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Viewpoints: Do we have to choose between cheap or clean energy?
A BBC Radio 5 live survey has suggested that people in the UK support clean energy and think that the government is not green enough. But in times of economic difficulty, people | Viewpoints: Do we have to choose between cheap or clean energy?
A BBC Radio 5 live survey has suggested that people in the UK support clean energy and think that the government is not green enough. But in times of economic difficulty, people say cheap energy is more important than reducing emissions. Do we have to choose between the two?
The survey, carried out by ComRes, showed broad support for clean, "green" energy sources.
More than 60% of people thought that the government was "not green enough when it comes to energy policy", while only 36% stated that they are not bothered by where their energy comes from.
However, in times of economic difficulty, 60% said that it is more important to provide power as cheaply as possible than to reduce carbon emissions.
Do we have to choose between cheap or clean energy? Or are the two compatible?
Several experts give their opinions below.Prof Steve Thomas, energy policy expert at University of Greenwich
Renewable or nuclear sources [are expected to] be significantly more expensive than using gas and coal”
The aims of energy policy are easy to state: energy supplies should be reliable, affordable and clean. Achieving them in the face of rapidly rising prices, the need to phase out fossil fuels to meet climate change goals and the desire to replace monopolies with competitive markets has never been harder.
Prices have increased rapidly in the past decade with electricity prices doubling and gas prices increasing by even more. These increases are accounted for almost entirely by increases in world market energy prices, not the introduction of cleaner sources.
There is little expectation that renewable or nuclear sources will be anything but significantly more expensive than using gas and coal so if we want cleaner energy, there will be additional costs.
Unless a really effective energy efficiency programme can be introduced, the number of households suffering from "fuel poverty" - about 25% at present - will increase further leading to serious health and welfare problems as the most vulnerable households face difficult choices of whether to eat or keep warm.
In a competitive market, reliability is achieved if just enough power stations are profitable to keep the lights on. The companies can be given no responsibility for security of supply and if a power station loses money, it will be closed even if the lights will go out as a result. Since 1990, this unlikely equation has never been tested because the power companies have been so profitable.
Prof Steve Thomas
- Professor of energy policy at University of Greenwich
- Director of research at Public Services International Research Unit (PSIRU)
However, as the utilisation of their gas-fired stations gets reduced by clean sources with priority over them, their profitability is reduced and unless they are given additional payments outside the market just to be there - so-called capacity payments - they will be retired and security of supply will be in doubt.
The government is currently wrestling with this problem through the Energy Bill currently making its way through Parliament, trying to find a solution that ensures security of supply, but which can still be presented to the public as being a competitive market.Prof Nick Pidgeon, environmental psychologist at Cardiff University
The lowest cost is not necessarily what people are asking for. 'Affordability' is a slightly different idea”
Using the words "at a time of economic difficulty" is situating the question very much in the present, which we all know is very difficult for many people.
That is different to the more generic question of where our energy should go in the future.
And that's exactly what we found in our research. Currently, in terms of people's views on policy priorities, affordable power was ranked first above dealing with climate change.
But in the long term, people were fully aware that compromises might have to be made in the short term. They understand you have to be pragmatic and you can't deliver a green energy system overnight.
I don't think holding those two positions is entirely contradictory.
What we do know is that since the economic recession, in the US and the UK, concerns about the environment have become less salient for people.
The economy and finance has shot up [in importance to people] since 2008, and the environment went down.
So the economic recession has suppressed temporarily people's concerns about the environment. But concerns about the environment ebb and flow over time, so there's absolutely no reason to suggest it won't come back again.
The "economic difficulty" question is being asked in a time when the environment is out of sight and out of mind.
Prof Nick Pidgeon
- Member of the UK Department for Energy and Climate Change's Science Advisory Group (SAG)
- Professor of environmental psychology and director of the understanding Risk Resea |
a care plan book or disease cross reference to nursing diagnoses is only giving you suggestions for nursing diagnoses. these suggestions might tweak your thinking, but it is still up to the nurse to determine what nursing problems you have to deal with in the first place | a care plan book or disease cross reference to nursing diagnoses is only giving you suggestions for nursing diagnoses. these suggestions might tweak your thinking, but it is still up to the nurse to determine what nursing problems you have to deal with in the first place with this patient and no book is going to be able to tell y |
(PhysOrg.com) -- After five years of studying decomposing pig carcasses, Victoria University (New Zealand) graduate Rachel Parkinson could hold the key to determining the time since death in forensic cases.
"Human decomposition is a little-understood process | (PhysOrg.com) -- After five years of studying decomposing pig carcasses, Victoria University (New Zealand) graduate Rachel Parkinson could hold the key to determining the time since death in forensic cases.
"Human decomposition is a little-understood process and even less is known about the microbiology involved. My research aimed to investigate the bacterial species that decompose human bodies and determine whether they can tell us when that person died."
As part of her PhD research, Dr Parkinson allowed used a variety of chemistry and molecular biology methods to explore how and when bacterial communities change during the course of decomposition of pig carcasses.
She also spent three months in the United States at the University of Tennessee Forensic Anthropology Facility, where she was able to work with human cadavers.
"This research showed that the bacteria from the body itself do a lot of the decomposing, with bacteria from the surrounding environment also playing a part. The pig carcasses and human cadavers had very similar decomposition bacteria, suggesting that using pig carcasses as models for human decomposition is a good option. This means a lot more research can be performed here in New Zealand."
Dr Parkinson says her research could have far-reaching implications for forensic post mortem investigations.
"By discovering that different bacterial species are associated with different stages of decomposition, we now believe that the development of a forensic post mortem interval estimation tool based on bacterial succession is possible in the near future."
Having a better understanding of the complex process of decomposition will also help forensic investigators interpret death scenes more accurately.
Dr Parkinson is currently working at the Environmental Science Research (ESR) in another field of forensics, but says she is keen to further her research in this area.
Dr Parkinson, who received funding support from ESR and Victoria University, graduated last December with a degree in Biological Sciences. Her supervisors were Dr Jacqui Horswell and Dr Geoffrey Chambers.
Explore further: Microbial detection array detects plague in ancient human remains |
It's Project 4: Missing Children, a day Channel 4 is dedicating to protecting your family and finding missing kids from our area. We want to give parents and children the tactics dangerous predators have used to lure kids to go with them | It's Project 4: Missing Children, a day Channel 4 is dedicating to protecting your family and finding missing kids from our area. We want to give parents and children the tactics dangerous predators have used to lure kids to go with them.
Following the abduction and murder of Cherish Perrywinkle last month, Channel 4 spent time at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in South Florida. With all the information the center has gathered over the years, and will all the children they've helped find, we wanted to know just how abducted kids were lured away.
The center says of the incidents in which the suspect used a known lure, the five most utilized lures were:
- Offering the child a ride
- Offering the child candy/sweets
- Asking the child questions
- Offering the child money
- Using an animal (offering, looking for, or showing)
According to government statistics, in 80 percent of abductions by strangers, the first contact between the child and the abductor occurs within a quarter mile of the child's home. |
Sacred Books and Traditions of the Yezidiz, by Isya Joseph,, at sacred-texts.com
The Yezidis are endogamic. They forbid union between the secular and the religious classes, as also within certain | Sacred Books and Traditions of the Yezidiz, by Isya Joseph,, at sacred-texts.com
The Yezidis are endogamic. They forbid union between the secular and the religious classes, as also within certain degrees of relationship. A šeiḫ's son marries only a Šeiḫ's daughter; so pirs' sons, pirs' daughters. A layman cannot marry a šeiḫ's or a pir's daughter, but he may take for a wife a ḳawwal's or a kochak's daughter; and ḳawwals' or kochaks' sons may marry laymen's daughters. But if a layman marries a šeiḫ's or a pir's daughter, he must be killed. Marriage is for life, but it is frequently dissolved, divorce being as easy to obtain among them as among Moslems. When a man wants to get rid of his wife, he simply lets her go. Polygamy is allowed, but usually confined to rich men, who generally have two wives. The number of wives is limited to six, except for the amir. A man must have money or cattle in order to be able to get married. The price is called ḳalam. A respectable girl will not sell herself at a low price. Parents get rich if they have several pretty girls; they are the father's property. The ḳalam,
dowry, is usually thirty sheep or goats, or the price of them. The man must give presents to the relatives of his bride, parents, brothers, etc. If a couple love each other and cannot marry because the man has no money to pay his sweetheart's father, then they elope. They usually make arrangements before elopement as to where they will stay for a few weeks to escape detection. Some strong men accompany them when they elope. The father of the girl with his relatives follow. If they catch the fugitives, bloodshed may ensue. But if they succeed in escaping, they return after some time and are then forgiven. According to a Kurdish proverb everything is pardoned the brave.
The couple choose one another, The girl informs her mother that she loves so and so. The latter informs her husband. The father acquaints the father of the young man with the fact. When they agree, and the daughter is given to the young man, his kindred come to the house of the bride's father on an appointed day, and give the girl a ring; then they dance, rejoice all night, play, wrestle, and eat black raisins. After that the young couple are allowed to arrange nuptial meetings in the company of a matron, who is presented with a gift.
When the time of marriage comes, the family of the bridegroom invites the relatives. Each takes with him a silk handkerchief as a present for the bride. For three days they drink "ărak," sing and dance to the sound of flutes and drums at the house of the young man. After that, the women, two by two, ride on
horseback together, and likewise the men. The men take with them their children, who ride behind them. In this manner they go to the bride's house, discharging their guns as they proceed. When they reach the house they all discharge their guns together. Hearing the sound, the father comes out and according to the custom, asks the visitors what they want. They respond "Your daughter," all answering at once. Then he goes in and tells his wife. After putting upon their daughter a scarlet ḫailiyah (veil), which covers her from head to foot, they bring her out. Everyone of the children takes a spoon from the bride's house and sticks it in his turban. After being brought to the house of the bridegroom, the bride is kept behind a curtain in the corner of a darkened room for three days, and the young man is not allowed to see her during this period.
On the third day, the bridegroom is sought early in the morning, and led in triumph by his friends from house to house, receiving at each a small present. He is then placed within a circle of dancers, and the guests and bystanders wetting small coins stick them to his forehead. The money is collected as it falls in an open handkerchief held by his companions. After this ceremony a number of the young men, who have attached themselves to the bridegroom, lock the most wealthy of their companions in a dark room until they are willing to pay a ransom for their release. The money thus taken is added to the dowry of the newly married couple.
On the evening of the third day the šeiḫ takes the bridegroom to the bride. Putting the hand of one in that of the other, and covering the couple with a ḫailiyah, he asks the bride, "Who are you?" "I am the daughter of so and so," responds she. Then he asks the bridegroom the same question. After receiving an answer, the šeiḫ asks, "Will you take this young woman as a wife," and "Do you want this young man as a husband?" After hearing each say "Yes:" the šeiḫ marks their shoulders and foreheads with red ink, and hands them a stick. As each holds one end of it, he asks them to break it in the middle, leaving one-half in the hand of each. Then the šeiḫ says, "So you remain one until death breaks you asunder."
When this is done, he takes the couple to a too and locks them in, waiting at the door. After a while the bridegroom knocks at the door three times. Understanding the signal, the priest discharges his gun |
total biodiversity of an area can be broken down into two hierarchical
The number of functional types of organisms (e.g. carnivorous
animals, Nitrogen (N)-fixing plants) or ecosystems (coniferous
forest, prairie | total biodiversity of an area can be broken down into two hierarchical
The number of functional types of organisms (e.g. carnivorous
animals, Nitrogen (N)-fixing plants) or ecosystems (coniferous
forest, prairie, tundra, marine intertidal).
The number of functionally equivalent organisms/ genotypes
within each functional type (e.g. the number of species of wood-rotting
fungi). These organisms perform the same role in an ecosystem
(e.g. moose and caribou are both large herbivores in boreal ecosystems;
mussels and tunicates are both sessile marine filter feeders).
(Huston, Ch.1 )
The basis for this
division is that mechanisms that drive the diversity of functional
types are different from the mechanisms that drive diversity among
functionally equivalent organisms. For example, competition plays
a significant role in determining diversity of functionally equivalent
organisms but has little influence on functional diversity in
an ecosystem. (Huston,
Many other factors
will influence the diversity of a system besides competition.
These include evolutionary changes, geology, human history, environmental
variability, disturbance and random population fluctuations. (Huston,
These factors are further
discussed in Part 3: Processes and Patterns
have developed ways to characterize species diversity in a given
diversity or alpha-diversity: refers to a group of organisms
interacting and competing for the same resources or sharing the
same environment. Measured
as # of species within a given area. (Huston
p.72; Whittaker, 1960,
1967; Fisher et al., 1943)
or beta-diversity: refers to the response of organisms to
spatial heterogeneity. High beta-diversity implies low similarity
between species composition of different habitats. It is usually
expressed in terms of similarity index between communities (or species
turnover rate) between different habitats in same geographical area
(often expressed as some kind of gradient). (Whittaker
or gamma-diversity (Whittaker
from figure 5.6 in Perlman, D.L. and Adelson, G., 1997. by permission
of Blackwell Science, Inc.
of species globally
How many species are there
on Earth? There is no definitive answer
. Estimates fall between 1.5 and 30 million species of plants and animals.
Another recent estimate claims that a more realistic number is 6 million.
What we do know is
that between 1.5 and 1.8 million species have been identified. The majority
of species remain unidentified. Of the 34 known |
In some cases, the bacteria that accumulates on our the surface of our smartphones can make us sick. But now researchers from the University of Wisconsin are seeing if the inside of smartphones can actually prevent flu outbreaks.
UW-Madison professor Dr | In some cases, the bacteria that accumulates on our the surface of our smartphones can make us sick. But now researchers from the University of Wisconsin are seeing if the inside of smartphones can actually prevent flu outbreaks.
UW-Madison professor Dr. Ajay Sethi and doctoral student Christine Muganda want to know if a smartphone app and social engagement can better predict a flu outbreak than the old-school method of clinic-based reporting.
Students on the UW campus are encouraged to download and use an app called OutSmart Flu. The app asks a few basic questions like, “how are you feeling,” and in exchange students can collect points toward a raffle drawing for their participation.
Using the survey, which was custom built by Seattle-based Survey Analytics, the researchers will have access to crowd-sourced data and they’ll be able to watch flu patterns as they happen in real time.
“Our app might encourage those on campus to be more aware of when the virus is going around, to encourage taking precautions like washing hands a little longer or making an extra effort to get the flu shot,” Dr. Sethi said in a press release.
Traditionally, the CDC has tracked flu outbreaks based on the number of patients walking into clinics with influenza-like symptoms. But the UW researchers point to a Google study that they claim identified epidemic flu in the U.S. a full two weeks before the CDC could.
However, without context, those Google studies based solely off data weren’t exactly better than what the CDC could report from actually seeing patients in person. It will be interesting to see if Sethi and Muganda find better success with OutSmart Flu, which is available on iOS and Android. |
Skip to comments.Tropical Cyclone Rusty
Posted on 02/26/2013 7:07:47 AM PST by ExxonPatrolUs
Australia's most dangerous tropical cyclone of the season so far is Tropical Cyclone | Skip to comments.Tropical Cyclone Rusty
Posted on 02/26/2013 7:07:47 AM PST by ExxonPatrolUs
Australia's most dangerous tropical cyclone of the season so far is Tropical Cyclone Rusty, which has intensified to Category 1 strength and is lumbering southeastwards towards the northwestern coast of Australia at 6 mph. Rusty is expected to intensify further into a powerful Category 3 storm, and is predicted to make landfall near the town of Port Hedland (population 15,000) on Tuesday near 18 UTC(1 pm EST in the U.S.) Rusty formed on Saturday evening when westerly winds blowing near the Equator combined with easterly winds blowing south of New Guinea to create an unusually large tropical storm with a huge, 100-mile diameter cloud-free center. Ordinarily, a storm this large takes a long time to wind up, but Rusty intensified quickly, taking advantage of low wind shear of 5 - 10 knots, and near-record warm ocean temperatures of 31 - 32°C (88 - 90°F). It's not often that a tropical cyclone gets 31 - 32°C waters to feed off of; these temperature are about 1.5°C (2.7°F) warmer than average for this time of year. The hot ocean temperatures are largely due to Australia's hottest month in its history--the nationally-averaged monthly maximum temperature during January 2013 was the highest ever recorded. For the waters off the northwest Australian coast (15°S - 20°S, 115°E -120°E), only two years since ocean temperature records began in 1960 have seen February ocean temperatures this warm (1.57°C above average in 2005, and 1.62°C above average in 1983.) The warm waters also extend to great depth; the tropical cyclone heat potential (TCHP) in this region is over 90 kJ/cm**2, a value commonly associated with rapid intensification. With its slow movement, large circulation, and near-record warm waters to feed off, Rusty is going to dump some prodigious rains on the coast of northwestern Australia over the next few days. Radar out of Port Hedland shows very heavy rains already affecting the coast, and sustained wind as high as 38 mph have been observed there today.
Figure 1. Radar image of Rusty showing the large cloud-free center and an intense band of precipitation to it southwest moving ashore over the coast of Australia near Port Hedland. image credit: Bureau of Meteorology.
Figure 2. Tropical Cyclone Rusty at 0555 UTCon February 24, 2013 as seen by NASA's Aqua satellite. At the time, Rusty was a tropical storm with 50 mph winds, and had an usually large cloud-free center more than 100 miles in diameter. Image credit: NASA.
Rusty the strongest tropical cyclone to affect Australia so far in 2013 It's been a rather quiet tropical cyclone season for Australia so far in 2012 - 2013; only two weak tropical storms have hit the country. Tropical Cyclone Peta hit the northwest coast on January 23 as a tropical storm with 45 mph winds. Peta dumped heavy rains of 4 - 10" (102 - 254 mm) in the Port Hedland area, very close to where Rusty is expected to make landfall. Peta's rains caused widespread flooding but no major damage. More serious were the rains from the remnants of Tropical Cyclone Oswald, which hit the Queensland coast in Northeast Australia on January 21 as a tropical storm with 40 mph winds. The remnants of Oswald pushed southwards along the coast and generated record rains that caused massive flooding in Queensland. Six people died and damage was estimated at $2.5 billion. The heaviest rains fell near Tully, where approximately 1 meter (39") of rain fell in 48 hours.
Figure 3. Tropical Cyclone Oswald at 0425 UTCon January 21, 2013. Oswald hit Queensland, Australia as a tropical storm with 40 mph winds. Image credit: NASA.
In Australia, a cyclone is what we call a hurricane.
Hurricane...cyclone...typhoon,I think they're all pretty much the same thing,huge ugly storms that originate in tropical/semi-tropical waters and travel God-knows-where. |
Semiconductor electroluminescence was first reported by H.J. Round in 1907, and the first light-emitting diode (LED) was reported by O.V. Losev in 1927. Not until the birth of | Semiconductor electroluminescence was first reported by H.J. Round in 1907, and the first light-emitting diode (LED) was reported by O.V. Losev in 1927. Not until the birth of semiconductor physics in the 1940s and 1950s, however, was scientific development of technologies for light emission possible.
For solid-state lighting (SSL), using semiconductor electroluminescence to produce visible light for illumination, the seminal advances were
- demonstration of red light emission by N. Holonyak in 1962; and
- demonstration of a bright blue LED by S. Nakamura in 1993, along with earlier materials advances by I. Akasaki and H. Amano.
Here we briefly discuss these two advances and their subsequent evolution; more details can be found in “Light Emitting Diodes” and
Red LEDs: Ever increasing efficiencies and powers
“Solid-state lighting: ‘The case’ 10 years after and future prospects.”
Blue LEDs: Enabling white light
As mentioned above, the first seminal advance in visible light emission was in the red portion of the spectrum, and this is the LED color that dominated the early history of LEDs. The first commercial LED lamps were introduced in 1968: indicator lamps by Monsanto and electronic displays by |
Most Active Stories
Thu August 23, 2012
Dr. Bill Ripple, Oregon State University – Large Predators and Ecological Health
In today’s Academic Minute, Dr. Bill Ripple of Oregon State University explains the important role large | Most Active Stories
Thu August 23, 2012
Dr. Bill Ripple, Oregon State University – Large Predators and Ecological Health
In today’s Academic Minute, Dr. Bill Ripple of Oregon State University explains the important role large predators play in the health of any ecosystem.
Bill Ripple is Director of the Trophic Cascades Pr |
Neoconservatism: a CIA Front?
This article first appeared in 1997 in The Rothbard-Rockwell Report.
Not long after the Central Intelligence Agency was founded in 1947, the American public and the world were subjected to | Neoconservatism: a CIA Front?
This article first appeared in 1997 in The Rothbard-Rockwell Report.
Not long after the Central Intelligence Agency was founded in 1947, the American public and the world were subjected to an unprecedented level of propaganda in the service of US foreign policy objectives in the Cold War. The propaganda offensive of the government centered around its obsession with securing the emerging US-dominated world order in the wake of the Second World War. It was a time when Europe lay in ruins and when subservience to US planners, in government and business, was the order of the day.
Although it is now widely conceded that there was never any serious threat of a Soviet invasion of Western Europe, let alone of the United States, the menace of the Soviet Union was the pretext underlying discussion of foreign policy. To pay for the Cold War, Harry Truman set out, as Arthur Vandenberg advised, to "Scare the Hell out of the American people." A daunting task, considering the years of pro-Soviet accolades that had been previously flowing from the executive branch.
Nonetheless, the Soviet threat served as a useful chimera to keep the masses in line. What were the targets singled out for demonization in the Cold War propaganda campaign? One of the chief aims of the government was to discredit dangerously parochial attitudes about the desirability of peace. It was also thought necessary to inoculate the public, particularly in Europe, against the virus of "neutralism."
Further, since the American government had successfully entrenched the military industrial complex as a permanent feature of American life, US planners were eager to discredit the idea of "disarmament," which meant not only a rejection of the techniques of mass murder developed and perfected by the Allied powers in the Second World War, but also a return to the pre-war days when the union of government and business was more tenuous, government-connected profits were fleeting, and market discipline provided a check on consolidation.
The degree to which the press participated as a partner in the rhetoric of the Cold War was no accident. Media penetration was a major facet of CIA activities in both the foreign and domestic context. At its peak, the CIA allocated 29 percent of its budget to "media and propaganda." The extent of its efforts are difficult to measure, but some information has slipped through the shroud of secrecy.
One report notes that the media organizations funded by the CIA in Europe included: the West German News agency DENA (later the DPA), the writers association PEN in Paris, a number of French newspapers, the International Forum of Journalists, and Forum World Fea |
noun[mass noun] North American
- The fare for travel on a bus, underground train, or similar public transport.More example sentences
- It was fifteen minutes’ walk from the store, and by taking this walk twice a day she saved | noun[mass noun] North American
- The fare for travel on a bus, underground train, or similar public transport.More example sentences
- It was fifteen minutes’ walk from the store, and by taking this walk twice a day she saved carfare and the price of luncheon.
- Therefore, he demanded the return of the 50 cents admission, 10 cents carfare, and 30 cents for the time he spent at the ballpark.
- When he arrived in 1894, the story went, Little walked twenty miles to the Aikman ranch to save carfare.
More definitions of |
Dried Beans & Legumes
Red lentils, kidney beans, and black-eyed peas are chock full of cancer-fighting potential. Top on the list is folate, a B
vitamin that reduces the risk of pancreatic cancer. | Dried Beans & Legumes
Red lentils, kidney beans, and black-eyed peas are chock full of cancer-fighting potential. Top on the list is folate, a B
vitamin that reduces the risk of pancreatic cancer. Resistant starch and fiber are two more potential weapons, something gut
bacteria use to produce compounds that protect colon cells. But the best news to date: Preliminary reports show people who
routinely include beans, lentils, and dried peas at meals have a reduced risk of breast and prostate cancer.
Recipe: Red Lentil-Rice Cake with Simple Tomato Salsa |
Think You Got it Down?
Test your knowledge again:
Ode to My Socks: This Poem Knocks My Socks Off Quiz
Think you’ve got your head wrapped around Ode to My Socks? Put your knowledge to
| Think You Got it Down?
Test your knowledge again:
Ode to My Socks: This Poem Knocks My Socks Off Quiz
Think you’ve got your head wrapped around Ode to My Socks? Put your knowledge to
the test. Good luck — the Stickman is counting on you!
Q. What goes down in the first stanza of the poem?
the socks come to life
the speaker gets some new socks
the speaker knits some socks
the speaker throws away some old socks
Q. What happens in the second stanza?
Maru Mori takes the socks back
the socks turn the speaker's feet into different animal
the speaker makes a sock puppet
the speaker gets a hole in his new sock
Q. And the third stanza? What's it about?
how the socks were made
the moral of the poem
the speaker's cold feet
the speaker's desire to save the socks and keep them nice
Q. Surprise question: What does the last stanza contain?
the surprise ending
Q. How is this ode different from a traditional one?
It praises an ordinary object.
It uses the word "I."
It's not really an ode. |
Kawasaki disease linked to wind currentsNovember 10, 2011
Kawasaki Disease (KD) is a severe childhood disease that many parents, even some doctors, mistake for an inconsequential viral infection. In fact, if not | Kawasaki disease linked to wind currentsNovember 10, 2011
Kawasaki Disease (KD) is a severe childhood disease that many parents, even some doctors, mistake for an inconsequential viral infection. In fact, if not diagnosed or treated in time, it can lead to irreversible heart damage. After 50 years of research, including genetic studies, scientists have been unable to pinpoint the cause of the disease.
Now, surprising findings of an international team of scientists organized by Jane C. Burns, MD, professor and chief, Division of Allergy, Immunology, and Rheumatology at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine's Department of Pediatrics and Rady Children's Hospital-San Diego, suggest that KD cases are linked to large-scale wind currents that track from Asia to Japan and also traverse the North Pacific.
"Our findings suggest an environmental trigger for Kawasaki disease that could be wind-borne," Burns said.
Signs of KD include prolonged fever associated with rash, red eyes, mouth, lips and tongue, and swollen hands and feet with peeling skin. The disease causes damage to the coronary arteries in a quarter of untreated children and may lead to serious heart problems in early adulthood. There is no diagnostic test for Kawasaki disease, and current treatment fails to prevent coronary artery damage in at least one in 10 to 20 children and death in one in 1,000 children.
While seasonality of the disease has been noted in many regions - particularly in Japan, the country of highest incidence for KD - the search for factors that might contribute to epidemics and fluctuations in KD occurrence has been elusive. A study of KD cases in Japan since 1970 showed three dramatic nationwide epidemics, each lasting several months and peaking in April 1979 (6,700 cases), May 1982 (16,100 cases) and March 1986 (14,700 cases). These three peaks represent the largest KD epidemic events ever recorded in the world.
To investigate a possible influence from large-scale environmental factors, researchers including Daniel R. Cayan, Climate Atmospheric Science and Physical Oceanography (CASPO) at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, and Xavier Rodo and Joan Ballester, of the Institut Català de Ciències del Clima and the Institució Catalana de Recerca (IC3) in Barcelona, Spain, investigated a set of atmospheric and oceanographic measures, which revealed a link to pressure patterns and associated wind flow from the surface to mid-tropospheric atmospheric levels during the summer months prior to onset of the epidemics.
