set of error codes. The following list provides a sampling of these status codes:
- 100: continue
- 101: switching protocols
- 200: file transfer OK
- 201: created
- 202: accepted
- 301: moved permanently
- 400: invalid request
- 401: client not authorized to access file
- 403: client forbidden from accessing file or directory
- 404: file not found
- 405: method not allowed
- 408: request time-out
- 415: unsupported media type
- 500: internal server error
- 501: not implemented
- 503: service unavailable
The 500 error is a common status code that is returned when there are problems with the application or Web server. The problem with the status code is that it provides very little additional information; however, it does let you know that the request was actually made, so you can quickly rule out any network or connectivity problems and turn your attention to the actual application.
Tracking down and debugging Web application issues is often a tedious process. Depending on the problems, there are many areas of the application to investigate. One area that is often overlooked by developers is the Web server log. While it provides a wealth of information on Web server requests and users, it can also be used to investigate Web application issues such as the requests being made and the status of the requests.
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Check out the Web Development Zone archive, and catch up on the most recent editions of Tony Patton's column.
Tony Patton began his professional career as an application developer earning Java, VB, Lotus, and XML certifications to bolster his knowledge. | 3.07309 |
Seventeenth-century Tibet witnessed a blossoming of medical knowledge, with the construction of a monastic medical college and the penning of several influential medical texts. Perhaps most striking was a set of 79 paintings, known as tangkas, which were intended to illustrate a comprehensive four-volume medical treatise called The Blue Beryl. Created between 1687 and 1703, these paintings are vibrant pieces of educational art that interweave practical medical knowledge with Buddhist traditions and Tibetan lore—depicting such things as the use of omens and dreams for making diagnoses, hundreds of medicinal herbs and medical instruments, and diagrams of human anatomy.
The word tangka (or thangka) derives from Tibetan words meaning “rolled-up flat painting” or “written record.” Since their original creation more than three centuries ago, the 79 Blue Beryl tangkas have been painstakingly reproduced numerous times by physician monks as part of their medical training. The tangkas are still used for teaching in Nepali medical schools today. This front view of the human skeleton belongs to a set produced in Kathmandu in the 1990s under the guidance of self-taught Nepalese artist, Romio Shrestha. More than 40 assistants recreated the paintings using pigments derived from natural sources, such as mercury ore for red, the semiprecious stone lapis lazuli for blue, and sulfur salt for yellow.
Tibetan anatomists counted a total of 360 bones in the human body—significantly more than the 206 bones described in Western medical books. This disparity stems from the fact that Tibetan doctors considered cartilage, as well as fingernails and toenails, to be bones. Other anatomical estimates reveal similar inconsistencies, such as the Tibetan calculation of 21,000 hairs on the human head, while modern medicine estimates that the scalp has an average of 100,000 hair follicles.
The paintings were commissioned by the fifth Dalai Lama’s regent, Desi Sangye Gyatso, who stepped in as interim ruler of Tibet after the Dalai Lama died in 1682. Gyatso placed great value on the accuracy of the illustrations, frequently consulting medical specialists and encouraging the use of fresh corpses as models for the anatomical paintings. But he also left a lot of room for symbolic creativity, as is apparent in the depiction of internal organs such as the stomach (red diamond), the small intestines (red swirls), and the large intestine (blue waves). | 3.300648 |
Roman theatre remains dating back to the second century AD have been discovered in fields outside a market town in Kent.
The excavated site at Faversham has revealed an open-air ‘cockpit’ theatre built into the hillside, which is the first of its kind to be uncovered in Britain.
It is thought to have sat up to 12,000 people across 50 rows positioned on the side of the hill, with the diameter of the whole venue being 65 metres.
This type of Roman rural theatre, which has previously only been discovered in other parts of Europe, would have been used for religious plays during festivals according to Paul Wilkinson, the director of Kent Archaeological Field School, which the remains were found behind.
He explained that the ruins include a stage with an orchestra pit in front, which entertainers would have typically used rather than musicians.
Holes found in the stage would also have allowed for the orchestra pit to be flooded for aquatic displays.
Two other buildings found at the site, which have been identified as bath-houses, would have been used for fairs that were held in conjunction with performances, he added.
Wilkinson said: “This is important for Roman archaeology because this is the first theatre of its type found in Britain. Therefore it shows that architectural practices in continental Europe at the time did seep over into Britain.
“It’s such an important and interesting site – and we haven’t even begun to touch on the amount of archaeology which is there – that I shall be asking English Heritage for it to be scheduled [given legal protection] so it will always stay as a cultural site.” | 3.202613 |
II. THE ENERGY SOURCE FOR AN IRON-RICH, STRATIFIED SUN
On the mass scale of ordinary nuclear matter, i.e., for A !!300 amu, the interplay of repulsive and attractive interactions between nucleons results in the following observations: [Skip all but d.]
d.) A halo cloud of neutrons extending beyond the charge radius in light, neutron-rich nuclei, e.g., the two-neutron cloud at the surface of 11Li outside the core nucleus of 9Li ;
[* There's some more from an online book that I posted to my site at: http://sci2.lefora.com/2010/09/06/3-3/#post1]
III. THE NUCLEAR CYCLE THAT POWERS THE COSMOS
Galaxy Collisions Produce Neutron Stars
Thus, the occurrence of a neutron star in the core of the Sun, in its precursor, and in other ordinary stars [3-9] implies that:
a.) Stellar explosions may expose, but do not necessarily produce, the neutron stars that are seen in stellar debris; and
b.) Neutron stars at the centers of ordinary stars were not made one-at-a-time in SN explosions but were more abundantly made in higher energy fragmentation events that produced our galaxy, probably in a high density region associated with active galactic nuclei (AGN), quasars, or massive neutron stars.
- The origin of these high-density, energetic regions of space is not well known, e.g. [15, 33], but the link between high density and high cosmic activity suggests that gravitational collapse generates massive cosmic objects that are powered by repulsive interactions between neutrons.
[Frequent Galaxy Interactions]
A recent review on galactic collisions notes that “transient galaxy dynamics”, the recurrent collisions and mergers of galaxies, has replaced the classical view that galactic structures formed early in the universe and were followed by slow stellar evolution and the steady build-up of heavy elements .
- Collisions or mergers of galaxies are highly prevalent, with ~1 in 10 of known galaxies engaged in some stage of physical interaction with another galaxy, and nearly all cohesively-formed galaxies, especially spirals, having experienced at least one collision in their lifetime.
- “Galactic collisions involve a tremendous amount of energy. . . . . the collision energy is of order 1053 J. This is equivalent to about 108-9 supernovae, . . .” [reference 33, p. 6]. (Harutyunian notes that the compact nuclear objects produced by such high-energy events display many of the properties seen in ordinary nuclear matter, including the more rapid decay (shorter half-lives) of the more energetic nuclei .)
- Collisions are highly disruptive to all components of the galaxies, including the nucleus, and astronomers observe the collisional energy in many puzzling forms - quasars, gamma ray bursts, and active galactic centers (AGN).
[Supermassive Objects Formation]
The extreme turbulence of active galactic nuclei (AGN) suggests the interactive presence of massive gravitational concentrations, possibly black holes or super-massive neutron stars that fragment [10-15] into the multiple neutron stars that then serve as formation sites of new stars.
- Struck notes in the abstract of his review paper that “Galactic collisions may trigger the formation of a large fraction of all the stars ever formed, and play a key role in fueling active galactic nuclei” [reference 33, p. 1]. Matter is ejected from the massive object in the galaxy core in the form of jets, perhaps caused by an ultra-dense form of baryonic matter in neutron stars or Bose-Einstein condensation of iron-rich, zero-spin material into a super-fluid, superconductor [24, 36] surrounding the galaxy core.
- Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations confirmed the hierarchical link suggested by Arp between collisional systems and quasi-stellar objects - quasars. Quasars are frequently seen grouped, in pairs or more, across active galaxies, and are physically linked to the central galaxy by matter bridges. Isophote patterns indicate that the direction of motion of the quasars is away from their host galaxy, thereby stretching and weakening the matter bridge until the quasar separates completely. The implication is certain—quasars are physical ejecta from AGN, and become nuclei of nascent galaxies. The HST sightings “. . . provide direct evidence that some, and the implication that most, of the quasar hosts are collisional systems” [reference 33, p. 105].
- AGN, quasars, and neutron stars are highly prevalent, observable phenomena in all parts of the known universe. They have two significant properties in common: Exceptionally high specific gravity and the generation of copious amounts of “surplus” energy. In view of the repulsive forces recently identified between neutrons [3-5] and the frequency and products of galactic collisions , we conclude that neutron repulsion is the main energy source for the products of gravitational collapse.
