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It's hard for magnetic data tapes to stand out from the crowd in an era when it's easy to load up on legions of hard drives. However, Sony might have managed that rare feat with nano-sized tape tech that stores much more than off-the-shelf hardware. By optimizing how it sputters argon ions on to film to create magnetic material, the company has produced "nano-grained" tape that's 74 times denser than what you see today; at 185TB per cartridge, it makes even a 5TB hard disk seem quaint. Sony's breakthrough won't come to your home PC, but it could prove a big help to supercomputers and your favorite internet services -- many of them need high-capacity tape storage just to keep up with demand.
[Image credit: Theilr, Flickr]</s>
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Test To Check Soundness Of CementPosted in Civil Engineering Tests | Email This Post |
Soundness of cement is determined by Le-Chatelier method as per IS: 4031 (Part 3) – 1988.
Apparatus – The apparatus for conducting the Le-Chatelier test should conform to IS: 5514 – 1969
Balance, whose permissible variation at a load of 1000g should be +1.0g and Water bath.
Procedure to determine soundness of cement
i) Place the mould on a glass sheet and fill it with the cement paste formed by gauging cement with 0.78 times the water required to give a paste of standard consistency.
ii) Cover the mould with another piece of glass sheet, place a small weight on this covering glass sheet and immediately submerge the whole assembly in water at a temperature of 27 ± 2oC and keep it there for 24hrs.
iii) Measure the distance separating the indicator points to the nearest 0.5mm (say d1 ).
iv) Submerge the mould again in water at the temperature prescribed above. Bring the water to boiling point in 25 to 30 minutes and keep it boiling for 3hrs.
v) Remove the mould from the water, allow it to cool and measure the distance between the indicator points (say d2 ).
vi) (d2 – d1 ) represents the expansion of cement.</s>
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Kierkegaard’s earliest literary works, including his dissertation, should be regarded as apprentice pieces that are of greater interest to specialists than to general readers. This is also true for his religious works, which strongly attest to the author’s personal faith and theological background, but which exhibit neither the literary sophistication nor the philosophical subtleties that characterize his pseudonymous oeuvre.
The chief formal characteristic of the pseudonymous works is Kierkegaard’s use of a large number of different fictitious characters that both serve as the putative authors or editors of entire books or parts of books and function as literary characters in dialogue with each other. This technique allows Kierkegaard to both make his works aesthetically attractive and to present his ideas in a lively and engaging manner.
Without question, the two-part Either/Or (1843) is Kierkegaard’s most important literary work, although Concluding Unscientific Postscript is his most significant work of philosophy. Kierkegaard pretends that Either/Or has been edited by a certain Victor Eremita, who, like Kierkegaard himself, lives in Copenhagen. On a certain occasion Eremita discovers a manuscript in a secret compartment in a desk that he has recently purchased, and he publishes it with the title Either/Or. The first part contains writings of an aesthetic nature, while the second part consists of ethical rejoinders written by a judge named William.
Either/Or emphasizes the need to make choices in human relations and brings the aesthetic and the ethical approaches to life into dialogue with one another. The dialectical aspect of the text is elevated to a major principle of organization in Kierkegaard’s next book, Fear and Trembling, which is subtitled Dialectical Lyric and is supposed to have been written by one Johannes de Silentio (Silent John) as an inquiry into the story of Abraham in the Hebrew Bible. Its main purpose is to arrive at an understanding of faith as a phenomenon. His final pseudonymous work of 1843 is Repetition, which was supposedly authored by an aesthete named Constantin Constantius.
The following year, 1844, saw the publication of three more pseudonymous works, Philosophical Fragments by Johannes Climacus, The Concept of Dread by Vigilius Haufniensis, and Forord: Morskabslæsning for enkelte Stænder efter Tid og Leilighed (1844; Prefaces: Light Reading for Certain Classes as the Occasion May Require, 1989) by Nicolaus Notabene. While the first of these works considers the serious philosophical question of how to anchor an eternal consciousness in a historical point of departure, the form of Philosophical Fragments is reminiscent of that of vaudeville or opera. Fear and Trembling appears to be a serious inquiry into the concept of original sin, but its form is that of an inquiry along the lines of Hegelian phenomenology. Prefaces is a collection of prefaces to books never written. Literary devices such as these leave the reader unable to draw a firm line between seriousness and irony in Kierkegaard’s texts.
When Stages on Life’s Way appeared in 1845, Kierkegaard returned to both the technique and the concerns of Either/Or by offering several different studies in developmental psychology through a compilation of various texts made by a character named Hilarius Bogbinder. The first segment, “In Vino Veritas,” is authored by the pseudonym William Afham (William by Him) and brings a number of previously introduced pseudonyms together for an imaginary banquet. At the end of their banquet they come across Judge William, known as “B” in Either/Or, who provides further reflections on marriage in a manuscript that is stolen from him. “Skyldig?”/“Ikke-Skyldig?” (“Guilty?”/“Not Guilty?”), supposedly written by a certain Frater Taciturnus, next discusses whether it is ethically defensible to break an engagement. The book concludes with a long letter to the reader in which Frater Taciturnus discusses the religious implications of the previous section.
At least formally, Concluding Unscientific Postscript is a postscript to Philosophical Fragments and therefore supposedly written by Johannes Climacus. There is a serious lack of balance between the lengths of the two works, however. Clearly, the Postscript part of the title is ironically meant, while the Concluding part is not, for Kierkegaard was summing up his philosophical beliefs by proposing that the truth about being is something that each individual has to obtain. In a final explanation appended to Postscript, Kierkegaard also formally acknowledged what most people in Danish literary circles already knew—that he was the author of the works produced by his various pseudonyms.
Kierkegaard returned to the use of a pseudonym, however, when he published The Sickness unto Death, a catalog of despair and sin, under the name Anti-Climacus. The same pseudonym was used the following year, when Training in Christianity was published. Anti-Climacus was given a name that gives him priority over Johannes Climacus, as Kierkegaard wanted to emphasize that religion was more important than philosophy and literature.
First published: Enten-Eller, 1843 (English translation, 1944)
Type of work: Essays
By juxtaposing a series of aesthetic essays...
(The entire section is 2290 words.)</s>
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EPA's Coordinated Approach on Asthma
EPA promotes scientific understanding of environmental asthma triggers and ways to manage asthma in community settings through research, education and outreach. With federal, state and local partners, we are building the nation's capacity to control asthma and manage exposure to indoor and outdoor pollutants linked to asthma. Our purpose is to build knowledge and awareness to improve the quality of life for millions of Americans with asthma.
Asthma Triggers: Gain Control
Information for Specific Groups: Parents, Caregivers and Kids, Communities in Action, School Health Champions, Healthcare Professionals, Researchers and Scientists, Los recursos en Español
Miss the May 30, 2013 Google+ Hangout with NHLBI (in partnership with the CDC, EPA, and Impact DC)? Listen to a discussion/insights into the strides we're making to reduce the burden of asthma. Watch It Now on YouTube (00:36:00)
2015 National Environmental Leadership Award in Asthma Management. Learn about key components of their exceptional programs, a significant challenge each faced in growing their program's success and lessons they learned in addressing this challenge. Read more about the 2015 Winners.
Podcast Series: Conversations for Advancing Action features interviews with leaders and experts in asthma programming describing key strategies and best practices for reducing the impact of asthma on underserved communities.</s>
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Galileo technology developments
Galileo has facilitated European industry’s participation in technologies related to very accurate position and time determination and in their applications. It is also encouraging synergy with other technologies being developed for the information society such as mobile telecommunications and interactive services.
Two on board atomic clocks have been developed for Galileo:
- a Rubidium Atomic Frequency Standard
- a Passive Hydrogen Maser
In parallel, a system for generating navigation signals has been developed, with a navigation signal generator, a navigation antenna and associated equipment.
Galileo satellite clocks
The clocks that will mark time for the next generation of navigation satellites are based on oscillations at the atomic level. They will keep time to within a few hundred-millionths of a second per day.
Why would anyone want to keep time so closely? The answer has to do with the speed of light. Nowadays, you can determine your position on the Earth's surface by measuring the time taken for a signal broadcast by a navigation satellite to reach you. As signals travel at the speed of light, this means measuring tiny fractions of a second very accurately. And to do that, you need to know precisely when the signal left the satellite and precisely when it arrived at your receiver. In navigation, clocks are the driving factor for accurately determining positions. With an accuracy of better than one billionth second in one hour, the clocks on the Galileo satellites will allow you to resolve your position anywhere on the Earth's surface to within 45 cm.
Each of the 30 satellites in the Galileo system will have two of each type of clock on board. The clocks use different technologies, but make use of the same principle - if you force atoms to jump from one particular energy state to another, it will radiate the associated microwave signal at an extremely stable frequency.
This frequency is at around 6 GHz for the rubidium clock and at around 1.4 GHz for the hydrogen clock. The Galileo system uses the clock frequency as a very stable reference by which other units can generate the accurate signals that the Galileo satellites will broadcast. The broadcast signals will also provide a reference by which the less stable user receiver clocks can continuously reset their time.
ESA has chosen the rubidium and hydrogen maser clocks as they are very stable over a few hours and because their technology can fly onboard the Galileo satellites. If they were left to run indefinitely, though, their timekeeping would drift, so they need to be synchronised regularly with a network of even more stable ground-based reference clocks. These will include clocks based on the caesium frequency standard, which show a far better long-term stability than rubidium or hydrogen maser clocks. The clocks on the ground will also generate a worldwide time reference called Galileo System Time.
The clocks on-board the satellites are the first of their type to be developed and built in Europe. Similar clocks are available in the US and in Russia (for example. those flown on the GPS and Glonass satellites), but technological independence is part of mastering Europe's own navigation system.
The passive hydrogen maser clock was actually the first one of its type ever to fly. It has been built by the Observatoire de Neuchatel in co-operation with Officine Galileo of Italy, the former being responsible for the overall development and in particular for the so-called physics package, the latter being in charge of the electronics. A similar arrangement applies for the rubidium clock for which Temex Neuchâtel Time assumes overall responsibility and Astrium Germany contributes the electronics.
The first two flight models of the rubidium clock are in orbit on board GIOVE-A, the first Galileo satellite. Two flight models of the passive hydrogen maser are flying on GIOVE-B since April 2008. Both clocks have shown their reliability and two of each model will be embarked on board the four In Orbit Validation satellites.
Last update: 31 August 2011</s>
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As the dissipating tropical low pressure system known as System 90E continued rain on Guerrero State in southern Mexico, the U.S. Geological Survey reported a 6.4 magnitude earthquake occurred there on Thursday, May 8 around noon local time (1 p.m. EDT). NASA's Aqua satellite captured an infrared image of the low pressure area just three hours after the earthquake.
As showers fell on Guerrero State, USGS noted that the quake's center was 9.3 miles (5 km) north of Tecpan de Galeana, Mexico. That's about 60 miles (96.5 km) northwest of Acapulco and 172 miles (276.8 km) southwest of Mexico City. According to USGS, back on April 18, an 7.2 earthquake occurred just 40 miles from yesterday's epicenter.
A false-colored infrared image from NASA's Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument showed high, cold cloud tops associated with the thunderstorms in System 90E moving over southern Mexico on May 8 at 20:11 UTC/4:11 p.m. EDT. Some of the cloud tops were near -63 F (-52C) indicating some potential for heavy rainfall.
On May 9, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) noted that showers and thunderstorms associated with System 90E continued to become less organized during the early morning hours. The low pressure area is large and centered about 150 miles (241.4 km) southwest of Zihuatenejo, Guerrero State, Mexico.
The NHC discussion on May 9 noted that the upper-level winds have become unfavorable for development and this system, so System 90E now has a very low chance, near 0 percent of becoming a tropical cyclone during the next 48 hours or over the next five days for that matter- which is good news for southwestern Mexico.
Despite not having the potential to develop, however, System 90E is expected to continue to produce locally heavy rainfall and gusty winds over portions of southwestern Mexico during the next day or so, according to NHC. The Mexican Weather Service noted that System 90E has the potential to bring torrential rainfall to Michoacán and Guerrero states totaling between 5.9 to 9.8 inches (150 to 250 mm). These rains could produce life-threatening flash floods and mud slides.
Text credit: Rob Gutro
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center</s>
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San Francisco, California
London, United Kingdom
Spring 2014 Free Adult Course ~ Paleontology/Geology Series
Sedimentary Rock: Geology's Time Capsule
Professor Jason Downs
This course runs 8 Saturdays, February 1 - March 22, 2014, 10:30AM - 12PM
At the Penn Museum, 3260 South Street (33rd and Spruce Sts.)
The entrance for the course is at the east end of the building, next to the garage.
This course requires pre-registration and space is limited.
Sedimentary rock is formed when mineral and organic particles (or sediment) are naturally cemented together. Because these rocks are the only ones to be built of accumulated components, they are the only rocks that trap the remains of past life (fossils). Because these rocks are the only ones to form at Earth’s surface, they serve a primary role in the study of ancient surface processes and ancient environments. Sedimentology is the scientific study of the classification, origin, and interpretation of sediments and sedimentary rocks. Stratigraphy is the science of studying the stratification (or layering) of sedimentary rocks. This course will communicate 1) the fundamental concepts behind sedimentology and stratigraphy, 2) the analysis and interpretation of modern and ancient environments of sediment desposition (rivers, lakes, oceans, deserts, glaciers), and 3) the applications of sedimentology and stratigraphy in environmental and economic pursuits.
The Institute’s adult evening courses grew out of the original lectures given by William Wagner at his home. Since its incorporation in 1855, the Wagner's faculty has included distinguished scientists and educators from the many educational and research institutions in the region. Many hold joint appointments with the Wagner and institutions such as the University of Pennsylvania, Bryn Mawr College, the Academy of Natural Sciences and Temple University. Today the courses are held off-site at a variety of locations throughout the city to make them accessible to a wide audience.
The adult lecture courses are offered on an introductory college level. They are open to anyone seeking an introduction to various areas of the sciences as well as those familiar with the subjects who wish to broaden and update their knowledge. The courses also provide an excellent opportunity for motivated middle and high school students to supplement their current science courses and to help prepare them for further study in these fields at a college level. The courses are appropriate as well for teachers seeking to expand their knowledge.</s>
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July 4th, officially known as Independence Day, is a federal holiday in the United States which commemorates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. The adoption of the Declaration of Independence occurred on July 4, 1776. It was at that time that the nation declared its independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain which is now officially known as the United Kingdom. Besides time off from work and schools that are in summer session, there is a wide array of traditional celebrations on the annual holiday. Americans celebrate in the United States with picnics and barbecues, fireworks, parades, carnivals and fairs, and concerts which often include political speeches, patriotic songs and ceremonies. It is time when Americans celebrate their freedoms as a nation.
Music, naturally, is a big part of Americans' patriotic celebrations - including the celebrations observed on Independence Day. Ten of the most famous and best-loved patriotic songs in the history of the United States are linked to this article in an effort to help people celebrate. After each title, the lyricist and music writer are listed, and then the performer or performers of each song video are acknowledged.
The Ten Best Patriotic Songs in the United States
1. The Star Spangled Banner was a poem written by Francis Scott Key in 1814; Key set the poem to a modified musical version of a ‘drinking’ song called Anacreontic Song which was written by Britain John Stafford Smith. Though well-known years before, The Star Spangled Banner became the United States’ official National Anthem in 1931 by an act of the United States Congress. Sung by The Cactus Cuties.
2. The Battle Hymn of the Republic is a lyric written by Julia Ward Howe in 1861, set to a tune written several years before by William Steffe. Sung by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
3. America the Beautiful was a poem written by Katharine Lee Bates in the 1880s, and Samuel A. Ward added the music to the words in the 1890s. Sung by Barbara Streisand.
4. God Bless America was written by Irving Berlin in 1918, then revised and recorded by Kate Smith twenty years later when the song and Kate Smith became very popular. Sung by Kate Smith.
5. The Stars and Stripes Forever, declared the United States’ National March by the United States Congress in 1987, was written in 1896 by John Philip Sousa, a Marine Band leader from 1880 to 1892, as well as a member of the Hall of Fame of Great Americans and an inductee into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame. Performed by The Marine Band.
6. My Country Tis of Thee is a lyric written by Samuel Francis Smith in 1931 and thereafter set to the British National Anthem, God Save the Queen. Sung by Aretha Franklin at President Obama's Inauguration.
7. Semper Fidelis, the official march of the United States Marine Corps, was written in 1888 by John Philip Sousa, a Marine Band leader from 1880 to 1892, as well as a member of the Hall of Fame of Great Americans and an inductee into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame. Performed by The Marine Band.
8. The Marine's Hymn (From the Halls of Montezuma), the official hymn of the United States Marine Corps, was composed by Jacques Offenbach in the mid-1800s under another name and the lyricist is unknown. Sung by The Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
9. God Bless the USA written and originally recorded by country singer and songwriter Lee Greenwood in 1984. Sung by Lee Greenwood. This is the most contemporary of what are classified as classic patriotic songs.
10. This Land is Your Land was written by folk singer and songwriter Woody Guthrie. He wrote the lyrics in 1940 to one of his previous melodies as a negative response to God Bless America because he was tired of hearing it. Sung by Woody Guthrie.