"The Japanese dataset revealed that a low number of KD cases were reported prior to the epidemics, a period coinciding with southerly winds which blew across Japan from the Pacific Ocean during the summer months," said Rodo, the study's first author. "However, the numbers rap |
Popular Science Monthly/Volume 16/April 1880/Curious Ways of Getting Food
|←Experimental Legislation||Popular Science Monthly Volume 16 April 1880 (1880)
Curious Ways of Getting Food
By Herman Le | Popular Science Monthly/Volume 16/April 1880/Curious Ways of Getting Food
|←Experimental Legislation||Popular Science Monthly Volume 16 April 1880 (1880)
Curious Ways of Getting Food
By Herman LeRoy Fairchild
|The Pleasure of Visual Form I→|
TO eat and to be eaten would seem the necessity and the end of every living thing. Doubtless every plant may serve as food for some animal; and there is no animal which may not be meat for some other animal. Nature is a vast hunting-ground, where man and beast and every animated being are legitimate prey. Not alone do the carnivorous animals eat the herbivorous. The blood-loving tiger is itself the prey of parasites. Even proud man is living booty. Animals within animals; life within life. There is literal truth in the satirical passage:
"So, naturalists observe a flea
Has smaller fleas that on Lira prey;
The variety of animal food is, therefore, as broad as animated nature. Hence, we find great variety of means and methods for procuring subsistence. Particularity in food implies especial or efficient means of getting that food. The strange appendages of animals, their form, color, and habits, have to do more with the prehension of food than with any other function. It will be interesting to briefly survey the animal kingdom with reference to this marvelous adaptation. Its origin we will not discuss.
The simplest manner of procuring food is shown by the tapeworm and some other intestinal animals. These feed on the nutritive fluid prepared in the alimentary canal of the animals which they inhabit; and, being destitute of mouth and stomach, absorb the already digested food directly through the skin or body-walls. Probably this absorption does not require will or effort on the part of the parasite, but takes place simply by the physical action known as osmose. It is thus equivalent to the last step in the digestive process of higher animals. Some parasites, as the larva of the tapeworm, which live in the muscles and tissues, imbibe the animal juices by the walls of the body; but here the process as a whole is slightly higher, for this food probably requires more elaboration or digestion.
Any special modification or organ for procuring food is a great advance beyond the method already described. Liquid food is more easily prehended than solid, yet the means are various and remarkable. Even the simplest organs are wonderful in their structure and action.
Those butterflies and moths which take any food at all have a long, slender tube for pumping the nectar of flowers. This "proboscis" is frequently much longer than the insect's body, and when not in use is beautifully coiled under the head. The hummingbird has a long, slender beak for the same purpose, which in some species is curved to fit certain flowers, it is said. Bees and flies lap their food, the former with a hairy tongue, the latter with a proboscis knobbed at the end. The sucker of the leech is furnished with three little saws for cutting the skin of its prey in order to draw its blood. A barbed tube is used by the louse; while the irrepressible mosquito is provided with a whole set of surgical instruments. Its proboscis, which seems so simple to the unaided eye, is found to be a "flexible sheath inclosing six distinct pieces, two of which are cutting-blades or lancets, two notched like a saw with reverted teeth, a tubular canal, and the central one an excessively acute point, which is also tubular."
It is interesting to know how the insect uses so many instruments, as we have all had the pleasure of being the subjects of her surgical skill (for only the female is admitted to the practice of bloodletting). "When the attack is made, the gnat (or mosquito) brings the tip of the organ within its sheath to press upon the skin into which it presently enters, the sheath remaining without and bending into an angle as the lancets descend. When the weapon has penetrated to its base—a distance of one sixth of an inch or more—the lancets move laterally and thus cut the flesh on either side, promoting the flow of blood from the superficial vessels; at the same moment a highly irritative fluid is poured into the wound, which has the effect of diluting the blood and thus rendering it more capable of flowing up the slender central tube into the throat of the insect."
Many aquatic animals, especially the low, fixed forms, depend for subsistence upon the minute organic particles floating in the water. But if the animal can not move in search of food it must have some means of bringing the food to itself. This is frequently accomplished by vibrating hair-like appendages, called cilia, which produce currents in the water. In that immense aggregation of m |
Study Reveals How Bleach Wipes Out Bacteria
IRA FLATOW, host:
Back in 1913, a handful of California entrepreneurs set up shop across the bay from San Francisco to churn out gallons upon gallons of industrial-strength | Study Reveals How Bleach Wipes Out Bacteria
IRA FLATOW, host:
Back in 1913, a handful of California entrepreneurs set up shop across the bay from San Francisco to churn out gallons upon gallons of industrial-strength sodium hypochlorite - bleach. They started out selling wagon loads of this stuff to local laundries, breweries, municipal water companies. But pretty soon, they developed a lighter concentration, household bleach, which they marketed as a cleanser and germicide. It came in small little bottles, pretty similar to the one you might have under your kitchen sink or your bathroom right now. And from the words chlorine and sodium hydroxide which together form the product's active ingredient, they came up with the company's name, Clorox.
Of course, today, Clorox and other chlorine bleaches are a common ingredient in the arsenal of household-cleaning products. We use bleach's cleaning power to sanitize our toilets, to scour the bathroom tile, to clean the kitchen. We even use chlorine in our pools to chlorinate our water. But just how does this ubiquitous product work to wipe out bacterial foes? Well, a new work in the lab may have found the answer. Joining me now to talk about that research out this week in the journal Cell is Ursula Jakob. She's an associate professor in the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and she joins us today from a studio in Ann Arbor. Welcome to the program, Dr. Jakob.
Dr. URSULA JAKOB (Director, The Jakob Lab, Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, University of Michigan): Hello, Ira. Thank you so much for having me on the show. It's wonderful to be here.
FLATOW: Didn't we always know how bleach worked?
Dr. JAKOB: That is a very good question. We all assumed, I guess many people assumed, that we knew, and that is also the response that I now get since we have published the study, actually...
(Soundbite of laughter)
Dr. JAKOB: Oh, we didn't know how it worked. And when we started out, we did not start out our research to try to figure how bleach works. That's was not even on our horizon, I have to say. We started out working on a bacterial protein, a stress protein called Hsp33, and midway through this project, we actually stumbled onto hydrochloric acid or the active ingredient in household bleach, and we had to figure out how it works. So, that's what we did.
FLATOW: So, how does it work?
Dr. JAKOB: So, it works very similar to high temperature. So, I have to go back a little bit to explain to you what stressed us or what does - what high temperature or bleach does. It has the main or the most sensitive components in our cells, as well as in the cells of bacteria, are the proteins. And these are our workhorses, as I'm sure you know; they do everything. The muscle proteins allow us to walk, and the enzymes allow us to digest the food that we just ate here in Michigan, to get the energy. And the same is true for bacteria. So - and we have thousands of different proteins, and for these proteins to do all those different jobs, they need to have very, very specific, beautiful structures. And we know many structures of those proteins. And you can sometimes compare to houses; you know, every house has a specific structure...
Dr. JAKOB: To fulfill this specific function.
Dr. JAKOB: And that's exactly the same with proteins. And what elevated temperatures, for instance do, when we have fever or when we incubate bacteria with the elevated temperatures, these structures, these protein structures, some of them are damaged. We call them the protein unfold. They lose this beautiful structure.
FLATOW: Because proteins need to fold in the right way for them to work.
Dr. JAKOB: Exactly, exactly.
FLATOW: So, when we heat them up or we put bleach on them, they unfold.
Dr. JAKOB: Exactly, they unfold. They lose the structure, and what they then do, they lose their function. Now, that's one problem. A much bigger problem, however, is it seems to be, at least during heat (unintelligib |
Heat-Treated Wood Provides Alternative to Hardwood
11 May 2001 - Heat-treated wood is a new, ecological wood product, which main advantage is the ecological method of manufacture.
When wood is exposed to high temperatures (200°C or more | Heat-Treated Wood Provides Alternative to Hardwood
11 May 2001 - Heat-treated wood is a new, ecological wood product, which main advantage is the ecological method of manufacture.
When wood is exposed to high temperatures (200°C or more), its properties change significantly. Sugars inside the wood break up into a form, which rot fungi cannot use. What is more, natural protective compounds in the wood are effectively distributed to protect the wood. Heat treatment usually takes about 24 hours. Any type of wood can be heat-treated, but the commonest species are pine, spruce, birch and aspen.
Heat-treated wood ‘lives’ less than untreated wood, meaning that shrinking and swelling is considerably lower. “This improves the usability of many wood products, such as doors and windows. Moreover, gaps do not appear on wooden floors in places where conditions change with the seasons,” says Director Tero Lallukka of Stellac Oy.
Heat treatment gives wood a beautiful brown colour, like that of hardwood. “Heat-treated wood is also an ecological alternative to tropical woods because of the beautiful and pleasant colour it gives. Thanks to its fine and exotic appearance, heat-treated wood can also be used in place of wood obtained from tropical forests,” says Lallukka.
Ecologically viable solution
Heat-treated wood is generally used indoors on parquet and wooden floors, wall and ceiling panels, in saunas and fixed installations for example in the kitchen. Heat-treated wood can also be used to make furniture and other utensils, decorations and gifts.
Lallukka says that environmental aspects are becoming increasingly important when selecting raw materials. “Alongside technical and economic aspects, environmental aspects have become more and more important when evaluating products. Manufactured ecologically, heat-treated wood can meet the demands of both consumers and the authorities.”
Heat-treated wood is rot-resistant enough for many outdoor uses, and this has been achieved without using chemicals that harm the environment or people’s health.
In temperatures in excess of 100°C, wood dries more quickly and also tolerates the drying better. The saving in time and energy is considerable according to Lallukka, because the drying time needed is easily cut down to one third, sometimes even to one fifth compared with traditional methods.
For more information, contact:
Tero Lallukka, Director
Tel. +358 400 491 754
More news on Finnish Technology at www.tekes.fi
Reference URL :
Dr Erja Ämmälahti
Tekes, the National Technology Agency of Finland
358 10 5215 712 |
This laboratory manual is designed for an introductory majors biology course with a broad survey of basic laboratory techniques. The experiments and procedures are simple, safe, easy to perform, and especially appropriate for large classes. Few experiments require a second class-meeting to | This laboratory manual is designed for an introductory majors biology course with a broad survey of basic laboratory techniques. The experiments and procedures are simple, safe, easy to perform, and especially appropriate for large classes. Few experiments require a second class-meeting to complete the procedure. Each exercise includes many photographs, traditional topics, and experiments that help students learn about life. Procedures within each exercise are numerous and discrete so that an exercise can be tailored to the needs of the students, the style of the instructor, and the facilities available.
About the Author(s)
Darrell Vodopich is currently teaching at Baylor University in Waco and has authored the best-selling laboratory manual that accompanies Biology by Raven/Johnson. In addition to writing numerous articles and textbooks, he is Editor-in-Chief of the American Biology Teacher. Randy was awarded the 1993 Teacher Exemplar Award by the National Association of Biology Teachers (NABT). Other awards and honors include a Fulbright Scholarship, a listing in the Who's Who in Science and Engineering, 1986 Most Outstanding Teacher from Baylor University, and 1980 Most Outstanding Teaching Assistant from UCLA. He received his Ph.D. in Plant Development from UCLA
A superb laboratory manual., July 9, 2000
The Biology Laboratory Manual by Guttman, Vodopich, Johnson, Raven, and Moore provides an easy to follow approach to introductory biology. It features many activities that can be completed on average between 2 and 3 hours. There are many photos and diagrams that are in full color, many pre-laboratory type questions, and a good amount of questions that are best answered during lab or after lab. This book is ideal for an advanced high school biology course or a freshman or sophomore college biology class. Unlike a fair amount of the laboratory texts out there, this one accompanies most biology books very well. Thus, the laboratory portion of c |
Abnormalities in the brain may make some people more likely to become drug addicts, according to scientists at the University of Cambridge.
They found the same differences in the brains of addicts and their non-addicted brothers and sisters.
The study, published | Abnormalities in the brain may make some people more likely to become drug addicts, according to scientists at the University of Cambridge.
They found the same differences in the brains of addicts and their non-addicted brothers and sisters.
The study, published in the journal Science, suggested addiction is in part a “disorder of the brain”.
Other experts said the non-addicted siblings offered hope of new ways of teaching addicts “self-control”.
It has long been established that the brains of drug addicts have some differences to other people, explaining that finding has been more difficult.
Experts were unsure whether drugs changed the wiring of the brain or if drug addicts’ brains were wired differently in the first place.
This study attempted to answer that by comparing the brains of 50 cocaine or crack addicts with the brain of their brother or sister, who had always been clean.
Both the addicts and the non-addict siblings had the same abnormalities in the region of the brain which controls behaviour, the fronto-striatal systems.
The suggestion is that these brains may be “hard-wired” for addiction in the first place.
Lead researcher Dr Karen Ersche said: “It has long been known that not everyone who takes drugs becomes addicted.”
She told the BBC: “It shows that drug addiction is not a choice of lifestyle, it is a disorder of the brain and we need to recognise this.”
However, the non-addicted siblings had a very different life despite sharing the same susceptibility.
“These brothers and sisters who don’t have addiction problems, what they can tell us is how they overcome these problems, how they manage self-control in their daily life,” Dr Karen Ersche said.
Dr Paul Keedwell, a consultant psychiatrist at Cardiff University, said: “Addiction, like most psychiatric disorders, is the product of nature and nurture.
“We need to follow up people over time to quantify the relative risk of nature versus nurture.”
It is possible that the similarities in the siblin |
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- A major technical advance in astronomy is making it possible for scientists to see individual living cells of the human retina clearly for the first time. This will greatly improve doctors' ability to diagnose diseases of the retina such | BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- A major technical advance in astronomy is making it possible for scientists to see individual living cells of the human retina clearly for the first time. This will greatly improve doctors' ability to diagnose diseases of the retina such as glaucoma at an early stage, when intervention and treatment can prevent blindness.
A technology called adaptive optics allows astronomers to see distant stars with the ground-based Keck Telescope in Hawaii almost as well as with the Hubble Space Telescope. Adaptive optics is a computerized system that continually measures optical flaws and then automatically corrects for them. It eliminates the distorting effects of Earth's turbulent atmosphere when astronomers are viewing objects in space with the Keck Telescope.
Donald T. Miller and Larry Thibos, professors in the Visual Sciences Group at the Indiana University School of Optometry in Bloomington, are applying adaptive optics to the problem of eliminating the distorting effects of a patient's eye so they can examine the living cells of the retina at the back of the person's eye. Their high-quality instruments for examining the retina correspond to the astronomer's telescope; the cells of the retina correspond to stars in space; and the patient's eye corresponds to Earth's atmosphere since it is constantly changing, preventing images of the retina from becoming clearly focused for the examiner.
"The eye is a mediocre optical instrument compared with the tools that ophthalmologists and scientists have available," Thibos explained. "The eye is inferior because it is made out of biological materials, it grows, it is constantly changing and controlling its own growth, it has numerous flaws, and it gets worse as the person gets older."
Thibos has devised an instrument called an ocular aberrometer that measures optical aberrations in the eye by sensing errors in optical wavefronts reflected from the retina. Miller has developed technology that corrects those errors to obtain high-resolution images of the retina. "That's where the state of the art is right now," Thibos said.
Though their combined instrumentation is not yet in clinical practice, "It looks like there will be a large explosion of this in the next few years," Miller said. "Right now there are about five operational sytems in the world in laboratories, including here at IU."
When the equipment becomes available for clinics, a doctor will be able to get a clear view of individual cells in the retina and determine whether the cells are healthy or diseased, instead of having to wait for visible symptoms of retinal disease to appear. By the time symptoms become apparent, retinal cells often are dead and blindness may be unavoidable. If signs of retinal cell disease can be detected early, there is a much better chance of saving the patient's vision.
"In glaucoma, for example, the actual disease is cells in the optic nerve dying, and right now doctors can't see that happening," Thibos said. "They can only see it after the cells are dead. It may take 10 years for changes in vision caused by glaucoma to show up. They could do much better in treating glaucoma if diagnosis were early."
Age-related macular degeneration is another major application for this technology. "Scientists can now see retinal cells degenerating in the laboratory, but not in the patient's eye," Thibos said. "Early diagnosis would allow much superior treatment and prevention of blindness."
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Viva Cuba's outdoor Civil War murals depict conflicts between the troops of Confederate General Sterling Price and Union General Thomas Ewing in September 1864.
The battles started at Fort Davidson, near Pilot Knob, Missouri, and ended with the | Viva Cuba's outdoor Civil War murals depict conflicts between the troops of Confederate General Sterling Price and Union General Thomas Ewing in September 1864.
The battles started at Fort Davidson, near Pilot Knob, Missouri, and ended with the rescue of the Union troops in Leasburg, Missouri. The murals, which span several buildings, were painted by Don Gray.
The murals are located in the town's historic district along the Route 66 corridor with dining and shopping nearby. Cuba, Missouri is known as "Route 66 Mural City." |
Discrimination is the well-documented cause of race disparity in prison
Two Washington Supreme Court justices suggested recently that more African Americans are in prison because they commit more crimes. Guest columnist Nicole A. Gaines lays out the documented evidence that racial discrimination | Discrimination is the well-documented cause of race disparity in prison
Two Washington Supreme Court justices suggested recently that more African Americans are in prison because they commit more crimes. Guest columnist Nicole A. Gaines lays out the documented evidence that racial discrimination accounts for the disparity.
Special to The Times
THE Seattle Times recently reported that "State Supreme Court justices Richard Sanders and James Johnson... said African-American people are overrepresented in the prison population because they commit a disproportionate number of crimes."
These justices dismissed any role that racial discrimination plays in the disparity.
The Loren Miller Bar Association, a civil-rights-based organization which in part focuses on disparities that affect the African-American community, condemns these uninformed and misleading statements. Recent studies overwhelmingly prove that racism is pervasive throughout the U.S. justice system.
African Americans make up about 4 percent of Washington's population but approximately 20 percent of the state's prison population. Why? It is not because African Americans are predisposed to commit crimes. In fact, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health found young white Americans, not African Americans, consistently report a higher use of marijuana.
A May 2008 report by the Human Rights Commission found that although whites and blacks engage in drug offenses, including sales, at comparable rates, blacks make up 37 percent of the people arrested for drug offenses even though they only make up 12.4 percent of the American population."
New York Police Department statistics from 2008 show that African Americans were arrested for marijuana possession at seven times the rate of whites. Here in Washington, whites are more involved in drug sales and possession than African Americans, but African Americans are more often arrested and charged in drug cases.
A 2007 study by the Washington State Patrol revealed that during routine traffic stops, "[t]here remains a correlation between the race of the driver and the likelihood of a search."
African Americans are 70 percent and Hispanics are 50 percent more likely to be searched than white drivers.
This difference in how people of different races are treated is directly related to the disproportionate representation of the races in the criminal-justice system.
The inequities continue at the prosecution stage. According to a 1995 report in King County, "whites [were] less likely to have charges filed against them than minorities."
When charged, whites [were] more likely to be released on personal recognizance. The same report indicates in King County, "If the police [recommend] not to release a defendant" then more often than not, "bail rather than release is often recommended by the prosecutor's office for African Americans." In turn, "judges usually always follow" the prosecutor's recommendation.
Racial disparities are also apparent at the sentencing phase, particularly in the federal courts. According to a March 2010 U.S. Sentencing Commission report, blacks in the federal system receive 10 percent longer sentences than similarly situated whites charged with the same crime. When it comes to mandatory sentences, "African-Americans are 21 percent more likely to receive mandatory minimum sentences than white defendants and 20 percent more [likely] to be sentenced to prison than white drug defendants."
Racial disparities are also prevalent in Washington state. According to Crutchfield's report, "... [B]lack defendants, who are in custody, and Hispanics charged with less serious types of violent offenses were less likely to plead guilty to crimes than other defendants."
This is significant. In King County, the prosecuting attorney's sentencing recommendation for defendants who plea prior to trial is often less than those who take the case to trial. In essence, this means people of color are more likely to receive higher sentences because they chose to exercise their constitutional right to trial.
These are just a few examples of the impact of racial disparities within the criminal-justice system. There are other examples, including but not limited to poverty and disproportionate educational opportunities. Thus, until we, as society, acknowledge the impact of race within our legal system, our criminal-justice system will continue disregarding the content of one's character and continue judging people based on the color of their skin.
Nicole A. Gaines is p |
The silence is deafening. All over the Internet and printed publications, people are making “mute points”:
• A press release promises small businesses that “one of the benefits of online marketing is that your geography becomes a mute point.” (If | The silence is deafening. All over the Internet and printed publications, people are making “mute points”:
• A press release promises small businesses that “one of the benefits of online marketing is that your geography becomes a mute point.” (If no one can hear your business, can anyone find it?)
• A letter to the editor about a topless protest says: “It’s already legal for a woman to take off her shirt in North Carolina. The protest about equal rights is then a mute point.” (So the protests are very quiet ones?)
• A discussion about whether to merge two schools’ marching bands included a survey of the band members. “It’s all a mute point if the students are not on board,” one school’s superintendent said. (A marching band without music? What would Prof. Harold Hill say?)
The word wanted here, of course, is “moot” (rhymes with “toot”), not “mute” (pronounced “mewt”).
It’s easy to see why people confuse those words.
“To mute” means “to silence.” TV remotes and many phones have “mute” buttons to shut off the sound.
Most of the time, when people say “moot point,” they mean something akin to “it’s pointless to discuss this; it’s already decided.” In many people’s minds, the word-association may go something like this: It’s pointless to discuss this; it’s already decided. If it’s pointless to discuss it, we should just shut up about it. If we just shut up about it, we “mute” the discussion. So what we’re talking about is a “mute point.”
While that might make logical sense to some people, it’s still incorrect English.
After “moot point,” the most common use of “moot” is in “moot court,” where law students practice arguments. Since “moot point” means “pointless” or “not worth discussing,” and since the arguments the law students make are just for practice, therefore pointless, you might think that that’s why it’s called “moot court.”
Logical, but not exactly correct.
“Moot” is an old legal term. It originated in the twelfth century and meant either “A meeting, an assembly of people, esp. one for judicial or legislative purposes,” or the place the meeting was held, according to The Oxford English Dictionary. It evolved to mean an argument, then litigation.
In fact, in Britain, “moot” can still mean “arguable” or “debatable,” exactly the opposite of its American usage.
“Moot court” is so called because points are debated in them, not because the points debated are, well, pointless to debate.
Somewhere around 1900, though, the fact that the “moot court” cases were hypothetical, or not worth arguing, began to overtake the traditional meaning of “moot” as arguable, according to Garner’s Modern American Usage. Some held out for the traditional meaning; as recently as 1980, John Bremner wrote of “moot” in Words on Words: “It is mistakenly used to signify that something is beyond argument, that there is no point in arguing the question, except in the technical legal sense that something moot is something previously decided.”
But that argument is now “moot,” as dictionaries, usage authorities, and, most important, English users all accept the “pointless” definitio |
By Tom Bullock
In the summer of 1936, Cleveland hosted the Great Lakes Exposition. In the throes of the Great Depression, it was an event with bazaars, rides, art, music and other attractions, designed | By Tom Bullock
In the summer of 1936, Cleveland hosted the Great Lakes Exposition. In the throes of the Great Depression, it was an event with bazaars, rides, art, music and other attractions, designed both to commemorate the city's centennial anniversary and to revitalize the Sixth City. Today, as we again find ourselves in a foreboding economic climate, the lake that lapped at the edges of the expo 70 years ago could play an integral role in the region's impending economic recovery.
We in the Great Lakes Basin have a rare luxury: a president acquainted with our waterways and conscious of their importance to the people, our culture and our livelihood. The lakes' 5,500 cubic miles make up 90 percent of the country's fresh water, providing 35 million people with drinking water, while commercial and sport fishing bring $4 billion to the region every year. So when invasive species, sewage, farm runoff and other hazards mar this indispensable resource, it impacts us directly. It would serve us well, then, to manage, protect and restore the lakes to the very best of our ability.
Right now, we're far from that goal.
To date, 188 invasive species have established themselves in the Great Lakes, costing the region hundreds of millions of dollars per year. Bottom-dwelling fish outcompete native sport fish for food, harming the sport-fishing industry; zebra mussels clog water intakes for water treatment and power plants, requiring expensive maintenance; and carp degrade wetland areas, damaging waterfowl populations and the hunting economy.
This year was one of the worst in memory for harmful algae and bacterial blooms. Nutrients in runoff from farms and lawns, consumer products washed down the drain, and wastewater treatment plant effluents fuel huge masses of algae and bacteria, the latter of which are often toxic to people and pets. These blooms can consume quantities of oxygen great enough to significantly enlarge the natural dead zone in Lake Erie, a part of the lake without enough oxygen to sustain aquatic life. And algae, too, drain the economy -- Toledo alone spends $3,000 to $4,000 per day on filtration to combat the blooms.
Unfortunately, 20 agencies -- including the Environmental Protection Agency, Army Corps of Engineers, Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service, Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Parks Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration -- now carry out 140 laws affecting the nation's fresh and saline water resources, with little coordination among them. At best, this creates confusion. And at worst, it results in policies and actions that can harm the overall health of the Great Lakes and oceans.
Recent news, however, indicates progress. States and agencies in the Great Lakes region have come together to plan for a better future for America's "Third Coast," and Congress is on the verge of seriously funding the effort. Such an investment means both jobs and a much-needed boost for commerce that depends on a clean and healthy waterway.
Moreover, President Barack Obama has assembled an Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force to recommend a comprehensive policy to protect and restore ocean and Great Lakes ecosystems. From 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday, the task force will hold a public meeting at the Marriott Downtown at Key Center, 127 Public Square, Cleveland, giving an opportunity not only to voice approval of our regional process but to support extending such overarching efforts to all our aquatic ecosystems and the multiple agencies that care for them.
Lake Erie provided the backdrop for the 1936 celebration of Cleveland. Today, the lake could prove a boon for Ohio, with restoration efforts providing a short-term economic boost, while revitalizing traditional commercial activities, like fishing and tourism.
A unifying, |
Solid gold refers to 24 karat gold, or fine/pure gold. In 1967 the Federal Trade Commission approved the use of the term solid gold for items that are not hollow and are made of gold alloys. These articles must have | Solid gold refers to 24 karat gold, or fine/pure gold. In 1967 the Federal Trade Commission approved the use of the term solid gold for items that are not hollow and are made of gold alloys. These articles must have a fineness of at least 10k.
Solid gold refers to an item made of any karat gold, if the inside of the item is not hollow. The proportion of gold in the piece of jewelry still is determined by the karat mark.
Solid Gold - 24-karat gold. Technically, refers only to pure, or 24-karat gold. It can, however, also describe karat gold that does not have a hollow center and has at least 10-karat gold content.