Neutron-rich stellar objects produced by gravitational collapse exhibit many of the features that are observed in ordinary nuclei:
a.) Spontaneous neutron-emission from a central neutron star sustains luminosity and the outflow of hydrogen from the Sun and other ordinary stars;
b.) As a neutron star ages and loses mass, changes in the potential energy per neutron may cause instabilities due to geometric changes in the packing of neutrons (See the cyclic changes in values of M/A vs. A on the right side of Fig. 3 at Z/A = 0);
c.) Spontaneous fission may fragment super-heavy neutron stars into binaries or multiple neutron stars, analogous to the spontaneous fission of super-heavy elements; and
d.) Sequential fragmentation of massive neutron stars by emission of smaller neutron stars may resemble the sequential chain of alpha-emissions in the decay of U and Th nuclei into nuclei of Pb and He.
- The nuclear cycle that powers the cosmos may not require the production of matter in an initial “Big Bang” or the disappearance of matter into black holes. The similarity Bohr noted in 1913 between atomic and planetary structures extends to the similarity Harutyunian recently found between nuclear and stellar structures.
The recent finding of a massive neutron star (CXO J164710.2-455216) in the Westerlund 1 star cluster where a black hole was expected observationally reinforces our doubts about the collapse of neutron stars into black holes. Finally it should be noted that the elevated levels of 136Xe, an r-product of nucleosynthesis seen by the Gaileo probe into Jupiter , lend credence to Herndon’s suggestion that natural fission reactors may be a source of heat in the giant outer planets.
Re: Strengths and weaknesses of various EU solar models.
Postby Reality Check » Wed Mar 28, 2012 4:20 pm- Orrery wrote: The internally powered nuclear fusion model doesn't predict the correct number of observed neutrinos. Only the surface fusion z-pinch model predicts the observed neutrinos.
- The internally powered nuclear fusion model does predict the correct number of observed neutrinos.
- A surface fusion z-pinch model could match the observed neutrinos but cannot explain the lack of gamma radiation from that surface fusion. Having the fusion at the center of the Sun does explain the lack of gamma radiation.
[W]hat has made you ignore the discovery of neutrino oscillation in 2001 and the verification of it since then?
- ETA: Neutrino oscillation observations (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutrino_o ... servations) include solar neutrino oscillation, atmospheric neutrino oscillation, reactor neutrino oscillation and beam neutrino oscillation experiments.
- ETA2: FYI, the fusion process from H to 3He produces 3 gamma rays for each 3He isotope produced. Two are from a positron annihilating with an electron and have an energy of 0.511 MeV. The other is a 5.49 MeV gamma ray.
He said: Keep in mind that in a BIrkeland solar model, the rigid SURFACE is actually UNDER the photosphere and most of the fusion processes created in z-pinches in the "atmosphere" of the sun would occur UNDER the surface of the photosphere, but ABOVE the rigid surface. It's possible in other words that a lot of fusion occurs near the surface of a Birkeland solar model, but gamma rays are typically absorbed by the plasma between that surface and the surface of the photosphere. In other words, you wouldn't expect to observe but a tiny fraction of a gamma rays produced in z-pinches of the solar atmosphere of a Birkeland model, whereas you WOULD expect to see them in ... a Juergens solar model (I would think).
As for gamma rays, if the Earth's atmosphere can shield us from gamma rays, I don't see why thousands of miles of solar atmosphere wouldn't absorb the radiation from solar fusion where Thornhill places it, just beneath the visible surface. (Maybe I'll ask Wal for his comments.)
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 0 guests | 3.004039 |
During the era of Homer and the Trojan War, the island of Zakynthos formed part of the kingdom of Odysseus, king of Ithaca. The prevailing view now is that its founder was Zakynthos, son of Dardanos, King of Troy. The modern historian P.Chiotis, having investigated the work of past historians, came to the conclusion that the settlers who went to Zakynthos were Arcadians from the Arcadian town of Psophis and argued that Dardanos was of Arcadian origin but had migrated to Asia Minor. From there, his son went to Zakynthos, gave his name to the new city, and called its citadel Psophis. The special talent of the ancient inhabitants in music and their cult of the goddess Artemis were characteristic features of the Arcadians and testify to this link.
After the Trojan War, the Zakynthians gained independence from the kingdom of Ithaca and established a democratic political system. The island was ruled democratically for about 650 years. During this period, Zakynthos flourished, its population grew and its first colony, named Zakantha, was established in Spain. During the Persian Wars, the Zakynthians maintained a neutral stance, but in the Peloponnesian War, they were on the side of the Athenians. Zakynthos was then subjugated by the Macedonians and later by the Romans who gave them some autonomy.
Christianity was propagated on the island in 34 AD either by Mary Magdalen who landed there on her way to Rome or, according to another tradition, by St Beatrice. During the Byzantine period, the island suffered many raids by pirates, aspiring conquerors, and barbarians. The Ionian Islands likewise endured many hardships during the Crusades. Zakynthos, together with the other islands, was captured successively by the Venetians, the Franks, the Angevins, the kings of Naples, and the Tocco family, who were princes of Florence. When the rest of Greece was conquered by the Turks, Zakynthos and the other Ionian Islands were ruled by the Venetians (1484).
During the period of Venetian rule, Zakynthos (which the Venetians called Zante) came under the influence of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. The Venetians settled and organized the island's capital, constructed the citadel (Castro), and built infrastructure works; thus the new town began to spread beyond the walls of the Castro, outside the ancient settlement of Psophis and down to the coast, where in time a large commercial port came into being. But the Venetians brought with them the typical aristocratic oligarchic political system and the population was divided into nobles, citizens and common people (popolari). This was why, when French republicans arrived on Zakynthos in 1797, they were welcomed enthusiastically. But the French could not solve the island's social or economic problems either, so the Zakynthians sought new protectors. In 1798 the oligarchy returned under the Russians and the Turks (1799-1807). They were succeeded by officials of the French Empire (1807-1814) and finally by the British (1814-1864). The English conquerors took care to modernize the administration and public works. The new ideas of the times and Greece's independence from the Turks created a strong radical movement, whose activity contributed to the union of Zakynthos and the other Ionian islands with Greece on 21vMay 1864, at which time the Greek flag was definitively raised over the island. | 3.473393 |
The Royal Palm Bug is an unusual insect. It feeds on only one plant, the royal palm, and the female lays one egg a day during the spring, The bugs rarely kill the host tree but the damage they do can be unsightly and they are difficult to control, given the height of mature royal palms. The royal palm bug is completely dependent on the royal palm for food and shelter. Eggs are laid in the spring, inside the folds of new palm leaflets, which serve to protect the eggs until they hatch. Eggs hatch after eight or nine days, and the insects reach adulthood in about a month, about the same time that it takes a royal palm to produce a new leaf.
After hatching, the bugs begin to feed on the new leaf, producing yellow spots on the lower leaf surface. Large numbers of bugs feeding on one leaf can cause it to develop brownish streaks, wilt, and finally turn gray.
The adult royal palm bugs themselves are very small, only about one tenth of an inch (2.5mm) long. Adults have red eyes, are light yellow in color, and have wings. Young bugs are identical in appearance except that they lack wings.
At first sign of the Royal Palm Bug, apply the Once-A-Year Insecticidal Drench w/Merit. | 3.364903 |
Periodically, your child may be screened for scoliosis—a disease that causes curvature of the spine. Many schools screen for scoliosis, as well as pediatricians.
The forward bend test is a test used most often to screen for scoliosis. During the test, the child bends forward with the feet together and knees straight while dangling the arms. Any imbalances in the rib cage or other deformities along the back could be a sign of scoliosis.
If your child's doctor detects any deformity, he or she will prescribe additional tests, such as an x-ray of the spine or other imaging tests. | 3.552536 |
CANTOR ELIHU FELDMAN
Louis Lewandowski Spearheads the Formation of the Modern Jewish Choir
After Solomone Rossi, the most prominent force in Jewish choral music was
Louis Lewandowski.In the year 1840 in the city of Berlin, Louis Lewandowski
became the first choir director in the history of the modern European
synagogue. At the Heiderautergasse Temple, and later at the new
Oranienburgerstrasse Temple, Louis Lewandowski (1821-1894) conducted the
music of his Viennese mentor, the great Cantor Salomon Sulzer, as well as
his own compositions. The music of German synagogues had for centuries
consisted of cantorial recitatives and congregational responses, and
Lewandowski's choral compositions introduced a new and popular type of
Louis Lewandowski was born in the Polish town of Wreschen. At the age of
twelve, after his mother's death and because of his family's extreme
poverty, he left for Berlin where he became an apprentice for Cantor Asher
Lion. Soon Lewandowski's musical ambition reached out beyond the ghetto.