Have a safe and happy holiday. Don't drink and drive! If one is inclined to celebrate with firecrackers, please be cautious for personal safety as well as the safety of others and surrounding property.</s>
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Medieval Latin literature
The Flowering of Medieval Culture
The quality of writing and of scholarship was steadily rising, and the way was being prepared for the great flowering of medieval culture in the 13th cent. Most notable was the full development of scholasticism by St. Bonaventure, St. Albertus Magnus, and St. Thomas Aquinas, together with Duns Scotus, William of Occam, and others. The simple Latin dialogues on the mysteries of Christ's life had become the miracle play.
Secular poetry had since the 11th cent. given rise to well-wrought and exquisitely rhymed lyrics and satires commonly called the Goliardic songs. The type of encyclopedic compendium popular since St. Isidore of Seville's 7th-century Etymologiae was represented by the work of Vincent of Beauvais. The lives of saints were collected in The Golden Legend by Jacobus de Voragine. Other genres were also represented in Latin: the mock epic, the fabliau, the romance, the beast tale, the folk story.
Sections in this article:
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
More on Medieval Latin literature The Flowering of Medieval Culture from Fact Monster:
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Classical Literature</s>
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Through my eight years of teaching, I have encountered several different teaching situations. Classroom set-ups and teaching styles vary greatly from room to room and teacher to teacher. However, the class schedule and subjects taught also come with variety.
My first four years of teaching, I taught in a semi-departmentalized setting. This is the name that I labeled it. I have never heard anyone use the term before but it seems to fit nicely. I say semi-departmentalized because there were only two teachers and we shared the subjects that were to be taught. To some extent we were departmentalized because we changed groups of students during the day. However, there was not a department for each subject to be taught.
I taught both math and science to each homeroom class of students. My partner taught both English and history. We each taught reading to our own homeroom class. The set-up had both its pros and cons.
With only two teachers involved and two groups of students, it was fairly easy to have a personal relationship with all of the students. Teachers seeing five to six groups of students daily often do not have the opportunity to get to know all of their students.
I preferred the method to being self-contained because fewer subjects had to be taught. I could put more focus into the three subjects that I was teaching rather than having to split my time between five subjects.
In the teaching situation described above, the two teachers must work very closely together. It is important for the two teachers to share a common agreement when discipline, academic goals, and educational values are concerned. Because there are two teachers working together with the same students, the teachers will need to plan trips and special events for the entire group. If the two teachers do not share a common interest in teaching styles, many conflicts can occur.
Many small schools share this semi-departmentalized plan in intermediate and middle grades. There are often not enough teachers or students to have one teacher per subject. Therefore, the teachers teach more than one subject and usually divide the core curriculum.</s>
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Climate and Climate Change in West Africa, 2008
In collaboration with the Sahel and West Africa Club, linked to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the Agrhymet Centre of CILSS (Permanent interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel), FAO has prepared a document on "Climate and Climate Change in West Africa" which presents the evolution of climate in Africa and in West Africa and analyzes the possible impacts of climate change on food production and food security in the region.
This document has been prepared within the framework the "Atlas of Regional Integration in West Africa", a joint initiative currently developed by the Sahel and West Africa Club and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). A similar joint document has been published in 2007 on Rural Development in Western Africa (Les ruralités en mouvement en Afrique de l’ouest)
Amply illustrated with maps and graphs, this joint document has been presented to the participants of the meeting of the Network of Prevention of Food Crises in the Sahel which took place on 10 and 11 April 2008 at OECD. Then, it will contribute to the High Level Conference on World Food Security: the Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy organised by FAO in June 2008 in Rome.
(Also available in French - 5 MB)
Click here to view the document (4 MB).</s>
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When an object reaches the Field Museum it has often lasted longer than its intended life and may be in a fragile or worn condition - repairs or stabilization of damage may be important to prevent further deterioration of the object. Some objects, such as archaeological pottery, typically arrive at the museum broken and may need to be reassembled from fragments. Treatment of a museum object to repair damage, improve physical stability, or to restore appearance or function, is a delicate and potentially costly business: treatment time for an object can very from hours to months and conservators are mindful that treatment always involves some risk of damage or alteration of original properties.
The ideal is always to preserve the original object so far as possible. Where possible, the cultural functioning of an object is considered as an integral part of its properties, as worthy of preservation as its physical form.
Many modern adhesives and consolidants have short service lifetimes (five-ten years) and change color, weaken, or insolubilize as they age. Restoration materials are selected for their long-term stability and reversibility so that, if a treatment is learnt to be undesirable in the future, it can be undone. Where possible, materials which can be distinguished from the original materials of construction are used.
Each stage of a treatment, the materials involved, and its outcome must be documented so that researchers in the future can distinguish between work done now and the original object as collected into the museum.</s>
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On This Day - 3 August 1917
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)
British retake St. Julien and positions on Infantry Hill.
Fall of Czernowitz.
Kimpolung (Romanian front) evacuated.
Naval and Overseas Operations
Heavy fighting German East Africa; enemy compelled to withdraw along Lindi-Masasi road (80 miles south-west of Port Lindi).</s>
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Never before had there been such a total air victory in the history of aerial combat.
The name "Flying Tigers" burned itself in the pages of world history for all time.
For years after the Flying Tigers disbanded in 1942, they had been known as a mercenary air force in the service of the Chinese government. Finally on July 4, 1991, in a ceremony honoring the Flying Tigers, the United States Government belatedly admitted the truth - the Flying Tigers had been created by secret order of President Franklin Roosevelt months before Pearl Harbor to help the Chinese defend their cities from the relentless bombing by the Japanese, who had invaded China in 1937.
Three hundred men and women were recruited from within the ranks of the U.S. Armed Services. Pilots, aircraft mechanics, propeller specialists, doctors, nurses, clerks and even a chaplain joined what was called the American Volunteer Group. They signed a one-year contract to protect the only supply route open for the United States to deliver war material to China - the Burma Road. They boarded ships from the West Coast in the spring and summer of 1941, traveling as missionaries, planters, even circus performers - disguises to mask their true mission and protect FDR's secret effort to keep China from falling to the Japanese without provoking a war with Japan.
A.V.G. The American Volunteer Group The Japanese had been bombing Chinese cities since 1937 and had virtually destroyed China's Air Force. War between the United States and Japan seemed imminent. The idea for a "Lafayette Escadrille" to assist the Chinese in their struggle had been brewing for some time. Claire Lee Chennault, a retired Army Air Corps captain and air advisor to China, was authorized by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek to form a volunteer group consisting entirely of American airmen to help train Chinese aviators and protect China's skies. With the help of T.V. Soong, Chiang's brother-in-law, Tom Corcoran, an advisor to the President, and other high-ranking officials, Chennault sold the idea to Roosevelt. On April 15, 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Executive Order authorizing the formation of the American Volunteer Group. The Order permitted members of the Navy, Marine Corps, and Army Air Corps to resign from their branch of the service with the assurance that they would be reinstated to their former rank or grade upon completion of their contract. The group was to defend the Burma Road, China's lifeline to Burma and Indian Ocean ports. Since the U.S. was technically at peace with Japan, the plan required some subterfuge. Central Aircraft Manufacturing Co. (CAMCO) was elected as the middleman. CAMCO, owned by William Pawley, had an aircraft factory at Loiwing, China, supplying parts and planes to Chiang's Air Force. The "Volunteers" would sign a contract with CAMCO for one year, performing certain services not technically relating to combat. Recruiters fanned out across the country. The rumors soon spread that there was adventure and excitement in the exotic Orient. Pilots and crewmen of two carrier groups, temporarily at Norfolk, Virginia, for the Christmas holidays, were contacted by retired Commander Rutledge Irvine in early 1941. Many were fascinated, but most were somewhat skeptical. The pay, perks, and rewards sounded too good to be true. A few months later, and after three more meetings with our supersalesman, a group of pilots and crew were off to San Francisco on the way to the land of Kipling. Other recruiters signed up Army and Marine personnel. Chennault had some bad experiences with the International Squadron. He now wanted to put his own theories to the test. As the author of the controversial book, The Role of Defensive Pursuit, and as a member of the famous aerobatic team "Three Men on the Flying Trapeze", Chennault was held in awe by many airmen who wanted to fly with him. The AVG recruiters signed up 100 pilots and 200 mechanics, armorers, parachute riggers, radio operators, photographers, meteorologists, and other ground support crews. The pay was good: $600 to $675 per month for pilots and from $250 up for ground crews. The contract didn't mention another important perk - $500 bonus for each enemy plane shot down - but it was understood (this point was not understood by all - ed. note). The first contingent sailed from San Francisco aboard the Dutch vessel Jaeggersfontaineon July 11, 1941. Chennault had left a few days before on a Pan American clipper. The group was supposed to sail under complete secrecy. The passports read school teachers, entertainers, surveyors, farmers, engineers, and other innocuous professions. No one was fooled. A few days after the ship sailed, the Japanese newspapers announced that a group of American pilots has sailed for the Far East to fight Japan in China. "The ship will be sunk" the paper said. But it made it. A month later the second contingent sailed aboard another Dutch ship, the "Bloemfontaine." The name of David Lee "Tex" and mine appeared on the passenger list. We had flown together as dive bomber pilots aboard the Navy carriers Ranger and Yorktown. Those of us who expected to enjoy the mysterious beauties of the Far East and the exotic Orient were in for a rude awakening. When we arrived in Burma we had little time to explore the forbidden fruits of Rangoon. Instead we were sent 170 miles North to Toungoo in the heart of the jungle. Kyedaw Airdrome, an abandoned RAF field, was to be our training headquarters. It had a 4,000 foot blacktop runway with decent barracks of bamboo and teak. But the heat in September, 1941 was stifling and every biting critter known to man infested the area. And when we saw the planes we were to fly, it didn't make us much happier. Some of the pilots had only flown bombers or transports. Even Hill, Neale, myself, and others with fighter experience had a tough time learning the quirks of the P-40 Tomahawk. But Claire Chennault was a great teacher. He inspired confidence and a fierce loyalty. Even the hottest pilots forgot their prior training and absorbed Chennault's lessons in tactics. For over three months he personally instructed and drilled us in his innovative tactics. "The Japanese are superbly trained pilots. . . they have proved themselves in years of combat in China. . .the Japanese fighter planes are more maneuverable, have a better rate of climb but are more vulnerable than the P-40. . .the P-40 has better armor, more firepower and can dive at an extraordinary speed. . .use the P-40s good points and you'll stay alive and beat the enemy. . .", he lectured day after day. He sent us aloft to practice his strategies while observing our performance from his bamboo tower. Accidents occurred daily while pilots tried to get the hang of the temperamental P-40. The heat, training, lack of entertainment, the insects and boredom caused growing dissatisfaction. Some quit the AVG and went home. Some asked for other duties. But Chennault finally whipped a highly trained gung-ho group together. We were ready. He had our admiration and respect. Most called him "Colonel" or referred to him as "the Old Man." December 7, 1941, "Pearl Harbor attacked by Japan." It was December 8th in Burma. Chennault ordered his men on the alert. We would not be caught on the ground. But nothing happened at Toungoo. Chennault had organized his group into three squadrons. On December 12th, he sent the 3rd Squadron,FT1st.gif (3230 bytes) "Hell's Angels" to Rangoon to assist the RAF. The other two squadrons stood by on continuous alert. On December 18th, the Japanese attacked Kunming, China with a large force of bombers. The 1st Squadron,FT3rd.gif (4859 bytes) "The Adam & Eves" and the 2nd, FT2nd.gif (1942 bytes)"The Panda Bears," were sent on the 650 mile trip to Kunming early the following day and immediately went out on patrol, but there was no action. There was an early morning patrol on the 20th and again nothing. But Chennault was certain that the enemy would attack after its successful raid on the 18th. His intuition and early warning net paid off. Early during the morning of December 20th, a report was received warning that enemy bombers had been sighted 60 miles away. "The Old Man" said this is what he had been waiting for, American planes with American pilots with a little advance warning. He fired his red flares and the two squadrons took to the air. The enemy never reached Kunming. The first report was that six of the ten Japanese bombers had been shot down. Later in the war Chennault learned that only one of the enemy returned to its base. But the mission had one casualty. Me! Chennault wrote, "The last the other pilots saw of Rector, he was still chasing the Japes at full throttle". I had chased a little too far and didn't have enough gas to return. I bellied my P-40 in...and walked back to base (I was credited with shooting down the first enemy bomber that day). The 20th of December, 1941 was a costly day for the Japanese. The lost nine out of ten bombers and never hit the target. The Japanese never again tried to bomb Kunming as long as the AVG defended the city. It was not until two years later that they made another try, and this time escorted by a large number of fighters. During January and February, 1942, the AVG started to rack up the extraordinary record that gained them fame. Over the Skies of Burma and china we destroyed 217 enemy aircraft in thirty one encounter and probably destroyed at least another 50. During that same period, we lost six pilots. The grateful Chinese dubbed us the "Flying Tigers" and the name stuck. When the AVG was disbanded on July 4, 1942, after only seven months in combat, we had destroyed 297 enemy planes with another 153 probably destroyed. Twenty-two AVG personnel lost their lives: four in aerial combat, six on strafing missions, ten in training accidents and two on the ground from bombing (four were POWs, three returned). Unfortunately, because of lack of tact and shortsightedness on the part of Army brass, much of this valuable talent left China. Most of the AVG would have stayed on if they had been given decent treatment. All most wanted was a short leave and recognition of the service they had performed for their country. Eighty-two members of the AVG stayed on for various periods. Forty-four pilots and ground crew agreed to stay an extra two weeks because of their loyalty to Chennault. Two pilots, John Petach and Arnold Shamblin paid for that two weeks with their lives. Bob Neale, the top AVG ace. led the newly formed 23rd Fighter Group until July 19th, when Col. Robert Scott, Jr. assumed command. In addition to the 20 pilots and 24 ground crew that stayed two extra weeks, five AVG pilots and 28 ground personnel joined the Army Air Corps and stayed in China. They formed the cadre of the 23rd Fighter Group. Five of Chennault's staff stayed on to form Headquarters of the China Air Task Force. The 1st, 2nd and 3rd Pursuit Squadrons were redesignated the 74th, 75th and 76th Fighter Squadrons. Frank Schiel was named C.O. of the 74th. Tex Hill commanded the 75th with Gil Bright as his second in command, and I commanded the 76th, with Chuck Sawyer as my deputy. One chapter in history ended July 4, 1942, and another began the same day with the same equipment, the same planes, and many of the same men. Most of the AVG who did not stay in China returned to their former branches of the service and performed brilliantly in other theaters. Some later returned to China and served with the 14th Air Force. We did not consider ourselves mercenaries or soldiers of fortune. We were paid sums considerably larger than our military salaries. Most of those who volunteered felt his was a unique opportunity to serve in a cause important to our country and a chance to improve our skills. A chance to get in on the ground floor with excitement and adventure thrown in make an irresistible combination. ("The Original Flying Tigers" by Ed Rector, 2nd Sqdrn, Vice Squadron Leader) * In 31 encounters they destroyed 217 enemy planes and probably destroyed 43 others. * The Tiger's losses in combat were four pilots killed in the air, one killed while straffing and one taken prisoner. * In the initial day in Rangoon, between Christmas and New Year's Eve of 1941, the Americans officially shot down 75 planes with a loss of two Tiger pilots and six planes of their own. Never before had there been such a total air victory in the history of aerial combat. The name "Flying Tigers" burned itself in the pages of world history for all time. * In the seven months of combat that followed, the 85 surviving pilots and their tiger-toothed P-40s shot down, by official count, 299 enemy planes. They destroyed another known 240 Japanese aircraft. In addition, the Tigers estimated a kill total upwards of a thousand aircraft which could not be confirmed officially, but which pilots recounted having watched disappear into the mountains or sea.</s>
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Here are a few water facts* to quench your interest:
- Seventy-five percent of rainfall which falls in California meets eighty percent of California's needs.
- California receives about 193 million acre feet of water each year as precipitation (rain and snow).
- An acre foot of water equals about 326,000 gallons, or enough water to cover an acre of land about the size of a football field, one foot deep.
- The earth's water supply consist of :
97.2% Salt Water
2.8% Fresh Water
(0.6% Ground Water
0.01% Lakes and Streams
2.2% Glaciers and Icecaps
0.001% Water Vapor)
- An average Californian household uses between one-half and one-acre foot of water per year for indoor and outdoor use.
- The Los Angeles Aqueduct, carrying water from the Owens Valley, helped the city grow from a population of 214,000 in 1905 to 3.5 million today
- The amount of water contaminated by 1 quart of oil is approximately 250,000 gallons.
*Source: Water Education Foundation.
Local Water Facts:
- All of Folsom's water is provided by Folsom Lake
- Folsom's Water Treatment Plant has a capacity of 50 million gallons per day
- Over 50% of our treated water is used outdoors
- The average homeowner overwaters by 100%</s>
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There are not many business plans that begin with Dante.
Yet Dante is at the root of the reemergence of the wines from the Piandoccoli estate, in the Tuscan hills west of Florence. It is a case of history bearing direct influence on the present, and perhaps the future as well: the historical grapes of Tuscany produce wines that are lower in alcohol, which is an increasingly popular trend among curious wine consumers.
Let’s begin with Dante, who reiterated an ancient custom when he wrote about the fee or gifts necessary to carry the newly dead across the river Styx. That gift, during the Medici period, was sometimes a basket of fruit. That basket, filled partially with grapes from the immediate vicinity, was placed at the feet of dead bodies in their tombs. And those tombs are the subject of current archaeological research.