In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission permits any article of 10 carat gold or more that is not hollow to be called solid gold.
"Solid gold" refers to an item that contains some gold (at least 10K) and is not hollow. "Gold-filled" is a process by which a layer of gold (at least 10K) is mechanically bonded to a base metal.
What is Solid Gold?
You will see the term solid gold mentioned at online jewelry stores and at regular fine jewellery stores. Gold is normally named solid gold when it is karat gold or fine gold.
Solid GoldFine gold or gold of 24 karat. The term "solid gold" should not be applied to articles of lesser quality. Sterling SilverMust be 925/1000 (92.5%) fine silver and 75/1000 (7.5%) copper. This proportion is fixed by law.
com can custom make 18 K solid gold and diamond, 18K gold and opal or Swarovski crystal ID tags, pink sapphire and matching chantilly bell tags, Lavo Spectrum tags,...
1) Karatage has to be stamped on, with trademark.
2) Terms "pure gold" and "solid gold" can only be used for 24 karat gold.
3) Term "gold" can only be used if gold content is 10 K or better.
4) Term "gold filled" applies only to items composed of...
“In the year 1635 great rejoicings were made upon the birth of the Prince (Suliman Sheko), and the Emperor, on the occasion, mounted a new throne made of solid gold, embossed with precious stones.
Chain: Viridian Gold carries 14K and 10K solid gold chain in a variety of popular styles. Chain may be worn by itself, or with a pendant or slide. For typical length uses, see table under Chain length below.
Be careful of phrases such as "solid gold plate" or "gold-filled". Though these sound okay at first, careful consideration of their true meaning shows them to be very misleading.
Muslim pieces were rarely made of solid gold, but were hollow and filled with lac, a dark red, transparent resin.
Foremost Jewelry and Gifts, offers 14k solid gold, silver and pewter animal, sports and religious theme jewelry. Classic, contemporary, and fashion jewelry. Jewelry chests, boxes, and travel cases.
These were often of solid gold and eight inches long or longer. Gold was the most popular in the making of bracelets, too. Bracelets were not only worn at the wrist, but on every section of the arm.
The wealth and power of the Mycenaean civilization was well documented in Homer's Iliad, where King Agamemnon led the Greek army against Troy. The solid gold funeral mask known as the "Mask of Agamemnon" (below, left) was found within the shaft...
Vermeil: (Vehr-MAY) A substantial amount of real gold |
An even-electron molecular entity
with two (possibly delocalized) radical centres which act nearly independently of each other, e.g.
Species in which the two radical centres interact significantly are often referred to as 'biradicaloids
'. | An even-electron molecular entity
with two (possibly delocalized) radical centres which act nearly independently of each other, e.g.
Species in which the two radical centres interact significantly are often referred to as 'biradicaloids
'. If the two radical centres are located on the same atom, the species are more properly referred to by their generic nam |
This Project documents associated Geni profiles for the office of High Sheriff of Cheshire. Period covered is 1284-1850.
The High Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the High Sheriff was the principal law enforcement | This Project documents associated Geni profiles for the office of High Sheriff of Cheshire. Period covered is 1284-1850.
The High Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the High Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most of the responsibilities associated with the post have been transferred elsewhere or are now defunct, so that its functions are now largely ceremonial. The High Sheriff changes every March.
History of High Sheriffs
The Office of High Sheriff is the oldest secular Office in the United Kingdom after the Crown and dates from Saxon times. The exact date of origin is unknown but the Office has certainly existed for over 1,000 years since the Shires were formed.
The word ‘Sheriff’ derives from ‘Shire Reeve’ or the Anglo Saxon ‘Scir-gerefa’. The King’s Reeve was also known as the ‘High’ Reeve. Some Sheriffs led contingents at the Battle of Hastings. The Normans continued the Office and added to its powers. During the 11th and 12th centuries a High Sheriff’s powers were very extensive. For example, they judged cases in the monthly court of the hundred (a sub-unit of the Shire); they had law enforcement powers and could raise the ‘hue and cry’ in pursuit of felons within their Shire; they could summon and command the ‘posse comitatus’ – the full power of the Shire in the service of the Sovereign; they collected taxes and levies and all dues on Crown lands on behalf of the Crown and were in charge of Crown property in the Shire. In short, High Sheriffs were the principal representatives and agents for the Crown and were thus very powerful within the Shire.
Of the 63 clauses in the Magna Carta of 1215, no less than 27 relate to the role of the Sheriff and from 1254 the High Sheriff supervised the election to Parliament of two Knights of the Shire. The Sheriffs’ powers were gradually restricted over succeeding centuries. [...]
The ceremonial uniform that is worn by male High Sheriffs today is called Court Dress. It has remained essentially unchanged since the late seventeenth century and consists of a black or dark blue velvet coat with steel-cut buttons, breeches, shoes with cut-steel buckles, a sword and a cocked hat. A lace jabot is worn around the neck. Some High Sheriffs wear their military uniform instead of Court Dress. Today, lady High Sheriffs generally adapt the style of traditional Court Dress to suit their needs. Ceremonial uniform is worn at a wide variety of functions but when not wearing Court Dress, a High Sheriff will wear a badge of Office on a ribbon.
Cheshire's area is 2,343 square kilometres (905 sq mi) and its population is just over a million. Apart from the large towns along the River Mersey and the historic city of Chester, it is mostly rural, with a number of small towns and villages that support an agricultural industry. It is historically famous for the production of Cheshire cheese salt, bulk chemicals, and woven silk.
History of Cheshire
Cheshire's name was originally derived from an early name for Chester, and was first recorded as Legeceasterscir in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, meaning the shire of the city of legions. Although the name first appears in 980, it is thought that the county was created by Edward the Elder around 920. In the Domesday Book, Chester was recorded as having the name Cestrescir (Chestershire), derived from the name for Chester at the time.
Because of the historically close links with the land bordering Cheshire to the west, which became Wales, there is a history of interaction between Cheshire and Wales.
List of High Sheriffs
High Sheriffs in Cheshire have included:
- 1284-1287: Robert le Grosvenor (d. 1293)
- 1292: David de Malpas
- 1295-1296: Philip de Malpas (de Egerton)
- 1307: Robert le Grosvenor (d. 1328)
- 1309: Philip de Egerton
- 1312: David de Egerton
- 1334: David de Egerton
- 1378: Hugh Venables
- 1386: Richard Venables
- 1389: Robert le Grosvenor (d. 1396)
- 1393: Sir Robert de Legh
- 1394: Robert le Grosvenor (d. 1396)
- 1398: Sir Robert de Legh
- 1403-6: John Mainwaring of Over-Peover
- 1544: Sir Edward Fitton of Gawsworth Old Hall
- 1562: Sir John Warburton of Arley Hall
- 1572: Thomas Stanley
- 1583: Sir Peter Warburton of Arley Hall
- 1588: Thomas Legh
- 1602: Richard Grosvenor
- 1605: Sir Randle Mainwaring of Over-Peover
- 1613: Sir Urian Legh
- 1619: Sir Randle Mainwaring, the younger, of Over-Peover
- 1621: Sir Robert Cholmondeley, Bt.
- 1623: Sir Richard Grosvenor, Bt.
- 1625: Lieutenant Colonel Robert Dukinfield of Dukinfield Hall
- 1629: Thomas Legh
- 1633: Sir Edward Fitton Bt of Gawsworth Old Hall
- 1638: Sir Thomas |
Coal on Fire
With oil prices touching $100 a barrel again and the ongoing drive to develop affordable alternative fuels, coal has reemerged as a major opportunity area in the energy sector. Coal futures, for instance, have soared 83% | Coal on Fire
With oil prices touching $100 a barrel again and the ongoing drive to develop affordable alternative fuels, coal has reemerged as a major opportunity area in the energy sector. Coal futures, for instance, have soared 83% in the past six months.
Worldwide, coal is the largest source of electricity generation, accounting for over 40% of power supply. Although coal is one of the dirtiest energy sources -- emitting carbon dioxide, ash and sulfur -- many companies and entrepreneurs are working on ways to make coal cleaner and more environmentally friendly.
Evergreen Energy, for example, has developed a technology that uses heat and pressure to chemically and physically diminish some of the emissions caused by burning fuel.
Coal in the United States:
The United States holds the world’s largest coal reserves. Coal generates more than half of the energy produced here and is expected to remain a major energy source for several years to come. The US uses more than 95% of its coal for energy generation, while the remaining amount is used in industrial production or exported.
Thirty-eight states engage in mining practices with Wyoming, West Virginia, and Kentucky mining the most coal. One third of US coal is derived from the Central Appalachian region.
Leading Coal Producers:
- Arch Coal provides about 11% of America’s coal supply and 6% of the electricity generated by utility companies. Shares are up 18% in 2008.
- Peabody Energy is the world’s largest private-sector coal company and generates about 10% of America’s electricity. Peabody provides more than 2% of the global electricity generation with operations in twenty countries. Although the company is down 4.5% year to date (YTD), it is up by 54% from a year ago.
- Massey Energy is the largest producer of Central Appalachian coal. Shares are up 16% YTD.
- Alpha Natural Resources is another leading Central Appalachian coal producer. Its stock is also up 16% in 2008.
- Consol Energy has seventeen mining complexes. Coal accounts for 82% of its revenue. Consol Energy is up 11%.
- James River Coal Company is the sixth largest Central Appalachian coal producer. Shares are up an impressive 48% YTD.
- Patriot Coal is a leading provider of coal in the Eastern United States. The company's stock is up 17% this year.
- Foundation Coal Holdings is one of the top five coal mining companies in the US. Foundation Coal stock is up 7%.
- Penn Virginia Resources manages coal properties and enters into long-term leases with third party miners. The stock is up 11% YTD.
- Alliance Resource Partners produces and markets coal to utility and industrial users in the United States. So far this year, the company's share price is up 9%.
- International Coal Group produces, processes and sells steam and metallurgical coal. International Coal shares are up 22% in 2008.
Other coal facts (National Mining Association):
- The US industry exports coal to more than forty countries.
- Coal accounts for over 95% of the United States’ fossil energy reserves.
- Worldwide, the coal industry employs an estimated seven million people.
- Coal is used to make coke, which is used in the steel making process.
2006 Major Coal Players:
About two-thirds of all coal is transported via railroads. Part two of this research will focus on some of the players in the railroad industry that stand to benefit from the increasing demand for coal energy.
Sources: Energy Information Association EIA, National Mining Association, The Economist |
WHAP Ch 3 Quiz: Classic India
No classical civilization was more open to outside influence that India, and in Buddhism it produced a true world religion. Indian influence was particularly strong in Southeast Asia, but it is also found in art, | WHAP Ch 3 Quiz: Classic India
No classical civilization was more open to outside influence that India, and in Buddhism it produced a true world religion. Indian influence was particularly strong in Southeast Asia, but it is also found in art, philosophy, and religious ideas in the Mediterranean. India’s influence depended on the its costal regions becoming a core region of a trade network that included the silk roads and the Indian Ocean.
- Buddhism Quiz
- What's your Indian Quotient (IQ)?
- Are you a Desi (Indian)???? Not...
- What do you like more classic mo...
- How much do you know about India?
- Religion in Public Life
- What is your religion?
- Americans are religious, but do...
- What religion do you cling to?
- Do you have Pagan Pride, or are... |
Growing evidence now confirms that rhinophyma, the excess growth of tissue on the nose that represents the most advanced stage of rosacea, is a result of the chronic lymphedema (swelling) that often appears in rosacea, | Growing evidence now confirms that rhinophyma, the excess growth of tissue on the nose that represents the most advanced stage of rosacea, is a result of the chronic lymphedema (swelling) that often appears in rosacea, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.1
"This study's findings have tracked the link between the vascular system and the more permanent disfiguring effects of rosacea," said Dr. Jonathan Wilkin, director of Dermatologic and Dental Products, U.S. Food and Drug Administration. "This new finding emphasizes the importance of avoiding flushing to prevent later excess tissue growth that cannot be treated with medication."
Lymphedema is the swelling that occurs when excess fluid accumulates because of the lymphatic system's flawed ability to clear it away normally.2 The study, by Dr. Filippo Aloi and colleagues at the University of Turin in Italy, documented microscopic changes that indicate chronic edema leads to excess tissue. The researchers noted that inadequate drainage may be due to a mechanical obstruction.
An early sign of rhinophyma may be an indentation on the bridge of the nose after wearing glasses, Dr. Wilkin said. Some physicians have even noted that heavy glasses themselves can contribute to swelling of the nose. Opting for a lighter pair of glasses may help.
Aloi F, Tomasini C, Soro E, Pippione M: |
High schools prepare students to be ready for college, career, and the world beyond.
In many ways, this means that at the point they graduate, they have every option in front of them, whether to pursue higher education, a gap year, | High schools prepare students to be ready for college, career, and the world beyond.
In many ways, this means that at the point they graduate, they have every option in front of them, whether to pursue higher education, a gap year, or a career path that may take them into training programs or apprenticeships right away.
The Career and Technical Education (CTE) fields—which include a wide range of professions from agriculture to manufacturing to tourism—have also become increasingly global. The rising middle class in developing nations is creating new demands for products and services, and the supply chain grows increasingly more global.
Some high schools offer classes in career and technical training that are giving students – and the local economy – a needed boost. Schools allow students to pursue a rigorous core curriculum, and also real-world study related to a career field. Students pursue areas of interest, earn technical credentials and licenses, and sometimes college credit for advanced coursework. This is no longer vocational education that was considered a pathway for the non-college bound. These are now cutting-edge programs – informed by workforce trends and the skills that companies say that they need in employees – that lead students to diverse and interesting career possibilities. CTE programs serve to more directly link the the practical skills and knowledge that students will need when entering the workforce to the education and training that that they are receiving in school.
Asia Society works with a number of stakeholders in the CTE fields to improve student achievement by providing them with relevant |
Plant Based Drugs and Medicines
By Leslie Taylor, ND
October 13, 2000
For more on this subject, also see Chapter 2 of The Healing Power of Rainforest Herbs.
Today there are at least 120 | Plant Based Drugs and Medicines
By Leslie Taylor, ND
October 13, 2000
For more on this subject, also see Chapter 2 of The Healing Power of Rainforest Herbs.
Today there are at least 120 distinct chemical substances derived from plants that are considered as important drugs currently in use in one or more countries in the world. These chemical substances are shown in the table below. Several of the drugs sold today are simple synthetic modifications or copies of the naturally obtained substances. The original plant substance/chemical name is shown under the "Drug" column rather than the finished patented drug name. For example, many years ago a plant chemical was discovered in a tropical plant, Cephaelis ipecacuanha, and the chemical was named emetine. A drug was developed from this plant chemical called Ipecac which was used for many years to induce vomiting mostly if someone accidently swallowed a poisonous or harmful substance. Ipecac can still be found in pharmacies in many third world countries but has been mostly replaced by other drugs in the United States. Another example of this is the plant chemical named taxol shown in the drug column below. The name taxol is the name of the plant chemical orginally discovered in the plant. A pharmaceutical company copied this chemical and patented a drug named Paclitaxel™ which is used in various types of tumors today in the U.S. and many other countries.
The 120 substances shown below are sold as drugs worldwide but not in all countries. Some European countries regulate herbal sustances and products differently than in the United States. Many European countries, including Germany, regulate herbal products as drugs and pharmaceutical companies prepare plant based drugs simply by extracting out the active chemicals from the plants. A good example is the plant substance/drug shown below, cynarin. Cynarin is a plant chemical found in the common artichoke (Cynara scolymus). In Germany, a cynarin drug is sold for liver problems and hypertension which is simply this one chemical extracted from the artichoke plant or a plant extract which has been standardized to contain a specific milligram amount of this one chemical. These products are manufactured by pharmaceutical companies, sold in pharmacies in Germany and a doctor's prescription is required to purchase them. In the United States artichoke extracts are available as natural products and sold in health food stores. Some products are even standardized to contain a specific amount of the cynarin chemical. You can purchase these natural and standardized extracts over the counter without a prescription and you could not go to a pharmacy in the U.S. and obtain a cynarin drug with a prescription. Another similar example is the plant chemical, silymarin, shown in the drug column below. Silymarin is a chemical found in the milk thistle plant and natural milk thistle extracts standarized to contain specific amounts of silymarin are found in just about every health food store in the United States. However in Germany, silymarin drugs and milk thistle standardized extracts are sold only in pharmacies and require a doctor's prescription for liver problems.
Some of the drug/chemicals shown below are still sold as plant based drugs requiring the processing of the actual plant material. Others have been chemically copied or synthesized by laboratories and no plant materials are used in the manufacture of the drug. A good example of this is the plant chemical quinine, which was discovered in a rainforest tree (Cinchona ledgeriana) over 100 years ago. For many years the quinine chemical was extracted from the bark of this tree and processed into pills to treat malaria. Then a scientist was able to synthesize or copy this plant alkaloid into a chemical drug without using the original tree bark for manufacturing the drug. Today, all quinine drugs sold are manufactured chemically without the use of any tree bark. However, another chemical in the tree called quinidine which was found to be useful for various heart conditions couldn't be completely copied in the laboratory and the tree bark is still harvested and used to extract this plant chemical from it. Quinidine extracted from the bark is still used today to produce quinidine-based drugs. In the U.S. there are four patented brand-name heart drugs sold in pharmacies containing bark-extracted quinidine: Cardioquin™, Quinaglute Dura-tabs™, Quinidex Extentabs™ and Quin-Release™.
The following table below will help you begin your research on drugs made from plants. We don't have the time or resources to provide a full comprehensive list of all patented drug names and herbal drugs sold in other countries. The chemical/drug names and plant names will give you enough to start on to continue your research on important plant based drugs and medicines.
||Skeletal muscle relaxant
||Skeletal muscle relaxant
||Antitumor agent, anti-gout
||Sweetener, Addison's disease
||Anticancer, antitumor agent
|Lanatosides A, B, C
||Smoking deterrant, respiratory
||Antitumor agent (topical)
||Smooth muscle relaxant
||Antitumor anticancer agent
|Protoveratrines A, B
||Analagesic, sedative, traquillizer
||Dental plaque inhibitor
|Senno |
Any of various crystalline or glassy, noncrystalline rocks formed by the cooling and solidification of molten earth material (magma). Igneous rocks comprise one of the three principal classes of rocks, the others being metam | Any of various crystalline or glassy, noncrystalline rocks formed by the cooling and solidification of molten earth material (magma). Igneous rocks comprise one of the three principal classes of rocks, the others being metamorphic and sedimentary rocks. Though they vary widely in composition, most igneous rocks consist of quartz, feldspars, pyroxenes, amphiboles, micas, olivines, nepheline, leucite, and apatite. They may be classified as intrusive or extrusive rocks.
Learn more about igneous rock with a free trial on Britannica.com. |
Sunscreen & sunblock 411
The International Dermal Institute (IDI) advises us to use sunscreen not only on warm, clear days, but also on sunny winter days, when it's cloudy -- even while driving. "We need to | Sunscreen & sunblock 411
The International Dermal Institute (IDI) advises us to use sunscreen not only on warm, clear days, but also on sunny winter days, when it's cloudy -- even while driving. "We need to protect our skin any time it's exposed to daylight, not just when we think our chances of exposure are higher," says Dr Diana Howard, vice-president of research and development for the IDI.
Research shows that daily low-grade exposure to sunlight can be just as damaging as short, intense exposure with sun protection. Howard adds, "The proper application of sunscreen on a daily basis is as mandatory to skin health as proper cleansing."
Who should wear sunscreen?
Put simply: Everyone. However there are certain types that are even more in need of protection. The sun's UV rays can damage anyone's skin in as little as 15 minutes and skin of all colors can be harmed by those ultraviolet rays. Apart from those who spend a lot of time outdoors -- for work or play -- you're more likely to get skin cancer from exposure to the sun if you have one or more of the following:
- Lighter natural skin color.
- Skin that easily sunburns, freckles or gets red (or becomes painful from the sun).
- Blonde or red hair.
- Blue or green eyes.
- A family member who has had skin cancer.
Kids are among the most vulnerable, as illustrated by a 2006 review article published in Pediatric Dermatology that says most people receive 50 percent of their total lifetime sun exposure before the age of 18. So, it is more important than ever to educate kids and families about skin cancer and smart sun protection.
When to use sunscreen
You need protection from the sun even on slightly cloudy or cool days. For best results, you should apply sunscreen approximately 30 minutes before being in the sun so that it will be absorbed by the skin and less likely to wash off when you perspire. Before application, shake the bottle well before use to mix particles that might be clumped up in the container. For ease of use, consider using the spray-on or stick types of sunscreen. "I'm going to get some of that spray for [my son]," says Sheila, one of the SheKnows.com community members. "He doesn't sit still for a second while I'm trying to get him dressed, so this way, I can just point and shoot -- and it seems like it will be so easy to re-apply it while we're outside."
Sunblock application basics
Use sun protection on all parts of your skin exposed to the sun, including the ears, back, shoulders and the backs of your knees and legs. If blemishes or sensitive skin is an issue, special non-oil-based sunscreens are available for use on your face. Be sure to apply enough; as a rule of thumb, use an ounce (approximately a handful) to cover your entire body every couple of hours. Apply it thickly and thoroughly, and get help for hard-to-reach places like your back. (Two trouble spots that don't work so well with suncreen: Your scalp -- especially if you have a part -- and your eyelids. A hat and sunglasses will fit the bill there.)
Keep in mind that sunscreen wears off. Put it on again if you stay out in the sun for more than two hours, and after you swim or do anything that makes you sweat.
Which sunscreen product is best?
Sunscreens come in many forms, including lotions, creams, gels, ointments, wax sticks and sprays. Choose a broad-spectrum sunscreen that protects against UV-A and UV-B rays and has a sun protection factor (SPF) of at least 15.
Don't judge protection by the price tag
Read product labels, and be aware that, while a pricey brand might feel or smell better, it is not necessarily more effective than a cheaper product. Realize that not all sunscreens have the same ingredients. For example, buy one that does not contain para-aminobenzoi |
Census Bureau figures from March 2011 show more than 30 percent of U.S. adults age 25 now have a bachelor's degree, compared with less than 25 percent as recently as 1998.
From 2001 to | Census Bureau figures from March 2011 show more than 30 percent of U.S. adults age 25 now have a bachelor's degree, compared with less than 25 percent as recently as 1998.
From 2001 to 2011, the number of Hispanics with a bachelor's or higher level education increased 80 percent from 2.1 million to 3.8 million. The percentage of Hispanic adults with a bachelor's or higher education increased from 11.1 percent in 2001 to 14.1 percent in 2011.
Overall, the proportion of the population with a bachelor's degree or higher increased from 26.2 percent in 2001 to 30.4 percent over the decade.
"This is an important milestone in our history," Census Bureau Director Robert Groves said Thursday. "For many people, education is a sure path to a prosperous life. The more education people have the more likely they are to have a job and earn more money, particularly for individuals who hold a bachelor's degree."
The Census Bureau said people with bachelor's degrees had lower rates of unemployment than those with less education in every month from January 2008 to December 2010.
More than one-third of the nation's 56 million bachelor's degree holders earned their degree in science and engineering. Of those degree holders, nearly half live along the nation's East and West coasts, the Census Bureau said.
Astronomers offer more expansive view of universe
Duggar sisters unveil Christian dating rules in new book |
The Man Who Ended Slavery
Slandered by craven abolitionists as unhinged, John Brown was in fact an eloquent, cool-headed tactician who succeeded in his long-range plan: launching a civil war
Review of John Brown | The Man Who Ended Slavery
Slandered by craven abolitionists as unhinged, John Brown was in fact an eloquent, cool-headed tactician who succeeded in his long-range plan: launching a civil war
Review of John Brown, Abolitionist: The Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rights By David S. Reynolds
The Atlantic: 2005 - http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc... very/3915/
By CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS
When Abraham Lincoln gave an audience to Harriet Beecher Stowe, he is supposed to have greeted her by saying that she was the little woman who had started this great war. That fondly related anecdote illustrates the persistent tendency to Parson Weemsishness in our culture. It was not at all the tear-jerking sentiment of Uncle Tom's Cabin that catalyzed the War Between the States. It was, rather, the blood-spilling intransigence of John Brown, field-tested on the pitiless Kansas prairies and later deployed at Harpers Ferry. And John Brown was a man whom Lincoln assiduously disowned, until the time came when he himself was compelled to adopt the policy of "war to the knife, and the knife to the hilt," as partisans of the slaveocracy had hitherto been too proud of saying.
David Reynolds sets himself to counter several misapprehensions about the pious old buzzard (Brown, I mean, not Lincoln). Among these are the impressions that he was a madman, that he was a homicidal type, and that his assault on a federal arsenal was foredoomed and quixotic. The critical thing here is context. And the author succeeds admirably in showing that Brown, far from being a crazed fanatic, was a serious legatee of the English and American revolutions who anticipated the Emancipation Proclamation and all that has ensued from it.
Until 1850, perhaps, the "peculiar institution" of slavery might have had a chance of perpetuating itself indefinitely by compromise. But the exorbitance and arrogance of "the slave power" forbade this accommodation. Not content with preserving their own domain in its southeastern redoubt, the future Confederates insisted on extending their chattel system into new territories, and on implicating the entire Union in their system. The special symbol of this hubris was the Fugitive Slave Act, which legalized the recovery of human property from "free" states. The idea of secession or separation first arose among abolitionists confronted with this monstrous imposition. Men like William Lloyd Garrison took their text from the Book of Isaiah, describing the U.S. Constitution as a "covenant with death and an agreement with hell," and exhorting their supporters to "come out now and be separate." (This hermeneutic rejectionism, incidentally, is identical to that preached today by Ian Paisley and the Presbyterian hard-liners of Northern Ireland.)
The proto-libertarian and anarchist Lysander Spooner argued that nowhere did the Constitution explicitly endorse slavery. It was for defenders of the values of 1776 and 1789 to help the slaves overthrow an illegitimate tyranny. In this he had the support of the Republican Frederick Douglass, who also wanted the United States to live up to its founding documents rather than to nullify or negate them. Meanwhile, the Democrats were unashamed advocates of the extension of slavery, and Lincoln was willing to submit to one humiliation after another in order, as he never tired of saying, "to preserve the Union."
John Brown could effortlessly outdo Garrison in any biblical condemnation of slavery. He could also easily surpass Lysander Spooner in his zeal to encourage and arm what the authorities called "servile insurrection." He strongly agreed with Douglass that the Union should be preserved and not dissolved. But he was incapable of drawing up any balance sheet between "preservation" and gradual emancipation, because he saw quite plainly that the balance was going the other way, and that the slave power was influencing and subordinating the North, rather than the other way about. Thus, despite his commitment to the Union, he was quite ready to regard the federal government as an enemy.