With the help of Alexander Mendelssohn (cousin of the composer Felix
Mendelssohn), Lewandowski became the first Jew to attend the Berlin Academy
of the Arts.
But after showing great promise in the field of secular music (including a
prize for composition from the prestigious Berlin Singakademie), Lewandowski
succumbed to a serious depression
and was forced to relinquish his scholarship and abandon his studies. It was
after his partial recovery that he decided to devote himself fully to the
music of the synagogue.
For twenty-four years Lewandowski worked as choirmaster at the
Heidereutergasse Temple in Berlin, conducting the music of Salomon Sulzer.
But in 1864 the building of the Oranienburgerstrasse Temple, which was
equipped with an organ, offered Lewandowski the opportunity of creating an
entire new service with organ accompaniment, a task never before undertaken.
The culmination of his career came in 1882 with the publication of his
magnum opus, Todah ve-Zimrah (Thanks and Song), a setting of the entire
liturgical cycle for four soloists, cantor and organ.
Lewandowski was among the most significant composers of synagogue music,
reproducing the traditional melodies in a more classical form and giving
freer treatment to the organ music than his distinguished predecessor Cantor
Sulzer had. He exerted a strong influence on Western Ashkenazi synagogue
music through his activities as a teacher at the Jewish Free School and the
Jewish Teachers' Seminary in Berlin. He based his compositions on the
liturgical tradition of the Old Synagogue, on the one hand, and on the East
European tunes he received from immigrant cantors, on the other. His choral
settings followed the style of Mendelssohn's oratorios and works for choir.
Among Lewandowski's principal works are Kol Rina u-Tfillah (1871), Todah
ve-Zimrah for four soloists, cantor and organ (1876-1882), and 18 liturgical
Psalms for solo, choir and organ.
Although Lewandowki's influence dominated choral music in the synagogue, at
the end of the nineteenth century the European Jewish community was divided
into several factions. For some Jews, life would continue exactly as it had
for countless centuries. They had no use for the secular world; the
spiritual realm guided their every move. For others, a more liberal attitude
on the part of civil authorities signaled an opportunity for them to end
their age-old isolation. Many of these individuals attempted to abandon as
much of the Jewish way of life as was possible, and others attempted to
adapt Jewish practices to modern times.
Inspired by the dreams and efforts of such men as Theodore Herzl and Eliezer
Ben-Yehudah,Jews began to assert their identity in national as well as
religious terms, and to reestablish their connection with the ancient
homeland and its language. Seeking new modes of expression,
Jews began to experiment with new forms of cultural nationalism. Among these
were: Jewish Orchestras, Jewish music concerts, and synagogue choirs.
Rumshinsky describes the first Jewish Music concert in his autobiography,
"After the concert was announced, within three days the
tickets were sold out, eagerly snatched up by those Zionists and
In 1899 a Jewish attorney, N. Shapiro, petitioned the governor of Lodz (in
Poland) for permission to establish a Jewish choral organization.
Anticipating the hostile reaction with which government officials greeted
any gathering that smacked of political sedition, Shapiro asserted
that his organization would serve patriotic aims by keeping the young people
of Lodz away from the revolutionary and antigovernment assemblies that were
poisoning their minds. He ended his petition with the words, "Let these
young kids amuse themselves with choral singing, then there will be none of
that revolutionary foolishness on their minds."
Not only did the governor grant the petition, he instructed the police not
to interfere with the choir's rehearsals or to interrupt them in any way
from their patriotic work. Jacob Hartenstein was appointed the choir's
conductor, but after a few rehearsals it became apparent that
someone with more professional expertise would be needed. It was at this
point that the 18-year old Joseph Rumshinksy was engaged to become the first
permanent conductor of the chorus. Rumshinsky later recalled of that first
rehearsal in his autobiography, "When we stood up and
started to sing, a holy musical fire was kindled by the first Jewish choral
ensemble in the world."
But all was not smooth sailing for the fledgling chorus; hostility was
encountered on many fronts. The Zionist activists couldn't understand the
purpose of choral singing as a form of nationalistic expression. The
assimilated Jews derided the "Zhidn" who wanted to waste time singing their
"Mah Yufis" (a derogatory term for Jewish songs). And the Hasidim were
outraged that young men and women would be meeting together in the same
room. But after the first concert, the opposition seemed to melt away. The
chorus was named Ha-zomir which in English means The Nightingale and a
concert was a given in a major concert hall.
Hazomir soon had branches in the major cities of Russia and Poland. In 1914
the first Jewish choirs in the United States were founded: the Chicago
Jewish Folk Chorus, directed by Jacob Schaefer, and the Patterson (New
Jersey) Jewish Folk Chorus, directed by Jacob Beimel.
As immigration of Jews from Eastern Europe increased, Yiddish choruses began
to appear all across the United States. In 1921, Jacob Beimel called a
conference of Jewish singing societies in America and Canada with the
purpose of establishing a central organization of Jewish choral societies
and of publishing choral compositions in Yiddish, Hebrew and English with
Jewish textual content.
Unfortunately, the United Jewish Choral Societies had a brief history,
dissolving after all but three years of existence. But in its final days it
organized the largest Jewish Chorus ever seen in America. On April 15, 1923
a concert was given at the Hippodrome in New York City featuring nine
singing societies, totaling over six hundred singers! With the slackening of
immigration and the assimilation of most Jews into the cultural fabric of
American life, one by one the Yiddish Folk Choruses began to die out. By the
late 1950s only one such organization remained, the Workmen's Circle Chorus
of New York.
But in 1960 a new chapter in the history of the Jewish choral movement began
with the founding of the Zamir Chorale in New York City. Under the direction
of Stanley Sperber, this choir grew from a modest group of folksingers who
had met at a Jewish summer camp to an impressive, disciplined ensemble of
over one hundred voices. To a new generation of Jewish Americans growing up
in the 1960s, searching for their roots and finding pride in the image of
the new state of Israel, this Jewish chorus provided an attractive outlet
for their cultural, social and religious sentiments. Today the movement is
once again fully alive. Through the medium of the choral art, men and women
in cities from Boston to Los Angeles are proudly raising a cultural banner
for the Jewish people. Anyone who wishes to join the Zamir Chorale or just
see them rehearse can see them perform on Sunday evenings between 6:00-8:00
p.m. at the Jewish Theological Seminary. Of course, it would be wise to
contact the choir-master to confirm rehearsal times.
Cantor Elihu Feldman | 3.53407 |
Can I be allergic to the sun?
The answer is yes. All people, no matter what their skin color is, will react to sun in some way or form. For people who have fair skin, the result is pink/ redness, and sometimes a sun burn. For darkly pigmented individuals, the redness may not be appreciated, but the effects of sun can still be seen much after the exposure– in the form of post inflammatory hyperpigmenation. Yet, in few individuals, the reaction to sun is quite striking and exaggerated. In this case, a sun sensitivity may be suspected.
What types of skin diseases result in abnormal reaction to sun?
There are quite a few. The most well understood disease that results in sun sensitivity is Lupus. It is important to understand that there are many types of Lupus, and some of them only affect the skin, whereas other types can have more wide-spread involvement. A skin biopsy and certain blood tests are often needed to make this diagnosis.
More commonly, the cause of polymorphic light eruption. A type of sensitivity that erupts often hours to days after initial sun exposure and is worse during the spring, and seems to get better by the end of the summer. In most cases a diagnosis can be made without a skin biopsy but sometimes may be desirable to firmly establish the diagnosis.
Solar urticaria, Hydroa, phytophoto dermatitis and other rarer diagnoses also exist. A thorough evaluation of sun exposure habits, onset of eruption in relation to exposure patterns are often needed to come up with an acurate diagnosis and treatment plan. | 3.129665 |
The spine’s natural curve allows us to move properly. However, a severe S- or C-shaped curvature of the spine is known as scoliosis. As children grow and develop into their teen years, it is important to monitor their backs to make sure their spine curvature remains normal.
Your child's pediatrician should examine for child scoliosis or teen scoliosis during routine check-ups. Many schools perform scoliosis screenings during the academic year, as well. If your child has a questionable curvature of the spine, a spine specialist may be required for further evaluation.