What they reveal is the DNA of grape varietals that were all but extinct. Grapes like Mammolo, Pugnitello, and Foglia tonda are not as known or planted or enjoyed as they were in the time of the Medicis. But they are indigenous to the specific place – the specific terroir – where Giampaolo Bruni wanted to rejuvenate the Piandoccoli vineyards on the property of his wife’s family.
So that’s where Bruni started. In history.
He turned to Roberto Bandinelli, an ampelographical researcher at the University of Florence. Ampelography is a field of botany concerned with identifying grapevines, sometimes using DNA found at historical or archaeological sites.
“If you want to do something,” Bandinelli told Bruni, “do something that will be remembered.”
Bandinelli believed that Bruni and the Piandoccoli estate were in a fortuitous situation, since the vineyards were near the site of Medici tombs that had been studied under an initiative of the Italian Ministry of Culture. Bandinelli and his team identified 13 indigenous grapes as a result of that research, and he was able to reproduce them from seed.
He encouraged Bruni to do “something that will be remembered,” namely, recreate vineyards from hundreds of years ago. It’s a strategy that had three potential benefits.
First, it distinguished the brand from other Tuscan wine producers, which is an already crowded category. Second, it was a safe bet from a production perspective, given the evidence that those specific grapes were able to thrive in that specific environment. And third, those grapes produced wines that were lower in alcohol than many of their competitors.
Together Bandinelli and Bruni honed in on five grapes that are now part of Piandoccoli’s production. The Maiorem Rosso di Toscana label, for example, is composed of five different grapes including several historical varietals. Reading the “recipe” or blend for this wine, and knowing which grape contributes what features to the final product, is like walking through a Medici vineyard fully aware of the relative values and benefits of the assets all around you.
The majority player in the blend is Sangiovese, which is today’s signature and most commercial grape of Tuscany. Twenty percent of the blend is Mammolo, which is a grape mentioned in 17th century Tuscan texts and adds aromatic character to the wine. Fifteen percent of the blend is Pugnitello, a grape typified by high vigor and low production. Ten percent is Foglia Tonda, an abundant grape that is also highly aromatic. The final five percent comes from Colorino which, as its name suggests, adds depth of color.
It turns out that this particular blend, and those indigenous grapes, produce wines that converge quite nicely, and quite conveniently for commercial purposes, with the trend toward lower-alcohol wines.
Rather than describe the wines as low-alcohol, however, Bruni describes them as “kind.” His wife describes them as not “killing” her or making her light-headed (“If I have two glasses,” she says, “I’m completely fine”). I’d describe the wines as amenable – friendly, that is, as a companion to your food and as a partner in conversation. They aren’t overpowering or domineering, yet hold their own and contribute to a lively dynamic.
Bruni’s full description of his Maiorem blend, however, takes it directly back to the land of Dante. “It tastes robust, and it will give you real thoughts and impressions,” he said. “But it is balanced between strength and classic elegance, which is necessarily full of flavor. When it is so hot in the summertime, I go in my woods and I have this wine. I see these vines next to the stream, and it makes my air richer.”
Follow me on Twitter @cathyhuyghe.</s>
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Much of the discussion on fear of radiation misses the essential point of noise in the data. This is more important than it sounds. The best discussion of noise may come from an economist, probably because that field has so much noise in it – just look at the debt ceiling debate.
The famous economist Fischer Black considered noise to be the opposite of information. He did not just consider it to be inaccurate or corrupt data, or irrelevant background information, or data from random sources, he considered more nefarious human and societal sources like hype and intentional disinformation.
The recent astounding decision by the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (Radiation Not A Big Deal) can only be interpreted if one understands noise. UNSCEAR’s report confessed that low doses of radiation should not be used to predict cancers in future populations, contrary to what everyone’s been doing for the last 60 years.
The report, along with many new findings (No DNA Damage at 400x Background), supports the observation that radiation doses less than about 10 rem (0.1 Sv) have no observable effects on human health and the environment. Less than 10 rem (0.1 Sv) is the region that encompasses annual background levels around the world.
Another way of saying this is “below 10 rem/yr (0.1 Sv/yr), the effects of radiation disappear in the noise.”
It’s like trying to hear Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon from across the room while operating a buzz saw without hearing protection. And then trying to say it’s the music that caused some of your hearing loss.
The classic example of this problem is interpreting the increase in cancer rates of the Japanese Atomic Bomb Survivors (see figure). This figure graphs the cancer occurrences in the survivors using data from the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP 1994). It is clear that high doses of radiation cause an increase in cancer. At low doses, there is no clear increase.
The straight-line portion of these types of curves above Earth background has been the basis for the Linear No-Threshold Dose hypothesis, or LNT. First put forward after WWII, LNT is a supposition that harmful radiation effects follow a linear relationship – increase the dose, increase the risk, increase the cancers, increase the deaths.
The part of this line above 10 rem (0.1 Sv) certainly supports this idea, although doubling the dose does not double the effect like is commonly thought. Doses between 50 and 100 rem (0.5 and 1 Sv) resulted in a 29% increase in cancers over doses between 0.5 and 10 rem (0.005 and 0.1 Sv) even though there was a 1000% increase in dose.
However, below 10 rem (0.1 Sv), the effects disappear completely in the noise – the noise of all the other environmental and genetic effects that cause death. In the 1950s, to be simplistic and conservative, the world governing bodies decided to just draw in that line anyway, all the way down to zero, dictating that there was no threshold.
That seemed easy at the time. Who could imagine what problems it would cause in the future? But notice, that extra tail of a line crosses the entire range of background radiation on Earth, what is considered normal, what humans and every other life form has lived with long before we split the atom.
What that extra tail of a line inadvertently established as policy, though, was that all radiation was dangerous, no matter what kind, for what purpose, or at what dose. Suddenly, just walking outside was dangerous, technically. But not really. No one paid much attention then because there wasn’t much application of nuclear anyway in the ‘40s and ‘50s, except bombs.
However, as this idea slowly crept into regulations, laws, response plans, the medical industry and the Cold War, it grew into a multi-headed Hydra. Legally, we had to care about this. We had to spend billions protecting against what was once background levels. Now anyone can calculate the risk to everyone else, even those who won’t be born for a thousand years. And we have to care about it.
It’s right out of a Road Warrior movie. No wonder the fear of radiation took over the worldview. Science fiction is much more fun to study than real science.
Take Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for example. According to the Washington Post (WP Secretary Clinton), Secretary Clinton has spent over 2,000 hours on a plane above 25,000 ft during her tenure as Secretary of State. Because radiation dose increases with altitude, she received an additional 1,740 mrem of high-energy radiation, an astoundingly dangerous dose when viewed through the lens of LNT. Of course, it’s trivial and no one cares about it at all. Indeed, the physical stress of that much travel is actually dangerous to your health, not the rad.
But the radiation risk is calculable in a science fiction sort of way. The same way we calculate the risk of an additional 50 mrem to virtual people in five hundred years from various nuclear waste disposal strategies (Environmental Impact Statement DOE/EIS-0391 as an example). We’ve decided that, in an overall 300 mrem background, reducing this risk by lowering the dose from 50 mrem to something like 10 mrem, is worth, say, spending an additional $100 billion.
Is the risk from 50 mrem worth this? The same risk as moving from Los Angeles to Colorado? Do we generally spend $1 billion to save a life in this country? Could it be better spent on real health care, now? Immunizations? Tackling epidemics? Addressing childhood obesity? Paying down the debt? Outlawing airplane trips? Are virtual people in the future facing a trivial risk more worthy of our help than U.S. citizens now?
This is a societal decision that society has been left out of. That needs to change.
- Page 1 / 2</s>
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With football season underway, it's crowded in the stadium and in the doctor's office. Many of us have witnessed a player shaken up and carried off the field after a big hit.
If we measure our child's development in milestones then potty training is a big one! I think that most toddlers are ready to be "involved" in the bathroom when they are about 18 months old.
Doctor Sue, The Kid's Doctor, shares some tips on potty training toddlers.
They fly, crawl and can ruin a perfect summer day. Bugs are creeping everywhere this time of year and there is only one way to keep them at bay...insect repellent.
Wintry weather is here and with that comes the extra threat of the flu. Dr. Sue helps you choose which vaccine is best for your little one.
Getting your kids vaccinated is a great way to fight the flu, but you can also keep their immune system strong with what they eat. Dr. Sue explains with the Kid's Doctor.
It seems as if it happens overnight. Your child's cough turns into something much worse. It's called croup…a viral upper respiratory infection that causes your child's trachea and larynx to become inflamed making it difficult for them to breath.
They have made their way back into your child's classroom…Lice! I have been fielding frantic calls from parents fighting lice in school and at home.
A huge part of Halloween tradition is children dressing up in their costume of choice to hunt for candy. But before they take to streets, make sure your child is not wearing something that can put them in dangerous predicament.</s>
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There is no mention of Freemasonry in the Oscar-winning film about King George VI. Paul Hooley puts us right
The King’s Speech has been critically acclaimed as one of the finest motion pictures of recent years and has renewed the public’s interest in, and aff ection for, King George VI, who reigned from 1936 to 1952.
The film, which chronicles the constitutional crisis created by Edward VIII’s abdication and George’s struggle to overcome his pronounced stammer, focuses on the moving relationship between the King and speech therapist Lionel Logue, which had such a happy ending.
What the film does not mention, however, is that both men were members of the Craft; or that the King believed Freemasonry had also helped him overcome his disability – which rarely surfaced whenever he performed masonic ritual. Logue, who had been the Master of St George’s Lodge, Western Australia, was also speech therapist to the Royal Masonic School.
KING GEORGE'S LOVE OF FREEMASONRY
Following service with the Royal Navy in the First World War, he was initiated in December 1919 into Navy Lodge, No. 2612, of which his grandfather King Edward VII had been founding Master. On that occasion he noted: ‘I have always wished to become a Freemason, but owing to the war I have had no opportunity before this of joining the Craft’. From that moment he became a most dedicated and active Freemason. He was invested as Duke of York in 1920 and the following year installed as permanent Master of Navy Lodge. He joined other lodges and degrees and was appointed Senior Grand Warden of the United Grand Lodge in 1923.
George V died in January 1936 and was succeeded by his eldest son Edward, who had been initiated (also in 1919) into the Household Brigade Lodge, No. 2614. But before the year was out Edward had abdicated. Of the moment of change King George VI wrote, ‘On entering the room I bowed to him as King… when [he] and I said goodbye we kissed, parted as Freemasons and he bowed to me as his King.’
Protocol required George to resign his masonic affiliations, however when it was suggested a new position of Past Grand Master be created especially for him, he immediately accepted, declaring, ‘Today the pinnacle of my masonic life has been reached.’
THE VICTORY STAMPS
After the Second World War, King George wrote that ‘Freemasonry has been one of the strongest influences on my life’ and in collaboration with engraver Reynolds Stone helped create a postage stamp, part of the ‘1946 Victory Issue,’ which is filled with masonic symbolism.
The 3d Victory Stamp was widely praised for the ‘strength and simplicity of the design’. It depicts the King’s head in the East, his eyes firmly fixed on illustrations of a dove carrying an olive branch (representing peace and guidance), the square and compasses (in the second degree configuration) and a trowel and bricks (the sign of a Master spreading the cement that binds mankind in brotherly love).
On the stamp the images appear in white, the colour of purity, out of purple, the colour of divinity. the three coupled illustrations are surrounded by a scrolled ribbon made up of five figure threes – sacred numbers in Freemasonry – and was the unusual positioning of the wording meant to represent two great pillars? By its name and intention, the stamp proclaimed victory over evil, yet by its appearance it expressed compassion and hope.
King George VI once stated, ‘ the world today does require spiritual and moral regeneration. I have no doubt, after many years as a member of our Order, that Freemasonry can play a most important part in this vital need.’
The Victory Stamp captured those words in a graphic representation that also expressed the King’s belief that the building of a new and better world could best be achieved by adhering to the principles of the square and compasses.
He reinforced those thoughts in 1948 in an address he gave to Grand Lodge: ‘I believe that a determination to maintain the values which have been the rock upon which the masonic structure has stood firm against the storms of the past is the only policy which can be pursued in the future. I think that warning needs emphasising today, when men, sometimes swayed by sentimentality or an indiscriminate tolerance, are apt to overlook the lessons of the past. I cannot better impress this upon you than by quoting from the book on which we have all taken our masonic obligations: “Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set".</s>
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Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge is home to an incredible amount of plant and animal diversity in its three major habitats – forest, marsh and shallow water. The refuge contains one-third of Maryland's tidal wetlands, which makes it an ecologically important area within the state. These wetlands also provide storm protection to lower Dorchester County, including the town of Cambridge. Blackwater NWR is recognized as a "Wetland of International Importance" by the Ramsar Convention and was named a priority wetland in the North American Waterfowl Management Plan. In addition, Blackwater NWR has been designated as an Internationally Important Bird Area.
Blackwater NWR is currently home to the largest remaining natural population of endangered Delmarva peninsula fox squirrels and is also home to the largest breeding population of American bald eagles on the East Coast, north of Florida.
The refuge has been referred to as the "Everglades of the North," and has been called one of the "Last Great Places" by the Nature Conservancy.
Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge Brochure (pdf)</s>
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Indoor Herb Gardening
By: Charlie Nardozzi
The holidays are a time of gathering together, cooking, and eating. We all have favorite holiday recipes, and wouldn't it be great to spice up these dishes with some fresh herbs? In most regions the herb garden is now dormant, but with a little planning you can grow many culinary herbs indoors this winter. An indoor herb garden is not only functional, it can be attractive and provide a remembrance of summer during the dark days of winter.
Getting the Right Herbs
The first step is to select culinary herbs that will grow well indoors with limited space and light. Chives, parsley, thyme, oregano, basil, and sage are some of the best to try. You can even grow some unusual, small-leaved greens, such as arugula and mache, to complement your winter salads. Most of these herbs grow only 12 inches tall, so they're easy to maintain. For taller herbs, select dwarf varieties, such as 'Spicy Globe' basil, that will fit on a windowsill or under grow lights. You'll get fewer leaves to harvest on dwarf varieties, but the plants are easier to maintain. While some herbs, such as dill and coriander, have edible seeds as well as leaves, don't try to grow them for their seeds indoors. They won't produce enough to make it worthwhile.
Let There be Light
Most culinary herbs are Mediterranean in origin. They need sunshine and well-drained soil to grow best. In winter the days are short, and light intensity is diminished. Even if your plants are growing in a south-facing window and receive six or more hours of sun a day, they still may need supplemental light to keep them short and stout in the dead of winter. Place plants under full spectrum fluorescent or halide lights to provide the right amount and quality of light intensity.
Pots, Soil, and Water
Unless you have a greenhouse or large bay window, chances are you'll be growing your herbs under grow lights or on a windowsill. In either case, there will be limited space, so small pots will be a necessity. Sow herb seeds or set transplants in 3- or 4-inch plastic pots filled with moistened soilless potting soil. Group the plants together in a plastic tray to keep the humidity high. However, if you notice mildew on the leaves, space the plants further apart or use a small fan to provide air circulation and keep the leaves dry.
Most herbs need excellent drainage and grow better when kept on the dry side. Water seedlings by pouring water in the tray and letting it soak into the soil, then draining the tray. As the herbs grow larger, you can start watering from above. Add enough water so it pours out through the drainage holes in the pot.
Feeding and Harvesting
Although many gardeners think herbs taste best when grown in poor soil, plants grown indoors need supplemental fertilizer. Once their true leaves form, feed the herbs with a diluted solution of water-soluble fertilizer.
Harvest herb leaves as needed. The flavor is usually most intense in the morning. For some herbs, such as dill, harvest the whole plant. You can plant dill every few weeks to ensure a continuous supply of fresh leaves.</s>
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In the Garden:
Northern & Central Midwest
This happy red wiggler worm is busy making beautiful compost.
Worms are Wonderful!
Have you ever thought about worms? I mean the wiggly ones who can convert coffee grounds, banana peels, and lettuce leaves into garden gold. Worm composting is becoming an immensely popular way to make good use of kitchen vegetable waste. Talk to your neighbors and friends and you will probably find one or two who are already doing vermicomposting (the fancy name for worm composting).
Use Worm Compost for Houseplants and Transplants
Worms turn your food scraps into dark, crumbly compost that is a nutrient- and enzyme-rich fertilizer with endless uses. You can use a tablespoon as top dressing for houseplants. In the garden, toss a cupful in the hole as you transplant your tomatoes.
Faster, Bigger Seedlings
Research shows that plants fertilized with worm compost grow faster and larger in the same amount of time as plants that are fertilized with commercial fertilizer. Use it in your seed-starting mix, or make a tea-bag of compost, steeping it ito brew a valuable liquid fertilizer.
Store in the Kitchen
It's not hard to get started with vermicomposting, and the best part is that the worm bin can be kept in a closet, under the kitchen sink, or in the basement. There is no odor to a properly maintained bin, and the worms are afraid of light so they will stay warm and cozy in their worm home.
Use Red Wigglers
The worms that do this wonderful task are red wiggler worms. These can be purchased on-line, at some local retailers, or from bait shops. If you have a friend who is composting this way, ask if you can have a cupful of worms to get you started. Don't be tempted to visit the backyard and dig up night crawlers or earthworms. They are solitary worms and can't live in captivity, so they will promptly leave if you bring them indoors.