Originally a New Englander (and possibly a Mayflower descendant), Brown appeared to adopt and exemplify the adamant Calvinism of Jonathan Edwards, with his strict insistence on predestination and the "elect" and his vivid belief in eternal punishment for sinners. Reynolds gives some hair-raising examples of the culture of corporal punishment and cruel austerity that ruled Brown's own upbringing and the raising of his twenty children, and it is easy to see how such a combination of dogma and discipline might have given rise to the persistent rumor that he was p |
Posted by David
Part 2, Part3
Ecologists speak of succession in terms of how a particular plant community evolves over time toward a climax system. All ecosystems grow under this process and I expect the same is true for economics and for | Posted by David
Part 2, Part3
Ecologists speak of succession in terms of how a particular plant community evolves over time toward a climax system. All ecosystems grow under this process and I expect the same is true for economics and for civilization in general.
To see how this works, let’s first look at a forest ecosystem for example. The process of succession usually begins after a particular catastrophic event that clears the landscape. This might just be a local event such as a blowdown or an avalanche, or it might be broad in scope such as a fire, volcanic event, or emerging from a period of glaciation.
Initially, pioneer species populate the landscape helping to build up important nutrients such as nitrates, or structures, such as soil and habitat building blocks. This is the time of ‘innovation’. Diverse groups of plants, trees, animals and biota expand over the new landscape.
What follows is usually a succession of species that culminates in a fairly uniform, slow-growing community of species. At this point, innovation begins to collapse as the group of climax species become dominate and unchanging. This system is much less diverse than its initial pioneer stage. The species set stays the same until some catalyst returns the process back to the beginning state or climate or geography changes. In ecological succession, I argue that it’s actually the lack of diversity or the lack of innovation which is what ‘calls in’ the catalyst—maybe a fire—which returns the landscape to the beginning of the succession cycle.
Could civilization and economics be driven by the same process? I think so.
In society, initially innovation drives the changes and innovation creates the building blocks which allow the next stages of social and economic development. But finally, that innovation fades out, just like species diversity. Newness ends. It can’t go any further because all natural systems have limits. They hit their archetypal wall. They become what they were to become, or close to it. A Tsuga mensezii forest will only become a Tsuga mensezii forest unless the climate changes. That’s what it becomes. Cultures culminate into their archetype. The Maya, Astecs, Egyptians became a Pyramid building culture. This archetypal culture emerged out of man’s unders |
Booted eagle (Hieraaetus pennatus)
|Also known as:||Booted hawk eagle|
Classified as Least Concern (LC) on the IUCN Red List (1) and listed on Appendix II of CITES (2 | Booted eagle (Hieraaetus pennatus)
|Also known as:||Booted hawk eagle|
Classified as Least Concern (LC) on the IUCN Red List (1) and listed on Appendix II of CITES (2).
The booted eagle is a small, stocky eagle with a rounded head and heavily feathered legs (3). It occurs in two main colour forms that are almost identical above but differ in the shading of the underparts (3) (4). Above, the two forms are mainly brown, except for a light-streaked forecrown, cream to golden hind-crown, distinctive light panels on the wing coverts, and white patches resembling ‘headlights’ where the wings meet the body. However, whereas the pale form has a largely creamy-white underbody, the dark form usually has a dark brown underbody, with variable dark and light streaks and spots, and in some individuals, a slight rufous tinge (4). The sexes are similar in appearance, but the female is on average ten percent larger than the male, while the juvenile plumage of both forms differs only very subtly from that of the adults (3) (4). There are three subspecies of the booted eagle: Hieraaetus pennatus pennatus; H. p. harterti; and H. p. minisculus.
Hieraaetus pennatus pennatus occurs in southern Europe and North Africa, east to central Asia; H. p. harterti occupies southwestern and central Asia; and H. p. minisculus is found in southern Africa (5).
Not surprisingly, given its extensive range, the booted eagle is found in a wide range of habitats from woodland and plantations to grassland and desert (5).
Northern populations of the booted eagle feed mainly on small birds, mammals and reptiles, while in Africa, rodents form the bulk of its diet. Although birds are frequently caught on the wing, the booted eagle typically soars at height, swooping down to take prey off the ground (5).
The nesting behaviour of the booted eagle also varies slightly across its range, with northern populations tending to build a nest in a tree or on the ledge of a cliff, whilst southern African populations only nest on cliffs (3) (5). There is usually just a single clutch of one to three eggs each year, which are incubated, predominately by the female, for around 35 days. The young normally fledge around 50 days after hatching (5).
The seasonal movements of the booted eagle are highly complex with European populations overwintering as far south as southern Africa, whist other populations appear to remain in the same area year round (5).
The booted eagle is generally widespread and common (6), but local declines have occurred (4), probably as result of various factors including habitat loss, persecution, and pesticide use.
There are currently no known conservation measures in place for the booted eagle.
For further information on the booted eagle and other birds of prey see:
- The Global Raptor Information Network:
For more information on this and other bird species please see:
- BirdLife International:
This information is awaiting authentication by a species expert, and will be updated as soon as possible. If you are able to help please contact: [email protected]
- Coverts: Small feathers concealing the bases of larger flight feathers, usually on the wings or tail.
- Incubated: The act of keeping eggs warm so that development is possible.
- Subspecies: A population usually restricted to a geographical area that differs from other populations of the same species, but not to the extent of being classified as a separate species.
IUCN Red List (June, 2009)
CITES (October, 2008)
- Kemp, A. and Kemp, M. (2006) Sasol Birds of Prey of Africa and its Islands. Struik Publishers, Cape Town.
- Ferguson-Lees, J. and Christie, D.A. (2001) Raptors of the World. Christopher Helm, London.
Global Raptor Information Network (June, 2009)
BirdLife International (June, 2009) |
Wayne Thiebaud is an American artist associated with the Pop movement and he was famous for his paintings of cafeteria-style food. He used heavy pigment and lots of repetition in his artwork. I thought it would be fun for my students to | Wayne Thiebaud is an American artist associated with the Pop movement and he was famous for his paintings of cafeteria-style food. He used heavy pigment and lots of repetition in his artwork. I thought it would be fun for my students to draw some whimsical ice cream cones they could create with whatever color they desired.
- Hand out 9 X12 sheets of drawing paper.
- Make sure everyone has their own pencil and oil pastels. Oil pastels are great because their color is so rich and bright and the consistency is just a giant crayon!
- Encourage the students to color in their entire drawing, making sure to press down with the oil pastel so that the color is vivid and looks finished.
- The students can use multiple colors, they can create patterns and outline their backgrounds.
- Instruct students how to blend with oil pastels.
- Everyone had fun creating their own flavors and toppings. |
Date of Award
Schools and Centres
Arts & Sciences
Dr Deborah Gare
This study of Fremantle during the first decade of British settlement at Swan River investigates the trauma and triumph of its female colonists. In this | Date of Award
Schools and Centres
Arts & Sciences
Dr Deborah Gare
This study of Fremantle during the first decade of British settlement at Swan River investigates the trauma and triumph of its female colonists. In this outpost of empire, British women hoped for a better life, with greater economic and social freedoms, and a promising future for their families. They faced many challenges to achieve these aspirations.
On their journey to Swan River they experienced the cramped conditions on board the emigrant ships that |
Lack of hurricanes may be due to Brazil drought, expert saysby John Nelander
On Wednesday, we’ll have matched the 2002 mark for latest first hurricane during the post-1966 satellite era. If no hurricane forms in the | Lack of hurricanes may be due to Brazil drought, expert saysby John Nelander
On Wednesday, we’ll have matched the 2002 mark for latest first hurricane during the post-1966 satellite era. If no hurricane forms in the Atlantic by the following Monday, Sept. 16, it will tie the all-time latest first hurricane record set in 1941.
Of course this is a good thing, but weather researchers are wondering why so many tropical storms (seven so far) have not developed further during the height of the season. A Weather Underground blogger came up with one possible explanation last week: A drought in Brazil has been pumping dry air into the Atlantic, causing tropical storms to fizzle out.
Lee Grenci, a retired professor of meteorology at Penn State, cites low relative humidity over the Atlantic “associated with a regional spell of dry weather” in August and early September.
According to Weather Underground’s founder, Jeff Masters, the drought in Brazil is the costliest natural disaster in the country’s history at $8.3 billion dollars.
Meanwhile, Tropical Depression Eight formed off the East Coast of Mexico Friday afternoon with sustained winds of 35 mph, but it moved on shore within hours and didn’t have an opportunity to reach tropical storm status.
It was the third tropical cyclone to hit Northeastern Mexico this year. Tropical Storm Barry formed on June 17 and made landfall north of Veracruz with winds of 45 mph. Tropical Storm Fernand formed on Aug. 25 and moved inland at almost the same location with 50 mph winds.
The National Hurricane Center was watching two other areas of potential development over the weekend, including a strong tropical wave emerging from the West Coast of Africa. Forecasters gave it an 80 percent chance of becoming a depression, or a tropical storm, by Thursday.
In addition, the remnants of Tropical Storm Gabrielle showed signs of regeneration north of Hispaniola. The system is expected to move north or northeast over the next five days. It should be no threat to Florida.
* * *
Almost a half-inch of rain fell in Palm Beach and at Palm Beach International Airport Friday night and early Saturday morning as low pressure sagged south over the peninsula. It was expected to stall over Lake Okeechobee and deliver more rain through Saturday, followed by drying trend on Sunday and Monday.
More South Florida records fell late week, including one on Wednesday at PBIA. The low dropped to 83 degrees, another record high minimum temperature, beating the previous record of 80 set in 1983. On Friday, a record minimum temperature was tied in Miami with a reading of 82, matching the mark set in 1977.
Naples set a record one-day rainfall mark Friday with 2.57 inches, smashing the mark of 1.11 inches set in 1971. |
FAIRFIELD COUNTY, Conn. -- Connecticut was ranked the seventh-healthiest state in the country for the second year in a row in an annual national study conducted by the United Health Foundation.
The rankings are based on the number of people in a | FAIRFIELD COUNTY, Conn. -- Connecticut was ranked the seventh-healthiest state in the country for the second year in a row in an annual national study conducted by the United Health Foundation.
The rankings are based on the number of people in a given U.S. state who smoke, are obese, are physically inactive and have diabetes. High school graduation rates, disease prevention, drug use and drinking are other factors weighed in the ranking.
Connecticut ranked among the best states in the country for a low prevalence of smoking, but has seen a steady increase in obesity over the last 20 years -- much like the rest of the country.
The number of inactive adults in Connecticut has also dropped in the past year. In addition, Connecticut saw a decrease in cardiovascular-related deaths and low infant birth weight.
An area of concern for Connecticut, according to the study, is the disparity in healthiness between residents who graduated high school and those who didn't. 60.3 percent of adults aged 25 years and older with at least a high school education report the |
At first this title seems pretty obvious: The Little Prince is about the main character, the little prince, who goes on adventures and meets the narrator. What else could this book be called, really? None of the other characters are important enough to | At first this title seems pretty obvious: The Little Prince is about the main character, the little prince, who goes on adventures and meets the narrator. What else could this book be called, really? None of the other characters are important enough to deserve the whole title. Even the narrator doesn’t have a name. The book exists so that the narrator can remember the prince. From that perspective, it simply has to be named after the prince. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be a very good memorial.
If you want to be fancy, you could refer to the title in its original French: Le Petit Prince. That’s not so hard to match, word for word, against the English version. “Le,” the article, is basically the same as saying “The.” “Prince” is the same word
in both languages. “Petit” can mean “little,” like in the English title, or “small” or “young.” |
Please note: We have mainly written about England, as that is the country within the UK where our students live. We would be very happy for schools and visitors to send us information we can add to our website on Wales and Scotland.
In Britain | Please note: We have mainly written about England, as that is the country within the UK where our students live. We would be very happy for schools and visitors to send us information we can add to our website on Wales and Scotland.
In Britain, the main language is English (British English). It is not the same as American or Australian English. 'Hi mate' is not the correct and appreciated way to approach someone in the street. Neither is 'G'day', 'Howdy' or 'Hey Mister'. The formal British way to greet someone is 'Good morning, good afternoon or good evening' and, if you want to ask something, 'Excuse me please'.
Most people in Britain usually say' hello' or 'hi' when they greet someone.
Not everyone in Britain speaks with a plummy English accent, like Hollywood wants you to believe. No-one sounds like Dick van Dyke in the film, Mary Poppins.
- The English language is a West Germanic language, originating from England.
- Over fifty percent of the English language is derived from Latin
- English is the third most common "first" language (native speakers), with around 402 million people in 2002.
Why is English spoken with different accents?
In Britain, every part of the country has its own way of speaking English. People in Yorkshire sound very different to people in Surrey; a Somerset accent is very different from an Scottish accent and it's hard to believe that people from Birmingham are speaking the same language as those from Cornwall. Most people in Britain can guess where someone comes from by the way they speak, either by their accent or by the words they use.
Identification of an accent can place the speaker in a general area of Britain. Geordie, Scouse, and Cockney are well know dialects from Tyneside, Liverpool and London respectively.
Today the 'home counties' accent is usually accepted as Standard English. The home counties are the counties nearest to Londn
A dialect found mostly in East London is called cockney rhyming slang. You can read more about cockney rhyming slang by clicking here.
Languages spoken in London
Speaking like a Brit
If you would like to speak like a person from London, Newcastle, Scotland, and Liverpool, click on the link below.
British English is different to American English.
Find out how here.
Do Wales and Scotland have their own language?
People in Wales speak a completely different language. About 25% of the people there still speak in their native Celtic tongue called welsh.
Shwmae? in welsh means How are you?
Hoffet ti ddiod? means Would you like a drink?
In some regions of Scotland, Gaelic is used as a first language (particularly in the Highlands and the Western Isles). All over Scotland, the accent is markedly stronger, some words are different but overall it is not too difficult to understand.
'John is a nice bloke to know.'
- poor quality repairs.
'He made a botched job of fixing the television.'
'He doesn't have the bottle to ask her.'
- fed up
- to rain, often heavily.
'It is going to chuck it down soon.'
- If you are chuffed, you are happy with something.
'I was chuffed to win a medal!'
- Crazy / stupid
- Money / cash 'I haven't got much dosh to give you.'
- Incredibly amazed.
'I was gobsmacked when I saw my birthday presents.'
- Not happy because of an event that has occurred that didn't go your way.
'I was gutted when I didn't win the race'
- Used in place of lucky when describing someone else.
'He was very jammy winning the lottery'.
- Delicious. Shortened from scrumptious.
'The food was very scrummy'
- Broke. No money.
'I'm skint, I wont be able to buy the DVD today.'
- to long kiss
'I watched the news on the telly last night.'
See also Cockney Rhyming Slang.
Glossary of British words |
Last week we talked about the methods that remain consistent through high school when approached the Charlotte Mason way: a wide variety of subjects, living books, and narration. This week let’s take a closer look at specific subjects.
It appears from our research | Last week we talked about the methods that remain consistent through high school when approached the Charlotte Mason way: a wide variety of subjects, living books, and narration. This week let’s take a closer look at specific subjects.
It appears from our research that Charlotte outlined the following subjects for the high school years: math, science, English grammar, composition, spelling, personal development/citizenship, foreign language, history, geography, Bible, literature, poetry, nature study, art, music, Shakespeare.
Do those subjects sound familiar? Most are simply a continuation of earlier studies. In a Charlotte Mason high school, you continue building upon what you have done in the younger grades, using the same methods but going more in-depth.
Charlotte’s Expectations for High School Subjects
What do we mean by “going more in-depth”? Here are some examples of what Charlotte planned for her high school-age students.
Their history readings were more closely connected with their literature selections, and time-period architecture, paintings, etc. were also included to help illustrate the eras that were studied.
“The history studies of Forms V and VI (ages 15 to 18) are more advanced and more copious and depend for illustration upon readings in the literature of the period” (Vol. 6, p. 176).
“But any sketch of the history teaching in Forms V and VI in a given period depends upon a notice of the ‘literature’ set; for plays, novels, essays, ‘lives,’ poems, are all pressed into service and where it is possible, the architecture, painting, etc., which the period produced” (Vol. 6, pp. 177, 178).
As mentioned last week, students still used living books, but those books were of a more difficult reading level.
“The reading for Forms V and VI (ages 15 to 18) is more comprehensive and more difficult” (Vol. 6, p. 184).
High School students were expected to apply their knowledge of geography that they had assimilated over the years. They were expected to demonstrate an understanding of the places and regions that were mentioned in current news items and in their history readings, and to make good use of an Atlas without guidance from the teacher.
“Forms V and VI are expected to keep up with the newspapers and know something about places and regions coming most into note in the current term. Also, in connection with the history studied, Seeley’s Expansion of England, The Peoples and Problems of India, Geikie’s Elementary Lessons in Physical Geography, Mort’s Practical Geography, and Kipling’s Letters of Travel are included in the reading of one term. In these Forms the young students are expected to apply their knowledge to Geography, both practical and theoretical, and to make much use of a good Atlas without the map questions which have guided the map work of the lower Forms” (Vol. 6, p. 230).
Science studies continued to provide connections in many fields of science.
“Forms V and VI again cover a wide field as the following questions on a term’s work sufficiently indicate... ” (Vol. 6, p. 221).
The questions that are listed cover aspects of geology, biology, botany, and astronomy.
These are the years that Charlotte advocated giving definite composition instruction, but not too much. She firmly believed that the students’ exposure to so much good literary writing over the years would work in their favor and help them learn to write well themselves.
“Forms V and VI. In these Forms some definite teaching in the art of composition is advisable, but not too much, lest the young scholars be saddled with a stilted style which may encumber them for life” (Vol. 6, p. 193).
High School students would have already studied French for several years. In these upper grades, Charlotte required them to read and write in that foreign language, as well as translate into and out of that language.
“Forms V and VI are required to ‘Write a résume’ of Le Misanthrope or L’Avare,’ ‘Translate into French, Modern Verse, page 50, “Leisure”‘” (Vol. 6, p. 212).
Students were asked to describe particular works of art from their picture studies. They were not asked to duplicate those works.
“Forms V and VI are asked to,—’Describe, with study in sepia, Corot’s “Evening.”‘ Beyond this of a rough study from memory of a given picture or of any section of it, these picture studies do not afford much material for actual drawing; they are never copied lest an attempt to copy should lessen a child’s reverence for great work” (Vol. 6, p. 216).
If you were thinking that everything changed in high school, these guidelines and examples should reassure you. The methods do not change. Charlotte Mason methods are continued through graduation in all the subjects, just with increasing expectations and more difficult living books.
Next week we will discuss grades and transcripts.
Thanks to the moms who contributed such helpful comments on last week’s post. (Be sure to read them, everybody. You’ll be glad you did!) Here are the questions for this week. Those of you with CM high school experience, leave a comment below and let us know:
What are some ways that |
Traditionally, any type of citrus tree, including lemon, should be planted in the early spring season to avoid potential damage from frost. Depending on the climatic trends of a particular locale, this window may be a bit earlier of later in the | Traditionally, any type of citrus tree, including lemon, should be planted in the early spring season to avoid potential damage from frost. Depending on the climatic trends of a particular locale, this window may be a bit earlier of later in the season. Planting a lemon tree begins with selecting a suitable location that affords maximum sunshine, and is in proximity to a watering system. Once the location has been established the next step is an excavation to receive the tree. The size of this excavation will be in proportion to the size of the tree that’s being planted.
The excavation must be wide enough to allow compaction of a composite soil at the root ball on all sides and underneath as well. A minimum of 12″ in all directions is the best, since this affords ample room for a thorough compaction. In the event the selected lemon tree has a substantial root system, the actual planting should be done early in the day, or late in the afternoon to avoid unnecessary exposure to sunlight. The ground area should be moist, not simply wet, and the composition soil mixture should be at hand when the planting takes place.
Further, the tree that is selected should not be watered prior to planting, since this will limit the root activity once the tree is in the ground. A healthy tree in a semi dry, potted soil is optimum for planting success.Composition soil is best when it is comprised of local, clean soil mixed with a soil amendment that has low fertilizer content. Transplanted fruit and citrus trees do not respond well to heavy fertilization and seldom require additives to take root and grow at a normal rate.
Place 12” of soil |
• husband •
Part of Speech: Verb, transitive
Meaning: 1. To manage, take care of, as to husband a farm or the animals on it. 2. To economize, to use frugally | • husband •
Part of Speech: Verb, transitive
Meaning: 1. To manage, take care of, as to husband a farm or the animals on it. 2. To economize, to use frugally, prudently, and judiciously.
Notes: The meaning of this word has drifted so far off course that it is losing ground against the more common noun husband, the male spouse. It is still a useful and often used verb, however, so let's be sure to keep it in our vocabulary. It is a sign of a healthy vocabulary that is capable of raising an eyebrow or two when used. The noun for either sense of this verb is husbandry.
In Play: In the first sense above, to manage, today's word is usually applied to agriculture, big and small: "Rose Budd husbands every flower in her garden as if it were one of her children." In the second sense, it applies to pretty much everything: "Well, our man Izzy Dare is certainly a person who husbands his wisdom and doesn't squander it on career decisions. I have no idea why he even puts in for promotions."
Word History: Today's Good Word is the remains of Old English husbonda, the English version of Old Norse husbondi "householder", a word left behind by the Vikings who were wont to raid the shores of Anglo-Saxon England. This word was a compound of hus "house" + bondi "dwelling, home-owner", the present participle of bua "to dwell". The noun was originally used as a verb in the sense of simply "running a household". Old Norse bua came from the same ancestor as English build and German bauen "to build". With the -n suffix it also became bond in the sense of a bondsman or serf, originally referring to someone bound to an estate. Those of us who own our own homes understand this sense of bonding very well. (Let us not husband our gratitude but lavish it upon Jackie Strauss for suggesting such a very Good Word for our series.)
Come visit our website at <http://www.alphadictionary.com> for more Good Words and other language resources! |
Osteoporosis is a systemic skeletal disorder, characterized by reduced bone mass, deterioration of bone structure, increased bone fragility, and increased fracture risk. It is more frequent to find among women than men at a 4:1 ratio. | Osteoporosis is a systemic skeletal disorder, characterized by reduced bone mass, deterioration of bone structure, increased bone fragility, and increased fracture risk. It is more frequent to find among women than men at a 4:1 ratio. Evidence suggests that to adopt changes on some life habits can prevent or delay development of osteoporosis. Several osteoporosis-risk factors have been confirmed in the US and western Europe, but in El Salvador there are neither reliable epidemiological statistics about this skeletal disorder nor studies addressing osteoporosis-risk factors in women. The aim of this study was to determinate the extent of osteoporosis knowledge, the levels of both daily calcium intake and weight-bearing physical activity, and the influence of several osteoporosis-risk factors on these variables in three age groups of Salvadorean women.
In this exploratory cross-sectional study, an osteoporosis knowledge assessment questionnaire incluiding a food frequency and a physical activity record section were used to collect data and it was delivered through a face-to-face interview. A convenience sample (n = 197) comprised of three groups of women aged 25–35 years, 36–49 years, and over 49 years was taken. Among-group comparisons of means were analyzed by two-way ANOVA. To determinate the overall influence of osteoporosis-risk factors, the multivariate analysis was used.
Study results indicated that better educated women had more knowledge about osteoporosis than women with a low education level, regardless of age, even though this knowledge was rather fair. Older women got more weight-bearing physical activity at home and less at place of employment than reported by the younger women; however, neither group performed sufficient high-intensity WBPA to improve bone mass. Regardless of age, the most women consumed 60% or less than the Dietary Reference Intake of calcium and depend on household income, lactose intolerance and coffee rather than milk consumption.
In summary, the majority of women in this study have modest knowledge on osteoporosis. The knowledge base is not linked to preventive health habits, including sufficient calcium intake and performance of weight-bearing physical activities. They are thus at increased risk for low bone mass.
Osteoporosis is a systemic skeletal disorder, characterized by reduction of bone mass, deterioration of bone structure, increasing bone fragility, and increasing fracture risk [1-4]. It is more frequent among women than among men [5,6]. The development of low bone mass is typically asymptomatic, with many women reporting clinical manifestations including acute back pain, limited back mobility, fragility fractures (hip, vertebrae, proximal femur, distal radius, humerus, tibia), compression of midthoracic vertebrae and upper lumbar vertebrae, progressive deformation of the spinal column (cyphosis), reduced height, and radiculopathies [2,4-6,8,9].
Several risk factors for osteoporosis have been identified, these include female sex; Caucasian or Asiatic race; advancing age; family history of osteoporosis or fragility fractures; a low body mass index; menopause before age 45 years; prolonged amenorrhea unrelated to menopause; nulliparity; prolonged lactation; diet low in calcium and vitamin D; poor intestinal absorption of calcium; lactose intolerance; excessive caffeine or alcohol consumption; smoking; sedentary lifestyle; and prolonged treatment with thyroid hormones, glucocorticoids (e.g. cortisone), anticonvulsants, aluminum antiacids, and use of anticoagulants [1,3-6,8].
Approximately 20% of bone mass is genetically determined; however, the risk of osteoporosis can be reduced by optimizing bone mass increasing during youth, conserving bone mass during adulthood, and minimizing bone mass loss during advancing age [5-7]. Among most important preventive habits are a) weight-bearing exercise (e.g. going up and down stairs, jogging, aerobics, swimming, and isometrics; at least 30 minutes daily), b) diet or supplements containing adequate levels of calcium and vitamin D, and c) absence or cessation of smoking and no greater than moderate alcohol and/or caffeine consumption [5-10].
A study on US women aged over 25 years found that knowledge about osteoporosis was limited, irrespective of age. Calcium intake was sufficient in most cases, but the amount and type of physical activity was inadequate to achieve enhanced bone mass; most women in this study performed some physical activity in the course of paid work or housework, but did not admit to systematic daily exercise. Other study on Caucasian and African-American women found that most of them had heard about osteoporosis, but few women got both adequate exercise and the recommended intake of calcium per day. Asian women in Australia also had lower calcium intake (< 800 mg/day) and their knowledge about osteoporosis was limited.
There have been three related st |
The fall webworm (Hyphantria cunea) is native to North America and – here’s a switch – it turns out that we accidentally introduced this pest to Europe and Asia in the mid 1940′s. It’s | The fall webworm (Hyphantria cunea) is native to North America and – here’s a switch – it turns out that we accidentally introduced this pest to Europe and Asia in the mid 1940′s. It’s actually one of the few insect pests that we have exported.
Fall webworms are often confused with tent caterpillars since they both build web nests in trees. However, tent caterpillars appear in the spring and fall webworms usually appear in the late summer and early fall. They also have very different styles when it comes to building their nests. Tent caterpillars build compact nests in the crotch of two branches, while the fall webworms build large silken webs which surround the foliage at the tips of branches. As the caterpillars exhaust the leaf supply within the web, they enlarge it to incorporate a new supply of fresh green foliage and the nest expands along the branch.
Fall webworms overwinter in the pupal stage usually in the soil, mulch, or leaf litter at the base of the tree. The adults are white moths that emerge in March and April. After mating, the female moths lay hundreds of eggs in a mass on the underside of leaves. Small caterpillars hatch out after about seven days and immediately begin building a web and feeding on the leaves of the tree.