Child scoliosis and teen scoliosis may be hereditary, but this is not always the case. The most common scoliosis is idiopathic scoliosis, which means the cause of the curvature is unknown. Additionally, teenage girls are more likely to develop scoliosis than teenage boys. Left untreated, scoliosis can worsen and cause other health problems, including improper lung function.
Milder cases of child or teen scoliosis require regular check-ups with a spine specialist to make sure the curve is not worsening.
Patients with more developed curves may need a back brace. Various braces can prevent scoliosis from progressing without making your child or teen uncomfortable. Treating scoliosis with a brace does not necessarily limit sports or other activities. A spine specialist can create a schedule that allows for time without the brace, so children or teenagers can maintain an active lifestyle.
Severe cases of youth scoliosis may require surgery to correct the curve, particularly if your child or teen is still growing. Your spine specialist may also recommend surgery if the curve continues to increase after your child or teen is done growing.
During scoliosis surgery, metal rods, hooks, screws, or wires may be used to straighten the spine and provide support. Most patients are able to walk without a back brace just a few days following surgery. A complete return to activities usually happens within six to nine months.
Each case of youth scoliosis is unique and your spine specialist will work with you to determine the best course of treatment for your child or teen's specific condition and activity level.
Orthopedics is the area of medicine specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of bone, joint, tissue, and nerve disorders, including those in the neck, back, and spine. To contact a spine specialist at Valley Orthopedic Associates call 425-656-5060.
To learn more about scoliosis in children and teens, click here.
To read about scoliosis in adults, click here.
- Physicians Videos
- Patient Resources | 3.360519 |
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On Virginia Dare’s Birthday: Will Her Fate Be The Fate Of America?
Virginia Dare, after whom VDARE.com is named, was born exactly 435 years ago, on August 18, 1587. On the right is an idealized picture of her by 19th century artist J. L. G. Ferris.
“While Jaycee Lee Dugard has been reunited with her family after being abducted 18 years ago, plenty of disappearances remain unexplained.”
“I have always been fascinated by the story of Virginia Dare. She was the first English child to be born in the New World, in August 1587, shortly after the founding of what was to become known as "The Lost Colony" on Roanoke Island off the North Carolina coast. It says something about the mettle of those settlers that any pregnant woman would cross the Atlantic, the equivalent of a lunar expedition at that time—and Virginia’s mother Elenor was no less than the daughter of John White, the colony’s governor.
Perhaps you have to have a daughter yourself to appreciate what White must have felt three years later, when he finally returned from a supply trip to England, much delayed by the Spanish Armada. The smoke he took at first to be proof of occupation turned out to be brushfires. The settlement stood abandoned. Over a hundred settlers, his daughter and granddaughter among them, had vanished. He would never see them again. “
We still don’t know happened to Virginia Dare, or any of the others.
But TIME’s Jaycee Dugard reference reminds us of what could have happened to her.
Jaycee Dugard was kidnapped by Philip Garrido, a California Hispanic sex offender, when she was 11, and held prisoner for 18 years. During her captivity she bore two daughters, who were 11 and 15 at the time of her reappearance. [Kidnapping of Jaycee Lee Dugard, Wikipedia, August 17, 2012]
Something like that may have happened to Virginia Dare. That is, even if all the adults were killed, she may have been kept and raised by an Indian tribe, and even had children. She may have descendants living on the North American continent now.
Virginia Dare is thought to have eventually married into a local Indian tribe, or to have been killed by it—almost equally unfortunate possibilities in the minds of VDARE's writers, who make no secret of their concern about the way America's original Anglo-Saxon stock is being transformed by immigration.
[Too Many Immigrants?, Commentary Magazine, April 2002]
If VDARE.com did champion what David Hackett Fisher called "Albion's Seed" in this way, it would, after all, merely make us the Commentary magazine of the "Anglo-Saxon" minority.
Later, in 2006, I pointed out the comparison with the movie The Searchers, with John Wayne as Ethan Edwards, a Confederate veteran and Indian fighter who spends years looking for his niece, kidnapped by Indians, and eventually “marrying” into the tribe.
I suggested that Jacoby was confusing VDARE.com’s editorial collective with
But really, though all we have is legends, we're talking about a girl who hasn't been seen alive since she was three. Why wouldn't we be horrified at the idea of a girl being kidnapped at the age of three from a civilized family and raised by an Indian tribe? Why wasn't Tamar Jacoby horrified by that?”
Well, I can only suppose it’s because, while our grandparents may have had a horror of “miscegenation”, today we have a horror of having a horror of it.
It seems that, even if it’s case of a girl lost and abandoned in the wilderness, it would be wrong to think that it was bad for her to be married—under the circumstance perhaps I should say “owned by”—an Indian.
It’s a standard threat from black activists and white anti-racists, though.
Man claims it’s against his “creed” to allow black people to bag his groceries. I sure hope this guy has kids because I want to find out how his religion feels about black people bagging his daughter.
[Non Sequiturs, Above The Law, August 17, 2012—scroll down].
If Virginia Dare lived, her own great-great-great grandchildren may possibly be members of North Carolina’s Lumbee tribe, who seem to be what are called “tri-racial isolates” of mixed white, Indian, and African-American descent.
What’s going to happen to the new Virginia Dares—and are we even allowed to worry?
I don’t know, but that’s why we’re here—in the hopes that the historic America can be preserved.
That’s the ultimate answer to the question: “Why VDARE?”
James Fulford [Email him] is a writer and editor for VDARE.com.
Previous Virginia Dare Items
- Happy Birthday, Virginia Dare!
- The Fulford File | Virginia Dare’s Birthday And The New Colonizers
- The Fulford File | Virginia Dare, White Minority?
- The Fulford File | Happy Birthday, Virginia Dare!
- Emotion At Reason
(Nick Gillespie, editor at Reason magazine, doesn't get it.)
- The New World, Virginia Dare, And The Historical American Nation
(Steve Sailer explains what Hollywood did to Pocahontas; and to the colonists who would be the heroes of the movie if Hollywood weren't so PC.)
- Boy Scout Version of the Indian Legend: The White Deer named Virginia Dare
- The Virginia Dare food company's explanation of why they picked her: Virginia Dare, A Legendary Symbol Of Purity
- Fort Raleigh National Historic Site: this is where FDR saw the play, The Lost Colony, still performed there every year.
- The Lost Colony": A Cure for Depression? (The National Park service's take on its play)
- A statue of Virginia Dare, in the Elizabethan Gardens on the North Carolina Coast.
- Marcus Epstein atop a fortunate coincidence. | 3.301576 |
Take a peasant's common conical hat, add a touch of this and a little of that, and you will have the idea, but not quite an authentic Nón Bài ThÖ or "Poetical Leaf" from Central Vietnam. Just a few simple arrangements added to the conical form are enough to give the Vietnamese leaf-covered hat unique features found nowhere else among Asia's various types of conical hats.
Vietnamese girls become milder, more elegant and more delicate when once they put on a hat which gives shelter to their blushing cheeks like a crowing bud protected from sun, rain or rough wind. Now, Vietnamese girls do not like just any conical hat they come upon. The dearest to them is inevitably the one called the "Poetical Leaf ".
Looking at the inside of the hat, when held ,against the light, one finds widely popular, romantic poems, proverbs and old sayings; sometimes there is the image of a temple, palace or tomb.
The hat originated in Hue, the ancient cultural capital of Vietnam, and the birthplace of many eminent literary men. It is true that the place where the hat comes from has been romantically famous with its peaceful HÜÖng (Perfume) River and its majestic Ng¿ Bình (Peace) mountain. Moreover, Hu‰ has been famous for her attractively sentimental, soft-voiced and long-haired girls who often gave inspiration to poets whose creative works have been handed down to the present day. And the "Poetical Leaf" has a prominent place in all that poetical, dreamy and yet scholarly diet of the ancient city.
The hat is meticulously and creatively made from simple materials of nature. Thin wooden pieces with notches are used as a frame to shape the conical form and to hold the hat rims together. All this is done solely by hand, for no machine ever touches a " Poetical Leaf ".
The leaves used to cover the hat are brought from the forest. Then they are exposed to the dew for one night to soften them. When the leaves become dry but still soft they are flattened either by hand or by ironing. Only young leaves are selected. Old or dark ones are discarded. A hat usually consists of 16 to 18 rims made from a special kind of bamboo. The poem and picture frames are made in advance and then attached to the hat between the leaves. 1n order to have a well-made hat, it must be knitted together with a peculiar kind of thread made from the leaves of a special kind of reed.