Construct a Bin and Get Started
You can construct your own bin out of two plastic storage bins or you can purchase ready-made worm "condos" with multiple trays. However you decide to do it, make bedding of shredded, dampened newspaper, sawdust, dried grass clippings, or anything biodegradable to start off with a good nest. Then add your worms and begin feeding them a daily diet of fruits, vegetables, grains, and shredded paper. Before you know it, you will be the proud owner of a bin full of delicious compost.
Care to share your gardening thoughts, insights, triumphs, or disappointments with your fellow gardening enthusiasts? Join the lively discussions on our FaceBook page and receive free daily tips!</s>
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Mulching around foundation shrubbery improves curb appeal while building the soil and helping plants grow. Homeowners might worry about feeding termites right next to their homes' foundations, and avoid using wood chip mulch. Cedar chip mulch, however, repels termites (and many other insects) and is naturally decay resistant, making it an excellent choice when applied as recommended.
Cedar mulch improves soil structure, enhances water infiltration, moderates temperature fluctuations and prevents both erosion and compaction. It improves the appearance of foundation plantings, perennial beds and vegetable gardens. Tree trimming services offer chipped cedar mulch free or for very reasonable prices, though it is often blended with other species. Look for pure cedar mulch at landscape centers or ask a tree service about the possibility of getting a load that is not mixed.
Cedar's natural resistance to decay and insect infestation leads to the misconception that cedar is harmful to plants. Chris Starbuck of the University of Missouri Extension Service writes that both small sample laboratory experiments and field data indicate no harmful effects on plants from exposure to cedar mulch.
Another common misconception about cedar mulch is that it ties up nitrogen in the soil, making it unavailable to the plantings. While this may be the case, the nitrogen binding occurs only at the surface of the soil, far above the root zone of most mulched plants. It is a valid concern for shallow rooted annuals, but not for perennials.
Cedar naturally repels many insects, including termites, which should ease concerns about using cedar mulch around foundation plantings. Even wood-based mulches other than cedar show less support for termite colonies than pea gravel mulch. University of Maryland researchers suggest that mulch be kept back 12 inches from the home's foundation, leaving a bare band of soil that will keep the termites from using the mulch as a bridge to their preferred food source, solid wood.
Cedar mulch provides its greatest benefit when applied at the proper depth. For landscaping applications, Linda Chalker-Scott, urban horticulturalist for the Washington State University Extension Service, recommends 4 to 6 inches. She also warns against piling mulch up around the base of trees and shrubs.
Cedar mulch isn't just inhospitable to termites, ants don't like it, either. Researchers at North Carolina State University concluded that homes surrounded by cedar mulch needed much less chemical control for ant populations than homes mulched in other products like pine needles and pine bark.</s>
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Pathway analysis has also been used in studies involving secondary metabolism. “We look for families of genes that are associated with the biosynthesis of chemical compounds,” said Daniel Udwary, Ph.D., assistant professor, biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences, University of Rhode Island.
“We are interested in identifying new drugs from natural products and looking at various bacterial species based on their metabolomes. One particular feature of working with microbial metabolomes is that their genes are often clustered within an area in the genome. It is thus simply a matter of looking around that gene and the rest of the cluster is there; this also occurs in fungi, but not in plants and other higher-order organisms.”
Dr. Udwary’s research has concentrated on identifying gene clusters that are associated with the synthesis of secondary metabolites. “We have currently identified 3,892 gene clusters with specific pathways, and it is interesting to know that each pathway is different. It is almost the same as snowflakes, in which each one is unique. Now our challenge after identifying specific pathways is to be able to predict the mechanism of a specific gene based on its DNA sequence.”
Dr. Udwary plans to conduct comparative analyses of gene clusters among various microbial species to establish natural products-based drug discovery roadmaps.
“Unfortunately, drug discovery using natural products has diminished in the last few decades and a lot of potential mechanisms have been overlooked. It is critical for us to recognize that the horizontal transfer of genes plays an important role in the biosynthesis of new drugs, and thus revisiting these operons in microbial species can help in establishing trends in secondary metabolism.”
Pathway analysis has also helped scientists in elucidating mechanisms of drug action. According to Joshua Apgar, Ph.D., principal scientist of systems biology, department of immunology and inflammation at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, their use of well-described pathway models has helped them understand drug selectivity and functionality.
“We are inspired by the fact that some compounds show functional selectivity in vivo but are not selective in vitro. We are interested in identifying on-target and off-target mechanisms of new drugs and how systems-level processes can affect these mechanisms,” explained Dr. Apgar.
These processes are quite complicated and may be influenced by a variety of feedback processes that only exist in vivo. Reconstruction of all these processes in vitro may be impossible and thus the use of pathway models has assisted their investigations of drug target effects.</s>
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<urn:uuid:d35ab300-bb12-4b51-9ea1-8d8faaa9ff9d>
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Although Martin Luther never visited Mühlhausen, the town played an important role for him and the Reformation as the centre of the radical reform movement led by Thomas Müntzer.
Unlike Luther, Müntzer wanted to reform not only the church but also secular powers and was not afraid of using violence to this end. As the priest at St. Mary's Church in Mühlhausen, he became an agitator and leader of the peasants. The movement came to a bloody end at the Battle of Bad Frankenhausen in 1525. In that same year, Müntzer was executed outside the gates of Mühlhausen.
Now a memorial to Thomas Müntzer, St. Mary's Church hosts exhibitions and cultural events to commemorate the life and work of the reformer and leader of the peasant's revolt.
Mühlhausen, the Thuringian town known for its gates and churches, lies between Hainich National Park and the Eichsfeld region and is famous for its rich history. The historical old quarter and the town wall with towers, which you can walk along, give the town its unmistakeable charm. Volkenroda Abbey and the Vogtei Dorla open-air museum with its mysterious prehistoric sacrificial site are nearby and well worth visiting.
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По-нататъшна помощ ще получите от доставчика на браузъра чрез щракване върху иконата:</s>
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en
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Studies have shown that with the right amount of white noise in the background, peoples' sight, hearing, balance control and sense of touch improve. Utilizing stochastic resonance, which is the principle at work in white noise, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have discovered that the sense of touch can also be improved by applying vibrations to a person's finger. They have been testing a glove that incorporates a prototype fingertip-buzzing device, that could ultimately lead to products worn by people with nerve damage, or whose jobs require exceptional manual dexterity.
The device contains an actuator, that is attached to the side of the fingertip - the bottom of the finger is exposed, so its skin can come into contact with surfaces. That actuator generates high-frequency vibrations, the intensity of which can be varied. A group of ten volunteers had the device attached to their non-dominant index fingertip, and told the researchers at what level of intensity they could actually begin to feel the vibrations - that point was called their "vibration amplitude threshold."
In subsequent tests, the volunteers had to perform a variety of tasks, with the actuator vibrating at anywhere from 0 to 150 percent of each individual's threshold.
One test required them to distinguish between one and two points pressing on their fingertip. In that case, it was found that vibrations between 75 and 100 percent of their threshold produced the best performance. In another test, where they had to state whether or not they could feel different weights of filaments touching their fingertip, they could feel lighter filaments as the vibrations approached their threshold.
A fourth test involved them feeling one piece of sandpaper, then trying to determine which of nine other pieces had the same grit. At vibration levels of 50 and 100 percent of their threshold, a 15 percent improvement in performance was noted. The fourth test required them to hold an object as lightly as possible, without dropping it. The subjects did best at levels of 50, 100 and 125 percent of threshold.
The Georgia Tech researchers are now working on fine-tuning the optimal amplitude and frequency of the vibrations, and looking into the possibility of applying actuators to both sides of the fingertip, or to the fingernail. They are also trying to determine the possible long-term effects of using the device.</s>
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<urn:uuid:71d08cb4-d712-4ca7-89ea-67a3291b5d34>
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CC-MAIN-2015-32
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http://www.gizmag.com/fingertip-vibrating-improves-sense-of-touch/19438/
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en
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A fib or a lie?
Fib is a short word with a long history. It comes from fible-fable, slang used in the 16th and 17th centuries to indicate nonsense, according to Webster’s.
Fib and lie both mean being untruthful, but they have different shades of meaning, or connotation.
A lie is an out-and-out untruth. A fib is a small or nearly harmless untruth. We (yes, we, I’ll fess up to fibs and I suspect you might wanna fess up, too) often tell small untruths to smooth over a social situation. (“Why, darling, your beautician used a wonderful shade of purple for your hair!”)
When I fib, I also pray that someone else does not perceive my untruth as a lie. That’s the tricky part. I generally fib if I think there is little chance of being found out. If caught in a fib, I may just have to tell another one and before long, I’ll end up with a pack of lies and a Pinochio nose.
I think Sam can be forgiven, however, for saying fib and not lie. He seems like a good-hearted soul who is just struggling to write an appropriate letter. Furthermore, by using the word fib he’s created assonance, which is the repetition of vowel sounds. Both fib and sin have the short i sound, so they come close to rhyming. His question is fun to read because of the assonance and because of the two-word, two-syllable rhythm: Is it/a sin/ to fib/in a/Christ/mas/let/ter?
As promised yesterday, here are answers for the tone in yesterday’s “Freshly Squeezed”:
Sam starts out his letter in an upbeat, politically correct way. In panel three, though, he changes his tone by using words with a negative connotation: idiotic and careless. The negative tone continues in the last panel with the use of the words forced and starving. His tone becomes one of exasperation or frustration. The contrast in tone is what tickles our funny bones.</s>
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Octave was originally intended to be companion software for an undergraduate-level textbook on chemical reactor design being written by James B. Rawlings of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and John G. Ekerdt of the University of Texas.
Clearly, Octave is now much more than just another ‘courseware’ package with limited utility beyond the classroom. Although our initial goals were somewhat vague, we knew that we wanted to create something that would enable students to solve realistic problems, and that they could use for many things other than chemical reactor design problems. We find that most students pick up the basics of Octave quickly, and are using it confidently in just a few hours.
Although it was originally intended to be used to teach reactor design, it has been used in several other undergraduate and graduate courses in the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of Texas, and the math department at the University of Texas has been using it for teaching differential equations and linear algebra as well. More recently, Octave has been used as the primary computational tool for teaching Stanford’s online Machine Learning class (ml-class.org) taught by Andrew Ng. Tens of thousands of students participated in the course.
If you find Octave useful, please let us know. We are always interested to find out how Octave is being used.
Virtually everyone thinks that the name Octave has something to do with music, but it is actually the name of one of John W. Eaton’s former professors who wrote a famous textbook on chemical reaction engineering, and who was also well known for his ability to do quick ‘back of the envelope’ calculations. We hope that this software will make it possible for many people to do more ambitious computations just as easily.
Everyone is encouraged to share this software with others under the terms of the GNU General Public License (see Copying). You are also encouraged to help make Octave more useful by writing and contributing additional functions for it, and by reporting any problems you may have.
|• Citing Octave in Publications:|
|• How You Can Contribute to Octave:|</s>
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Feline Immunodeficiency Virus, or FIV, is a virus that attacks a cat’s immune system, making them susceptible to secondary infections caused by common bacteria, viruses and other pathogens. FIV is very similar to HIV in humans, in that it causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) over time, but healthy cats with FIV are largely asymptomatic and can lead normal, healthy lives for years before showing signs of disease. FIV is a feline-only disease--it cannot spread to humans or other species living in your home.
FIV is most commonly spread through bite wounds incurred during cat fights. For this reason, unneutered males who are allowed to roam outdoors are most commonly infected. Very rarely, a female cat can pass FIV to her kittens, but again, the most common way that FIV is spread is through bite wounds. Casual contact does not spread disease.
Once infected, the virus enters the lymph nodes, where it reproduces in T-lymphocytes and then spreads to other lymph nodes. During this time, you may notice enlarged lymph nodes or a fever in your cat. These signs are easy to miss, though, so it’s not unusual for phase of disease to go completely unnoticed.
From there, the health of a cat with FIV may be affected intermittently or may deteriorate progressively. Poor fur coat, gingivitis, persistent fever, recurrent skin, urinary tract and upper respiratory infections, and slow but progressive weight loss can all be blamed on FIV. Certain kinds of cancers are also more common in cats with FIV.
But as I said earlier, most cats with FIV show no signs at all in the early stages of disease, so it is not uncommon for a cat to go undiagnosed for extended periods. These cats, though infected, may appear healthy for years before their immune system is suppressed enough to slow them down. This is why many households may be unknowingly harboring the disease.
Testing for FIV is relatively easy. Your veterinarian should have a simple blood test that he or she can perform in the office. If the test is positive, your veterinarian may want to send your cat’s blood out to an outside laboratory to confirm. It is important to remember that it takes 8 to 12 weeks after infection for antibody levels to increase to a level high enough to be detected – so if your cat has sustained bite wounds, testing for FIV right away will be fruitless.
There are no specific treatments that have been shown to affect the health or lifespan of healthy FIV-positive cats. Treatment of sick FIV cats centers on the secondary infections that may occur as a result of the weakened immune system (respiratory or skin infection, for example). Human antiviral drugs may help cats with seizures or gingivitis, but otherwise do not show the promise that they do for human AIDS patients.
Stay tuned for the next blog, where I discuss what to do if your cat has FIV, especially if you have a multi-cat household.</s>
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Starting Jan. 1, 2013, autonomous vehicles will take a step closer toward operating on California’s roads and highways. SB 1298 became law on Sept. 25 as Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation authored by Sen. Alex Padilla that proposed the creation of safety and performance standards for autonomous vehicles. One of autonomous vehicle technology’s biggest supporters, Google, hosted the bill signing at its headquarters in Mountain View, Calif.
“Autonomous technology is not science fiction. We are living in the era of Moore’s Law where every two years we double our computer processing speeds. This is allowing us to make exponential leaps in advanced technology. To a large extent, that progress has made self-driving cars possible sooner, rather than later,” Padilla said in a statement. “Establishing safety standards for these vehicles is an essential step in that process.”
The new law will require the state's Department of Motor Vehicles to establish safety and performance standards for autonomous vehicles, create an application and approval process for the public operation of autonomous vehicles, and allow testing of autonomous vehicles. The law will also require that autonomous vehicles meet all state and federal safety and performance standards already in place.
Google has a large stake in autonomous vehicle technology, having logged hundreds of thousands of miles in its autonomous Toyota Prius, the first autonomous vehicle to ever be licensed. Google also supported the passage of legislation in Nevada allowing public operation of autonomous vehicles.
Other companies, including most vehicle manufacturers, have shown interest in pursuing autonomous vehicle technology. BMW, Audi and Volvo have invested in autonomous vehicle research over the years, and semi-autonomous features such as adaptive cruise control, blind-spot detection, pre-collision braking and self-parking demonstrate a trend toward the driver doing less and the car doing more.</s>
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“Tear Down This Wall”
Ronald Reagan had the courage of his convictions, and his moral strength helped bring the Berlin Wall down. Uploaded by yaf.org.
This week marks the 25th anniversary of the speech President Ronald Reagan made at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, calling for the removal of the Berlin Wall. “Tear down this wall” has been said to be the four most important words spoken during Reagan’s term of office, and demonstrated his commitment to the principles of freedom from oppression for all.
Uploaded by thekidswindow.co.uk.
There are conflicting stories about how the line came to be. One says that Reagan came up with it himself. The other, and I think more likely version, is that speechwriter Peter Robinson included the phrase in a draft of the speech that met with disfavor among Reagan’s aides. “We might make the Soviet Union mad,” chief of staff Howard Baker probably said. “We don’t dare offend Gorbachev,” weak-kneed Deputy National Security Advisor Colin Powell might have replied. “Let’s just talk, I’m sure they respect our words,” Hillary Clinton might have said, had she been around then.
But Reagan stood by his convictions, and the moral force of his words accomplished what he demanded. A liberated Eastern Europe owes much to the 40th President of the United States. Here’s the relevant excerpt from his speech:
We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
It's easy to share with friends.</s>
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In every part of our body there reigns a tiny yet complex life. An examination under the microscope into the depths of any human organ brings us face to face with an astounding miracle of creation: millions of tiny living things that have come together to make up that organ are engaged in arduous activity. These tiny beings are cells, the basic units of life. Not only man but also all other living things are composed of these microscopic living beings.
There are about 100 trillion cells in the human body. Some of these cells are so tiny that even 1 million of them together hardly cover a space as large as the pointed end of a pin. Despite this, however, the cell is by far the most complex structure mankind has ever encountered, as is also agreed by the scientific community. Containing many secrets hitherto undiscovered, the cell of a living thing also constitutes the greatest impasse for the theory of evolution. That is because the cell is one of the most striking pieces of evidence that human beings and all other living beings are not the products of coincidences, but are created by a Creator.
In order for the cell to survive, all the basic components of the cell, each performing many vital functions, have to be intact. If the cell came into existence by evolution, then millions of its components had to simultaneously exist in the same place and they had to come together in a particular order and plan. Since this is utterly implausible, such a structure has no explanation other than 'creation.' One of the leading evolutionists, Alexander Oparin, expressed the deadlock the theory of evolution encountered in this way:
Unfortunately, the origin of the cell remains a question which is actually the darkest point of the complete evolution theory.1
Cells multiply by dividing. While the human body is initially composed of a single cell, this cell divides and reproduces by folds with a ratio of 2-4-8-16-32...