Fall webworms attack many different species of trees including pecan, walnut, hickory, many types of fruit trees, and the eastern redbud.
There are two races of the fall webworm in North America, a blackheaded race and a redheaded race. The webworms on this redbud are the blackheaded race.
These caterpillars have a voracious appetite and have consumed most of the tissue between the leaf veins, leaving behind webs filled with brown skeletonized leaves and green frass (their droppings). This is not at all attractive in the landscape.
In general, webworm feeding doesn’t hurt the tree because the damage is usually localized to just a few branches and since it occurs later in the season, the tree has had time to store food. The damage is mostly cosmetic and the webs will eventually weather away over the winter. However, if the tree is under stress due to drought, poor nutrition, or repeated defoliation from multiple generations of caterpillars, then its health could be in jeopardy and control measures may be warranted.
In many cases, the unsightly nests of fall webworms can simply be removed from small to medium sized trees by pruning out the infested branches. Another solution is to destroy the webs by winding them up on a stick or tall pole if they are within reach. Any caterpillars that are not killed in the process are left exposed and will often be eaten by birds and other predators.
If you discover the caterpillars while they are still small, you can control them by spraying a liquid formulation of the bacteria, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). Bonide Thuricide (BT) Liquid, applied to the foliage right next to the nest, will kill the caterpillars when they eat the leaves and will not harm beneficial insects. Bonide Captain Jack’s Deadbug Brew, another naturally derived organic insecticide, |
Frequent snoring appears to be associated with the development of chronic bronchitis, according to a new article.
Chronic bronchitis involves inflammation of the lower airways accompanied by a persistent cough and the production of mucus or phleg | Frequent snoring appears to be associated with the development of chronic bronchitis, according to a new article.
Chronic bronchitis involves inflammation of the lower airways accompanied by a persistent cough and the production of mucus or phlegm, according to background information and the article. Snoring appears more common among individuals with bronchitis.
Inkyung Baik, Ph.D., of the Korea University Ansan Hospital, Ansan, Republic of Korea, and colleagues studied 4,270 individuals (52 percent men and 48 percent women) starting in 2001 to 2003. At the beginning of the study, participants provided information on demographics, health conditions, family disease history and lifestyle, as well as details about how often they snored.
Every two years through 2006, participants were re-interviewed and were classified as developing chronic bronchitis if they reported having a cough and sputum (phlegm produced during cough) on most days for at least three months per year for at least two years but did not have an asthma diagnosis.
During four years of follow-up, 314 individuals developed chronic bronchitis. After adjusting for age, smoking and other bronchitis risk factors, individuals who snored regularly were more likely to develop bronchitis than those who did not. Compared with those who never snored, individuals who snored six five times per week or less were 25 percent more likely and those who snored six to seven times per week were 68 percent more likely to develop bronchitis. The association was strongest in individuals who had never smoked, who worked in the home or who were overweight.
"The mechanism |
Ursula is a large crater on Uranus's moon Titania. It is about 135 km across, and is cut by Belmont Chasma. It is named after attendant on Hero in William Shakespeare's comedy Much Ado About Nothing.[ | Ursula is a large crater on Uranus's moon Titania. It is about 135 km across, and is cut by Belmont Chasma. It is named after attendant on Hero in William Shakespeare's comedy Much Ado About Nothing.[a]
Ursula has a central pit with diameter of about 20 km. It is probably one of the youngest large impact craters on Titania. The crater is surrounded by smooth plains, which have the lowest impact crater density of all geological units on the moon, although they are cut by Belmont Chasma. The plains may be impact deposits (ejecta) associated with Ursula or they may be cryovolcanic in origin.
- Features on Titania are named after female Shakespearean characters.
- Plescia, J. B. (December 30, 1987). "Cratering history of the Uranian satellites: Umbriel, Titania and Oberon". Journal of Geophysical Research 92 (A13): 14,918–14,932. Bibcode:1987JGR....9214918P. doi:10.1029/JA092iA13p14918. ISSN 0148-0227.
- USGS/IAU (October 1, 2006). "Ursula on Titania". Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. USGS Astrogeology. Retrieved 2012-02-23.
|This article about an extraterrestrial geological feature is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.| |
A brief history of the College of Law
The Board of Regents of the University of the Philippines formally approved the establishment of the College of Law on January 12, 1911.
In June 1911, the College was formally opened with | A brief history of the College of Law
The Board of Regents of the University of the Philippines formally approved the establishment of the College of Law on January 12, 1911.
In June 1911, the College was formally opened with first and second year classes. There was a total of 125 students comprising freshmen and sophomores, the latter numbering fifty when they started the YMCA school. Of this first law class, one became a President of the Philippines, another, a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, while several others became legislators and legal luminaries.
The faculty was at first predominantly American, but the faculty profile changed when the American teachers were supplanted by Filipinos. Sherman Moreland, Justice of the Philippine Supreme Court, was Acting Dean from July 1 to October 11, 1911; George Malcolm was Secretary and subsequently Dean until 1917 when he was elevated to the Supreme Court. Jorge C. Bocobo, a member of the 1911 faculty, succeeded Dean Malcolm and became the first Filipino dean of the College. He held that position until 1934.
In the early years of the College, classes were held after five o’clock in the afternoon because most of the students held some employment during the day. The College offered a three-year course for students devoting full time to their studies in the College and a four-year course for students who were employed. Commencing with the school year 1917-1918, the four-year course was prescribed for all students.
By its twenty-fifth year, the enrollment in the College of Law totaled 547 students and the faculty was composed of eight full-time and nine part-time members. A graduate program leading to the Master of Laws degree had been established; two earned the degree in 1918. Classes were then held in Palma Hall on the Padre Faura Campus in Manila and the greater number of students attended day classes. Evening classes were maintained for students who were employed during the day.
Dean Jose A. Espiritu was appointed in 1934 to succeed Dean Bocobo. Upon the outbreak of the war in 1941, the College was closed and classes did not resume until August of 1945. Returning from a brief stint in the Supreme Court, Dean Espiritu commenced the difficult task of rehabilitating the College.
*Malcolm Hall, named after the founder and first dean of the College of Law, houses the College of Law.
When UP was transferred to Diliman in 1948.
In December 1948, with the transfer of the main campus of the University of the Philippines to Diliman, Quezon City, the College was assigned first an army hut, and later, a three-storey building named Malcolm Hall after its founder and first permanent dean.
Dean Espiritu retired in 1953 and was su cceeded by Dean Vicente G. Sinco. Dean Sinco was appointed President of the University in 1958 and Judge Vicente Abad Santos, a former member of the law faculty, became dean. Dean Abad Santos held the deanship until 1969. Prof. Perfecto V. Fernandez was appointed Officer-in-Charge of the College about a year until Dr. Irene R. Cortes was appointed in 1970. Thus, she became the first woman to hold the pos ition. In April 1978, Dr. Froilan M. Bacungan, then the Director of the Law Center, succeeded to the deanship. In October 1983, Prof. Bartolome S. Carale was appointed Dean of the College and served until April 1989. The College of Law and the Law Complex subsequently underwent a process of reorganization, and a new dean was not appointed until after its completion. Dr. Pacifico A. Agabin was appointed dean in October 1989 and served until October 1995 when Prof. Merlin M. Magallona became the tenth Dean of the College. In August 1999, Dr. Raul C. Pangalangan was appointed Dean of the College until his second term ended in September 2005. Prof. Salvador T. Carlota is the twelfth Dean of the College from October 2005 to April 2008. Marvic M.V.F. Leonen served as Dean from 2008 to 2011. Danilo Concepcion is now the present Dean of the College of Law.
A century after it was founded, the College of Law can point to its alumni in the highest positions of the government. Four became President of the Philippines: Jose P. Laurel Sr., Manuel A. Roxas, Elpidio R. Quirino, and Ferdinand E. Marcos. Thirteen served a |
From an early period the Church assumed jurisdiction over marriage, derived from the function of the priest for its due celebration, and when, in the twelfth century, matrimony was erected into a sacrament, its control became absolute. Monog | From an early period the Church assumed jurisdiction over marriage, derived from the function of the priest for its due celebration, and when, in the twelfth century, matrimony was erected into a sacrament, its control became absolute. Monogamy was a distinguishing feature of Christianity, and marriage was declared to be insoluble. The sacrament could be enjoyed but once during the life of both spouses, and its repetition was invalid, all of which naturally came within the province of the episcopal courts. The infraction of the ecclesiastical law, however, considered as an offence against society, was subject to secular penal statutes and, under the Partidas, it was punishable with relegation to an island for five years and confiscation for the benefit of children, to which penalties Juan I, in the Córtes of Briviesca, in 1387, added branding in the face. (1) In 1532, the Córtes of Segovia petitioned to have it made a capital offence, which Charles V refused, but added half confiscation and, in 1548, the Córtes of Valladolid substituted the galleys, the term for which Philip II, in 1566, defined as ten years, with public vergüenza. (2)
Thus there was ample provision for the trial and punishment of the offence by the spiritual and secular authorities, and there was no necessity for the assumption of jurisdiction by the Inquisition. Presumably it obtained a foothold through the laxity of the marriage tie among Moors and Jews, so that bigamy, like abstinence from pork and wine and change of linen on Saturday, created suspicion of heresy. This showed itself first in Aragon. As early as 1486, the Saragossa tribunal burnt in effigy the fugitive Dionis Ginot, a notary, for marrying a second wife during the lifetime of the first, and a number of other cases followed in which bigamy is conjoined with Judaic practices. For simple bigamy the penalty seems to have been perpetual prison, the punishment indicated for two culprits in the auto of February 10, 1488. (3) It also involved confiscation, for a letter of Ferdinand, October 22, 1502, to his receiver at Saragossa, orders him to deliver to certain parties ninety-four head of cattle confiscated on the bigamist Dornan Morrell. (4) In some way bigamy was construed as heresy for, in the Barcelona auto of February 3, 1503, Pere de Sentillana was required to abjure for marrying two wives, and in that of July 2, of the same year, Pere Ubach abjured for marrying in Rhodes and in Barcelona. (5)
This was one of the grievances of the Catalans, which they thought to remove in the Concordia of 1512, where it was agreed that bigamists, male and female, should be tried by the Ordinaries and not by the Inquisition, but they unwarily allowed the insertion of a provision "unless they believe erroneously as to the sacrament of matrimony or are suspect in the faith." (6) As this practically left it to the discretion of the inquisitors, Inquisitor-general Mercader, in his Instructions of 1514, was safe in telling the tribunals that they were not to try cases of bigamy unless there was presumption of erroneous belief as to the sacrament, and this was the answer sent, in 1515, to the Sicilians, when they made complaint of inquisitorial abuses. (7) Leo X, when, in 1516, confirming the Concordia of 1512, in the bull Pastoralis officii, was careful to make the same reservation, (8) but in this, as in everything else ostensibly gained by the Concordia, the subjects of the crown of Aragon found themselves deceived and when the Córtes, about 1530, complained that the inquisitors assumed jurisdiction over bigamy, the curt answer was that they observed the provisions of the law. (9)
A case occurring in 1513 suggests ample justification for this struggle to prevent the Inquisition from acquiring cognizance of bigamy. In 1477, Don Jorje de Bardaxí betrothed himself by words de prúsenti to Leonor Olzina but, learning that she was pregnant or had borne a child, he never married her in the face of the Church or consummated the marriage. He remained single, but she, in 1497, married Antonio Ferrer. In some way the Saragossa tribunal got wind of the betrothal twenty years previous and prosecuted her in 1513. In her defence she alleged that Bardaxí had previously been married to Doña Juana de Luna, whereupon the tribunal commenced proceedings against him for the betrothal in 1477 and would have thrown him into the secret prison had he not been too infirm. He was a man of consideration and appealed for protection to Ferdinand, who ordered that he should not be arrested, that every care be taken to eliminate perjured testimony and that, on conclusion of the case, the papers be sent to Inquisitor-general Mercader. (10) The result is unknown, but Bardaxí was at least exposed to the terrors of an inquisitorial trial on a vague assertion of an indiscretion committed thirty-six years before.
Whether there was any formal opposition in Castile it would be impossible to say. There was a decided assertion of episcopal jurisdiction in the Council of Seville, held in 1512 by Archbishop Deza, the former inquisitor-general, which imposed a fine of two thousand maravedís on bi |
Pickering Lecture 2014
Exploring the Unknown – to Mars and Beyond
Dr Charles Elachi is a space explorer who led the recent mission to Mars with a rover called Curiosity. As this year's Pickering Lecture speaker, he | Pickering Lecture 2014
Exploring the Unknown – to Mars and Beyond
Dr Charles Elachi is a space explorer who led the recent mission to Mars with a rover called Curiosity. As this year's Pickering Lecture speaker, he will tour New Zealand giving free public lectures on space exploration and his role as Director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The self-confessed space junkie will present in the following locations:
Hear behind the scenes stories about how NASA landed on Mars
The internationally-recognised space expert is excited to share his work developing robotics and other high-tech devices to explore the unknown worlds of our solar system. Following JPL's successful mission to Mars in 2012, when Curiosity made a near impossible landing on our sister planet, he has many behind-the-scenes stories to share.
A career in space
Drawn to the vast abyss of space, Dr Elachi spends almost every day investigating and finding new ways to explore different galaxies and planets. He has written more than 230 publications in the fields of active microwave remote sensing and electromagnetic theory.
Dr Elachi also holds several patents in those fields – and space exploration has been a life-long quest to which he has dedicated his 40-year career.
Robotics in space
Developing robotic explorers and launching them into space is a key component of Dr Elachi's role at JPL, helping mankind go where no one has gone before.
The Curiosity, a one-tonne, $2.5 billion machine, landed at Mars' Gale Crater in 2013. JPL currently has 23 spacecraft which it monitors across the solar system, but the Mars landing was an example of leading-edge engineering at its best, Dr Elachi says.
Curiosity's near-impossible touchdown on Mars required an extraordinary sequence of events, slowing the incoming spacecraft from a blistering
20,900 kilometres/hour to
3.2km/h in just seven minutes. It was described by one science commentator as the equivalent of "man landing on the Moon for the Twitter generation".
New Zealand's contribution to NASA's space exploration – Sir William Pickering
Before Dr Elachi, a New Zealander led JPL's space exploration. Affectionately known as "Mr JPL" or the original "Rocket Man", Wellington-born Sir William Pickering was the director of JPL before retiring in 1976. The incumbent Dr Elachi took over in 2001.
Under his tenure, the world's knowledge of space grew as JPL built spacecraft that sent back the first close-up photographs of the lunar surface, Venus and the surface of Mars.
Honouring this link to New Zealand engineering is part of the reason Dr Elachi agreed to visit New Zealand as the Pickering Lecture speaker.
Biography – Dr Charles Elachi
Dr Elachi joined JPL in 1970. Prior to becoming Director, he was JPL's Director for Space and Earth Science Programs (beginning in 1982), where he was responsible for the development of numerous flight missions and instruments for Earth observation, planetary exploration and astrophysics.
He has also been a principal investigator on a number of NASA-sponsored studies and flight projects including the Shuttle Imaging Radar series (Science Team Leader), the Magellan Imaging Radar (Team Member), and the Cassini Titan Radar (Team Leader).
His work has won numerous awards and he has served on a number of academy committees including the National Academy of Engineering. |
What Is a Financial Power of Attorney?
A power of attorney is simply a legal tool that permits a party or entity to transact business and affairs on your behalf. There are several types of powers of attorney. For example, there is a financial | What Is a Financial Power of Attorney?
A power of attorney is simply a legal tool that permits a party or entity to transact business and affairs on your behalf. There are several types of powers of attorney. For example, there is a financial power of attorney. There is also a medical form of a power of attorney. The two types of powers of attorney are usually kept distinct and most advisers and professionals in the trusts and estates field warn against including medical information in a financial power of attorney.
Financial Power of Attorney
A financial power of attorney can take one of two forms:
- durable power of attorney
- nondurable power of attorney
The two forms of financial powers of attorney are quite different and distinct. Accordingly, it is important to recognize the situations in which it is appropriate to have each one. For example, many people consider creating a durable power of attorney when they become chronically or terminally ill. Durable powers of attorney are also particularly appropriate when there is a future date upon which it may be foreseeable that an illness can become disruptive to the life or lives of another or others.
Durable Power of Attorney
A durable power of attorney is a legal document that allows another to act on your behalf until the tool is revoked or upon your passing. The tool can take effect immediately. For those who struggle with chronic, debilitating illnesses or who might face future incapacity (for example, a nursing home), a durable power of attorney vehicle is an appropriate device for use in these unique situations and circumstances.
Durable powers of attorney can be prepared so that they can be put into place at a future date, as well. They do not have to take immediate effect. For a party who faces a chronic or debilitating illness in the future, this device may be best applicable. Often, a medical doctor or other type of authority figure will help select the time when an individual is no longer able and competent to manage his or her own legal and business affairs on his or her own. At that future point in time, the power of attorney will take effect and permit the agent to manage the party's financial affairs. Because this type of power of attorney springs into effect at a future date, it is often referred to as a "springing" power of attorney.
Nondurable Power of Attorney
Nondurable powers of attorney are often used for limited transactions and situations. If there is a contemplated stock trade or similar single transaction, a nondurable power of attorney would be particularly appropriate. This type of power of attorney gives the grant of authority to another for one or few occurrence(s). Another example of a nondurable power of attorney scenario arises when a party travels far away from home, such as to a foreign country, and is not able to conduct their business or financial affairs at home during that limited period of travel. This type of power of attorney is sometimes called a special power of attorney. |
TRADITIONS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS:
A SECOND AND REVISED EDITION OF
"TALES OF AN INDIAN CAMP."
JAMES ATHEARN JONES.
IN THREE VOLUMES.
LONDON: | TRADITIONS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS:
A SECOND AND REVISED EDITION OF
"TALES OF AN INDIAN CAMP."
JAMES ATHEARN JONES.
IN THREE VOLUMES.
LONDON: HENRY COLBURN AND RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET. 1830. F. SHOBERL, JUN., LONG ACRE.
THE THIRD VOLUME.
Page The Lake of the White Canoe 1 A Legend of the Bomelmeeks 33 The King of the Elks 47 The Daughters of the Sun 77 The Maiden and the Bird 91 The Island of Eagles 117 Legend of Aton-Larre 145 The Fire-Spirit 167 The Origin of Women 175 The Hill of Fecundity. A Tradition of the Minnatarees 183 TALES OF A WHITE MAN'S GHOST. I. Garanga 191 II. The Warning of Tekarrah 213 III. The Legend of Pomperaug 237 IV. The Son of Annawan 251 V. The Cascade of Melsingah 279 Legend of Coatuit Brook 305 The Spirits of Vapour 313 The Devil of Cape Higgin 321
TALES OF AN INDIAN CAMP.
THE LAKE OF THE WHITE CANOE.
Wo! Wo! Wo Wo to the sons of the far-off land, Weak in heart and pale in face, Deer in battle, moose in a race, Panthers wanting claw and tooth Wo to the red man, strong of hand, Steady of purpose, lithe of limb, Calm in the toils of the foe, Knowing nor tears nor ruth Wo to them and him, If, cast by hard fate at the midnight damp, Or an hour of storm in the dismal swamp, That skirts the Lake of the White Canoe!
Wo to him and them, If, when the night's dim lamps are veil'd, And the Hunter's Star is hid, And the moon has shut her lid, For their wearied limbs the only birth Be the cold and frosty earth, And their flesh be burnt by the gum exhal'd From the cedar's poisonous stem, And steep'd in the blistering dew Of the barren vine in the birchen copse, Where rear the pines their giant tops Above the Lake of the White Canoe!
My brother hears—'t is well— And let him shun the spot, The damp and dismal brake, That skirts the shallow lake, The brown and stagnant pool[A], The dark and miry fen, And let him never at nightfall spread His blanket among the isles that dot The surface of that lake; And let my brother tell The men of his race that the wolf hath fed Ere now on warriors brave and true, In the fearful Lake of the White Canoe.
Wo! Wo! Wo! To him that sleeps in those dark fens! The she-wolf will stir the brake, And the copper-snake breathe in his ear, And the bitterns will start by tens, And the slender junipers shake With the weight of the nimble bear, And the pool resound with the cayman's plash, And the owl will hoot in the boughs of the ash, Where he sits so calm and cool; Above his head, the muckawiss[B] Will sing his gloomy song; Frogs will scold in the pool, To see the musk-rat carry along The perch to his hairy brood; And, coil'd at his feet, the horn-snake will hiss, Nor last nor least of the throng, The shades of the youth and maid so true, That haunt the Lake of the White Canoe.
And, if he chance to sleep, Still will his okki whisper wo, For hideous forms will rise: The spirits of the swamp Will come from their caverns dark and deep, Where the slimy currents flow, With the serpent and wolf to romp, And to whisper in the sleeper's ear Of wo and danger near; And mist will hide the pale, cold moon, And the stars will seem like the sparkling flies That twinkle in the prairie glades, In my brother's month of June— Murky shades, dim, dark shades, Shades of the cypress, pine, and yew, In the swamp of the Lake of the White Canoe.
Wo! wo! wo! He will hear in the dead of the night— If the bittern will stay his toot, And the serpent will cease his hiss, And the wolf forget his howl, And the owl forbear his hoot, And the plaintive muckawiss, And his neighbour the frog, will be mute— A plash like the dip of a water-fowl, In the lake with mist so white; And two forms will float on his troubled view, O'er the brake, with a meteor light, And he'll hear the words of a tender song, Stealing like a spring-wind along The Lake of the White Canoe.
That song will be a song of wo, Its burthen will be a gloomy tale; It will cause the rain to flow; It will tell of youthful love, Fond but blighted love; It will tell of father's cruelty; It will cause the rain to flow; It will tell of two lovely flowers That grew in the wilderness; And the mildew that touch'd the leaf; And the canker that struck the bud; And the lightning that wither'd the stem; And 't will speak of the Spirit-dove, That summon'd them away, Deeming them all too good and true, For aught save to paddle a White Canoe
[Footnote A: The water of the little lake (Drummond's Pond), to which this tradition relates, is coloured brown by the roots of the juniper and cedar.]
[Foot |
- A gladiolus.More example sentences
- The leaves of the Gladiolus are sword-shaped, hence the common name ‘sword lily’.
- In fact, one of its early English language common names was sword lily | - A gladiolus.More example sentences
- The leaves of the Gladiolus are sword-shaped, hence the common name ‘sword lily’.
- In fact, one of its early English language common names was sword lily.
- Suddenly the old Chinese woman whom I'd walked past on the sidewalk half an hour earlier moved across the window, a tall sprig of sword lily in one hand.
More definitions of sword lilyDefinition of sword lily in:
- The British & World English dictionary |
Story by KATE ARTHUR
After his experience as an Eckley scholar, Daniel Maurer will never look at a simple bottle of hand sanitizer the same way again.
It’s not what’s in the clear gel that interests Maurer, | Story by KATE ARTHUR
After his experience as an Eckley scholar, Daniel Maurer will never look at a simple bottle of hand sanitizer the same way again.
It’s not what’s in the clear gel that interests Maurer, but rather how the sensations of seeing, smelling and touching it might influence our judgment of others. The psychology major with an interest in lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender (LGBT) issues is examining whether feelings about cleanliness and sexual orientation can affect our judgment of criminal defendants.
In Maurer’s high school class of about 50 students, LGBT issues weren’t usually discussed. At Wesleyan, he started wondering what caused the dramatic shift in support for gay rights, from fear in the ’80s brought on by the AIDS epidemic to a U.S. president’s endorsement of same-sex unions.
When Amanda Vicary, assistant professor of psychology, encouraged him to find a research project, he pored over literature that combined LGBT issues with criminology. An article on cleanliness and how it can affect someone’s assessment of an outgroup (a social group to which an individual does not identify) intrigued him. Specifically, he wondered whether gay male defendants would be judged more harshly than straight defendants, especially if cleanliness were a factor.
The hand sanitizer “primed the participants for cleanliness,” says Maurer. “That is to say, it made it a salient feature, one that is theorized to affect one’s assessment of an outgroup — in my study, homosexual men.”
Maurer’s research “forms a unique bridge between the domains of criminal justice and psychology,” says Vicary, whose research interests include social influences on crime and aggression. “The results of his study can help provide insight into a variety of areas, including perceptions of homosexuality in the criminal justice system. To the best of my knowledge, to date no one has investigated whether gay defendants tend to be judged more harshly than straight defendants.”
For Maurer’s experiment, volunteers read over details of a bank robbery, including witness and detective statements. Although they never meet the “criminal,” they have to make a judgment of guilt or innocence.
Some volunteers were handed hand sanitizer along with a clipboard and asked to use the sanitizer because of the number of volunteers who had handled the clipboard. What they didn’t know was that this was part of the experiment.
Maurer looked at whether those who used hand sanitiz |
Latin is probably the easiest of the older languages for speakers of English to learn, both because of their earlier relationship and because of the long use of Latin as the language of educational, ecclesiastical, legal and political affairs in western culture. | Latin is probably the easiest of the older languages for speakers of English to learn, both because of their earlier relationship and because of the long use of Latin as the language of educational, ecclesiastical, legal and political affairs in western culture. Moreover, we use the Latin alphabet, so that the language is read without difficulty. On the other hand, the sentence structure and number of forms require a great deal of attention, since the words of sentences are placed for their emphasis, rather than in accordance with a pattern like that of the English Subject-Verb-Object sentence. It is essential, then, to learn the basic inflections of nouns and verbs.
Note: this set of lessons is for systems/browsers lacking Unicode support, or having less than full Unicode 2.0 font support. Lessons rendered in alternate character sets are available via links (Unicode 2 and Unicode 3) in the left margin, and at the bottom of this page.
The Latin alphabet was taken over from the Greek through Etruscan. The order of the letters is therefore much the same as in Greek, as is also true of most of their pronunciation. The 23-letter alphabet is as follows:
A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P Q R S T V X Y Z
English has maintained this order with a few modifications. In Latin the letter I was used both for its vocalic value and to represent the sound y as in yet. An elongated form of the letter, J, was later introduced. But this is generally pronounced today as in jam, while the letter Y represents the consonantal value of I. Similarly, the Latin letter V was used to represent both the vocalic value of U as in hue, and the sound w as in wet. A rounded form, U, was introduced to represent the vowel, and a doubled form, W, was introduced to represent the consonantal value. It might also be noted that the third letter of the alphabet was pronounced with its value in cat, rather than with its value in cent or in our pronunciation of Caesar.