Finally, the hat is trimmed and painted with a coat of attar oil to keep it clean and smooth.
All the attraction and unique value of the hat depends upon the arrangements of the dexterous craftsman.
The "Poetical Leaf" is not only a symbol of the mysterious dreamlike beauty of the girls in Central Vietnam, but has also become part of the national cultural spirit. | 3.086956 |
Thursday, October 05, 2006
The newest results on my studies of the Waldseemuller Map come from a technique known as a thin-plate spline. You can find more information on splines in the link section of the blog. The spline transformation technique allows for the isolation of scale and shape deformation at various scales and gives both local and global deformatiom information. This type of local information cannot be produced in more global techniques like Polynomial Warping. (see my paper in Cartographica, June 2006, Warping Waldseemüller: A Phenomenological and Computational Study of the 1507 World Map also see Coordinates article in links). A deformation grid can be generated for any area of the map. The regressions produced by these spline models show areas where different geographical sources may have been used.
The figure above shows the values of an eigenvector for the longitudinal displacement for the African sheet of the 1516 Carta Marina. These results have allowed us to compare the 1507 World map with the 1516 map.
The thin plate spline is the two-dimensional analog of the cubic spline in one dimension. It is the fundamental solution to the biharmonic equation.
Given a set of data points, a weighted combination of thin plate splines centered about each data point gives the interpolation function that passes through the points exactly while minimizing the so-called "bending energy." Bending energy is defined here as the integral over of the squares of the second derivatives. Regularization may be used to relax the requirement that the interpolant pass through the data points exactly. The name "thin plate spline" refers to a physical analogy involving the bending of a thin sheet of metal. In the physical setting, the deflection is in the direction, orthogonal to the plane. In order to apply this idea to the problem of coordinate transformation, one interprets the lifting of the plate as a displacement of the or coordinates within the plane. Thus, in general, two thin plate splines are needed to specify a two-dimensional coordinate transformation.
These thin-plate spline studies which will be highlighted in my November 29th talk at the Library of Congress show that both of these important maps are composites and that they come from very different geographical sources. | 3.371003 |
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Under the Köppen Climate Classification climate classification, "dry-summer subtropical" climates are often referred to as "Mediterranean". This climate zone has an an average temperature above 10°C (50°F) in their warmest months, and an average in the coldest between 18 to -3°C (64 to 27°F). Summers tend to be dry with less than one-third that of the wettest winter month, and with less than 30mm (1.18 in) of precipitation in a summer month. SMany of the regions with Mediterranean climates have relatively mild winters and very warm summers.
The Köppen Climate Classification subtype for this climate is "Csb". (Mediterran Climate).
The average temperature for the year in Wedderburn is 53.2°F (11.8°C). The warmest month, on average, is August with an average temperature of 60.1°F (15.6°C). The coolest month on average is January, with an average temperature of 47.4°F (8.6°C).
The highest recorded temperature in Wedderburn is 102.0°F (38.9°C), which was recorded in September. The lowest recorded temperature in Wedderburn is 12.0°F (-11.1°C), which was recorded in January.
The average amount of precipitation for the year in Wedderburn is 79.4" (2016.8 mm). The month with the most precipitation on average is December with 13.9" (353.1 mm) of precipitation. The month with the least precipitation on average is July with an average of 0.4" (10.2 mm). There are an average of 132.0 days of precipitation, with the most precipitation occurring in December with 18.0 days and the least precipitation occurring in July with 2.0 days.
In Wedderburn, there's an average of 0.2" of snow (0.5 cm). The month with the most snow is January, with 0.2" of snow (0.5 cm). | 3.071814 |
The midnight sun is a natural phenomenon occurring in summer months at latitudes north and nearby to the south of the Arctic Circle, and south and nearby to the north of the Antarctic Circle where the sun remains visible at the local midnight. [ Given fair weather, the sun is visible for a continuous 24 hours, mostly north of the Arctic Circle and south of the Antarctic Circle. The number of days per year with potential midnight sun increases the farther poleward one goes. There are no permanent human settlements south of the Antarctic Circle, so the countries and territories whose populations experience it are limited to the ones crossed by the Arctic Circle, e.g.. Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut), United States of America (Alaska), Denmark (Greenland), Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, and extremities of Iceland. A quarter of Finland's territory lies north of the Arctic Circle and at the country's northernmost point the sun does not set for 73 days during summer. In Svalbard, Norway, the northernmost inhabited region of Europe, there is no sunset from approximately 19 April to 23 August. The extreme sites are the poles where the sun can be continuously visible for a half year.
The opposite phenomenon, polar night, occurs in winter when the sun stays below the horizon throughout the day. At the poles themselves, the sun only rises once and sets once, each year. During the six months when the sun is above the horizon at the poles, the sun spends the days constantly moving around the horizon, reaching its highest circuit of the sky at the summer solstice.
Due to refraction, the midnight sun may be experienced at latitudes slightly below the polar circle, though not exceeding one degree (depending on local conditions). For example, it is possible to experience the midnight sun in Iceland, even though most of it (Grímsey being a notable exception) is slightly south of the Arctic Circle. Even the northern extremities of Scotland (and those places on similar latitudes) experience a permanent "dusk" or glare in the northern skies at these times.
] Expert answered|sls23|Points 747|
All Categories|No Subcategories|Expert answered|Rating 0| 9/16/2010 7:45:35 AM | 3.653445 |
To the Moon!
News story originally written on December 9, 1997
The Lunar Prospector will be launched on January 5, 1998. The spacecraft will orbit the Moon, but won't land.
The Prospector's mission will be an exciting one. The main goal of the Prospector is to make a complete map of the Moon's surface. Scientists are also excited to find out if there is frozen water buried on the Moon. If there is, a human base on the Moon will be much easier to build (humans could use that water instead of transporting it from the Earth to the Moon).
The Prospector's mission is expected to last one year. The craft is over 4 feet tall and is shaped like a big drum! Is the Prospector taller than you?
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The Space Shuttle Discovery lifted off from Kennedy Space Center on October 29th at 2:19 p.m. EST. The sky was clear and the weather was great. This was the America's 123rd manned space mission. A huge...more
Scientists found a satellite orbiting the asteroid, Eugenia. This is the second one ever! A special telescope allows scientists to look through Earth's atmosphere. The first satellite found was Dactyl....more
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There is something special happening in the night sky. Through mid-May, you will be able to see five planets at the same time! This doesn't happen very often, so you won't want to miss this. Use the links...more | 3.194566 |
They look like plastic bath toys, but scientists say these tiny new robotic fish mimic the swimming style of real bass or tuna and can manoeuvre into crevices too small for traditional underwater autonomous vehicles.
Schools of the mini robofish could be used to detect pollution or inspect underwater structures such as sunken boats and submerged oil pipes. Unlike other models of robotic fish, which are several feet long and contain hundreds or thousands of parts, the new 12-20cm prototypes have only ten components and cost just a few hundred dollars each.
"The main drawback of traditional robots is that they have way too many parts and are very complex," said mechanical engineer Pablo Alvarado of MIT, who helped design the fish. "Traditional robots may work in the lab, but if you take them into a regular environment, like the ocean, they wouldn't last more than a half hour."
Alvarado and colleagues wanted to try a simpler approach to robot design. Instead of patching together multiple mechanical parts, they built each fish using a single piece of soft, flexible polymer. After assembling the motor inside a special fish-shaped mould, they poured liquid polymer around the mould and let it solidify. That means there's no chance of water seeping in between separate parts and ruining the motor in the fish's belly, Alvarado said.
"These materials are very resilient," he said. "Water can't do much to them and they can survive very high temperatures. Unless another fish eats them, they could go on and on."
Inside each robot's midsection, a motor generates a wave that travels along the polymer body and propels the fish forward. By varying the stiffness of the material along the length of the robot, researchers can control the vibration of the fish's body and mimic swimming motions of bass, trout or tuna.
Real fish can swim at speeds up to ten times their body length per second. So far, the robofish can only go about one body length per second, but researchers say that's still a lot faster than previous models. For now, the fish are also tethered to a power source, but the scientists hope to release a battery-powered version in the near future.
Given the resilience and low cost of the robofish, the researchers think they'll be ideal for long-term monitoring of ports or underwater Navy exploration. But Alvarado says he doesn't want to stop at fish.
"From our perspective, the fish were really just one application," he said. "We wanted to prove that our idea works, that we could make robots from a compliant body and then apply a little force to control the vibrations and mimic motion in nature."