The English mathematician and astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle made a similar comparison in one of his interviews published in Nature magazine dated November 12, 1981. Although an evolutionist himself, Hoyle said that the odds that higher life forms might have emerged in this way was comparable to the odds of a tornado sweeping through a junk-yard assembling a Boeing 747 from the materials in it. This means that it is not possible for the cell to come into being by coincidence and therefore, it must definitely have been "created".
Despite this however, evolutionists still claim that life came into existence by chance under the conditions of the primordial earth, which was the most uncontrolled environment possible. This is a claim entirely incompatible with scientific data. In addition, even the simplest probability calculations verify in mathematical terms that not even one single protein out of millions existing in the cell could have come into being by coincidence, let alone a single cell of an organism.
To gain some understanding of the awe-inspiring structure of the cell, it will be enough to examine just the structure and functions of the membrane enveloping these cellular organelles.
The cell membrane is an ambient cover for the cell, yet its duty is not limited to it. This membrane both regulates communications and relations with neighbouring cells and deftly coordinates and supervises the entries and exits to the cell.
The cell membrane is so thin, at just one hundred thousandth of a millimetre, that one can detect it only under an electron microscope. The membrane resembles a double-sided endless wall. On this wall, there are doors making entry to and exit from the cell possible and receptors allowing the membrane to recognise the extracellular environment. These doors and receptors are made of protein molecules. They are located on the cell wall and meticulously check all the entries and exits to the cell.
What are the accomplishments of this thin structure made up of unconscious molecules such as fat and protein? That is, which features of the membrane lead us to call it 'conscious' and 'wise'?
The primary duty of the cell membrane is to enclose the cellular organelles so as to keep them intact. However, it has a far more complex function than this. It supplies the substances vital for the continuity of the cell and its functions from the extracellular environment. Outside the cell, there are countless chemical substances. The cell membrane recognises the substances essential for the cell and only lets them in. It acts very economically and never allows in more than what the cell needs. Meanwhile, it detects harmful wastes in the cell right away and, without losing any time, discharges them from the cell.
Another function of the cell membrane is to instantly transmit the messages, which are received from the brain or any other part of the body via hormones, to the center of the cell. To perform these functions, it has to know all the activities and developments taking place in the cell, keep a list of required or excess substances, keep stocks under control and act under the guidance of a superior memory and decision-making skills.
The cell membrane is so selective that without its authorization, not even a single substance in the extracellullar environment can pass through the cell doors, even by chance. There is not even a single unnecessary, purposeless molecule in the cell. Exits from the cell are also strictly checked. The duty of the cell membrane is vital and it does not permit even minor errors. The entry of a wrong or harmful chemical substance into the cell, the supply or discharge of a substance in excess amounts or failure to discharge waste products on time, or as required, mean the death of the cell.
If the first living cell had come into existence by coincidence as evolutionists claim, and if just one of these properties of the membrane had not been fully formed, then the cell would certainly have disappeared in a very short time. Which 'coincidence', then, formed such a 'wise' mass of fat?...
Let's ask another question, which by itself refutes the theory of evolution straight away; does the 'wisdom' displayed in the aforementioned functions belong to the cell membrane?
Keep in mind that these functions are not carried out by a human being or a machine such as a computer or robot under man's control, but are merely in a cover enclosing the cell, which is made up of fat mixed here and there with various proteins. We also need to consider that the cell membrane, which can handle so many complex tasks flawlessly, has no brain or center of thinking.
It is obvious that such wise patterns of behaviour and a conscious decision-making mechanism could not have been caused by the cell membrane itself, which is a layer made up of fat and protein molecules. This also holds true for all other cellular organelles. These organelles do not even have a nervous system, let alone a brain to think and make decisions with. Despite this, however, they accomplish incredibly complex tasks, make precise calculations and take vital decisions. That is because each one of them obeys the orders of Allah, Who created them flawlessly and sustains them. In the 12th verse of Surat at-Talaq, the fact that everything acts in compliance with the command of Allah is stated:
It is Allah Who has created seven heavens, and earth as many. His commandment descends through them, so that you may learn that Allah has power over all things and that Allah encompasses all things with His knowledge. (Surat at-Talaq: 12)
1 Alexander I. Oparin, Origin of Life, (1936) NewYork: Dover Publications, 1953 (Reprint), p.196.2010-01-04 14:32:27</s>
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A telescope powerful enough to offer a time machine’s glimpse into the beginnings of the universe will be built on the summit of Hawaii’s Mauna Kea.
A consortium of United States and Canadian universities today announced that the summit of the dormant Big Island of Hawaii volcano would be home to its $1.2 billion Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT)—billed as the world’s largest optical telescope. Mauna Kea’s summit complex of observatories had been in close competition with Cerro Armazones mountain in Chile’s Atacama Desert for the telescope.
Currently home to 13 international telescopes, Mauna Kea is a hotspot for Earth-based astronomical studies. Towering high above the clouds at 13,796 feet, Mauna Kea’s summit offers pristine night skies more than 300 days a year. The mountain’s relatively isolated location from Big Island cities Hilo and Kailua-Kona leave the summit largely devoid of air and light pollution.
The consortium of universities, called the Thirty Meter Telescope Observatory Corp., selected Mauna Kea for its mild atmospheric conditions, wind patterns and low average temperatures.
When construction of the telescope is completed in 2018, the TMT’s lens-like mirror will stretch 30 meters—or nearly 100 feet—in diameter, allowing it to collect 10 times more light than other Earth-based telescopes. This all translates into some serious stargazing.
By comparison, the Keck and Keck II telescopes—also atop Mauna Kea—are currently among the world’s largest and most powerful optical telescopes, yet their mirrors only measure 10 meters each.
Scientists hope the TMT will offer them views up to 13 billion light years away—a distance so great that they'll essentially be going back in time to witness the first stars and galaxies forming.
The TMT mirror’s size and design will also correct the blurring effect of Earth’s atmosphere, allowing the telescope to study the Universe as clearly as if the telescope were orbiting in space.
It will take some time for construction of the TMT to begin on Mauna Kea. A formal proposal from TMT Corp. still needs to be drafted and submitted to the Hawaii State Department of Land and Natural Resources. The Thirty Meter Telescope Observatory Corp. is made up of the University of California, the California Institute of Technology and the Association of Canadian Universities for Research in Astronomy.
Want to see what the summit of Mauna Kea looks like? Click here for video of a sunset trip HAWAII Magazine took to the summit in June 2008.
Photos: Thirty Meter Telescope Observatory Corp.</s>
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Amethyst, the gemstone believed by ancient Greeks and Romans to ward off the intoxicating powers of Bacchus, also is said to keep the wearer clear-headed and quick-witted. Throughout history, the gemstone has been associated with many myths, legends, religions, and numerous cultures. English regalia were even decorated with amethysts during the Middle Ages to symbolize royalty. It has been associated with many myths, legends, religions, and numerous cultures. Amethyst is purple quartz, a beautiful blend of violet and red that can found in every corner of the earth. Historically, the finest amethyst were found in Russia and were featured in much royal European jewelry. Today, while Brazil is the primary source of this gemstone, fine material can be found elsewhere, especially in Zambia.</s>
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Hanging on Jonathan Weissman’s office wall is a treasure from scientific history: a rare copy of the 1965 lab book notes—with corrections, asterisks, and numbers circled in red—documenting the deciphering of the genetic code. Penned by the late Nobel laureate Marshall Nirenberg and his team, the notes established that triplets of genetic “letters” map to the 20 different amino acids in proteins.
Lately, Weissman has been making some groundbreaking notes of his own. Nirenberg would no doubt find them fascinating, as the two became close before the biochemist passed away in 2010. Weissman’s work is revealing another layer of nuanced meaning within the genetic language that directs cellular protein production—a code within “The Code.”
After DNA in a gene is transcribed into messenger RNA (mRNA), molecular machines called ribosomes cruise along and read the mRNA strand. Each triplet of letters in its genetic sequence is known as a codon. By stringing together specific amino acids corresponding to those codons, the ribosomes manufacture proteins. Nirenberg had discovered that a given amino acid can be made from several different codons, like synonyms for the same word.
But why would nature devise several ways of saying the same thing? That question has largely remained a mystery in the half-century since Nirenberg’s seminal work. As biologists later sequenced genes in bacteria and other organisms, they saw that some synonymous codons were used far more commonly than others—like a person always expressing hunger by stating, “I’m famished” instead of “I’m hungry.” Some subtle, yet-undiscerned meaning must explain these striking codon preferences.
“There was an aspect of information in how genes were being encoded that we didn’t understand,” says Weissman, an HHMI investigator at the University of California, San Francisco. A big part of the answer, he found, has to do with speed.
Researchers learned in the 1980s that swapping one synonymous codon for another in an mRNA message could change how fast a cell made the same exact protein. That implied that ribosomes could slow down or speed up their protein synthesis. But the mechanism controlling that process was unclear. Now, in a study published in Nature on April 26, 2012, postdoctoral fellow Gene-Wei Li, graduate student Eugene Oh, and Weissman show that in bacteria, protein synthesis temporarily pauses at certain mRNA sequences—because the ribosome gets stuck on them.
The experiments used ribosome profiling, a technique Weissman’s group first published in 2009. “It lets us look at this process of how proteins are being made with a precision that’s completely unprecedented” in the living cell, Weissman says.
The method starts with a long-known trick: Take a cell, stop its protein production using a chemical or flash freezing, break it open, and add an enzyme that digests its mRNAs. What remains are just the short snippets that were actively being read and protected inside the ribosomes. Then, by using new, astonishingly fast sequencing technology to decode all these ribosome “footprints” across the entire cell, Weissman says, you can identify the piece of mRNA each ribosome was scanning and the amino acid it was handling. Counting those footprints in a computational analysis gives an in-depth reconstruction of which proteins were being made from exactly which mRNA messages, and in what quantities.
|In this lecture, Weissman gives an overview of the methodology that allows the sequence of DNA to be determined.|
The new technique uncovers details about protein production that had been technologically out of reach. To grasp how cells function or run awry, scientists would ideally like to directly monitor their proteins, but that’s technically tough to do. The best proxy has been to measure amounts of different protein-coding mRNAs in the cell by using existing microarray tools; those techniques, however, can’t identify which mRNA messages actually get converted into proteins. Because ribosome profiling goes a step further and quantifies that missing information with a massive amount of data, it represents “a really major advance that will become widely used,” says geneticist and ribosome expert John F. Atkins of University College Cork in Ireland.
The Nature study of ribosome pausing is “a nice example” of the technique’s power, Atkins says. Weissman’s team scanned the mRNAs in bacterial cells, looking for all the places where ribosome footprints pile up, like in a traffic jam. Their computational analysis found “a lot more pauses than people expected,” Li says—occurring at hundreds to thousands of short mRNA sequences.
Those short stretches all shared a similarity to the so-called Shine-Dalgarno motif, found in many bacteria. It’s a special sequence that the ribosome recognizes and binds to before it starts reading a protein-coding message just downstream. But the message itself can also include consecutive codons that together form a sequence that is Shine-Dalgarno-like and which had been known in a few specialized cases to cause pausing. Weissman’s team demonstrated that these Shine-Dalgarno look-alikes are the global mechanism behind pauses. “They were sort of sticking like Velcro to the ribosome and slowing things down,” Weissman says.
The pausing mechanism helps to explain why nature evolved genomes to have different preferences for different codon synonyms: they confer various advantages or disadvantages for protein production. For example, the Weissman team’s analysis found that bacterial genomes contain relatively few of the pause-inducing codons, Li says. That is because the bugs evolved to grow fast, which requires rapidly churning out proteins. However, pauses are sometimes desirable for key purposes, such as to regulate protein synthesis and, possibly, to let an elongating protein undergo partial folding, the researchers say.
Weissman began investigating protein production only five years ago, when he decided to develop ribosome profiling in part to tackle a question about protein-folding, then his main career focus. His father, Sherman, a prominent Yale University geneticist, was a great source of advice during the shift, both on big-picture strategizing and on the nuts and bolts of using superfast next-generation DNA sequencers.
As Weissman read up on the intricacies of ribosomes, another exceptional sounding board was Marshall Nirenberg, who late in life married Weissman’s mother, Myrna, in 2005. That’s how Weissman ended up with one of the six existing copies of Nirenberg’s genetic code notes. (The originals are at the National Library of Medicine.) Although the Nobel laureate had long ago switched to neurobiology research, he told Weissman that he had been grappling with questions about codon synonyms and ribosome reading speeds from the very beginning.
“That gave me a context and a sense of the importance of the problem,” Weissman says—and motivated him to apply his profiling technique to finding answers. The method could have a far broader impact on molecular biology research than just for protein folding studies, he realized.
Indeed, from both his superstar advisors, Weissman says he learned a pivotal lesson: new scientific tools are valuable not just for making research faster or easier but also for potentially opening the door to fundamental, game-changing discoveries. The genetic code notes on his wall remind him of that every day. They are “an inspiration to work on problems that are broad and basic and that can touch a lot of different fields,” he says.</s>
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Understanding the battlefield landscape
The main action of the battle usually started when opposing armies faced each other and came to close contact, but there was frequently skirmishing or secondary fighting before, during and after the course of a battle. Troops did not stay at a single spot, but moved across the landscape: as well as areas of fighting, there will have been routes of advance and retreat, overnight camps and strategic view-points. Features in the landscape were used for cover and to aid movement, or to hinder movement of the opposing force. When combatants fell, they were generally buried on or near the battlefield itself.
Defining the Area
All these aspects of the landscape were considered when deciding on the extent of the battlefield for the Inventory. Therefore the defined area includes the areas of fighting, major movement of troops, key vantage points for viewing events or directing troops, and overnight camps. It includes specific landscape features that played an important role in the battle, whether natural elements such as hills, ravines or river crossings; or built elements, such as earthworks, buildings or field boundaries. The area may include burials, whether of individuals or massed graves, or have the potential for these to be found. Memorials to significant individuals or to the event itself may also be included, though these are often considerably later in date than the battle itself. The Inventory boundary will also contain areas of known archaeological deposits or potential archaeological evidence that, with further investigation, could help us understand more about key events.
State of Knowledge
Although no additional archaeological investigations have been carried out in researching the Inventory sites, such evidence has been used where available. Modern archaeological investigations of some sites have provided information about exactly where events occurred across a battlefield; about troop deployments; about weapons used; and about features that were in place at the time of the battle or resulted from the action.
While the landscape will usually have changed to some extent since the time of the battle, it often retains key characteristics of the terrain at the time and is of vital importance in allowing events to be located on the ground and in aiding understanding and interpretation.</s>
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On this day in 1967, socialist revolutionary and guerilla leader Che Guevara, age 39, is killed by the Bolivian army. The U.S.-military-backed Bolivian forces captured Guevara on October 8 while battling his band of guerillas in Bolivia and assassinated him the following day. His hands were cut off as proof of death and his body was buried in an unmarked grave. In 1997, Guevara’s remains were found and sent back to Cuba, where they were reburied in a ceremony attended by President Fidel Castro and thousands of Cubans.
Ernesto Rafael Guevara de la Serna was born to a well-off family in Argentina in 1928. While studying medicine at the University of Buenos Aires, he took time off to travel around South America on a motorcycle; during this time, he witnessed the poverty and oppression of the lower classes. He received a medical degree in 1953 and continued his travels around Latin America, becoming involved with left-wing organizations. In the mid 1950s, Guevara met up with Fidel Castro and his group of exiled revolutionaries in Mexico. Guevara played a key role in Castro’s seizure of power from Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959 and later served as Castro’s right-hand man and minister of industry. Guevara strongly opposed U.S. domination in Latin America and advocated peasant-based revolutions to combat social injustice in Third World countries. Castro later described him as “an artist of revolutionary warfare.”
Guevara resigned—some say he was dismissed—from his Cuban government post in April 1965, possibly over differences with Castro about the nation’s economic and foreign policies. Guevara then disappeared from Cuba, traveled to Africa and eventually resurfaced in Bolivia, where he was killed. Following his death, Guevara achieved hero status among people around the world as a symbol of anti-imperialism and revolution. A 1960 photo taken by Alberto Korda of Guevara in a beret became iconic and has since appeared on countless posters and T-shirts. However, not everyone considers Guevara a hero: He is accused, among other things, of ordering the deaths of hundreds of people in Cuban prisons during the revolution.</s>
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This article was originally published in the September/October 1993 issue of Home Energy Magazine. Some formatting inconsistencies may be evident in older archive content.
| Home Energy Home Page | Back Issues of Home Energy |
Home Energy Magazine Online September/October 1993
It's the Duct's Turn for Retrofits
Pity the poor neglected duct. Put end-to-end, there are enough of them in American homes to reach to the moon and back. Yet for years the duct's energy aspects have been ignored by researchers. To energy specialists, ducts simply connected two much more technically interesting aspects of a house's heating and cooling systems, the furnace (or air conditioner) and the building envelope. The building envelope, with its many opportunities for retrofits, garnered the most attention. Meanwhile, furnace and air conditioner efficiencies have been pushed ever upwards by federal standards.
Now it's the duct's turn. Or, more accurately, now it is time for thermal energy distribution systems to receive their share of retrofits. Part of this issue of Home Energy is devoted to articles about improving the distribution of heating and cooling in homes.