The chief difference in pronunciation of these letters has to do with the vowels. The consonants are pronounced like their principal pronunciations in English. Whether long or short, the vowels are pronounced as in the languages of Europe. It might be noted, however, that when Latin was spoken in everyday use, it was pronounced in accordance with the pronunciation of the native language in the country, so that the pronunciation in Italy differ |
Home / Events / Past Event Highlights /
The 11th Annual Platsis Symposium on the Greek Legacy, September 23, 2012
The Greek Background
of Natural Law
September 23, 2012 · 2: | Home / Events / Past Event Highlights /
The 11th Annual Platsis Symposium on the Greek Legacy, September 23, 2012
The Greek Background
of Natural Law
September 23, 2012 · 2:00PM Rackham Building, Amphitheater
Lloyd L. Weinreb, Dane Professor of Law at Harvard Law School
The doctrine of natural law originates in the idea of normative natural order, which emerged clearly in fifth century Athens.It affirmed that nature—what there is—is ordered normatively. This idea is expressed in the great tragedies, most notably those of Sophocles. After the fifth century, it was incorporated into the Stoic doctrine of the Logos. It was picked up by Cicero, whose Latin expression of it in the first century gave rise to what may properly be called a doctrine of natural law, later adapted by Thomas Aquinas to the teachings of the Christian church. Today, natural law is widely regarded as a school of jurisprudence which affirms that true law conforms to moral precepts and that a rule that does not so conform is not law properly so called. The original Greek notion of normative natural order persists not in the doctrine of natural law but in the idea of justice.
Brad Inwood, Professor of Philosophy and Classics at the University of Toronto
Why should one be virtuous? Always a tough question, but even tougher if what we’re really asking is why one should go through all the hard work and training demanded to acquire a virtuous disposition. Ancient moral theorists made it clear that virtue, though natural in some sense, doesn’t come without effort. The reason why people should go to the trouble of learning to be good is often thought to be obvious in a eudaimonistic context. If happiness is the human telos it is the natural fulfillment of our nature. Who wouldn’t want to fulfill their nature? It might be the case that the motivating reason for the pursuit of virtue was thought to be too obvious to need discussion, but nevertheless it is striking how rarely ancient writers provide a substantive, non-question-begging account of the psychological motivation for acquiring virtue (as opposed to the philosophical motivation one might have for promoting a virtue-based moral theory). One lat |
The Bauhaus was one of the first colleges of design, and in the 14 years of its existence it brought together not just many of the most important artists, architects, designers and graphic artists of the age but also provided a blueprint for the | The Bauhaus was one of the first colleges of design, and in the 14 years of its existence it brought together not just many of the most important artists, architects, designers and graphic artists of the age but also provided a blueprint for the comprehensive design and modernisation of our industrial society. At the time neither the teachers, their students nor society as a whole were able to predict with what ease and universal validity the design principles of the Bauhaus would be adapted to a range of applications worldwide. The institution itself was forced by conservative political forces to change location a number of times, moving from Weimar via Dessau to Berlin, where the Bauhaus was closed down in 1933 under political pressure of the Nazis.
Paradoxically it was this very harassment of the Bauhaus which was responsible for the unfolding of its worldwide significance. Many of its former teachers emigrated to the United States and as university professors had a major influence on generations of architects and product designers. Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer lectured at Harvard, Mies van der Rohe at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in Chicago, and Josef Albers at Black Mountain College, to name just a few.
It is accordingly not surprising that the term 'Bauhaus' became a style and is today representative of radical modernisation in architecture and everyday objects, with all its negative concomitants and extravagances.
Walter Gropius, 1928. Photo: Associated Press, Berlin Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin |
At the heart of the mythology of the Anglo-Scandinavian-Germanic North is the evergreen Yggdrasil, the tree of life believed to hold up the skies and unite and separate three worlds: Asgard, high in the | At the heart of the mythology of the Anglo-Scandinavian-Germanic North is the evergreen Yggdrasil, the tree of life believed to hold up the skies and unite and separate three worlds: Asgard, high in the tree, where the gods dwelled in their great halls; Middlegard, where human beings lived; and the dark underground world of Hel, home to the monstrous goddess of death. With the advent of Christianity in the North around the year 1000, Yggdrasil was recast as the cross on which Christ sacrificed himself. G. Ronald Murphy offers an insightful examination of the lasting significance of Yggdrasil in northern Europe, showing that the tree's image persisted not simply through its absorption into descriptions of Christ's crucifix, but through recognition by the newly converted Christians of the truth of their new religion in the images and narratives of their older faith.
Rather than dwelling on theological and cultural differences |
Halitosis and Mouth Breathing in Children
Objective: determine whether there is a correlation between halitosis and mouth breathing in children. Study design: Fifty-five children between three and 14 years of age were divided into two groups (nas | Halitosis and Mouth Breathing in Children
Objective: determine whether there is a correlation between halitosis and mouth breathing in children. Study design: Fifty-five children between three and 14 years of age were divided into two groups (nasal and mouth breathing) for the assessment of halitosis. Descriptive analysis was carried out regarding the degree of halitosis in each group. The chi-square test was used for the comparison between groups, with 5% level of significance.
|Study Design:||Time Perspective: Cross-Sectional|
|Official Title:||Halitosis and Mouth Breathing in Children|
|Study Start Date:||November 2009|
|Study Completion Date:||August 2010|
|Primary Completion Date:||March 2010 (Final data collection date for primary outcome measure)| |
The asteroid belt is the region of the Solar System located roughly between the orbits of the planets Mars and Jupiter. It is occupied by numerous irregularly shaped bodies called asteroids or minor planets. The asteroid belt is also termed the main asteroid belt or main | The asteroid belt is the region of the Solar System located roughly between the orbits of the planets Mars and Jupiter. It is occupied by numerous irregularly shaped bodies called asteroids or minor planets. The asteroid belt is also termed the main asteroid belt or main belt to distinguish its members from other asteroids in the Solar System such as near-Earth asteroids and trojan asteroids. About half the mass of the belt is contained in the four largest asteroids, Ceres, Vesta, Pallas, and Hygiea. These have mean diameters of more than 400 km, while Ceres, the asteroid belt's only dwarf planet, is about 950 km in diameter. The remaining bodies range down to the size of a dust particle. The asteroid material is so thinly distributed that numerous unmanned spacecraft have traversed it without incident. Nonetheless, collisions between large asteroids do occur, and these can form an asteroid family whose members have similar orbital characteristics and compositions. It was once thought that collisions of asteroids produce a fine dust that forms a major component of the zodiacal light. However, Nesvorny and Jenniskens (2010 Astrophysical Journal) attributed 85 perce |
Picasso's 'Head of a Woman' 1926
The conceit of the 'imaginary journey' suggests something of the engagement a work of art demands from its viewers. Yet engagement with a work of art involves physical as well as | Picasso's 'Head of a Woman' 1926
The conceit of the 'imaginary journey' suggests something of the engagement a work of art demands from its viewers. Yet engagement with a work of art involves physical as well as imaginative journeys. This much is made clear if we consider two photographs of Pablo Picasso's 'Head of a Woman' of 1926. The first view was taken at a distance of over twelve feet and the second at a distance of approximately three feet. Yet the short physical journey between these points radically transforms one's experience of the object.
The painting measures 5 x 4 inches and so of course when seen from a distance is discernible only as a representation of a human head. However, contrary to normal experience, one's initial identification of the work is not confirmed simply by drawing closer to it. It is necessary to approach the work in order to clarify one's first impressions, in order that certain markings resolve themselves into discrete areas of hatching for example, yet to reach this point of optical resolution is also to reach a point of conceptual confusion. For as the work is brought into focus, so a number of incompatibilities register themselves. One discerns that various details are presented in such a way as to depart from the conventional schema for the depiction of the human face. Thus the frontal presentation of features is undermined by the inclusion of a profile view of the left eye. Even a viewer well versed in the conventions of cubism will confront difficulties in offering an account of the work. To describe the image 'as a head shown in simultaneous profile and full face' seems to me somewhat hasty, not least because this ignores the fact that the 'profile' at the right possesses a frontally presented eye. Drawing attention to this fact is simply a means of noting that the work resists easy categorisation and description: I have preferred to begin by dwelling on the difficulties presented by Picasso's work.
But why begin here at all? One response to this eminently sensible question would be that art historians tend to use the term 'approach' metaphorically. This usage sometimes still betrays a belief that physical proximity to an object is somehow a secure basis for the acquisition of knowledge of the object. I hope I have already shown that Picasso's 'Head of a Woman' is organised so as to undermine this belief. In the remainder of this brief essay I would like to suggest |
Environment / Climate / Range
Marine; brackish; reef-associated; oceanodromous (Ref. 51243); depth range 5 - 80 m (Ref. 43278). Tropical; 34°N - | Environment / Climate / Range
Marine; brackish; reef-associated; oceanodromous (Ref. 51243); depth range 5 - 80 m (Ref. 43278). Tropical; 34°N - 10°S, 60°E - 150°E
Size / Weight / Age
Maturity: Lm ? range? -? cm
Max length : 77.0 cm TL male/unsexed; (Ref. 90102)
soft rays: 0. Genus: Nostrils subterminal on snout; pre-oral snout long, mouth closer to eyes than snout tip; eyes and supraorbital ridges hardly elevated; no black hood on head or large spot or spots on sides of body above pectoral fins (Ref. 43278). Caudal fin with a pronounced subterminal notch but without a ventral lobe (Ref. 13575).
Species: Light brown, yellow-brown or grey-brown above, cream below, with 12-13 prominent saddle marks in young, fading with growth and absent in adults (Ref. 13575). Dark bands in juveniles not outline in black (Ref. 13575). Dorsal fins smaller than pelvic fins, without projecting free rear tips (Ref. 13575). Body without lateral dermal ridge (Ref. 4832,43278, 13575).
Indo-West Pacific: Arabian Sea to Pakistan, India, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, China, Japa |
Henry Augustus Rowland
Rowland, Henry Augustus (rōˈlənd) [key], 1848–1901, American physicist, b. Honesdale, Pa., grad. Rensselaer | Henry Augustus Rowland
Rowland, Henry Augustus (rōˈlənd) [key], 1848–1901, American physicist, b. Honesdale, Pa., grad. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 1870. He was professor of physics at Johns Hopkins from 1875. Rowland is known especially for his invention of a dividing engine for ruling diffraction gratings on curved surfaces and for accurately determining the value of the ohm and the mechanical equivalent of heat. He also did important work in the field of electrical power.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright |
Analysis and Conclusions
The Department of State obviously cannot pass on the question whether scientific techniques or equipment can be developed to detect the explosion by the U.S.S.R. of an atomic bomb, and it cannot express judgment as between competing demands for | Analysis and Conclusions
The Department of State obviously cannot pass on the question whether scientific techniques or equipment can be developed to detect the explosion by the U.S.S.R. of an atomic bomb, and it cannot express judgment as between competing demands for research and development funds. It is clear, however, that "only if a high degree of certainty can be placed on systems of detection, would this Government be warranted in basing policy decisions on intelligence derived from them." Definite knowledge by this Government of the explosion by the U.S.S.R. of its first bomb is considered by the Department to be important for the following reasons:
- It would have a steadying effect on the American people and give them a sense of security if this Government could give assurance that the U.S.S.R. probably could not, without our knowledge, have a bomb or bombs for any length of time. With this knowledge, the Government would be able to combat intelligently defeatist or irrational attitudes arising from uncertainty as to whether the U.S.S.R. was capable of using atomic bombs, and would be in a position to refute with conviction false claims or rumors.
- It would be of the utmost importance for us to know when the U.S.S.R. has successfully tested a bomb in order to anticipate and counter possible changes in Soviet foreign policy which might result therefrom, and to know whether a shift in its foreign policy was the result of the possession of atomic bombs, We cannot know whether the U.S.S.R. would make the knowledge public if it did possess the atomic bomb; however, we would be in a position to know the truth of what the U.S.S.R. said publicly.
- The Soviet possession of a bomb or bombs may require a reevaluation of U.S. policy in the United Nations in our efforts to obtain effective international control.
- Most of the free nations of the world are inclined at present to cooperate with the United States in view of the threat of Soviet aggression. A belief that we are now the sole possessor of atomic bombs and that the U.S.S.R. has none probably tends to increase their desire to collaborate with us and also their sense of safety in doing so. This tendency would probably be reinforced even further by certain knowledge that the U.S.S.R. does not possess the bomb and that we would have means of knowing if it and when it did come into possession of the bomb. However, it is realized that knowledge that the U.S.S.R. did in fact possess the bomb also might tend to in-cline third countries toward a position of neutrality between the United States and the U.S.S.R.
- If at some later time we should learn with certainty that the U.S.S.R. did possess the atomic bomb, this knowledge would be of importance in reevaluating the necessity for precautionary measures to reduce U.S. vulnerability to atomic attack. However, this is a matter of primary concern to the NME. (National Military Establishment) |
When we watch TV these days there are cooking shows of one kind or other everywhere. This is really great, because so much more information is readily available than ever before. Not everyone who cooks on TV is a true professional chef, but many are | When we watch TV these days there are cooking shows of one kind or other everywhere. This is really great, because so much more information is readily available than ever before. Not everyone who cooks on TV is a true professional chef, but many are. They are trained professionally, and certain terms are taught to them. These words become second nature to hear and use, though not all of the general public watching at home always understands what these terms mean. Here are five of the most common terms for ways of cutting foods that should demystify these terms for everyone.
Slicing is the simplest of all methods. Most people understand the word, so maybe this is less necessary to explain. Slicing can be done thick or thin and any gradient between. Not everyone is able to slice neatly and evenly, but slicing is a downward motion with a knife. How this downward motion is accomplished can vary. One may slice bread, which requires a sawing downward motion to slice without smashing the bread. If slicing an onion, a simple downward motion is perfect. Slicing a green pepper can vary. Usually one cuts the pepper open and cleans out seeds and membranes, but then do we slice across the pepper, or lengthwise? Sometimes this is purely preference, and sometimes it depends on how the final dish is to look.
Chopping can be done roughly or finely. The gradations are sometimes individually termed, such as coarse chop, or fine chop. Chopping is the method for making smaller pieces of a vegetable or fruit, for such things as a saute, salad, or soup. Making a salsa can be done coarsely chopped or more finely chopped. Chopping an onion is relatively simple, since with all the layers, quite a lot of small pieces are accomplished with few strokes. Some people chop slowly and some develop skill and chop more quickly. The most important thing is a sharp knife, which makes any chopping task much easier.
To mince means to chop into extremely tiny bits. Most often one minces garlic, as an example. This allows the strongly flavored bulb to be distributed evenly throughout a dish. Mincing any vegetable will take a longer time, as the chopping motions must continue until all the pieces are uniformly small. Fresh herbs are often minced before adding to food. Mincing is used when the desire is to distribute flavors without marring the visual effect, or as with the garlic, to distribute flavors most evenly. A garlic press will approximate the fineness of mincing garlic, though most professional chefs do not use a press.
To julienne means to slice into long strips of very uniform matchstick shape and size. There are tools out there these days that can help to make quick work of julienning vegetables such as carrot or zucchini, among others. If julienning by hand, take the vegetable, such as a carrot, cut 3 to 4 inch lengths and slice each piece lengthwise into thin, even slices. Stack 3 or more of these thin slices together and again slice lengthwise through the stack, creating very thin sticks of the vegetable. These little sticks are often about 3 or more inches long, and can be added to a salad or a stir fry or wherever desired.
This term is most often applied to leafy foods, such as herbs or spinach or other leafy vegetables. It invo |
The 112th Congress is out of the gate, and so is its mantra of getting government spending under control. But there’s one piece of the spending pie that legislators can’t overlook if they plan to get the United States back on the track | The 112th Congress is out of the gate, and so is its mantra of getting government spending under control. But there’s one piece of the spending pie that legislators can’t overlook if they plan to get the United States back on the track of fiscal responsibility: welfare.
Despite the commonly held belief that the government “ended welfare as we know it” back in the 1990s, this year alone, federal and state governments will spend nearly $900 billion on means-tested programs for low-income people. (And no, this does not include unemployment spending.) The welfare reforms of the Clinton years accounted for just a small piece of total welfare spending in the first place, and while those reforms should not be downplayed for their significance and success, unfortunately even they have been all but eliminated over the years.
The challenge with getting welfare spending under control is that no one really knows where all of the money goes. This is partly attributed to the fact that there are over 70 different welfare programs spread across 13 government departments providing assistance for things from food to housing to cell phones.
With such a behemoth to tackle, is it possible to get welfare spending under control? Representative Jim Jordan (R–OH) says yes.
The reforms made in 1996 provide proof that successful changes can be made to tackle welfare spending and shape welfare to do what it is meant to do: move people from government dependence to self-reliance. The provisions that made welfare reform possible included adding time limits and work requirements (in other words, elements of personal responsibility) to welfare—in that case, the cash assistance program Aid to Families with Dependent Children (which became Temporary Assistance to Needy Families). As a result, welfare roles shrunk and the number of children living in poverty decreased dramatically.
Transferring such principles to other government welfare programs—food stamps and housing programs, for example—would prove a promising strategy to helping people off the dole and into independence, thus decreasing the burden on taxpayers. Also critical is ensuring that the U.S. does not increase current welfare spending.
To discuss these ideas in greater detail, Representative Jim Jordan (R–OH) will speak at The Heritage Foundation on Thursday, January 20, at 10:30 a.m. Join us live or on the Web! |
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is the branch of the United Nations charged with the maintenance of international peace and security. Its powers, outlined in the United Nations Charter, include the establishment of peacekeeping operations, the establishment of international sanctions | The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is the branch of the United Nations charged with the maintenance of international peace and security. Its powers, outlined in the United Nations Charter, include the establishment of peacekeeping operations, the establishment of international sanctions, and the authorization for military action. Its powers are exercised through United Nations Security Council Resolutions.
Since its first meeting, the Council, which exists in continuous session, has traveled widely, holding meetings in many cities, such as Paris and Addis Ababa. For the most part, however, it has remained located at UN Headquarters — first at Lake Success in New York and then at its current home in New York City.
Significant changes in the Council’s composition have occurred on three occasions. In 1965, amendments to articles 23 and 27 of the Charter came into effect, increasing the number of elected members from six to ten.
In 1971, the General Assembly voted to remove the Republic of China representative, establishing that a delegate from the People's Republic of China was the legitimate representative of China. Because the issue was presented as one that involved which delegation would properly represent China instead of admission or expulsion of a member, this issue required only action by the General Assembly. Under typical circumstances, removal of a member from the Council requires endorsement from Council itself, or the amendment to article 23 that specifies the identity of the permanent members on the Council.
Similarly, there was no amendment to article 23 following the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1991. In much less contentious circumstances the Russian Federation acceded to the former Soviet seat.
The basic structure of the UNSC is set out in Chapter V of the UN Charter.
Security Council members must always be present at UN headquarters in New York so that the Security Council can meet at any time. This requirement of the United Nations Charter was adopted to address a weakness of the League of Nations since that organization was often unable to respond quickly to a crisis.
The role of president of the Security Council involves setting the agenda, presiding at its meetings and overseeing any crisis. It rotates in alphabetical order of the Security Council member nations' names in English.
There are two categories of membership in the UN Security Council: permanent members and elected members.
The Council seated five permanent members who were originally drawn from the victorious powers after World War II:
Two of the original members, the Republic of China and the Soviet Union, were later replaced by recognized successor states, even though Charter of the United Nations#Article 23 of the Charter of the United Nations has not been accordingly amended:
Since the stalemate of the Chinese Civil War, there have been two states claiming to represent "China" and thus both officially claim each other's territory. In 1971, the People's Republic of China was awarded China's seat in the United Nations by UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, and the Republic of China (which had lost mainland China and been in Taiwan since 1949) soon lost membership in all UN organizations. In 1991, Russia, being the legal successor state to the Soviet Union, acquired the originally-Soviet seat, including the Soviet Union's former representation in the Security Council.
The five permanent members of the Security Council are the only nations recognized as possessing nuclear weapons under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, although it lacks universal validity, as some nuclear nations have not signed the treaty. This nuclear status is not the result of their Security Council membership, though it is sometimes used as a modern-day justification for their continued presence on the body. India, Pakistan and North Korea possess nuclear weapons outside of the anti-proliferation framework established by the Treaty. Israel does not officially confirm or deny having nuclear weapons, but is generally believed to.
In 2004, four of the five permanent members were also the world's top four weapons exporters when measured by arms value; China was seventh.
The current (2008) elected members, with the regions they were elected to represent and their Permanent Representatives, are:
|Belgium||Western Europe and Other||Jan Grauls|
|Burkina Faso||Africa||Michel Kafando|
|Costa Rica||Latin America and Caribbean||Jorge Urbina Ortega|
|Croatia||Eastern Europe||Neven Jurica|
|Italy||Western Europe and Other||Marcello Spatafora|
|Libya||Africa, Arab||Jadallah Azzuz at-Talhi|
|Panama||Latin America and Caribbean||Ricardo Alberto Arias|
|South Africa||Africa||Dumisani Kumalo|
|Vietnam||Asia||Lê Lương Minh|
Under Article 27 of the UN Charter, Security Council decisions on all substantive matters require the affirmative votes of nine members. A negative vote, or veto, by a permanent member prevents adoption of a |
The song Dancing in the Streets, performed by Martha and the Vandellas
, can be and has been interpreted
as a protest song
; a call to action
for those witnessing the Civil Rights
movement happening all around them.
1963 | The song Dancing in the Streets, performed by Martha and the Vandellas
, can be and has been interpreted
as a protest song
; a call to action
for those witnessing the Civil Rights
movement happening all around them.
1963, the year before Dancing in the Streets was released, saw many of the major events in the history of civil rights unfold.
•Medgar Evers, leader of the NAACP, was assassinated outside his home.
•There were race riots in Cambridge, Maryland.
•Alabama governor George Wallace denied two black students' admittance to the University of Alabama. The Federal government later decreed that the students were to be admitted.
•On September 15 four girls were killed when the Sixteeth St. Baptist Church in Birmingham, AL was bombed. Spike Lee has made a documentary, Four Little Girls, which is centered around this event.
•Birmingham, Alabama hosted a mass demonstration at which Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was arrested. Fire hoses and police dogs were used as weapons against the demonstrators. While incarcerated, Dr. King wrote his famous quote: "Justice delayed too long is justice denied."
•250,000 people participated in the March On Washington. Dr. King delivered his "I Have A Dream" speech there.
The lyrics of Dancing in the Streets call the listener out, to take the streets in protest of institutional racism.
"An invitation across the nation", "a chance for folks to meet", to come together and organize against racism and a racist power structure. Unity among classes, creeds and categories; "...it doesn't matter what you wear, just as long as you are there." It's a global movement; "...everywhere around the world". Hope for the realization of a new, more just order; "...a brand new beat".
The brilliance, of course, is that this call to protest is wrapped up in the idiom of the danceable, Motown pop song. Radio friendly revolution.
Dancing in the Streets is also featured as a favorite song of the anti-fascist vigilante V in Alan Moore's graphic novel "V for Vendetta". |
"AUSCHWITZ" (published by Fawcett Publications, Inc., New York) is an eyewitness account of the most terrible of Hitler's death camps. Its author is Dr. Miklos Nyiszli, a Jewish victim | "AUSCHWITZ" (published by Fawcett Publications, Inc., New York) is an eyewitness account of the most terrible of Hitler's death camps. Its author is Dr. Miklos Nyiszli, a Jewish victim who was made part of the Sonderkommando, the Nazi name for the corps of Jewish prisoners assigned to carry the still warm dead from the gas chambers to the Auschwitz ovens. The story is indeed a terrible one that deserves to be indelibly engraved in the hearts and minds of all.
Professor Bruno Bettelheim was invited to write a foreword for this book. Bettelheim is a recognized authority in the field of psychology, has worked for Jewish organizations and is the author of a number of books and articles on anti-Semitism and prejudice. He was supposed to draw some lessons from the Nyiszli narrative.
As the first lesson, we might expect to read some remarks on the subject how could the Germans have committed such a terrible crime as to send to their death six million Jews and untold other millions in such places as Auschwitz. But Bettelheim does not find this mass murder very strange. He writes: The history of mankind, as of the Western world, abounds in persecutions for religious or political reasons. Large numbers of men were exterminated in other countries too. Germany itself was depopulated by the Thirty Years War, during which millions ofcivilians died. So there is nothing remarkable in what the Nazis did; it is par for the course. The Nazis were but human and man's inhumanity to man is a well known story. (Permit us to ignore as beneath comment Bettelheim's comparative reference to the Thirty Years War.)
But if the Nazis acted quite normally within the bounds of history, what then was strange about Auschwitz? The Jew Bettelheim will tell you: The unique feature of the extermination camps is not that the Germans exterminated millions of people --- that this is possible has been accepted in our picture of man, though not for centuries has it happened on that scale, and perhaps never with such callousness. What was new, unique, terrifying, was that millions, like lemmings, marched themselves to their own death. This is what is incredible; this we must come to understand.
So, then, the Nazis were normal human beings; it was the Jewish victims who were abnormal, who are to be compared with the animal lemmings in Scandinavia which apparently for no reason at all at certain seasons all rush down to the sea in hordes there to commit suicide by drowning. The Jewish victims wanted to commit suicide, that is why they got themselves finally into the camps and went quietly to their death. It was the Jews' own fault that they got themselves murdered the way they did; like lemmings they gave up the fight against the death instinct.
Other people fought the Nazis, but not these Jewish victims. They did not fight at all. One would think that if they had to die they would have died fighting, but they did not. They could have fled the Nazis but they did not. They worked together with the Nazis for their own destruction because they were like lemmings. All this according to Bettelheim.
Bettelheim states that the Germans did not want to kill the Jews, they really were forced to do so because of Jewish stubbornness and wish to die. But let us hear him directly: As a matter of fact the discriminatory laws against the Jews were meant to force them to leave Germany, leavingmost of their possessions behind. For a long time the intention of the Nazis (so Bettelheim even knew the intentions of Hitler! --- AW) was to force undesirable minorities, such as the Jews, into emigration. Only when this did not work was the extermination policy instituted, following also the inner logic of the Nazi racial ideology.
Furthermore, because the Jews never fought back they provoked the Nazis into harsher and harsher treatment that otherwise never would have been undertaken. I quote the Professor: It may have been Jewish acceptance, without retaliatory fight, of ever harsher discrimination and degradation that first gave the SS the idea that they could be gotten to the point where they would walk to the gas chambers on their own. If the Jews had fought back, then the SS would not have had this idea, apparently.
According to Bettelheim the Jews did not fight back against the Nazis because
Jews thought more of their property and of their money than they did of their
lives. This was the form in which their wish to die operated. In fact the Jewish
life has no meaning without money and property. By definition Jew means money
and property before life. The Jew is so dedicated to this idea that
business as usual comes first that he continues this cour |
ethyl chloride definition by Webster's New World
Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
a colorless liquid, CHCl | ethyl chloride definition by Webster's New World
Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
a colorless liquid, CHCl, prepared by heating ethyl alcohol with hydrogen chloride in the presence of zinc chloride: used in preparing tetraethyl lead and ethyl cellulose, and as a local anesthetic
ethyl chloride definition by American Heritage Dictionary
nounThe American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edition Copyright © 2010 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published b |
by Evan H. Shu, FAIA
Over the last few years, a significant change has occurred in the design of libraries, the result of changing needs, newly available services, and rapidly developing technologies.