Compared with other types of animal locomotion, Alvarado says the movement of a swimming fish is pretty simple. Next he wants to tackle something more complicated, such as a scuttling salamander or a gliding manta ray. | 3.517507 |
A Darpa-funded team at the University of Massachusetts Amherst
invented "Geckskin" -- a gecko-inspired adhesive that can
safely hold 300kg on a flat surface, or stick a 42-inch plasma
television to a wall.
Geckos have amazed biologists for years, because their feet can
produce an adhesive force that's roughly equivalent to four
kilograms, despite the
lizard only weighing about 140 grams. The animal doesn't slip
and is equally at home on vertical, slanted, even backward-tilting
"Amazingly, gecko feet can be applied and disengaged with ease,
and with no sticky residue remaining on the surface," says
biologist Duncan Irschick. He's a functional morphologist who has
studied the gecko's clinging abilities for over 20 years, and lent
his expertise to the project.
Plenty of researchers -- including material scientists and roboticists
-- have tried to copy the gecko's foot. But previous efforts
synthesise the adhesive power were solely based on the microscopic
hairs on their toes: called setae.
Every square millimeter of a gecko's footpad contains about
14,000 hair-like setae which grip onto surfaces. Unlike a slug, it
doesn't use any liquids or fluids.
But previous efforts to translate those microscopic hairs to
larger scales were unsuccessful. Irschick reckons that there's more
to it than just setae: a gecko's foot has several interacting
elements -- including tendons, bones and skin -- that work together
to produce that magical adhesion.
So the team at University of Massachusetts Amherst practically
ignored setae altogether. Instead, the key innovation of Geckskin
copy the skin and tendon combo of a tokay
The team made an integrated adhesive with a soft pad, which is
woven into a stiff fabric. This allows the pad to "drape" over a
surface, maximising contact. Then the synthetic gecko skin is woven
into a fake gecko tendon, that mimics the lizard's foot's stiffness
and rotational freedom.
The final device is about 40 centimetres square, and can hold a
maximum force of about 300kg while adhering to a smooth surface
such as glass. Give it a slight tug, though, and it will release
from the wall. It can then be reused many times, without leaving
sticky residue or loosing its effectiveness.
"Our design for Geckskin shows the true integrative power of
evolution for inspiring synthetic design that can ultimately aid
humans in many ways," says Irschick. | 3.292621 |
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Of, relating to, or capable of speed equal to or exceeding five times the speed of sound.
- adj. of a speed, aviation equal to, or greater than, or capable of achieving, five times the speed of sound.
- adj. of a speed, aeronautics far enough above the speed of sound so as to cause significant differences in behaviour due to chemical reactions or disassociation of the air.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Aeronautics) Pertaining to or moving at a speed greatly in excess of the speed of sound, usually meaning greater than mach 5. All speeds in excess of the speed of sound are
supersonic, but to be hypersonicrequires even higher speed.
- hyper- + sonic (Wiktionary)
“The tool kit is standard NOW, however the repairs have never been testing in hypersonic flight, then may cause more drag and local to the repair.”
“Hammer invented a device called the hypersonic scan transmitter, which allowed him to take control of Iron Man’s armor.”
“Either they don’t have enough cone explosives or they don’t trust them to do the job, because they have placed something called hypersonic cavitation generators in the tents.”
“Hypersonic flight test in the outback THE dream of flying from Australia to Europe in three hours has taken another step toward reality with the second "hypersonic" flight in the outback.”
“Until now air travel at "hypersonic" speed was the stuff of science fiction.”
“India and Russia have begun some work on a "hypersonic" BrahMos-2 missile capable of Mach 5-7 speed, while two Indian Sukhoi-30MKI fighters are being retro-fitted with BrahMos 'air-launched version.”
“Today's experimental scramjets are not merely supersonic - meaning they fly faster than the speed of sound, or Mach 1 - but hypersonic, meaning they fly at Mach 5 or faster.”
“The military might need a "hypersonic" weapon that would travel in the exoatmosphere to take out a limited number of fleeting targets, he said.”
“Dr. Regina Dugan, director of the Defense Advance Research Projects Agency, spoke at D9 on her program's ongoing efforts to reach homomorphic encryption and hypersonic speed, and opened a window into the techiest part of the U.S. Defense Department.”
“Pentagon researchers launched a hypersonic glider designed to fly at record speed, but quickly lost contact.”
These user-created lists contain the word ‘hypersonic’.
Words associated with the legendary 'Skunk Works' Advanced Development Program at Lockheed Martin.
( open list, randomness )
over or beyond; exceeding; excessively
A roster of adjectives that infrequently surface in typical conversation and writing. Many are dredged from scientific or other technical jargon or sieved from examples of disused archaic forms.
Looking for tweets for hypersonic. | 3.531749 |
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The act of performing or the state of being performed.
- n. The act or style of performing a work or role before an audience.
- n. The way in which someone or something functions: The pilot rated the airplane's performance in high winds.
- n. A presentation, especially a theatrical one, before an audience.
- n. Something performed; an accomplishment.
- n. Linguistics One's actual use of language in actual situations.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The act of performing or the condition of being performed; execution or completion of anything; a doing: as, the performance of works or of an undertaking; the performance of duty.
- n. That which is performed or accomplished; action; deed; thing done; a piece of work.
- n. A musical, dramatic, or other entertainment; the acting of a play, execution of vocal or instrumental music, exhibition of skill, etc., especially at a place of amusement.
- n. Synonyms Accomplishment, achievement, consummation. See perform.
- n. Exploit, feat.
- n. Production.
- n. The act of performing; carrying into execution or action; execution; achievement; accomplishment; representation by action; as, the performance of an undertaking of a duty.
- n. That which is performed or accomplished; a thing done or carried through; an achievement; a deed; an act; a feat; especially, an action of an elaborate or public character.
- n. A live show or concert.
- n. computer science The amount of useful work accomplished by a computer system compared to the time and resources used. Better Performance means more work accomplished in shorter time and/or using less resources
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The act of performing; the carrying into execution or action; execution; achievement; accomplishment; representation by action.
- n. That which is performed or accomplished; a thing done or carried through; an achievement; a deed; an act; a feat; esp., an action of an elaborate or public character.
- n. the act of presenting a play or a piece of music or other entertainment
- n. any recognized accomplishment
- n. the act of performing; of doing something successfully; using knowledge as distinguished from merely possessing it
- n. a dramatic or musical entertainment
- n. process or manner of functioning or operating
- From perform + -ance (Wiktionary)
“However, though she must _sit_ as long as the rest, and though she must join in the _performance_ (for it is a real performance) unto the end of the last scene, she cannot make her _teeth_ abandon their character.”
Advice to Young Men And (Incidentally) to Young Women in the Middle and Higher Ranks of Life. In a Series of Letters, Addressed to a Youth, a Bachelor, a Lover, a Husband, a Father, a Citizen, or a Subject.
“IP networking and routing (both theory and practice) • Core network planning• Performance monitoring• Design and optimization of fixed and mobile wireless networks and packet switched services tuning and optimization• Solid competence in WCDMA/HSPA technology in the PS Core and end-user services area• Experience as system engineer with the End-to-End performance management• Main focus on: • Packet switched services performance• Signaling protocols for”
“It is an outstanding performance from Colin Firth, not especially because it is a departure for him, but because the part itself is such a perfect match for Firth's habitual and superbly calibrated performance register: withdrawn, pained, but sensual, with sparks of wit and fun.”
“Geezer which puts the "art" back in the term "performance art" continues at The Marsh through July 10.”
“These are routine in nature, logically carried out on a regular basis, quantitative in approach and largely the concern of the accounting people, easily mapped onto the existing structure, and geared to motivation and control—hence the label performance control.”
“But the policy response to this inevitable decline in performance is reflexive, not reflective.”
“The mechanism by which exercise enhances brain performance is described in these and other studies as sitting squarely with increased production of BDNF.”
“Both the first and second chart appear to have an improvement in performance from the age of 38 to 45.”
“If you can imagine, usage has become so rampant in these circles that even the term performance enhancement is considered a misnomer and is replaced by the quaint and kitschy "performance enablement.”
“Perhaps the only thing standing between Wright and a Derrek Lee-type leap in performance is his home park.”
These user-created lists contain the word ‘performance’.
additionality, audit trail, accounting standards, auditing standards, general audit obj..., a posteriori audit, a priori audit, above board, acceptable error ..., access rights, accountability, accountable entities and 1283 more...
All words of the Lisbon Treaty
(Persons' names, foreign and grammatical words have been eliminated, MWEs have been split up into individual words. Capitalization has been retained if r...