These articles span our knowledge of distribution systems. It will immediately become apparent that the research is not yet complete. Indeed, even key concepts, such as efficiency have not yet acquired standard definitions. This is not surprising given the variety of diagnostics, retrofits, and buildings examined. These articles are more snapshots of current thinking than the final word. Still, they demonstrate that distribution systems in most American homes are rarely working as designed and are almost always major opportunities for energy conservation retrofits.
A house's distribution system is closely linked to unexpected activities. For example, a leak in an air duct may cause depressurization, leading to spillage into the house of exhaust fumes from gas appliances. In other cases, the efficiency of the air distribution system will depend on the pattern of air infiltration leaks in the shell.
The traditional techniques to construct and repair air distribution systems are laughably poor. That old standby, duct tape, has been implicated as one of the worst offenders; a more accurate name would be temporary tape. The new techniques, described in this issue, emphasize measurement and more quality control. This is not surprising because an incorrect retrofit will often lead to an even worse condition.
This special issue provides fewer final recommendations than usual. Nevertheless, it is an opportunity to capitalize on the latest research results and observe the work of some very creative and dedicated researchers and practitioners.
| Back to Contents Page | Home Energy Index | About Home Energy |
Home Energy can be reached at: [email protected]
Home Energy magazine -- Please read our Copyright Notice
- FIRST PAGE
- PREVIOUS PAGE</s>
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What man is there who desires life and loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.
For anyone engaged in the process of language acquisition, some gauge of progress is a helpful motivator to keep going, especially when one is still in the high anxiety stages. While beginner, intermediate, advanced, and fluent are nice categories, they are also pretty vague and interpreted by different institutions in different ways. How about this scale of progression: daily life competence, relationship competence, discourse competence, native competence (p.225).
All of these competencies build on one another and yet each of them also begins development from the very early stages of learning. For example, from the first time a language student learns to write a sentence, they have begun developing “discourse competence,” yet appreciation of local poetry may not come until extremely advanced stages. Or, after a few meetings with a language coach the student is beginning to pick up on a number of relational cues but will likely not master them for years to come.
So, let’s give these four competencies a little more flesh:
Daily Life Competence: “Good pronunciation skills should be developed early...it is difficult to change the bad habits you have learned” (p.231). In addition to these fundamental sounds, vocabulary, and patterns of the language could be added functional language often called “power phrases” to help the student become a self-learner as the interact with their surrounding culture.
Relational Competence: This is the process of getting beyond survival to beginning to build relationships. This is often learned by trial and error which can be one of the most embarrassing parts of the process. On the low end it encompasses social norms for human interaction and on the high end this competence includes the ability to talk about deep desires and emotions.
Discourse Competence: Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing are the four skills of language learning. Often writing is the last to develop due to the high amounts of precision required to communicate without the aid of non-verbals. It also may require the student to make changes in their own preferred style of communication to better fit the culture (p.231). At first this competency will mimic speech on paper but after time, much reading, and helpful correction - a true naturalness will develop.
Native Competence: This is not just another way of saying “fluency” though that is part of this competence. Rather, this is competence beings to grow the most when the nuts and bolts of the language are no longer the main focus. Here the language learner will begin to more precisely develop native skills in volume, tone (not tones), rate, summary, idiom, and non-verbals. This begins developing from day one but blossoms much later in the process.
[Much of the material and quotes in this post are a summary from Encountering Missionary Life and Work, by Tom Steffen and Lois McKinney Douglas (Baker: Grand Rapids, 2008) - the whole book is highly recommended for Nurture Program candidates.]</s>
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As a young man Rollett was a left-winger, a fiery advocate of press freedom and an opponent of Metternich. Such works as Kampflieder and Republikanisches Liederbuch (both 1848) would have made him a sympathetic figure to the Schumanns; it is perhaps for this reason that his novel Jucunde was welcomed into their household where the composer’s verdict on the poems therein was ‘sehr musikalische Gedichte’. During the 1840s the poet became less and less comfortable in his native land. Eventually he was forced to flee Austria and lived for a while as a so-called censorship-refugee in Germany. It was in Weimar in 1846 that he made the acquaintance of Hans Christian Andersen and Jenny Lind as they visited the graves of Goethe and Schiller. (His impressions of Andersen, whom he likened to a tall poppy in appearance, are sympathetic and forgiving of his egocentricities.) In 1851 he moved to Switzerland (where he came into contact with Wagner) and in 1854 returned to his home city where he was eventually appointed to a post as archivist of the city’s museums and lived out a life as a cultural historian, novelist and poet. He failed to achieve lasting fame and died in straitened circumstances.
From Schumann’s Haushaltbuch it appears that as early as December 1852 he possessed a copy of Rollet’s Jucunde, a novel with poetry in the manner of Mörike’s Maler Nolten. As this predates the work’s first edition we must assume that, as in the case of the Geibel poems, the composer must have been the recipient of an advance copy from the publisher anxious to encourage the musical settings which would add to the work’s circulation. The poet’s correspondence with the composer dates from the end of 1853 when Rollett was still living in Switzerland. He read in a newspaper that ‘Schumann’ had recently completed a cycle on texts taken from Jucunde; he wrote immediately to the composer in Düsseldorf enquiring about the rumour. Schumann answered saying that there was indeed a new cycle of Rollett settings bearing his surname, but that the songs had been written by Clara, and that he would have been pleased with the songs even if their composer had not been his wife. At the same time he expressed a warm interest in Rollett’s work for his own purposes and asked for a ‘Ballade’ from the poet’s hand. Rollett replied with a ten-strophe shocker, Der schwedische Reiter (‘The Swedish Rider’) a macabre and melodramatic tale of no great literary worth.
According to Rollett, Schumann replied in two letters almost at the same time: the first was polite and grateful, the second bluntly rude and dismissive about the ballad. The poet was confused by the mixture of charm and vehemence. Some weeks after this exchange he read that Schumann had thrown himself into the Rhine in a suicide attempt. Rollett wrote, self-importantly, that he was worried that the content of this ballad, ‘probably the last poem that the composer busied himself when in possession of his senses’, might have exacerbated Schumann’s nervous condition.
In December 1856 Clara Schumann visited Vienna and it was then that Rollett met her for the first time (although he claimed to have been her admirer from afar when she had given Klavierabende in Vienna in the late 1830s). She had been widowed in July and he felt awkward about discussing her husband. It was on this occasion that she presented him with a signed copy of her Sechs Lieder aus Jucunde (published in the preceding January) with an inscription to the ‘esteemed poet with friendly remembrances’. The cycle itself is dedicated to Livia Frege, the same soprano and family friend who had sung the Op 40 songs to Hans Andersen during his visit to Dresden.
from notes by Graham Johnson © 2002
'Stephan Loges brings to his contributions the youthful warmth of his attractively vibrant baritone and his wonderful feeling for line and word … ...
'[Stephan Loges] brings to his contributions the youthful warmth of his attractively vibrant baritone and his wonderful feeling for line and word ...» More
|Schumann: The Complete Songs, Vol. 6 – Geraldine McGreevy, Stella Doufexis, Adrian Thompson & Stephan Loges|
'The four soloists couldn’t be bettered … a delight from start to finish … a treasure indeed, a disc anybody interested in Lieder ought to h ...
'An irresistible palette of voices … Unmitigated pleasure, from start to finish' (BBC Music Magazine)» More</s>
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FUNDING FOR SAFER
• Two-thirds of fire departments do not meet national standards for safe staffing levels, impairing fire fighters’ ability to adequately protect the public.
• Last year Congress appropriated $115 million for SAFER to help communities hire additional fire fighters, only 11% of the authorized level. While this is a step in the right direction, it is a far cry from the funds actually needed to address staffing shortages nationwide.
• The federal government has provided billions of dollars for emergency responder equipment and training, but without enough fire fighters to make use of this equipment and training, the funding will do little to enhance public safety.
• According to multiple studies by the U.S. Fire Administration, fire departments throughout the nation lack sufficient personnel to respond to many emergency situations. For example, only 11% of fire departments can handle a rescue with EMS at a structural collapse of a building with 50 occupants with their current number of fire fighters.
• Adequate staffing is essential to fire fighter safety. Federal government studies have shown that operating with below minimum staffing is a leading cause of fire fighter fatalities.
• An independent analysis of fire department operations conducted by the Boston Globe found that response time to emergencies in fire departments throughout the nation rose significantly over the past two decades due to lack of personnel.
• SAFER aids volunteer, as well as career, fire departments. 10% of the funding is dedicated for recruitment and retention of volunteer fire fighters and an additional 10% is earmarked for all volunteer or mostly volunteer departments that wish to hire full-time fire fighters.
• Many local governments are currently facing budget shortfalls, which preclude them from hiring needed additional fire fighters. SAFER allows the federal government to provide temporary help to such communities, while requiring them to match federal funds. The program is structured to require communities to make plans to permanently fund the position with local dollars.
• The role of the fire service has transformed from providing local response to an integrated national system that responds to a wide range of local emergencies as well as national disasters. When the country is under attack or when there is a natural disaster, local fire fighters respond. The federal government has a responsibility to help local fire departments protect public safety.
• The federal government currently provides funding to local
communities to hire teachers and other local government workers. It
should also assist in hiring desperately needed fire fighters.</s>
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While the United States recycles 30 percent of expanded polystyrene, better known as Styrofoam, in Mexico they collect under 400 tons of the product per year, i.e. 0.1 percent of annual consumption in the country. Also, because of the lack of technology to transform it into a raw material for the production of office supplies, computer equipment or automotive parts used in cars, little is achieved in recycling it so it is sold to the United States for domestic consumption. Gerardo Rocha Pedra, corporate manager of recycling programs to DART of Mexico, said that the country has only a machine located in Atlacomulco, State of Mexico, so it lacks the resources to move the Styrofoam that is discarded in other states.
The recycling industry concept is new in the country. All this was born in Asia 30 years after it adopted the US and Canada 25 years ago, while in Mexico has just three years experience. Information from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) notes that the country consumes annually more than 13 billion pieces including cups, plates and plaques dedicated to the construction industry, representing a volume of 350 thousand tons. The United States recycles about 30 percent of total consumption in the country. Canada has its own association founded in 1989 by 24 companies interested in public education Styrofoam recycling; recycled 30,000 tons per year.
DART has only one machine of Korean origin, which has a cost of $25,000. “Our machine was acquired via the United States, is small, with adjustments on the conveyor belt. There are many suppliers of such equipment in the world, but no one wanted to invest in it, “he said. Pedra Rocha has devoted three years to other companies or state and local governments adopt a measure to recycle polystyrene, which says it is close to achieving. ” We managed to sign an agreement with UNAM in 2010 for the Faculty of Engineering is the first academic institution in Latin America to adopt Styrofoam recycling technology.
This strategic approach with the Faculty of Engineering is unique in its kind, being the first not only collecting expanded polystyrene, but actually recycling it. The manager explained that they are already in talks with foreign firms that give the last stage in the transformation of this plastic to be installed in the country and they can have the benefits of recycling the plastic. The main challenge, he said, is that employers and the general public see the economic benefits of reusing expanded polystyrene.
José del Cueto, president of the National Association of Plastics Industries (ANIPAC), told El Financiero that transportation and cleaning of these products is the most complicated step for recycling. “The logistics are costly when they bring Styrofoam cups and plates from faraway places to the ground where you are given a treatment of reuse; Very few companies will have the capital to pay for these expenses, “he explained. The transfer of Styrofoam is not easy , because 90 percent of its composition is air, which can be very bulky, but weight is much lower, “said . The transformation process consists of 4 steps. The first is collecting or gathering, in which individuals or government take their waste to the only center that exists in the country, where they ask who has no other type of plastic, liquid or food . This material passes termodensificado machine, where through hot air is extracted from Styrofoam (95 percent is air, only 5 percent is plastic). A block of 20 kilos, for example, is equivalent to 7000 500 vessels. This block is transported to a processing plant raw material, located in the US, where it passes through a process of milling and extrusion. After this, the results are raw material. Many used car ni breakers and dismantlers have caught on to this and have been making big business out of it.</s>
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A world-class innovator for over 30 years, James A. Gosling’s development of the Java programming language in 1995 was a major milestone in computing that has had an immeasurable impact on computer science. Dr. Gosling combined the best ideas in programming languages with his own ideas to create the first widely deployed programming language featuring portability to allow transmission of code over the Internet from one computer to another for execution while still meeting security requirements. Its features include the portable "write once, run anywhere" byte-coded platform and libraries that makes use of a standard class file format that can be loaded and executed by any Java Virtual Machine; the robust and secure "sand box" approach; type-safe automatic storage management; just-in-time compilation; and platform scaling from cell phone to enterprise server. Used by approximately 9 million developers, Java is one of the most popular programming languages in history and can be found in servers, mobile phones, and the chips embedded in credit cards and identity badges. Dr. Gosling has also influenced software engineering methodology with important contributions during the 1980s. As a graduate student, he created one of the most widely used versions of the UNIX Emacs text editor. As a contributor to Carnegie Mellon’s Andrew Project, he developed the first UNIX windows manager and one of the first modern, multiformat text editors that allowed placement of tables, pictures, and graphics in a document. This open-source architecture influenced the evolution of Microsoft Windows. Dr. Gosling has also impacted the world of embedded systems with his early work on the ISIS II satellite, a real-time specification for Java, and his current work on autonomous ocean-going robots.
A member of the US National Academy of Engineering and an Officer of the Order Canada (second-highest Canadian civilian honor), Dr. Gosling is chief software architect with Liquid Robotics, Redwood, CA, USA.
Cleve B. Moler is considered one of the most influential contributors to computational science and engineering for his development of the MATLAB high-level programming environment that changed the face of numerical computation and provided an indispensable tool for engineers worldwide. Dr. Moler developed MATLAB, which stands for “matrix laboratory,” as a simple matrix calculator for student use in mathematical courses, but it soon found broader acceptance in engineering. MATLAB makes computing easier for scientists and engineers and increases productivity by allowing them to focus on solving the problem at hand without needing to write their own code to perform matrix computations. In 1984, Dr. Moler founded MathWorks with Jack Little to commercialize MATLAB. Today, MATLAB has over 1 million users representing universities, industry, and government worldwide. It is an important tool in industries including automotive, aerospace, communications, electronics, industrial automation, financial services, and computational biology. MATLAB is used at over 5,000 universities, and it is often the first programming language taught to science and engineering students. Other impactful contributions from Dr. Moler include the LINPACK and EISPACK linear algebra software libraries for computation involving matrices, which he helped develop during the 1970s. LINPACK and EISPACK gave scientists the ability to solve complex problems without requiring them to be experts in the algorithms and software. The LINPACK Benchmark, used to rank the world’s fastest supercomputers, is named after the LINPACK software library. Dr. Moler also contributed to linear algebra during the 1960s by writing reliable state-of-the-art Fortran subroutines for matrix computations and creating (with Pete Stewart) the QZ algorithm for the generalized eigenvalue problem prevalent in many applications.
A member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and recipient of IEEE Computer Society Pioneer Award (2012), Dr. Moler is currently chief mathematician with MathWorks, Natick, MA, USA.
Jack D. Dennis’ early development and continued exploration of parallel computing architectures have yielded principles for creating systems with increased interactivity and sharing ability and have important implications for today’s multicore processors. With over 50 years of research, Dr. Dennis was one of the earliest advocates of addressing computer architectures and programming together for parallel computing. Parallelism involves performance of many calculations simultaneously using two or more processors to cooperatively solve a problem and has become an essential aspect of high-performance computing. Dr. Dennis developed principles for executing programs securely in parallel environments, introducing the concepts of capability, protected domains, object lists, and protected call and return. Dr. Dennis’ dataflow concept remains a promising approach for future computer system architecture. In dataflow computation, individual instructions or groups of instructions known as codelets can be executed as soon as data become available. The dataflow graph models and execution algorithms developed by Dr. Dennis and his group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from the late 1960s through the 1980s inspired universities and research groups around the world to undertake dataflow projects. Dr. Dennis developed the VAL language for parallel computation, which evolved into the SISAL programming language. His work has influenced several generations of computer architects and compiler writers and is currently shaping new approaches to the architecture and programming of massively parallel computer systems.
An IEEE Fellow, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Fellow, and a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, Dr. Dennis’ awards include the IEEE/ACM Eckhert-Mauchly Award (1984) and induction to the SOSP Hall of Fame. Dr. Dennis is Professor Emeritus with MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Edward J. McCluskey provided the foundation for the design automation methods that make production of today’s complex computer chips possible. Credited with helping bridge the gap between computer science and electrical engineering to establish computer engineering as a discipline of its own, Dr. McCluskey has contributed techniques and concepts essential to computer design, testing, and reliability for over 50 years. He developed the Quine-McCluskey algorithm as the first systematic method to create a minimized two-level logic representation of a digital circuit. Computer scientists and engineers learn this algorithm as the foundation for logic optimization. It continues to be used in numerous design automation tools and has influenced practically all digital chips in use today. Dr. McCluskey also developed the modern theory of hazards in logic networks and formulated the operating modes of sequential circuits, which defined techniques for designing high-speed circuits. Dr. McCluskey was also an early pioneer of digital testing methods, and his vision continues to impact the field. He demonstrated that test metrics rather than fault models were the key to obtaining high test quality, which helped change the way digital testing is conducted. He formulated the concept of algebraic properties of fault models and developed methods using the concept to reduce test sets. This work has been incorporated into today’s automatic test pattern generation and fault simulation tools. Dr. McCluskey also developed very low-voltage testing as a cost-effective alternative to burn-in methods for detecting weak chips. Dr. McCluskey has also made important contributions to fault-tolerant computing for applications where failure is not an option.