For instance, radio frequency identification ( | by Evan H. Shu, FAIA
Over the last few years, a significant change has occurred in the design of libraries, the result of changing needs, newly available services, and rapidly developing technologies.
For instance, radio frequency identification (RFID) technology is used for automatic sorting and retrieval systems (ASRS). Modern library equipment will now log a book in and send it to its proper sorting bin for reshelving.
RFID tags on books allow library patrons to go to self-service checkout stations and free up staff for other tasks. It has been shown that when such stations are accessible, 90 percent of users opt to use them rather than go through a librarian. In some libraries, materials which have been put on hold can be automatically retrieved by the user by simply waving their library card (or often now a keychain tag) in front of a retrieval station scanner.
This same RFID tagging technology is used to track the popularity of individual titles to inform the library staff of what books deserve prime shelving space and what books may be put in back storage. The library is now mimicking the retail model of tracking customer preferences and making sure those materials are front and center. >>>
Discuss this article in the Architecture Forum... |
Smith Act, 1940, passed by the U.S. Congress as the Alien Registration Act of 1940. The act, which made it an offense to advocate or belong to a group that advocated the violent overthrow of the government, was | Smith Act, 1940, passed by the U.S. Congress as the Alien Registration Act of 1940. The act, which made it an offense to advocate or belong to a group that advocated the violent overthrow of the government, was the basis of later prosecutions of members of the Communist and Socialist Workers parties. In 1957 the U.S. Supreme Court restricted the application of the Smith Act to instances of active participation in, or verbal encouragement of, specific insurrectionary activi |
It was probably a slip of the tongue by President Bush, who continued his Middle East tour by arriving in Kuwait today. During a roundtable interview with Arab journalists before leaving Washington, he made a curious statement while he was lauding political reforms by | It was probably a slip of the tongue by President Bush, who continued his Middle East tour by arriving in Kuwait today. During a roundtable interview with Arab journalists before leaving Washington, he made a curious statement while he was lauding political reforms by pro-U.S. rulers in the conservative Gulf countries. "You know," he said, "women are now very active in the Kuwaiti parliament." Well, no woman has ever been elected to the Kuwaiti parliament.
The story says a lot about America and the Middle East. What Bush may have been thinking about is the fact that Kuwait has indeed been taking gradual steps to grant women more basic rights, including the right to vote. Kuwait has long been regarded as the most liberal Arab country in the Gulf, with an elected parliament dating back to 1963. (Saudi Arabia still lacks one.) In 1999, amid a campaign by courageous Kuwaiti women activists, Kuwait's ruler tried to decree women's suffrage, but parliament blocked him. In 2005, parliament finally passed legislation giving women the right to vote, and in 2006, women voted and became candidates in elections for parliament. Twenty-seven women were among the 249 candidates competing for 50 seats, yet none of them won, though the balloting was considered free and fair. By virtue of being a cabinet member, one woman, Education Minister Nuriya al-Sabeeh, is currently permitted to vote on legislation, but is not an MP as such.
Friday, January 11, 2008
Or, you know, not.
by Atrios at 18:31 |
Jesse Walker's superb analysis of American paranoia and fear, The United States of Paranoia, covers al-Qaeda, the Illuminati, and everything in between. Here, he lays out five conspiracy theories.
Conspiracy theories are not a recent invention | Jesse Walker's superb analysis of American paranoia and fear, The United States of Paranoia, covers al-Qaeda, the Illuminati, and everything in between. Here, he lays out five conspiracy theories.
Conspiracy theories are not a recent invention, and their appeal has never been limited to the fringe. Since colonial times, Americans across the political spectrum have been haunted by tales of hidden hands and secret plots. And even when those stories are false, they have truths to tell us. A theory that catches on may say nothing true about its ostensible subject, but it still says something about the anxieties and experiences of the people who believe it.
Here are five American conspiracy stories that have found a following at some point in the last four centuries. We'll start with the most absurdly inaccurate of the five, then move gradually toward empirical accuracy.
Theory #1: Native Americans are minions of Satan. The English theologian Joseph Mede believed that the devil settled the New World before the Christian colonists got here, recruiting "some of those barbarous Nations dwelling upon the Northern Ocean" and promising them "a Countrey far better than their own." Some of the leading Puritans took up this idea and ran with it. William Hubbard, an influential clergyman, believed hostile tribes were controlled by Satan—in Hubbard's words, "actuated by the Angel of the bottomless pit." After the Salem witch trials, another prominent minister—Cotton Mather—suggested that the alleged spiritual attacks originated "among the Indians, whose chief sagamores are well known unto some of our captives to have been horrid sorcerers."
Theory #2: A southern cabal killed presidents Harrison, Taylor, and Lincoln, and it tried to kill presidents Jackson and Buchanan. In 1864, John Smith Dye's book The Adder's Den described a series of plots that read like a 1970s conspiracy thriller set in the antebellum era. Dye blamed an 1835 attempt to shoot President Andrew Jackson on former vice president John Calhoun, though the author left it open whether Calhoun had actually hired the assassin or had just incited him. Dye was less ambiguous about the rest of his narrative, claiming that William Henry Harrison and Zachary Taylor had been poisoned for opposing the slave states' agenda and that an attempted poisoning had intimidated James Buchanan into becoming "the tool of the slave power." When a second edition of the book came out after Abraham Lincoln's assassination, Dye naturally added Abe to the list of victims.
You won't find much credible evidence for Dye's charges. But he didn't dream them up by himself either: He drew on rumors that had been floating through Whig and Republican circles for years.
Theory #3: White doctors are conducting covert experiments on blacks. In the 19th and 20th centuries, rumors in African-American communities held that "night doctors" would capture blacks, kill them, and dissect their corpses. Sometimes scientists were said to use the bodies' blood to make medicine. During the Atlanta child murders of 1979 to 1981, when at least 21 black children and teenagers were kidnapped and killed, a particularly gruesome version of the tale held that the government was harvesting the kids' genitals to make aphrodisiacs.
Such stories are often obviously false. It's hard to dismiss the entire genre, though. In the antebellum South, according to the medical historian Todd Savitt, scientists really did take "advantage of the slaves' helplessness to utilize them in demonstrations, autopsies, dissections, and experiments." The abolition of slavery didn't end the abuses. In the Tuskegee experiment of 1932 to 1972, the federal Public Health Service offered free medical care to several hundred black sharecroppers. It didn't tell the patients that they had syphilis, which the doctors deliberately left untreated in order to study whether the disease affects blacks and whites in different ways.
Theory #4: Working in secret, a conspiracy replaced the country's original constitution with a document that concentrated more power in the national government. The Constitutional Convention was originally supposed to revise the Articles of Confederation, not replace it entirely. So imagine the average American's surprise when a dissenting delegate to the convention, Luther Martin, gave a long address to the Maryland House of Delegates. A cabal, Martin warned, was "covertly endeavouring" to "abolish and annihilate all State governments, and to bring forward one general government, over this extensive continent, of a monarchical nature."
Martin's charges were obviously over the top. But when his fellow Anti-Federalists, such as Abraham Yates, argued that the pro-Constitution forces had "turned a Convention into a Conspiracy," there was a core of truth to the charge; it's just the spin they put on it that sounds strange today. The Constitutional Convention did meet in secret, refusing even to publicize the minutes of its debates. It did exceed its original mission, and some of the delegates did intend from the beginning to overshoot those instructions. There is even evidence of irregularities in the state-level votes to ratify the Constitution. If ratification is not usu |
As a metalworking operation, turning is surely one of the most fascinating. The basic concept is so simple: a workpiece is made to rotate as a rigid tool is brought to bear along its length or across its face. The resulting form will | As a metalworking operation, turning is surely one of the most fascinating. The basic concept is so simple: a workpiece is made to rotate as a rigid tool is brought to bear along its length or across its face. The resulting form will be symmetrically shaped about its centerline. It will be wonderfully round.
Some of the oldest machine tools known to historians and archeologists are lathes. For power, many ancient designs used a treadle and bent pole or bow to pull a cord wrapped tightly around the spindle. Early metal cutting lathes produced elaborate bowls, tankards and candlesticks. Lathes were the instruments of craftsmen, their use strictly guarded by guilds.
The development of mechanical devices to hold and move the cutting tool, which occurred only a few hundred years ago, was one of the breakthroughs that ushered in the industrial revolution. Being able to control the longitudinal feed of the tool relative to workpiece rotation allowed lathes to do precise screw cutting. Precisely made screws, in turn, furthered advances in machine tool design and the creation of micrometers and other measuring devices. The lathe was coming into its own as a tool of industry and science.
Yet lathes and turning equipment have always been fun to watch. Perhaps it's the elemental appeal of rotating objects, the spinning motion that children find so engaging in tops and yo-yos. The object rotates yet its apparent shape always looks the same.
Workpieces on a lathe have this paradoxical appearance, too. When a cutting tool moves against this seemingly static workpiece, chips flow out almost magically, as if unwinding a strand of silver or unreeling a deep blue ribbon. The initial pass across a rough casting or piece of bar stock is especially remarkable. The dull surface that precedes the path of the tool gives way to a freshly turned profile so shiny and clean. No other machine tool works a transformation so dramatic and entertaining.
Even today's high-speed, high-powered CNC turning centers, which usually hide this vision behind Lexan dripping with coolant spray, notify us of their power with the machine gun sound of chips ricocheting against the sheet metal guarding.
No matter how you cut it, a lathe cuts with a unique style and grace. It should be everybody's favorite machine tool. Long live the lathe!blog comments powered by Disqus |
Foster Farms Chicken Linked to Salmonella Outbreak
On Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced people in twelve states have been sickened by salmonella infections from raw poultry. The agency reported the infections were probably caused | Foster Farms Chicken Linked to Salmonella Outbreak
On Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced people in twelve states have been sickened by salmonella infections from raw poultry. The agency reported the infections were probably caused by poultry from Foster Farms, one of the largest poultry producers in the country.
CDC officials report most of the illnesses have occurred in Washington and Oregon, with approximately one-third of those contracting the infection requiring hospitalization. Health officials in both states have identified Foster Farms chicken as the probable source of infection as 80 percent of those inflicted reported eating chicken earlier in the week.
The infections of salmonella Heidelberg, according to the CDC, began occurring in June of last year, with a spike of cases appearing in late September. As of yet, no recall of products has been announced.
Salmonellosis is a type of food poisoning caused by the Salmonella bacterium. In the United States, approximately 40,000 cases are reported each year, though milder cases are either not diagnosed or reported, so the actual number of infections might be quite higher. The infection occurs more in summer than winter, and children are most likely to contract the infection. Those that have impaired immune systems, as well as young children and older adults, are the most likely to have severe infections.
Salmonella is usually contracted by eating food contaminated with the bacteria. Food can be contaminated during food processing or handling by the unwashed hands of an infected food handler. A common cause is a food handler who does not wash his hands after using the bathroom.
The foods most commonly infected with Salmonella are beef, poultry, milk and eggs.
The symptoms of salmonella include diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps, and these symptoms usually develop within 12 to 72 hours after infection, and usually last four to seven days. Although most people do recover from the infection without treatment, there are those who suffer symptoms so severe that hospitalization is required.
If you suspect you may have salmonella, a visit to your doctor is required for diagnosis. Your doctor will ask you questions concerning your symptoms, foods you have recently consumed, and your work and home environment. He will than take both a stool culture and blood sample to confirm the diagnosis.
Foster Fa |
On This Day - 19 September 1915
Theatre definitions: Western Front comprises the Franco-German-Belgian front and any military action in Great Britain, Switzerland, Scandinavia and Holland. Eastern Front comprises the German-Russian, | On This Day - 19 September 1915
Theatre definitions: Western Front comprises the Franco-German-Belgian front and any military action in Great Britain, Switzerland, Scandinavia and Holland. Eastern Front comprises the German-Russian, Austro-Russian and Austro-Romanian fronts. Southern Front comprises the Austro-Italian and Balkan (including Bulgaro-Romanian) fronts, and Dardanelles. Asiatic and Egyptian Theatres comprises Egypt, Tripoli, the Sudan, Asia Minor (including Transcaucasia), Arabia, Mesopotamia, Syria, Persia, Afghanistan, Turkestan, China, India, etc. Naval and Overseas Operations comprises operations on the seas (except where carried out in combination with troops on land) and in Colonial and Overseas theatres, America, etc. Political, etc. comprises political and internal events in all countries, including Notes, speeches, diplomatic, financial, economic and domestic matters. Source: Chronology of the War (1914-18, London; copyright expired)
Germans reach Smorgon and Molodechna (between Vilna and Minsk).
Fine Russian stand on Upper Vilia.
Artillery engagement near Orsova and Tekia (Danube).
Asiatic and Egyptian Theatres
Turks fortifying Mesina, deporting Armenians and recruiting at Adana (S. Asia Minor) in view of coming Egyptian campaign.
Naval and Overseas Operations
British transport "Ramazan" sunk by submarine in Aegean: 300 Indian troops lost.
Statement by Herr von Jagow re: Germany's submarine policy. |
June 08, 2008
Rebuilding Lake Tritonis
... City development is a natural process, and oftentimes the problem is not to get it going but to remove obstacles to it.
In many ways we would simply waste less time | June 08, 2008
Rebuilding Lake Tritonis
... City development is a natural process, and oftentimes the problem is not to get it going but to remove obstacles to it.
In many ways we would simply waste less time and money on what doesn't work:
• Cities and countries wouldn't bother trying to attract transplanted factories (the focus of most current international development). At best this would be seen as a stopgap measure, one step short of charity.
This quote sums up the spirit of an important part of Jacob's article. It made me think of all those efforts to develop the Sahara and the Arabian Desert. One particular instance that came to mind is an idea put on the table by the Tunisian government in the 1980s to create an interior sea using the chotts. The idea was never implemented for petty political reasons, so petty politics might have positive side benefits it seems. It was actually born in the head of a French military scientist in 1864’s Algeria.
François Elie Roudaire was sent to map the topography of Algeria’s desert, which by then was already a French colony. From Biskra, he discovered Chott Melrhir, a vast salt lake in the desert lying below the sea level. This is the first of a series of salt lakes going up to the Gulf of Gabes, Tunisia (which was still an Ottoman province at the time). Of this series, at least another big lake is below sea level, Chott Gharsa, Tunisia, 15 kilometers away from Chott Melhrir. Both have a combined area of 8,000 sq. kilometres, and an average depth of 24 meters. Roudaire, thinking he had found the site of Lake Tritonis (mostly believed to be Chott Eljerid today), became very enthusiastic about the idea of creating a 240km long canal from the Gulf of Gabes which would refill them into an interior sea. After considering the cost of such an enterprise – quoting this amusing 1886 New York Times article which debunked some speculation that such a project would make Europe colder and lower the sea level by a few meters, the cost was 30 million dollars, equivalent to anywhere between 650 million and 6.5 billion dollars today – the French government abandoned it.
Now, the idea of having Miami beaches in January in the Maghreb, or helping those dying cities of the south revive, is very appealing. But it takes more than romantic ideals to pull that amount of money, and one would have to justify it based on its profitability. Which is something I seriously doubt a government would do correctly, even less so a North African government (despite then Tunisian government being mostly composed of technocrats). And if the Jane Jacobs article is correct, then such a project is doomed to fail anyway.
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I am not sure that entire laissez faire in regards to city development is a smart idea as such. Obviously sheer idiocies like Egypt's new cities is a collasal waste, and government driven infrastructure investment that isn't tied up to the market is also a general waste.
That being said, major infrastructure investment and attracting hub factories by major producers (e.g. Morocco and the Renault investment; also Dubai before they went utterly bonkers) can work well. Perhaps that falls into the "unblocking" category, but that seems a bit pat to me.
On to the Tunisian angle.
Actually I think you're letting your personal dislike of the regime get in the way here. This strikes me as an interesting little idea.
Primo, I have to wonder if it would not have a positive impact on the rainfall patterns downwind, which in a drying north Saharan situation, is important.
Secundo, this strikes me as just one of the most fabulous ways to extract a huge amount of investment capital out of the Gulf as a mixed long-term infrastructure project, I can imagine toll canal situations, and new frontiers of sea-side villas to sell to themselves. Wonderful use of Emirati and Qatari desires and capital.
Posted by: The Lounsbury at June 8, 2008 12:24 PM
Wow. I had to chuckle at the idea that this would lower the temperature of Southern Europe. Also at this sentence towards the end: "Evaporation from this body of water would supply the aqueous vapor without which there can be no vegetation."
This was 1886, and you have to remember that back then there was this idea that as farming moved into the US Great Plains, that this would increase rainfall there. ("The Rain Follows the Plow") The Dust Bowl of the Thirties kind of killed that theory.
Which is somewhat similar of course to the idea that transplants can artificially turn |
THE WANDERING TATTLER is a rare wading bird that breeds along glacial streams on the eastern flank of the Alaska Range in the interior of Alaska. Outside the breeding season, these birds inhabit the rocky headlands and islets | THE WANDERING TATTLER is a rare wading bird that breeds along glacial streams on the eastern flank of the Alaska Range in the interior of Alaska. Outside the breeding season, these birds inhabit the rocky headlands and islets along the Pacific coast of North and South America. During the breeding season they have been found nesting regularly in Mount McKinley National Park where they inhabit the open gravel bars near the heads of mountain streams.
The tattler is a medium-sized bird about 11 inches long. Its black slender bill is about as long as the bird's head. The adult is plain slate gray above, with heavy gray broken bars on the throat and under parts.
These birds are quiet and secretive during the first part of the breeding season and as long as the eggs are in the nest. This is particularly true when they leave or approach the nest, which is well hidden among the rocks. As soon as the young are hatched, however, the parent birds become exceedingly bold and noisy. They then perch on the top of a willow or other vantage point where they keep a close lookout for danger. Upon the approach of intruders they utter their strident warning calls, fly out to meet them and, if possible, divert their attention from the chicks. After they have succeeded in decoying the intruders away they again become quiet and silently sneak back to their offspring. The male (see illustration) shares family duties with the female.
A few hours after the chick |
“Mexican Officials Kick On Women
in Knickers, Do not allow Oklahoma Tourists to Enter Mexico in Plus
Fours” El Universal (“English News Section”),
Mexico City, 14 July 1924.
This story appeared in | “Mexican Officials Kick On Women
in Knickers, Do not allow Oklahoma Tourists to Enter Mexico in Plus
Fours” El Universal (“English News Section”),
Mexico City, 14 July 1924.
This story appeared in the two-page daily English-language
supplement to El Universal, Mexico City’s most authoritative
newspaper at the time. The English-language supplement usually printed
news that El Universal’s editors believed would interest
English-speaking readers who lived in the city more or less permanently,
rather than tourists. Therefore the English-language pages generally
contained business news of interest to local representatives of foreign
firms, a smattering of political news from Britain and the United
States (usually translated from the main part of the paper), social
notes detailing the comings and goings of businessmen, diplomats,
and their families, and extensive coverage of tournaments and dances
at Mexico City’s elite country clubs. The supplement almost
never printed stories about crime, tourism, or the day-to-day workings
of government (neither in Mexico nor abroad.)
So this small story might catch a historian’s
eye because it was unlike the articles around it. As she examined
it, she would ask a series of questions:
A. Why did Mexico City’s most important
newspaper feature two daily pages in English?
The foreign business and diplomatic community
in Mexico City in the 1920s was not large enough to support a newspaper
of its own. Even if every English-speaking household in the city
had subscribed to El Universal, they would not have raised
its circulation figures appreciably. Furthermore, most people living
in Mexico City at the time did not read English. Including the English-language
section could not have brought new readers to the paper, then.
The supplement was expensive to produce, both
because it required hiring journalists, translators, and an editor
fluent in English—as few newspapermen of the time in Mexico
City were—and because the single largest fixed expense for
a newspaper in Mexico at the time was the cost of paper. Adding
even a single sheet daily to El Universal was a big investment.
No other Mexico City newspaper paid for a section in English, but
El Universal stuck with it for four decades. So why would
El Universal’s editors have decided to print a section
of the paper in English every day?
advertisements in El Universal provide one possible answer
to this question. They peddled high-end goods—often, imported
items ranging from tennis balls to automobiles. They did not aim to
reach many readers, but focused on a small number of wealthy ones.
This would include Mexico City’s community of English-speaking
resident foreigners, but also included the larger number of relatively
conservative, wealthy Mexicans who would see the inclusion of an English-language
section as a sign of the newspaper’s politics. In the aftermath
of the Mexican Revolution (during which the United States invaded Mexico and
Pancho Villa’s army invaded the United States), this gesture of affiliation
with the United States and its representatives in Mexico suggested
that El Universal did not entirely agree with the new, post-Revolutionary
government’s nationalist policies. This, in turn, would have
hinted at a broader conservatism that wealthier Mexicans, presumably,
would have appreciated. Advertisers in El Universal, therefore,
found the presence of the English-language section a reassuring sign
that they could reach a group of rich, powerful consumers.
All this, in turn, means that the English-language
section of the paper was not primarily intended as a news source,
but more as a way for the paper to sell itself to readers and advertisers
who would expect to find serious news in the paper’s main
sections in Spanish.
B. Was this story important at the time?
No other Mexico City newspaper covered this story;
nor did it appear in the Spanish-language part of El Universal.
This suggests that newspaper editors thought the story unimportant,
that it appeared in the English-language supplement of El Universal
only as entertaining “filler.” Just because this was
a very minor piece of news in 1924, however, does not mean that
the article lacks value as a historical source in the present day.
Sometimes, placed in their proper context, short newspaper articles
can serve as windows opening onto much larger historical vistas.
The challenge is in deciding what the proper historical context
C. How was this story related to other articles
printed in the newspaper at roughly the same time?
The story of Mexican officials refusing entry
to a group of women from the United States was not typical of El
Universal’s articles—neither those in the regular
Spanish-language pages nor in the English-language supplement—in
most respects. The paper did not ordinarily cover events at the
border. Even if it did, the crossing between Matamorros and Brownsville
was not an especially busy one and rarely warranted press attention.
It was highly unusual |
Hospitalizations for Osteoarthritis Rising Sharply
Source Newsroom: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
Newswise — Hospitalizations for osteoarthritis soared from about 322,000 in 1993 | Hospitalizations for Osteoarthritis Rising Sharply
Source Newsroom: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
Newswise — Hospitalizations for osteoarthritis soared from about 322,000 in 1993 to 735,000 in 2006, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Osteoarthritis is a painful disease resulting from deteriorating cartilage and bones rubbing together.
AHRQ's analysis of arthritis hospitalizations found:
"¢ In 2006, osteoarthritis was the principal diagnosis for about 90 percent of 547,000 knee surgery hospitalizations and about 50 percent of hip replacement hospitalizations.
"¢ Also in 2006, 45-64 year olds accounted for 38 percent of all osteoarthritis, compared with 25 percent in 1997. Women accounted for 63 percent of hospitalizations for osteoarthritis in 2006, a number that is essentially unchanged since 1997.
"¢ Most of the increase in osteoarthritis hospitalizations occurred beginning in 2000, when osteoarthritis stays rose from 443,000 to 735,000, a 66 percent increase.
"¢ The large increase in osteoarthritis hospitalizations is primarily related to the increase in knee replacement surgery. From 2000 to 2006, knee replacement surgery increased 65 percent while hip replacement surgery increased 21 percent.
This AHRQ News and Numbers summary is based on data in HCUP Facts and Figures, 2006 (http://www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/reports/factsandfigures/HAR_2006.pdf). The document highlights the latest data from the 2006 Nationwide Inpatient Sample, a part of AHRQ's Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project. More information about osteoarthritis, including the comparisons of the risks and benefits of osteoarthritis pain medications, is available from AHRQ's Effective Health Care consumer guide, at Choosing Pain Medicine for Osteoarthritis (http://effectivehealthcare.ah |
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It is very clear to me that time exists only in the mind of humans. Our imagination has made this concept seem real however, it is not.
Case | You can copy and paste this URL.
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It is very clear to me that time exists only in the mind of humans. Our imagination has made this concept seem real however, it is not.
Case 1. Suppose the universe is homogeneous, whole and without a bound. Then there exists no time at all. In particular, there is not a time metric within this universe. In this universe, time is not a fundamental property.
Case 2. Suppose that the our universe has been separated (or partitioned) by man. This separation creates time, and additionally, the only artifact (of concern here) in the universe is then time. This act creates the time metric. Then, by the pigeonhole principal, used in reverse, we have a single cubbyhole that time is contained in. That is, the universe began as a whole and we as humans segmented it. By the act of segmenting the universe we created a single cubbyhole that contained time, ie a time metric.
General Note: Consider (as an analogy) my proof of the absence of randomness in the universe, that is a much more complex case of the same proof that I have employed for the concept of time. For the randomness proof we started with an infinite space of numbers, and when we separated the space (numeric space) into cubbyholes that would contain the numbers, one cubbyhole contained at least one object. See, Best-thinking's "To What Extent Does Randomness Exist?" Thus, this is the same argument used in denying that randomness exists, however, the proof in this case (the case of time) is far less complex. It is clear, the number of cubbyholes is much smaller, we are looking at just one separation of the universe and one object, ie time. Finally, time in the partitioned universe is a fundamental property. Humans do consider the universe as partitioned, but infinite.
My philosophical explanation is that Time is nothing more and nothing less than the relative motion of all things in motion.
To say that some event A occurs in a certain amount of 'time' is to say simply that A occurs as some other motion event occurs (e.g., as the earth rotates a certain fraction of a complete revolution, as the earth completes some fraction of an orbit around the sun, as the hand |
Ellis Island, New York Harbor, New York
...the truth will make you free. John 8:32
Ellis Island, the Manzanar of the East Coast.
The photograph shown below was taken in the Great Hall of | Ellis Island, New York Harbor, New York
...the truth will make you free. John 8:32
Ellis Island, the Manzanar of the East Coast.
The photograph shown below was taken in the Great Hall of Ellis Island on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1943.
A careful examination of this photograph reveals that Europeans (German and Italian permanent resident aliens) were incarcerated along with Japanese nationals.
Who are they? They are not diplomats. Some are natural born United States citizens, some are naturalized United States citizens, and some are permanent resident aliens of the United States. They are persons of German, Italian, and Japanese ancestry. They represent a part of the U.S. population classified as "alien enemies," or aliens of enemy nationalities.
Why are they incarcerated?
See The History of Internment for the policies and events leading to their incarceration. Plans were made as early as October 1941 to roundup and intern persons of Germ |
Fish populations in Southern California have dropped 78% over the last 40 years, according to a new study.
Scientists consulted an unlikely source, sifting through records of fish caught up in the cooling systems of five coastal power plants from northern San | Fish populations in Southern California have dropped 78% over the last 40 years, according to a new study.
Scientists consulted an unlikely source, sifting through records of fish caught up in the cooling systems of five coastal power plants from northern San Diego County to Ventura County. The analysis confirmed what fishing data and stock assessments had long indicated: That there has been a steep, ongoing drop in a wide variety of fish in the region over several decades.