1. Strictly EU terms with special European meaning used only in the EU
2. Keywords central to the understanding of the EU (people working for the EU are usually able to give thematic...
Group some most said words related to software development
Very basic words for ESL students.
Words pertaining to horses, equines, equestrians
The vocabulary of conference interpreting. I commend this list to those who want to know more about the profession and to those who wish to organize their knowledge about the profession. To aspirin...
words from the cookbook "Nigella Bites" by Nigella Lawson
terms relevant to English grammar
Words that start with "per."
Looking for tweets for performance. | 3.529675 |
Tiger deaths surge in India
World Land Trust (WLT) is helping to address the escalating conflict between people and tigers in India to save the lives of both
In the first six months of 2012, India has lost 48 tigers. If this death toll of this endangered species continues throughout the year it will mark an alarming increase compared with 56 tiger deaths reported in 2010 and 52 in 2011.
According to the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), out of these 48 deaths they report 19 to be clear-cut cases of poaching, with Corbett National Park in Uttarakhand and the Tadoba Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra being the hardest hit.
Wildlife experts fear that poaching deaths are in fact a lot higher, as many are not reported due to a lack of intelligence gathering. There is constant pressure from Far Eastern markets for tiger parts, fuelling the illegal trade and threatening the survival of tigers in the wild.
Yet the illegal animal trade is only one reason that tigers in India are being killed – another is fear. World Land Trust (WLT) is working in partnership with the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) to address the escalating conflict between people and tigers to save the lives of both.
There are over one billion people living in India; the population and development of the country is spiralling at an alarming rate, forcing people to live in ever closer proximity to 65 per cent of the world’s tigers. Conflict is simply inevitable. This was tragically seen between October 2010 and March 2011, when tigers killed seven people from villages settled near the Corbett National Park in Uttarakhand.
The villages are settled within a wildlife corridor, known as the Chilkiya-Kota Corridor, which is part of a traditional route that India’s species – from the tiger to the Asian elephant – use to roam the country in search of food and to find mating partners. Often people and wildlife choose to settle or travel through the same areas for precisely the same reasons – to take advantage of the abundance of food, water sources, or easy terrain. This creates a wildlife conflict zone.
To tackle this escalating crisis, WTI presents a solution to families living in harm’s way by offering them the chance to voluntarily relocate away from the wildlife conflict zone. The positive news is that since the tiger attacks, the villagers are now in favour of moving out of the Chilkiya-Kota Corridor and the Forest and Wildlife Departments has given their full support to WTI. We are now working on turning this area into a protected wildlife corridor and relocating villagers into better housing in a safe location, where they can continue their lives without the constant fear of tiger attacks.
Vivek Menon, Executive Director of WTI, said:
"It is a tragedy that it took the death of seven people before this could be achieved. It is high price to pay and it is a sacrifice being made by India’s poorest people." He added: "You can’t continue to let over one billion people live in such close proximity to 65 per cent of the world’s tigers. These animals need space, and they will kill you in order to get that space. I have only one solution – give them space." | 3.068336 |
The evolution of President Abraham Lincoln's thinking about emancipation is clearly marked out in his speeches and public documents. The evolution of his views about suffrage for black people is harder to trace. The two issues are intimately linked, and to modern eyes they seem one and the same. In Lincoln's time, though, the issues of emancipation and suffrage pulled in different directions, and their history is tangled.
Lincoln did not make a public call for the vote for black men until the last few weeks of his life, and even then his proposal was tentative and compromised. But he had been laying the groundwork for something stronger and more sweeping for a long time. How he laid that groundwork, both in the public mind and in his own, says something about how moral changes come about in our country.
Lincoln entered the Civil War assuming that his paramount responsibility was to restore the Union. Although he was always an opponent of slavery, the promise under which he had been elected was not a pledge to end slavery but a pledge to prevent the admission of more slave states into the Union. It was a policy he believed would compromise the vitality of slavery and ultimately destroy it — and it was a policy Lincoln declined to surrender, despite considerable pressure to do so, as states began to secede from the Union in 1861.
Lincoln understood that the federal constitution of his day did not give him the power to abolish slavery directly, whether by ordinary lawmaking or by proclamation. Only a constitutional amendment, something he was unlikely to gain, could accomplish that end. He did, however, understand that wartime exigencies might make it possible for him to abolish slavery, since the British had used emancipation as a weapon of war against the United States at the time of the revolution, and the French, the British and the Spanish had all used it against each other. But Lincoln was very cautious about using his war powers to abolish slavery. In the first place, he understood that the Supreme Court was dominated by Southern sympathizers. He could not use his war powers to abolish slavery unless emancipation genuinely were required by military necessity. This limited the scope of the emancipation he could proclaim. He could not, for instance, emancipate the slaves in states loyal to the Union, where the war powers argument could not apply. Furthermore, he could not argue merely that emancipation would serve the interest of Union victory but had to argue that the Union could not be restored at all without emancipation.
Lincoln also had to respond to powerful practical constraints. He was wary of testing the loyalty of the four Unionist slave states — Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland and Delaware. In April 1861,the 6th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment was attacked by secessionist mobs as it transferred between train stations in Baltimore while en route to defending Washington, D.C. The regiment had to fight its way out of the city, after which the mayor destroyed the railroad bridges connecting Baltimore to the North. Only Maryland's failure to rise in support of Lee's invasion in September 1862 made Maryland's Unionist loyalty clear.
By then it was clear to Lincoln that there could be no Union without emancipation, and that he, like almost everyone else but Frederick Douglass, had been kidding himself if he believed that the Civil War was about anything other than emancipation. Looking back on his second inaugural address, Lincoln conceded that the understanding of both sides at the beginning of the Civil War had been clouded by self-serving and wishful thinking. The Union had believed that the Civil War was a war about the restoration of the Union and about whether elections could be repealed by force. The Confederacy believed that it was a war about independence and states' rights. But both sides somehow knew, though they did not acknowledge it even to themselves, that the war was ultimately about slavery.
But when did the burden shift from mere emancipation to equality? The connection between the two issues was extremely fraught. The broadening of the voting franchise in the Jacksonian era was accompanied by a dramatic rise in the intensity of racism. So long as racial inequality was merely one among many kinds of inequality that the society tolerated, racism did not need to assume the especially vicious form it assumed during the long descent to war. But as the franchise broadened, giving the poor white an increasing chance of claiming political equality with the rich white, both the poor and the rich white had a stake in intensifying racial inequality.
The rich white used race to appease the poor white, while the poor white used race to extort acknowledgment from the rich white, a state of affairs George Fredrickson long ago named "herrenvolk democracy." Indeed, as Edmund Morgan showed almost 40 years ago, in the colonial era, the poor white only achieved what freedom he had because the rich white had black people to exploit in his stead. Democracy may contradict slavery, but only slavery made it possible.
Herrenvolk democracy is unstable. The poor white, like Pap Finn in Twain or Ab Snopes in Faulkner, always suspects that the rich white either seeks to subject him as he subjects black people, or seeks to elevate black people at his expense.
Andrew Johnson, the most powerful "poor white" in American politics during Reconstruction, for instance, irrationally feared that the freedmen and their former masters would ally themselves against the white non-slaveholders of the South. The rich white, in turn, could not be certain that, without a great deal of angry manipulation, race loyalty really would succeed in trumping class loyalty and keeping the black and white poor from making common cause.
Because herrenvolk democracy was not confined to the South, Lincoln could not have connected emancipation to the franchise without complicating, and perhaps even foreclosing, emancipation itself. Lincoln faced this for the most part by not facing it; if he had to articulate the future he imagined for the freed slaves publicly, he might never have been able to emancipate them at all. Sometimes he employed strategic indirection, suggesting that freed slaves might allow themselves to be colonized in Liberia, Haiti or Central America. But all of these plans were desultory, and even in Lincoln's first mention of colonization, in his Peoria speech of 1854, it is clear he thought colonization was a brutal and impractical idea.
Lincoln also had to address his own feelings about race. Frederick Douglass reported that he never sensed from Lincoln that visceral distaste for black people that he often sensed from white people, even from abolitionists. But Lincoln felt the force of racism and admitted — modestly in the Peoria speech, somewhat more harshly during the debate with Stephen Douglas at Charleston, Ill., in 1858 — that his own feelings balked at racial equality. But even here, he made concessions to racism because he did not see how to defeat it; racism in Lincoln's mind was a bad but intractable habit, something like alcoholism, something that does not just go away once one realizes that it is destructive. Lincoln addressed popular racism, including his own, with the same delicacy and indirection he had used to keep Maryland in the Union.