An IEEE Life Fellow, Dr. McCluskey is Professor Emeritus of the departments of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Stanford University, Calif.
Professor Sir Tony Hoare has established the foundation of much that is taken for granted today in software design. A major portion of Hoare’s 50-plus-year scientific career has been devoted to developing the theoretical underpinnings of software to the point where its creation becomes a true engineering field. His work also has had practical impact, with application to commercial software development projects involving database management systems for the telecommunications industry and security and safety applications in the medical, transportation, and nuclear power industries. Hoare invented the Quicksort sorting algorithm in 1960, which has been widely studied and implemented in modern computers. He also led a team during the 1960s that developed a successful early compiler for the ALGOL 60 high-level language. His compiler checked all array subscripts at run-time, which is a precaution now common in modern object-oriented languages. Rejecting shared variable interaction, he proposed “communicating sequential processes” to address concurrency issues among programs. This bold step was very influential and saw application in the U.S. Department of Defense’s Ada language. It was also the inspiration for the Occam programming language used in the transputer microprocessor developed during the 1980s for parallel computing. More recent work from Hoare involves working on the theory that would underpin a verification toolset and encouraging computer scientists to work together toward its achievement.
A Fellow of the U.K. Royal Academy of Engineering and a foreign associate of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, he is currently a principal researcher with Microsoft Research Ltd., Cambridge, U.K.
Through pioneering research and wide-reaching textbooks, John Hopcroft and Jeffrey D. Ullman are known as two of the most influential figures responsible for shaping the field of computer science. These giants of computer science first met in 1964 when Dr. Ullman took Dr. Hopcroft’s automata theory course at Princeton University. Together, they wrote the book on automata theory and formal languages that was used by universities around the world to educate the first generation of computer scientists, Formal Languages and Their Relation to Automata. Its successor, Automata Theory, Languages, and Computation, is still in use today.
Dr. Hopcroft is considered one of only a handful of computer scientists who created the discipline of theoretical computer science, unifying automata theory and formal languages during the late 1960s. He also determined that computer programming could be synthesized into a theory of algorithms and that these algorithms could be evaluated by their asymptotic complexity. This led to a set of design principles that could be used to design optimal algorithms. An IEEE Life Fellow, Dr. Hopcroft is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering. He is currently the IBM Professor of Engineering and Applied Mathematics at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.
Dr. Ullman also focused on compiler technology and code optimization, writing the definitive book on compiler technology (Principles of Compiler Design, Addison-Wesley, 1977) with Aho. In the late 1970s Dr. Ullman’s interests turned to database systems and he became known as one of the founders of database theory. Dr. Ullman is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and is currently the Stanford W. Ascherman Professor of Computer Science (Emeritus) at Stanford University, Calif., and currently heads Gradiance Corporation, Stanford, which he founded to provide online homework and programming-lab support for college students.
Susan L. Graham’s seminal contributions and leadership have greatly influenced software development and high-performance computing. Together with her students, Dr. Graham’s programming language implementation innovations include a sophisticated pattern-matching algorithm for generating machine code for high-level languages, which is important for today’s processors, and an important and useful elimination-style algorithm for flow analysis. She introduced automatic error message generation as a useful tool, pointing the field in a new direction; as a result IBM has used automatic error message generation in several of its production compilers. She and her students developed the “gprof” profiling tool for analyzing the execution efficiency of programs and new algorithms for debugging programs. She led the development of the Berkeley Pascal compiler and the distribution of and extensions of BSD Unix. Dr. Graham was also the co-creator of the Titanium language and system, which is used to develop parallel programs for scientific applications.
Dr. Graham has served on the Presidential Information Technology Advisory Committee, where she was actively involved in influencing the U.S. Congress to bolster information technology spending. She co-chaired the National Research Council’s Future of Supercomputing committee. She was the chief computer scientist for the National Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure, ensuring that the best computer science results were transferred into important computation-based science applications. She participates in a variety of science and engineering advisory groups.
Her current research interest is on developing interactive language-aware tools for creating and maintaining software. An IEEE member, Dr. Graham is currently the Pehong Chen Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Emerita and a professor in the Graduate School at the University of California, Berkeley.
Leslie Lamport’s pioneering work in distributed and concurrent algorithms has improved numerous consumer and industrial computing systems. The result of his work can be found in multi-processor technology such as very-large-scale-integration (VLSI) semiconductors and multi-computer networks used in aircraft control systems. Since 2001 he has been at the Microsoft Research Silicon Valley Center, where he is a principal researcher. Prior to that, Dr. Lamport spent 16 years as a researcher at Digital Equipment Corporation (later Compaq Corporation). There he developed the Temporal Logic of Actions (TLA) system, a toolset for mechanical verification that is used to describe the behaviors of concurrent systems. Dr. Lamport developed several well-known concurrent and distributed algorithms, including solutions for Byzantine Fault Tolerance. The algorithm is a method of prevention against Byzantine Failure, in which a component of a system behaves erroneously while failing to behave consistently when interacting with multiple other components in the system. During his career, he has authored or co-authored nearly 150 publications on concurrent and distributed computing and their applications. One of his most notable papers, “Time, Clocks, and the Ordering of Events in a Distributed System,” still ranks as one of the most important and influential papers in computer science. He is a past recipient of the IEEE Emanuel R. Piore Award, the Edsger W. Dijkstra Prize in Distributed Computing and the influential paper award at the Principles of Distributed Computing Conference. Dr. Lamport holds a bachelor’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, as well as a masters and doctorate from Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts.
For over 35 years, Charles P. Thacker has led innovation in the area of distributed personal computing. He is one of the primary forces behind the introduction of the modern-day PC. While working at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) as a research fellow from 1970 to 1983, he served as the principal designer for the Alto personal computer system, widely considered the prototype for both workstations and windowed personal computers. Additionally, he revolutionized the computing industry as one of the co-inventors of the Ethernet local area network.
Mr. Thacker was a corporate consultant engineer at the Digital Equipment Systems Research Center (DEC SRC) from 1983 to 1997, and developed Firefly, one of the first multiprocessor workstation systems.
Since 1997, he has held the position of Technical Fellow at Microsoft Corporation, where he designed and implemented major parts of the prototype for the Tablet PC, including portions of its handwriting-recognition system. His prototype is also the basis for tablet PCs now being sold by several computer manufacturers.
An IEEE Member, Thacker holds a bachelor’s degree in Physics from the University of California, Berkeley, and an honorary doctorate from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. He is a fellow of the ACM, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the National Academy of Engineering, which presented him with the 2004 Charles Stark Draper Prize, along with Alan C. Kay, Butler W. Lampson and Robert W. Taylor for development of the first networked distributed personal computer system.P.
Dr. Ed Catmull, president and co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios, has made groundbreaking contributions to the field of computer graphics in modeling, animation and rendering that have revolutionized the way live-action and animated motion pictures are created. Dr. Catmull is one of the architects of the RenderMan® software product utilized to create animated films such as Pixar’s Toy Story and Finding Nemo and special effects in live-action films.
In 1974, while studying physics and computer science at University of Utah, Dr. Catmull’s pioneering animation of a human hand was incorporated into the first movie to use 3D computer graphics. Through his research, he made four key computer graphics discoveries: Z-buffering, texture mapping, subdivision surface, and the fast rendering ofbicubic patches. Prior to Pixar, he was vice president of the computer division of Lucasfilm Ltd.
Dr. Catmull has been honored for his work with four Scientific and Technical Engineering awards, including an Oscar® from The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In 1993 he was honored with the Steven A. Coons Award, the highest achievement in the computer graphics field, for his lifetime contributions.
Dr. Catmull is a member of the IEEE and the IEEE Computer Society, the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
A founder and chief technology officer of several successful corporations and an adjunct professor at MIT, Dr. Michael Stonebraker made critically important contributions to relational database software, inventing many of the architectures and strategies that are the foundation of today's multi-billion-dollar-a-year database software industry. Virtually all business computing applications - from accounting, inventory and shipping to point- of-sale, online commerce, human resources and computer-aided design - manage data using relational database systems that can be traced to his work.
His earliest contributions were as the leader of the groundbreaking INGRES project. It applied relational theory to high-performance, data management software systems by allowing users to specify queries that describe desired data without specifying programs to find it. The relational systems he developed,along with those of the System R project from IBM, revolutionized database systems.
His next creation, POSTGRES, was an object-relational database that extended the relational model with abstract data types,including user-defined operators and procedures. It also allowed database systems to provide significantly better intelligence and efficiency in commercial, administrative and scientific applications. The types of functionality that Dr. Stonebraker pioneered in POSTGRES are now used in database systems worldwide.
In recent years, Dr.Stonebraker applied economic computing paradigms to federated data management. Currently, he is applying database concepts to high performance stream processing applications. In addition to his current role at MIT, Dr. Stonebraker founded StreamBase Systems in 2003 and serves as the company's chief technology officer. StreamBase has developed a new software platform designed to process real-time streaming data.
A pioneer in object-oriented programming, Dr. Barbara H. Liskov is perhaps best known for her seminal work on data abstraction, a fundamental tool for organizing programs. Her research in the early 1970s led to the design and implementation of CLU, the first programming language to support data abstraction. Since 1975, every important programming language, including Java, has borrowed ideas from CLU. Dr. Liskov's other extraordinary contributions include the Venus operating system, the Argus distributed programming language and system and the Thor system for robust replicated storage of persistent objects. Argus was a groundbreaking high-level programming language used to support implementation of distributed programs that run on computers connected by a network, such as the Internet. Her recent efforts have concentrated on language-based security and on making Byzantine fault tolerance practical.
Dr. Liskov is the Ford Professor of Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she has taught since 1972. In 2001, she became the associate head for computer science in the electrical engineering and computer science department. In the 1960s, Professor Liskov held positions at the Mitre Corporation
in Bedford, Massachusetts, Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.
A member of the IEEE and the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, Dr. Liskov is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the Association for Computing Machinery. She has written three books including, 'Abstraction and Specification in Program Development,' as well as more than 100 technical papers.
Alfred Aho's many contributions to computer science as a researcher, manager and educator demonstrate an elegant balance of theory and practice. His innovative research in formal languages and compiler theory led to key algorithms for modern compilers and string-pattern matching tools. His algorithms are used in widely deployed compiler construction tools like YACC and LEX, which have been used to design many computer programming languages.
Dr. Aho conducted research at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, N.J., from 1967-1991. During that time, he developed efficient algorithms for textprocessing applications and programming language translation. His codegeneration algorithms influenced the design of retargetable C compilers, which facilitated the porting of the UNIX operating system from minicomputers to supercomputers. He worked at Bellcore in Murray Hill, N.J., from 1991-1995 and then became a professor of computer science at Columbia University in New York. He later joined Lucent Technologies in Murray Hill, N.J., as an associate research vice president and vice president of computing sciences research. In 2002, he returned to Columbia as a professor of computer science and is chair of the Computer Science Department.
Dr. Aho co-wrote several of computer science's most used textbooks including The Design and Analysis of Computer Algorithms; Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools; and The AWK Programming Language. He has served on many professional committees including the U.S.
National Research Council's Committee on Information Technology Literacy and the Advisory Committee of the National Science Foundation Computer and Information Science and Engineering Directorate. From 1992-1994 he also was editor of the Proceedings of the IEEE.
A member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, Dr. Aho is a Fellow of the IEEE, Association for Computing Machinery, Bell Labs, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
When Ole-Johan Dahl and Kristen Nygaard created the Simula languages in the 1960s at the Norwegian Computing Center, they introduced a new way of modeling and programming complex tasks. Object-oriented programming is now dominant in system development, and is everywhere part of the computer science curricula, as are languages built on OOP concepts, such as Smalltalk, C++, Eiffel and Java.
Kristen Nygaard analyzed complex problems by computer simulation, requiring interaction between many very dissimilar components. He saw the need for a description language that could be used to comprehend, describe and communicate complex systems, and also make it possible for computers to execute models of what had been described.
Ole-Johan Dahl joined Kristen Nygaard at the NCC. They designed the Simula concepts and language together, and Dahl carried out the difficult task of writing the program that translated descriptions into computer instructions. In 1968Dahl became the University of Oslo’s first computer science professor and built its Informatics Department. Later he has contributed to the theory of proving correctness of programs. Nygaard continued OOP, but also became the driving force in the “Scandinavian school of system development.” His efforts now are aimed at improving the teaching and conceptual platform for computer science.Dahl and Nygaard are Professors Emeriti at the University of Oslo. They both have been named Commander of the Orderof Saint Olav by the King of Norway and Honorary Fellows ofthe Object Management Group, have received the Norwegian Rosing Prize and the 2001 ACM A.M. Turing Award.
Combining a deep understanding of computer-science theory with practical implementation, Butler Lampson has contributed to a remarkable range of systems that make computing as we know it today possible.
As a member of the legendary Computer Science Laboratory of the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, Dr. Lampson’s work laid much of the foundation for today’s local area networks, client-server systems, laser printers, and editors such as Microsoft Word. He was instrumental to the group’s many breakthroughs, including the Xerox Alto and its successor, the Dorado, which proved that an IBM 370-168 class computer could be packaged to fit in an office. He helped design Interpress, a precursor to Adobe’s Postscript language. He also has been a major contributor to the design and implementation of Mesa, Cedar, and Modula 2+ computer programming languages. This series of designs has influenced the structure of the Java programming language.
One of the designers of the SDS 940 timesharing system, Dr. Lampson was a pioneer in creating a commercial timesharing system that allowed user programming in machine language. Also a leader in computer security, he collaborated in the design of a global naming and authentication service that guided the structure for the OSF/DCE naming and authentication facilities.
Butler Lampson was born on 23 December 1943, in Washington, DC. He obtained an AB in Physics from Harvard University in 1964, and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California at Berkeley in 1967. Currently, he is a Distinguished Engineer at Microsoft and an Adjunct Professor at MIT.
Dr. Lampson holds 24 patents on networks, security, raster printing, and transaction processing, and has published 64 papers. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He holds honorary ScD’s from the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule, Zürich, and the University of Bologna. He received the ACM’s Software Systems Award in 1984 for his work on the Alto, the IEEE Computer Pioneer Award in 1996, the National Computer Systems Security Award in 1998, and the Turing Award in 1992.</s>
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Among the subjects reviewed in these Advances, the properties and computation of electromagnetic fields have been considered on several occasions. In particular, the early work of H.F. Harmuth on Maxwell's equations, which was highly controversial at the time, formed a supplement to the series
This volume, unlike previous volumes in the series concentrates solely on the research of professors' Harmuth and Meffert.
These studies raise important and fundamental questions concerning some of the basic areas of physics: electromagnetic theory and quantum mechanics. They deserve careful study and reflection for although the authors do not attempt to provide the definitive answer to the questions, their work is undoubtedly a major step towards such an answer. This volume essential reading for those researchers and academics working applied mathematicians or theoretical physics
Unlike previous volumes, this book concentrates solely on the new research of professors Harmuth and Meffert
Raises important and fundamental questions concerning electromagnetism theory and quantum mechanics
Provides the steps in finding answers for the highly debated questions</s>
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| 0.925298
| 205
| 2.84375
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One-third the area of the United States, the Republic of India occupies most of the subcontinent of India in southern Asia. It borders on China in the northeast. Other neighbors are Pakistan on the west, Nepal and Bhutan on the north, and Burma and Bangladesh on the east.
The country can be divided into three distinct geographic regions: the Himalayan region in the north, which contains some of the highest mountains in the world, the Gangetic Plain, and the plateau region in the south and central part. Its three great river systems—the Ganges, the Indus, and the Brahmaputra—have extensive deltas and all rise in the Himalayas.
One of the earliest civilizations, the Indus Valley civilization flourished on the Indian subcontinent from c. 2600 B.C. to c. 2000 B.C. It is generally accepted that the Aryans entered India c. 1500 B.C. from the northwest, finding a land that was already home to an advanced civilization. They introduced Sanskrit and the Vedic religion, a forerunner of Hinduism. Buddhism was founded in the 6th century B.C. and was spread throughout northern India, most notably by one of the great ancient kings of the Mauryan dynasty, Asoka (c. 269–232 B.C. ), who also unified most of the Indian subcontinent for the first time.
In 1526, Muslim invaders founded the great Mogul Empire, centered on Delhi, which lasted, at least in name, until 1857. Akbar the Great (1542–1605) strengthened and consolidated this empire. The long reign of his great-grandson, Aurangzeb (1618–1707), represents both the greatest extent of the Mogul Empire and the beginning of its decay.</s>
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| 0.930548
| 371
| 3.53125
| 4
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Horse and his Rider
One of Æsop's fables, to show that nations crave the assistance
of others when they are aggrieved, but become the tools or slaves of
those who rendered them assistance. Thus the Celtic Britons asked aid
of the Saxons, and the Danish Duchies of the Germans, but in both cases
the rider made the horse a mere tool.
Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
More on Horse and his Rider from Infoplease:
- The Horse and His Rider - A Young Man, who fancied himself something of a horseman, mounted a Horse which had not been properly broken in, and was exceedingly difficult to cont
- Horse and his Rider - Horse and his Rider One of Æsop's fables, to show that nations crave the assistance of ...