“The coastal fish community that we have here in Southern California has changed dramatically and we can’t relate it to anything other than a regional oceanographic climate effect,” said Eric Miller, senior scientist at MBC Applied Environmental Sciences, an environmental consulting firm that conducted the research with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.
“I knew that there was a decline, but coming so close to 80% was startling to me," Miller told the Los Angeles Times.
While the researchers don’t fully understand what is behind the large-scale shift in ocean conditions, they said it could be related to changing seawater density and rising ocean temperature from global warming.
The study ruled out overfishing as the main driver of the decline. That's because the power plant records showed that fish such as salema, which are not harvested by commercial or recreational fishermen, have been declining at about the same rate as commonly fished species such as sardines.
Many of the fish in decline are small, schooling fish such as sardines and anchovies, known as “forage fish” because they feed larger sport fish, seabirds and marine mammals. A downturn in their numbers could be altering the structure of the marine food web and be playing a role in the malnutrition and deaths in predators like California sea lions, the researchers said.
A 2011 study by researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography found that kelp bass and barred sand bass, two of the most-caught saltwater fishes in Southern California, have plummeted 90% since 1980.
Other scientists have come to alarming conclusions about the depletion of fish stocks globally since the 1950s. |
I'm currently working on a paper about Sappho and Murasaki Shikibu and how their lives shaped the mind in their retrospective cultures. Could you help me out on how Murasaki did this?
Do you mean how their culture shaped their | I'm currently working on a paper about Sappho and Murasaki Shikibu and how their lives shaped the mind in their retrospective cultures. Could you help me out on how Murasaki did this?
Do you mean how their culture shaped their minds, or the minds of people in their day, or of people in general (throughout time) in their cultures? For Murasaki, find the book The World of the Shining Prince: Court Life in Ancient Japan, by Ivan Morris. What you should remember is that as a member of the court, and Japanese elite, her views and the lifestyle she wrote about solely reflect this environment. You certainly should discuss the status of educated women in Heian Japan - why they were more successful than men in producing literature that was widely received by the Japanese and why it has lasted. She has written a diary, "The Murasaki Shikibu Diary" from which excerpts can be found. The Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan by Annie Omori and Doi Dochi, AMS Press, 1970 would help. Letters and diary writing among the ladies of the court were instrumental in the development of prose writing, especially the form of "poem tales" which were a type of poetic biography - a mixture of fact and fiction.
Women who wrote, like Murasaki, found a main audience in women - ladies of the court and the wives and daughters of courtiers. By writing in Japanese prose, while men tended to write in classical Chinese, it was women who popularized the art of Japanese prose.
Also, most versions of Murasaki's The Tale of Genji will give you some insights into the effect of her writing on the Japanese.
P.S. - Your plan to compare Sappho and Murasaki sounds very interesting. Don't forget the Japanese fascination with expressing themselves through poems - often composed at the spur of the moment. Murasaki was known to be very accomplished at this skill upon which both men and women were judged. |
Bean Leaf Beetle Damage
o your bean leaves look lacelike? Are copper colored beetles present? Could be epilachna varivestis. Find out what they are and what to do.
What is it?
Beetles | Bean Leaf Beetle Damage
o your bean leaves look lacelike? Are copper colored beetles present? Could be epilachna varivestis. Find out what they are and what to do.
What is it?
Beetles of the family, epilachna varivestis feed on lima, pole, and bush beans giving plant tissues a lacelike appearance and occasionally killing off entire plants.
What does it look like?
Beetles are approximately 1/4 inch long, copper colored and have 16 black spots on their backs. Grubs are about 1/3 inch long with black tipped spines. Tissue between leaf veins is eaten on the plants and leaves eventually dry up and die off.
How does it manifest?
Females lay eggs on the undersides of leaves. Eggs are yellow. Larvae hatch in early to mid-summer turning green then yellow. Both adults and larvae feed on leaf tissue. 1 to 4 generations of damage may occur each year, with all levels of maturity in the beetles being represented at any given time.
What can you do about it?
When you first notice damage, apply insecticide containing diazinon or carbaryl, making sure you coat undersides of leaves. You may need to reapply later in the season if damage continues, but early insecticide application can stave off damage from successive generations of larvae which tend to be harder to kill than adults. After you harvest from the plants, destroy and remove all plant debris from the area to prevent an overwintering environment for adult beetles. |
Make Your Own Chemicals
How To Purify Alcohol Using Distillation
Denatured alcohol is toxic. If you need pure ethanol, you can purify denatured, contaminated or impure alcohol using distillation. Here's how to | Make Your Own Chemicals
How To Purify Alcohol Using Distillation
Denatured alcohol is toxic. If you need pure ethanol, you can purify denatured, contaminated or impure alcohol using distillation. Here's how to do it.
How to Prepare Gases
Here are simple instructions for preparing common gases from ordinary chemicals. The gases include carbon dioxide, oxygen, nitrogen, methane, nitrous oxide, chlorine, and several others.
Ammonia - How to Prepare Ammonia Gas
These are instructions for preparing ammonia gas from ammonium chloride and calcium hydroxide in water.
Ammonium Nitrate Synthesis
You can make ammonium nitrate from common household chemicals. The ammonium nitrate may be used to make pyrotechnics or cold packs or to perform other interesting demonstrations.
Carbon Dioxide - How to Prepare Carbon Dioxide Gas
These are instructions for preparing carbon dioxide gas from calcium carbonate and hydrochloric acid.
Chlorine Gas - How to Prepare Chlorine Gas
These are instructions for preparing chlorine gas from potassium permanganate and hydrochloric acid.
Copper Sulfate Preparation
Make copper sulfate or copper sulphate yourself from copper and sulfuric acid.
Hot Ice or Sodium Acetate
Sodium acetate or hot ice is an amazing chemical you can prepare yourself from baking soda and vinegar. You can cool a solution of sodium acetate below its melting point and then cause the liquid to crystallize. The crystallization is an exothermic process, so the resulting ice is hot. Solidification occurs so quickly you can form sculptures as you pour the hot ice.
Hot Ice Video Tutorial
Hot ice is a non-toxic chemical you can make in the kitchen from baking soda and vinegar. You can cause the saturated solution of hot ice to crystallize in 'ice' that gives of heat or you can build crystalline towers as you pour the hot ice onto a container. Here a step-by-step video that shows you what to do.
How to Make Hydrogen Gas
It's easy to generate hydrogen gas using common household materials. Here's how to make hydrogen safely.
Nitrocellulose or Flash Paper
It is very easy to make nitrocellulose or flash paper. The nitrocellulose you prepare can be used as magician or illusionist fire paper, as a rocket propellant, or as a base for nitrocellulose lacquer.
Learn how to prepare nitrogen triiodide, an unstable compound that can be used to perform a stunning chemistry demonstration.
How to Make Nitrous Oxide or Laughing Gas
Nitrous oxide or laughing gas is one of the easiest gases to prepare in the chem lab or home lab. Here are instructions for synthesizing and collection nitrous oxide or laughing gas.
Potassium Nitrate Recipe
Make potassium nitrate (saltpeter) from common household ingredients. Potassium chloride from lite salt and ammonium nitrate from a cold pack are reacted to yield potassium nitrate and ammonium chloride. This is an easy way to make your own potassium chloride if you can't find it in a store or just want to try a fun chemistry experiment.
Silica or Pure Sand
Sand that you find on a beach consists of several minerals and organic matter. If you could separate out the impurities, you would have pure sand, which is silica or silicon dioxide. Here is how to prepare pure sand yourself in the lab.
Sodium Silicate or Water Glass
You can prepare sodium silicate or water glass from gel beads (silica) and drain cleaner (sodium hydroxide). Sodium silicate can be used to make chemical gardens, like those that result from Magic Rocks.
Potassium Chlorate from Bleach and Salt Substitute
Potassium chlorate is an important potassium compound that can be used as an oxidizer, disinfectant, source of oxygen, and component in pyrotechnics and chemistry demonstrations. You can make potassium chlorate from common household bleach and salt substitute.
Sodium Carbonate from Baking Soda
These are easy instructions for making sodium carbonate, also known as washing soda or soda ash, from baking soda or sodium bicarbonate.
Sulfuric Acid at Home
Sulfuric acid is a useful acid to have on hand for home chemistry projects. However, it is not easy to obtain. Fortunately, you can make it yourself.
How To Make Graphene
The discovery of graphene, a honeycomb sheet of carbon, was so important it earned a Nobel Prize, yet graphene isn't an exotic material. You can make it yourself! |
In The Discovery of India, the final and perhaps most profound part of his "prison trilogy", written in 1944 from Ahmednagar Fort, Jawaharlal Nehru described the effect of the East India Company on the country he | In The Discovery of India, the final and perhaps most profound part of his "prison trilogy", written in 1944 from Ahmednagar Fort, Jawaharlal Nehru described the effect of the East India Company on the country he would shortly rule. "The corruption, venality, nepotism, violence and greed of money of these early generations of British rule in India," he wrote, "is something which passes comprehension." It was, he added, "significant that one of the Hindustani words which has become part of the English language is 'loot'".
For most of the succeeding 60 years, the East India Company sank from view. No plaque marked the site where its headquarters had stood in the City of London for more than two centuries. It was regarded as something that could be consigned to the history books, its deeds to be squabbled over by academics and imperial romantics. But the onset of globalisation has revived interest in a company that could be seen as a pioneering force for world trade. Exhibitions at the British Library and the V&A, plus a string of popular histories, have sought to revive the reputation of the "Honourable East India Company". Its founders are now hailed as swashbuckling adventurers, its operations praised for pioneering the birth of modern consumerism and its glamorous executives profiled as multicultural "white moguls".
Yet the East India Company, romantic as it may seem, has more profound and disturbing lessons to teach us. Abuse of market power; corporate greed; judicial impunity; the "irrational exuberance" of the financial markets; and the destruction of traditional economies (in what could not, at one time, be called the poor or developing world): none of these is new. The most common complaints against late 20th- and early 21st-century capitalism were all foreshadowed in the story of the East India Company more than two centuries ago.
In The Wealth of Nations (1776), Adam Smith used the East India Company as a case study to show how monopoly capitalism undermines both liberty and justice, and how the management of shareholder-controlled corporations invariably ends in "negligence, profusion and malversation". Yet nothing of Smith's scepticism of corporations, his criticism of their pursuit of monopoly and of their faulty system of governance, enters the speeches of today's free-market advocates.
Smith's vision of free trade entailed firm controls on corporate power. And, as did his own times, subsequent history shows how right he was. If it is to contribute to economic progress, the corporation's market power has to be limited to allow real choice, and to prevent suppliers being squeezed and consumers gouged. Its political power also needs to be constrained, if it is not to rig the rules of regulation so that it enjoys unjustified public subsidy or protection. Internal and external checks and balances must curb the tendency of executives to become corporate emperors. And clear and enforceable systems of justice are necessary to hold the corporation to account for any damage to society and the environment. These are tough conditions, and have rarely been met, either in the age of the East India Company or in today's era of globalisation.
Today, we can see the East India Company as the first "imperial corporation", the very design of which drove it to market domination, speculative excess and the evasion of justice. Like the modern multinational, it was eager to avoid the mere interplay of supply and demand. It jealously guarded its chartered monopoly of imports from Asia. But it also wanted to control the sources of supply by breaking the power of local rulers in India and eliminating competition so that it could force down its purchase prices.
By controlling both ends of the chain, the company could buy cheap and sell dear. This meant organising coups against local rulers and placing puppets on the throne. By the middle of the 18th century, the company was deliberately breaching the terms of its commercial concessions in Bengal by trading in prohibited domestic goods and selling its duty-free passes to local merchants. Combining economic muscle with extensive bribery and the deployment of its small but effective private army, the company engineered a series of "revolutions" that gave it territorial as well as economic control.
After Robert Clive's victory at the Battle of Palashi in 1757, the company literally looted Bengal's treasury. It loaded the country's gold and silver on to a fleet of more than a hundred boats and sent it downriver to Calcutta. In one stroke, Clive netted a cool £2.5m (more than £200m today) for the company, and £234,000 (£20m) for himself. Historical convention views Palashi as the first step in the creation of the British empire in India. It is perhaps better understood as the company's most successful business deal.
It was the unrivalled quality and cheapness of textiles that had lured the East India Company to Bengal, and it would be Bengal's weavers who felt the full force o |
The exercises in this article give you practice in:
- Creating and using variables
- Using arithmetic operators
- Using assignment operators
- Using comparison operators
- Creating and using arrays
- Creating loops and iterating arrays
- Creating and using functions | The exercises in this article give you practice in:
- Creating and using variables
- Using arithmetic operators
- Using assignment operators
- Using comparison operators
- Creating and using arrays
- Creating loops and iterating arrays
- Creating and using functions
Exercise 1: Creating variables
Variables are the building blocks for any programming language. They provide a way to store and retrieve information later in a script. For this exercise:
- Use the
varkeyword to create a variable and retrieve the variables value using the
Exercise 2: Using operators
- Use an arithmetic operator to perform a basic mathematic operation and use it as a variable value.
- Use comparison operators to determine the relationship between variables and their values.
Exercise 3: Creating an array and using a loop to iterate its values
You use arrays to store multiple values in a single variable. You can use loops to iterate arrays and access their values. For this exercise:
- Create an array and assign values to it.
- Create a for loop and use it to iterate the array.
Exercise 4: Creating functions, accepting parameters, and returning values
Functions contain script that can be used to handle a specific task. You can use functions to execute their contained script and run their tasks at any time. For this exercise:
- Structure a custom function named
- Include a function parameter named
- Increase the value of the parameter and return the new value.
Follow these solution steps to check your work.
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|Fulltext||0.10 MB||PDF (requires Acrobat Reader)||Previous | Next|
|Authors:||Jacques Ginestié: Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille, France|
|Publication title:||What can we hope | |Fulltext||0.10 MB||PDF (requires Acrobat Reader)||Previous | Next|
|Authors:||Jacques Ginestié: Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille, France|
|Publication title:||What can we hope of a technology education, which breaks off design to espouse science, mathematics and engineering?|
|Conference:||PATT 26 Conference, Technology Education in the 21st Century, Stockholm, Sweden, 26-30 June, 2012|
|Publication type:||Abstract and Fulltext|
|Abstract:||From various forms of art and craft education, technology education has been based traditionally on the articulation between design, technology and use. It aimed to improve understanding of the existence’s mode of the technical objects, through the social organizations by and for whom these objects exist. Based on concepts and references borrowed from sciences and the social sciences, this education privileges an approach by problem solving. It gives a broad place to the creativity and activities of group work.|
Beyond these intentions, such structures are not simple to implement, at least in the French school’s tradition. In fact, this teaching was organized according to logics of guidance and control opposed to these ambitions. In addition, under the pressure of the disaffection of the pupils for the scientific studies, many are those who think that it is necessary to reinforce the links between sciences and technologies in order to increase the social purposes of sciences. In this perspective, technology appears as applied sciences, or as applications of science |
Significant questions exist around the requisite content knowledge required of a technology teacher to infuse valid engineering concepts into the K-12 classroom. What are the appropriate mathematical and analytical levels required of pre-service teacher preparation? Can engineering trained pre-service professionals deliver | Significant questions exist around the requisite content knowledge required of a technology teacher to infuse valid engineering concepts into the K-12 classroom. What are the appropriate mathematical and analytical levels required of pre-service teacher preparation? Can engineering trained pre-service professionals deliver instruction and teach engineering design lessons that are content and context valid? These and many more questions that remain as the technology teacher preparation community begin to join with other key stakeholders in preparing teachers to respond to the national call for a stronger engineering STEM emphasis in K-12 education.
This NCLT seminar presentation will report on content analysis research of pre-service teacher/engineering science students’ ability to conceptualize, design, and evaluate student design brief solutions in high school technology classes. This research is just a part of a larger challenge within the engineering and technology teacher preparation community to understand what pre-service teacher candidates need to know and be able to do to teach engineering design in a context and content valid man |
From boiling a kettle to working in an office, much of the modern world was shaped by the achievements of the Industrial Revolution. In a six-part OU/BBC series on BBC TWO, What The Industrial Revolution Did for Us uncovers the scientific, | From boiling a kettle to working in an office, much of the modern world was shaped by the achievements of the Industrial Revolution. In a six-part OU/BBC series on BBC TWO, What The Industrial Revolution Did for Us uncovers the scientific, technological and political changes of the 19th century that have transformed the lives of every man and woman in Britain.
The series, presented by architectural historian Dan Cruickshank, explores the legacy of the Industrial Revolution. From the world's first jigsaw portraying the infant Empire, to Stephenson's Rocket, to the making of modern medicine, urban living and the innovations of war, the series shows how - from 1760 to 1840 - the key ideas, principles and technologies which drive the modern world were developed. Through the stories of men and women who made it happen, the programmes uncover the inventive power, the sweeping vision and the astonishing ingenuity of this heroic and pioneering age.
To bring the series to a close Adam Hart-Davies will be hosting a fantastic roadshow at the Ironbridge Gorge Museum. He'll be challenging would-be scientists, inventors, engineers and model-makers to recreate working models of machines that helped to drive the Industrial Revolution. Find out more about the Roads |
2010 Climate Summary for
North and Central Georgia
With regard to temperature, 2010 was certainly a year of extremes. After experiencing the coldest winter since 1978, a sudden shift to positive temperature anomalies occurred in early April. | 2010 Climate Summary for
North and Central Georgia
With regard to temperature, 2010 was certainly a year of extremes. After experiencing the coldest winter since 1978, a sudden shift to positive temperature anomalies occurred in early April. The much warmer than average temperatures were also quite persistent. Most notably, every month from April through September was at least 2.3°F or more above normal in Athens, Atlanta, Columbus, and Macon. Incredibly, the summer (June-August) average temperature in Columbus was their warmest ever, while Athens tied their record from 1931. Comparably, Atlanta and Macon both experienced their 3rd warmest summer.
January began with the arrival of an arctic air-mass that dominated the first half of the month. A second cold outbreak by month’s end ensured the capital city of its coldest January since 1985. A monthly average temperature of 38.5°F was recorded and this was the first time the monthly average temperature was below 40°F since December 2000. Athens also achieved this distinction with a monthly average of 39.7°F. Departures from normal ranged from -2.5 degrees in Athens to -5.2 degrees in Columbus. Record rainfall on the 16th, 21st, and 24th contributed to monthly surpluses in all four cities. The 2.75” and 2.47” which fell on the 24th in Atlanta and Athens, respectively, represented more than half their normal January total. Departures from normal ranged from +0.35” in Atlanta to +1.51” in Athens.
The much colder than average temperatures continued through February with three more arctic blasts. For the 2nd consecutive month, Atlanta (39.6°F) and Athens (39.5°F) recorded an average monthly temperature below 40 degrees. This had not occurred in either city since December 1981 and January 1982. Negative departures from normal were even greater than in January, ranging from an impressive -6.4 degrees in Macon to a stunning -7.8 degrees in Columbus. When combined with December 2009, it was the coldest (December-February) in all four cities since the winter of 1977-1978. Precipitation was also below average in all four locations. Record and near record rainfall on the 5th, with 2.65” at Athens and 1.93” in Atlanta wasn’t enough to offset a drier than average month. Columbus and Macon posted the largest deficits of -0.92” and -1.48”, respectively. On the 12th, a low pressure system tracking across the northern Gulf of Mexico produced the heavy snow event of the winter. Snowfall totaled 4.5” in Athens, 3.6” in Atlanta, 3.0” in Macon, and 2.0” in Columbus.
Temperatures moderated a bit in March, but still remained well below average in all four cities. Although Athens recorded the smallest departure from normal with -1.9 degrees, both Atlanta and Macon tallied a chilly -3.6 degrees below normal, while Columbus with a -5.3 degree departure, tied their 4th coldest March on record. For the 3rd consecutive month, measureable snow fell in the capital city with 1.1” on the 2nd. The last time this occurred in the first 3 months of the year, was 1983. Again, monthly precipitation was below normal in the four cities with deficits ranging from -1.14” in Atlanta to -2.66” in Athens.
In April, La Nina evolved and strengthened in the equatorial Pacific. Characteristically, temperatures abruptly rebounded to well above average readings. Notably, record and near record warmth occurred early in the month. On the 5th, Athens set a new record high at 88°F, breaking the old record of 87°F in 1988. The next day, Atlanta broke their record with 86°F, eclipsing the previous of 85°F in 1929. By the end of April, departures averaged above normal in all four cities, led by Atlanta with 3.6 degrees and followed by Athens with 3.0 degrees. However, drier than average conditions continued for the 3rd straight month, as all four climate sites recorded rainfall deficits ranging from -1.06” in Atlanta to -2.23” in Columbus. The significantly above average monthly temperatures continued in May, as the capital city posted a departure of 3.6 degrees for the 2nd consecutive month. Others ranged from 2.9 degrees in Columbus to 3.4 degrees in both Athens and Macon. However, substantial rains returned with a half inch or more falling in one or more of the climate sites on the 3rd, 21st, 28th, 29th, and 30th. A potent storm system on the 3rd brought record daily rainfall to all four cities. Amounts ranged from a 2.00” soaking in Macon to a 4.77” deluge in Columbus. This contributed to well above average monthly rainfall in each city ranging from 4.31” (+1.33”) in Macon to 6.87” (+2.92”) in Atlanta.
Positive temperature anomalies increased again in June, as Atlanta and Columbus experienced their 2nd and 4th warmest June, respectively. Temperatures soared to record and near record highs on the 15th, as Macon se |
(Medical Xpress)—A controversial program that uses the private market to provide affordable malaria treatments to people in Africa has dramatically increased access to care and should be continued, according to a policy article by scholars including Ramanan Laxminar | (Medical Xpress)—A controversial program that uses the private market to provide affordable malaria treatments to people in Africa has dramatically increased access to care and should be continued, according to a policy article by scholars including Ramanan Laxminarayan of Princeton University in the Nov. 2 issue of the journal Science.
The researchers stated that the two-year old pilot program, which is up for renewal this November and enables reduced-price malaria drugs to be sold in shops and market stalls, successfully broadened the availability of effective malaria therapies and reduced the use of less effective treatments that promote drug-resistance.
The private-market approach—sometimes called the Coca-Cola model in reference to the soda's apparent ability to reach remote areas of the world—aims to deliver drugs in regions where the majority of people obtain medicines from shops rather than from district hospitals or clinics.
"This experiment demonstrates that we can use private distribution mechanisms to make treatments available in rural areas," said Laxminarayan, a research scholar in the Princeton Environmental Institute, lecturer in economics at Princeton University and director of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy in Washington, D.C.
Laxminarayan co-authored the Science article with Kenneth Arrow, professor of economics at Stanford University and a 1972 Nobel laureate in economics; Dean Jamison, professor of global health at the University of Washington in Seattle; and Barry Bloom, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor at the Harvard School of Public Health.
The researchers found that the program, known as the Affordable Medicines Facility - malaria (AMFm), enhanced access to the most effective malaria medicine, known as artemisinin combination therapy (ACT), while reducing purchases of less-effective drugs, such as artemisinin alone, which has been shown to promote artemisinin-resistance.
ACT prices were lowered by a range of US $1 to US $5 per dose in the five countries that substantially implemented the program, according to results published in the Oct. 31, 2012 issue of The Lancet. The price-reductions were achieved via negotiations with manufacturers and subsidies from donors. The program operated in seven African countries (Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Niger, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda) and was organized by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.
Controversial when first proposed (see "Malaria Drugs, the Coca-Cola Way" in Science, Nov. 21, 2008), the private-market approach is a departure from government-run programs that rely on healthcare workers or clinics to distribute free or subsidized malaria drugs. Critics worried that the approach was unproven and that distributors might pocket the subsidies, according to the 2008 article.
The success of Coca-Cola and other goods at making it to rural markets stems from the fact that someone makes money at every step in the distribution chain, Laxminarayan said. Making malaria drugs available at low prices to distributors and retailers enables these distribution chains to carry ACTs to distant marketplaces, he said.
More information: www.sciencemag.org/content/338/6107/615 |
Reflexology and Asthma
The frequency and severity of asthma symptoms varies markedly from one person to another. A typical attack, which often occurs at night, begins with coughing, wheezing, and shortness of breath, but in | Reflexology and Asthma
The frequency and severity of asthma symptoms varies markedly from one person to another. A typical attack, which often occurs at night, begins with coughing, wheezing, and shortness of breath, but in some individuals a dry cough may be the only symptom. Even without treatment, attacks usually subside after a few hours, with a change to a moist cough that brings up large amounts of mucus. Attacks may recur in hours or days, or may be absent for months or even years. Status asthmaticus, a prolonged attack that persists despite treatment with drugs, is a particularly severe and sometimes fatal form of the disease, and usually requires hospitalization. Some children with asthma stop having attacks when they reach adulthood. In 2002 it was discovered that the gene ADAM33, which is present in about 40 per cent of sufferers, plays a crucial role in making the airways of the lungs highly sensitive, thus increasing the risk of asthma.
Asthma is a respiratory disease in which spasm and constriction of the bronchial passages and swelling of their mucous lining cause obstruction of breathing, often due to allergy, particularly to dust, animal fur or feathers, moulds, and pollen. Many people with allergic asthma, also called atopic or extrinsic asthma, also suffer from hay fever. Asthma in adults is less likely to be caused by allergy, and more likely to be associated with respiratory infections and emotional upsets. Non-allergic asthma is called intrinsic asthma.
Asthma attacks can be treated or prevented by a variety of drugs. Inhalation of bronchodilator drugs, such as albuterol or terbutaline, is the usual treatment, and can bring relief within minutes. Severe attacks that do not respond to these drugs may require treatment with corticosteroids. Drugs that can prevent asthma symptoms include theophylline, which is usually taken in tablets, and cromolyn sodium, which is inhaled.
A reflexology treatment can aid the breathing process generally by stimulating all organs in the respiratory system. The deep relaxation effect of reflexology is also important in relation to asthma as this can help reduce anxiety, which often impairs effective intake of oxygen.
A qualified holistic practitioner looks at the whole person, not specifically the disease. A Reflexologist can aid asthma, by enabling the person to breathe more easily and freely, and preventing tension in the diaphragm area. Most asthmatics have problems because of excess mucus, which could become a breeding ground bacteria. Asthmatics and people with breathing problems need to be aware of the foods that can aggravate the problem. Excessive consumption of dairy products such as milk, cheese, butter and chocolate all increase mucus levels. Smoking and drinking alcohol, particularly at night, irritates the mucus membrane lining of the epiglottis, making the tissues swell at the laryngeal entrance, which may impair the airflow to and from the lungs, again diminishing the amount of oxygen taken in.
Expert have found Reflexology particularly useful in easing attacks of wheazing associated with stressful situations. Working on the solar plexus and the lung reflexes has proved to be particularly helpful for my son when he has had a mild attack and his inhaler hasn't been available. Obviously it is important to be aware of the limitations of using Reflexology in an emergency situation. However, a course of regular treatment may well lead to a reduction in symptoms.
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