When, under pressure from Douglas in their 1858 debates, Lincoln denied having any intention of promoting social or political equality across racial lines, he was probably speaking the truth. But the transformation of his views over the war years was possible because he had long since committed himself to arguments that, whether he acknowledged it or not, could not help but raise the question of racial equality.
In articulating the rationale of the Emancipation Proclamation, the president chose grounds that made clear that emancipation could not be the limit of his intentions. Lincoln's explicit rationale for emancipation was to enable him to recruit freed slaves into the Union Army. This apparently modest argument had the advantage of turning on a bona fide military necessity. Furthermore, unlike the argument about making economic war on the Confederacy, this argument had the merit of making emancipation irreversible. Those you have freed in order to make economic war can be re-enslaved in order to rebuild a peacetime economy. But you cannot re-enslave men into whose hands you have put rifles. In addition, in rejecting the idea of provoking a disabling slave insurrection in the Confederacy as an aim of the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln put aside a course of action that would have made it harder for former slaves and former masters to live with each other as peaceful citizens after the war. Most important of all, grounding emancipation upon the idea of recruiting black soldiers made a trumping case for political equality for black men.
In a letter read at a Unionist meeting in Illinois in August 1863 known as the Conkling letter, Lincoln went so far as to contrast what the republic would owe to anti-emancipation Unionists with what the republic would owe to freed slaves who, at risk of life and limb, had saved it with clenched teeth and steady aim. It was black soldiers, far more than white half-hearted Unionists, who proved, in the words of the Conkling letter, "that among free men, there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet." The Conkling letter does not promise the vote. But it does make clear who deserves the vote and who is unworthy of it; it makes it clear that the black soldiers had put the res publica before their lives while squeamish white Unionists stayed home.
What Lincoln implied in the Gettysburg address, but did not say in so many words until the Reconstruction speech he delivered only two weeks before his assassination, was that the Civil War was not merely a test of republics' political stability, of whether the minority can always destroy the constitutional order if it does not have its way. Nor was the war a test of the possibility of self-rule, or of the principles of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The key issue upon which the war turned, Lincoln argued in the first sentence of that speech, was equality, for no republic can flourish unless it risks its survival by facing up to what equality requires.
What changed Lincoln's mind and made him ready to make the case for political racial equality? Usually when you change your mind about something deep, it is because you realize that the new view does better justice to your core values than the view you are leaving behind. Our key ideas are always larger than our compact statements of them can render. They have inexhaustible implicitness: They commit those who honor them to entailments they could not have anticipated when the commitments were made — entailments that sometimes were even explicitly denied.
When Thomas Jefferson wrote that it was a self-evident truth that all men are created equal, he both did and did not will the end of slavery. Lincoln, making similar arguments in the early years of the Civil War, both somehow knew, and did not publicly acknowledge, that the promise of equality is a promise of racial equality. The meaning of the promise of equality continues to become clearer even today, and its furthest implications have yet to be brought to light. Few of those implications could have been in the focal consciousness of the Founding Fathers or Lincoln. But to deny being bound by the entailments of such values is probably a more destructive misreading of the founders' intentions than to acknowledge being bound by them. Both Lincoln and Jefferson were in a position to deny embracing those intentions, and their denials may not have been entirely strategic.
Consider: Even while Lincoln was still denying any intention of seeking racial equality, the values that would later commit him to that course were already at work. In 1858, for instance, Lincoln and Douglas were engaged in a furious debate over the future of Kansas Territory. Neither man wanted slavery to go into Kansas, although for different reasons: Douglas because the people of the territory did not want it, Lincoln because slavery is wrong in itself. In any case, by the summer of 1858, it was clear that Kansas would not welcome slavery after all. So why should it matter whether Kansas rejects slavery for the right or wrong reasons?
In the first place, there was a practical issue: If slavery were rejected for political rather than for moral reasons, a change in economic or demographic circumstances might well revive interest in slavery. But if slavery were morally stigmatized, its chances of revival would be smaller. That practical issue wasn't what moved Lincoln most crucially. Lincoln was willing to bow to necessity and tolerate slavery where it already existed. But failing to stigmatize slavery would ultimately risk the moral prerequisites for democratic rule, since mastership corrupts the culture of freedom, and slaveholders must seek to dominate the politics of any polity in which they play a part. As Lincoln wrote in an 1859 letter: "This is a world of compensations; and he who would be no slave, must consent to have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it." Slaveholding debauches the public mind out of the conviction that all men are created equal; no democracy can long survive the loss of that conviction.
A purely political case does not have racial equality as an implication, since it's not in the nature of a majority to seek rights for minorities that the majority has an interest in exploiting. Lincoln repeatedly and plausibly denied having an investment in racial equality when Douglas accused him of it, and in the tangle of his complicated motives and necessities, I would hesitate to say that he had a mature plan for racial equality. But racial equality was within the penumbra of his intentions, a course of argument he had chosen even while recognizing that this course had a political cost (a cost that included his defeat in the close Senate election in 1858).
Implicit commitments like these, only darkly understood even by those who made them, have the kind of depth that makes it an open question whether they are expressions of conscious agency or the unchosen and inevitable realizations of character and destiny. The force of an implicit commitment was not something felt by Lincoln alone; indeed, part of the course of American history has been the unfolding of new responsibilities made evident to us by a deeper understanding of values — values that are expressed and betrayed under the pressures of political and historical circumstances. That emancipation should lead to suffrage seems obvious in retrospect because connecting them does better justice to the value that underlies emancipation — a sense of the moral equality of all persons — than separating them does. That suffrage for black men should lead to suffrage for women likewise seems inevitable in retrospect, however different the two causes may have seemed to some at the time. That equality among genders should imply equality among sexual orientations seems just as inevitable, however impossible it might have seemed only a year ago.
We do not always understand the meaning of our deepest moral commitments when we make them, because we see them through the haze of our limitations and from within the double-binds of our time and place. Sometimes we explicitly deny what in retrospect seem to be the implications of our own words. As exigencies force us to re-examine our values' meaning, new layers of obligation are required. Our constitution changes because under the pressure of moral crisis we come to understand its underlying values better than we did before. Whenever we have achieved a fresh grasp upon the meaning of democracy, we have done something that seemed impossible beforehand, although once we have done it, our chief question becomes, What took us so long to get around to it? In serving those old values in a new way, we show more loyalty to the founders than we would have shown had we confined ourselves to what was in their focal intention in their time (assuming we are in a position to know that), because what was in their focal intention was always an imperfect, even a distorted, reflection of what most mattered to them. It is only when we have thought anew — and acted anew — that we have disenthralled ourselves and saved our country. But in doing that we have shown why, despite everything, it was and is the last best hope of earth.
John Burt, a professor of English at Brandeis University, is the author of "Lincoln's Tragic Pragmatism."
"Lincoln's Tragic Pragmatism"
By John Burt, Belknap, 814 pages, $39.95 | 4.38776 |
"The interaction between a particular developmental period and seasonal environmental factors substantially [increase] the genetic predisposition for persistent asthma in young children," Adkinson said. "If the authors' hypothesis is correct, an effort to reduce viral infections by environmental controls or use of a vaccine could have a major impact on reducing asthma in children."
So, could timing your child's birth -- and by extension, its conception -- lower his or her asthma risk? Some physicians said the idea was not out of the realm of possibility.
"Will we actually advise our future 'mommies' that have asthma when to conceive, as it may have a clinical impact on those families with high risk for asthma?" asked Dr. Clifford Bassett, medical director of Allergy and Asthma Care of New York.
However, most experts urged that making such a recommendation to asthma patients trying to conceive based on this study alone would be extremely unwise before more studies can confirm these findings.
"More confirmatory work, and the effect of an intervention to reduce viral infections during the first year of life will be required before recommendations for prevention can be made," Adkinson said.
After all, Adkinson reminded, the jury is still out on much asthma research. He pointed to a recent study published in the November 2007 issue of Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, which found that children enrolled in daycare programs who were exposed to viral infections during their first year of life were more protected against the development of asthma.
"So it is important not to jump to conclusions based on this study alone," Adkinson added.
However, if future studies confirm the relationship between contracting a respiratory infection during the first year of life and the development of childhood asthma, Hartert believes it will be a significant step towards reducing asthma rates in the U.S.
"The role of the environment in the development of asthma is not as strong as genes, but we can't change our genes, and we can change things that are in the environment," Hartert explained. "Decreasing the severity or preventing these infections might prevent lifelong chronic disease." | 3.193482 |
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