- The Goat and the Vine - A Goat was straying in a vineyard, and began to browse on the tender shoots of a Vine which bore several fine bunches of grapes. "What have I done to
- The Lion and the Three Bulls - Three Bulls were grazing in a meadow, and were watched by a Lion, who longed to capture and devour them, but who felt that he was no match for the thr
- Exodus: 15 - Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this…</s>
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| 0.980664
| 288
| 3.40625
| 3
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A day and night of Brahmâ, a period of 4,320,000,000
solar-sidereal years. Some say there are an infinity of Kalpas, others
limit the number to thirty. A Great Kalpa is a life of Brahmâ; the
whole duration of time from the creation to the destruction of the
Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
More on Kalpa from Infoplease:
- kalpa: meaning and definitions - kalpa: Definition and Pronunciation
- Kalpa - Kalpa A day and night of Brahmâ, a period of 4,320,000,000 solar-sidereal years. Some say ...
- Kalpa-Tarou - Kalpa-Tarou A tree in Indian mythology from which might be gathered whatever a person desired. This ...
- Brahma - Brahma Brahma , a god often identified, with Vishnu and Shiva, as one of the three supreme gods in ...
- Seventh Prapathaka - 1. Narada approached Sanatkumara and said, Teach me, Sir! Sanatkumara said to him: Please to tell me what you know; afterward I shall tell you what is</s>
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| 0.894532
| 265
| 3.046875
| 3
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Atlanta campaign, May–Sept., 1864, of the U.S. Civil War. In the spring of 1864, Gen. W. T. Sherman concentrated the Union armies of G. H. Thomas, J. B. McPherson, and J. M. Schofield around Chattanooga. On May 6 he began to move along the railroad from Chattanooga to Atlanta against Dalton, Ga., c.30 mi (48 km) southeast, where Gen. J. E. Johnston had a smaller Confederate force. Sherman had a twofold objective: the destruction of Johnston's army and the capture of Atlanta, c.140 mi (225 km) southeast. Since Johnston was strongly entrenched, Sherman turned his left flank, forcing him back to Resaca, c.12 mi (19 km) south. The campaign continued in this way—Sherman outflanking Johnston, who withdrew to previously fortified positions—until June 27, when Sherman tried a direct attack at Kennesaw Mt., c.25 mi (40 km) NW of Atlanta, and was repulsed. He then reverted to flank operations. By July, Johnston had withdrawn to the south bank of the Chattahoochee River, where he prepared to fight on his own terms. On July 17, the day Sherman crossed the Chattahoochee, John Bell Hood replaced Johnston. Following Johnston's plan, Hood unsuccessfully attacked Sherman's divided army (July 20) as it crossed Peach Tree Creek, a small tributary of the Chattahoochee. In the battles of Atlanta (July 22) and Ezra Church (July 28), Hood again failed to stop the Union advance; he then retired behind the strong works of Atlanta, which Sherman soon had under bombardment. The Union lines were gradually extended until the Confederate line of communications south of the city was broken on Sept. 1. Hood abandoned Atlanta that night and Sherman occupied it on Sept. 2, 1864, and burned it.
See A. A. Hoehling, Last Train from Atlanta (1958); S. Carter, The Siege of Atlanta, 1864 (1973); A. Castel, Decision in the West: The Atlanta Campaign of 1864 (1992).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
More on Atlanta campaign from Infoplease:
See more Encyclopedia articles on: U.S. History</s>
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| 0.953207
| 492
| 3.484375
| 3
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The Current Surface Analysis map shows current weather conditions
, including frontal and high/low pressure positions, satellite infrared
(IR) cloud cover
, and areas of precipitation
. A surface weather analysis is a special type of weather map that provides a view of weather elements over a geographical area at a specified time based on information from ground-based weather stations. Weather maps are created by plotting or tracing the values of relevant quantities such as sea level pressure, temperature
, and cloud cover
onto a geographical map to help find synoptic scale features such as weather fronts.
The first weather maps in the 19th century were drawn well after the fact to help devise a theory on storm systems. After the advent of the telegraph, simultaneous surface weather observations
became possible for the first time, and beginning in the late 1840s, the Smithsonian Institution became the first organization to draw real-time surface analyses. Use of surface analyses began first in the United States, spreading worldwide during the 1870s. Use of the Norwegian cyclone model for frontal analysis began in the late 1910s across Europe, with its use finally spreading to the United States during World War II.
Surface weather analyses have special symbols which show frontal systems, cloud cover
, or other important information. For example, an H may represent high pressure, implying good and fair weather. An L on the other hand may represent low pressure, which frequently accompanies precipitation
. Various symbols are used not just for frontal zones and other surface boundaries on weather maps, but also to depict the present weather at various locations on the weather map. Areas of precipitation
help determine the frontal type and location.</s>
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http://www.intellicast.com/National/Surface/Current.aspx?location=UKXX4361
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| 0.936753
| 334
| 3.96875
| 4
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Research and IPM
Phenology Model Database
Scientific name: Melanaspis obscura
Phenology models predict timing of events in an organism's development. For many organisms which cannot internally regulate their own temperature, development is dependent on temperatures to which they are exposed in the environment.Information in this database comes from published articles. It may be used in conjunction with field monitoring and a degree-day calculator.
Note: Before using a model that was not field tested in your location, you should test the model for one or more seasons under your conditions to verify that it will work for you.
Model 1 of 1
Potter, D. A., M. P. Jensen, and F. C. Gordon. 1989. Phenology and degree-day relationship of the obscure scale (Homoptera: Diaspididae) and associated parasites on Pin Oak in Kentucky. J. Econ. Entomol. 82: 551-555.
Location of study: Kentucky (field studies)
Method of calculation: Single Sine
Degree-day accumulations required for each stage of development
Start date: January 1</s>
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<urn:uuid:a1a00ca8-c86a-4a29-8dad-7e979b1d5658>
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http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PHENOLOGY/ma-obscure_scale.html
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| 0.906948
| 235
| 2.9375
| 3
|
While many businesses have been complaining about the negative effect the wet and miserable summer had on business it seems Christmas tree growers were rubbing their hands together as the downpours kept on coming.
In fact, the heavy rain over the last few months has meant that we should all have healthy looking Christmas trees this year.
The wet weather means needles are more likely to stay on the branches throughout the festive season because the trees have got so much moisture in them.
Here are more Christmas tree facts to help get you in the festive spirit:
- 8 million Christmas trees are sold in the UK during the Christmas season.
- An average Christmas tree takes on average 8 years to grow from a sapling.
- There are more than 10 different varieties of Christmas trees sold in the UK.
- For every tree harvested 3 more are planted in its place.
- The first decorated Christmas tree was in Riga, Latvia in 1510.
- In the first week, a tree in your home will consume as much as 2 pints of water a day.
- The tallest Christmas trees can be found in Mexico City. The 110-metre-high tree is covered in 1.2 million lights.
- Britain's largest artificial tree is at Cheshire Oaks, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire. It stands at 27.5m tall. It took 12 men 7 days to erect the structure.
- According to the Guinness world records, the tallest Christmas tree ever cut was a 221-foot Douglas fir that was displayed in 1950 in Seattle, Washington.
- The Christmas tree became popular in the UK in 1841 when Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert, brought a Christmas tree over from Germany and put it in Windsor Castle.
Our reporter, Dean Thomas, has been to meet one Christmas tree grower in Swansea to see if the wet weather has already brought him some seasonal cheer.</s>
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http://www.itv.com/news/wales/2012-12-05/oh-christmas-tree-oh-christmas-tree/
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| 2.65625
| 3
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|Scientific Name:||Macaca mulatta|
|Species Authority:||(Zimmermann, 1780)|
Macaca brachyurus (Elliot, 1909)
Macaca brevicaudatus (Elliot, 1913)
Macaca erythraea (Shaw, 1800)
Macaca fulvus (Kerr, 1792)
Macaca lasiotus (Gray, 1868)
Macaca littoralis (Elliot, 1909)
Macaca mcmahoni Pocock, 1932
Macaca nipalensis Hodgson, 1840
Macaca oinops Hodgson, 1840
Macaca rhesus (Audebert, 1798)
Macaca sancti-johannis (Swinhoe, 1866)
Macaca siamica Kloss, 1917
Macaca tcheliensis (Milne-Edwards, 1872)
Macaca vestita (Milne-Edwards, 1892)
Macaca villosa (True, 1894)
|Taxonomic Notes:||This species has been revised by Fooden (2000), who regards M. mulatta as monotypic. The molecular differences identified among M. mulatta populations (Melnick et al. 1993; Morales and Melnick 1998; Tosi 2000; Tosi et al. 2000, 2002, 2003; Zhang and Shi 1993) are alone not consistent enough to conclusively define any subspecies.|
|Red List Category & Criteria:||Least Concern ver 3.1|
|Assessor(s):||Timmins, R.J., Richardson, M., Chhangani, A. & Yongcheng, L.|
|Reviewer(s):||Mittermeier, R.A. & Rylands, A.B. (Primate Red List Authority)|
This species is listed as Least Concern in view of its wide distribution, presumed large population, is tolerant of a broad range of habitats, and because it is unlikely to be declining at anything close to the rate required to qualify for listing in a threatened category.
|Range Description:||The species as a whole is found throughout most of southern Asia, in eastern Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, central and southern China (Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Tibet, and Yunnan, as well as the island of Hainan), northern and central India (in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tripura, Uttaranchal, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal), Lao PDR, Myanmar, Nepal, northern Pakistan, northern Thailand, and Viet Nam.
It occurs to the north of the Krishna River in central and eastern India and to the north of the lower Tapti River in western India, north into Afghanistan, Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan, and northeast into China, where it extends to the Yangtze and north of its middle course to about 33°N, 110°E. It is absent north of the lower Yangtze, but there is an additional, possibly introduced population in northern China north of the lower Hwang He (Yellow River), formerly occurring as far as Beijing (Groves 2001).
There are introduced populations (mostly not mapped) in areas within this region as well as outside it, for instance south of the Krishna River in India; Kowloon and a few small islands near Hong Kong; and to various other locations worldwide, including parts of Florida, USA and on Cayo Santiago island near Puerto Rico (M. Richardson pers. comm.).
Native:Afghanistan; Bangladesh; Bhutan; China; India; Lao People's Democratic Republic; Myanmar; Nepal; Pakistan; Thailand; Viet Nam
Introduced:Hong Kong; United States (Florida)
|Range Map:||Click here to open the map viewer and explore range.|
|Population:||This species is widely distributed in south, southeast and east Asia. Populations are sizable, but increasingly commensal with humans, resulting in some fragmentation of the distribution (Molur et al. 2003). It can be abundant in many places, including in cities. Hunting of this species in Lao PDR and Viet Nam has severely depressed populations in these countries although it still remains widespread. In Namdapha National Park, India, this species was found to have a group density of 0.44 groups/km2, with an average group size of 12.3 individuals (Chetry et al. 2003). The average group size in other parts of India is much higher (Siddiqui and Southwick 2004). Srivastava and Mohnot (2001) consider this species to be rare in the forests of north-eastern India.|
|Habitat and Ecology:||This species is diurnal and omnivorous, and alternatively arboreal and terrestrial. It resides in a range of habitats, including temperate coniferous, moist and dry deciduous, bamboo, and mixed forests, mangroves, scrub, rainforest, and around human habitations and developments, including cultivated areas, temples, and roadsides (Choudhury 2001; Srivastava and Mohnot 2001). In Pakistan this monkey remains in mountainous regions with forest cover; it is typically associated with Himalayan moist temperate forest (Roberts 1997). It is found at elevations up to 4,000 m (Molur et al. 2003). Due to hunting in Lao PDR and Viet Nam the species does not occur in commensal situations there, and is restricted to forest areas where it is generally associated with riverine environments over a range of altitudes (Timmins pers. comm.). In western and northern parts of its range it seems to occur in a wider array of environments. It is highly adaptable to man-made habitat. Its generation time is 12 years (Molur et al. 2003).|
This species is generally unthreatened, though its original habitat is increasingly being lost to development. While M. mulatta exists easily around humans, the increasing level of cohabitation has been associated with waning levels of human tolerance for the animals (Molur et al. 2003). Confiscation for laboratory testing is a mostly localized threat, but it is considerable in certain areas (A. Kumar pers. comm.). Capture and release of laboratory and “problem monkeys” from rural and urban areas into natural forests is a major threat to wild macaques.
In Lao PDR and Viet Nam the major threat to the species is hunting, although loss of forest in river valleys has also likely impacted the species (R. Timmins pers. comm.). In Indochina hunting pressure is high, and thus tolerance to human disturbance is low.
Introduction, through release of confiscated M. fasicularis, is at least a localized threat in parts of the species' Viet Namese range (R. Timmins pers. comm.). Tolerance of the species varies locally, from heavily hunted and persecuted, to worshipped and fed.
This species is listed on CITES Appendix II. It is also listed in Schedule III in the Bangladesh Wildlife (Preservation) (Amendment) Act, 1974 and in Schedule I, Part I in the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act (amended up to 2002), on Category II of the Chinese Wildlife Protection Act (1989), and is protected with all other primates in the Nepalese National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act, 1973. Protection status varies widely throughout the species range.
Rhesus macaques reside in a large number of protected areas throughout their range.
|Citation:||Timmins, R.J., Richardson, M., Chhangani, A. & Yongcheng, L. 2008. Macaca mulatta. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2015.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 28 July 2015.|
|Feedback:||If you see any errors or have any questions or suggestions on what is shown on this page, please provide us with feedback so that we can correct or extend the information provided|</s>
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| 0.876377
| 1,784
| 2.5625
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The Convention on the Law of the Sea
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) supports implementation of the National Security Strategy, provides legal certainty in the world's largest maneuver space, and preserves essential navigation and overflight rights. One hundred and sixty nations and the European Union are Party to the Convention – but not the United States, the world's leading maritime nation.
Becoming a Party to the Law of the Sea Convention would help to ensure the Navy's ability to move forces on, over, and under the world's oceans, whenever and wherever needed, and is an important asset in the Global War on Terrorism.
The Convention is in the national interest of the United States because it establishes stable maritime zones, including a maximum outer limit for territorial seas; codifies innocent passage, transit passage, and archipelagic sea lanes passage rights; works against "jurisdictional creep" by preventing coastal nations from expanding their own maritime zones; and reaffirms sovereign immunity of warships, auxiliaries and government aircraft.
Specifically, the Convention recognizes and preserves for our ships and aircraft the freedom to conduct:
- Innocent passage in territorial waters.
- Transit passage through international straits (surface, air and subsurface), including the approaches to those straits.
- Unrestricted military activities in high seas.
- Military surveys.
- Approach and visit of vessels suspected of engaging in piracy and stateless vessels.
Economically, accession to the Convention would support our national interests by enhancing the ability of the US to assert its sovereign rights over the resources of one of the largest continental shelves in the world. Further, it is the Law of the Sea Convention that first established the concept of a maritime Exclusive Economic Zone out to 200 nautical miles, and recognized the rights of coastal states to conserve and manage the natural resources in this Zone.
Background / History
President Ronald Reagan supported the Convention, but objected to certain deep seabed mining provisions. After reviewing an early draft of the Convention he vowed to continue to participate in further Convention negotiations to address deficiencies in the Convention's deep seabed mining provisions.
In March 1983 President Reagan issued a statement indicating that he remained dissatisfied with the deep seabed mining provisions but proclaimed the U.S. would recognize all other provisions of the Convention relating to traditional uses of the oceans.
President Reagan's Secretary of State and key advisor regarding the Convention negotiations, Mr. George Shultz, now supports accession to the Convention and states the 1994 Agreement adequately addressed President Reagan's deep seabed mining concerns.
There has been bipartisan presidential support for joining the Convention since the 1994 Agreement addressed the objections raised by President Reagan in 1983.
Statement of Admiral Jonathan W. Greenert, Chief of Naval Operations, before the Senate Armed Services Committee - March 2012:
"The Navy's ability to retain access to international waters and airspace as well as critical chokepoints throughout the world would be enhanced by accession to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). As the world's preeminent maritime power, the United States has much to gain from the legal certainty and global order brought by UNCLOS. The United States should not rely on customs and traditions for the legal basis of our military and commercial activity when we can instead use a formal mechanism such as UNCLOS. As a party to UNCLOS, we will be in a better position to counter the efforts of coastal nations to restrict freedom of the seas."
Statement of The Honorable Ray Mabus, Secretary of The Navy, before the Senate Armed Services Committee - March 2012:
"The traditional freedom of the seas for all nations developed over centuries, mostly by custom, have been encoded within the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). This important treaty continues to enjoy the strong support of the DoD and the DON. The UNCLOS treaty guarantees rights such as innocent passage through territorial seas; transit passage through, under and over international straits; and the laying and maintaining of submarine cables. The convention has been approved by nearly every maritime power and all the permanent members of the UN Security Council, except the United States. Our notable absence as a signatory weakens our position with other nations, allowing the introduction of expansive definitions of sovereignty on the high seas that undermine our ability to defend our mineral rights along our own continental shelf and in the Arctic. The Department strongly supports the accession to UNCLOS, an action consistently recommended by my predecessors of both parties."
Excerpt from President Obama's National Security Strategy - 2010:
"We must work together to ensure the constant flow of commerce, facilitate safe and secure air travel, and prevent disruptions to critical communications. We must also safeguard the sea, air, and space domains from those who would deny access or use them for hostile purposes. This includes keeping strategic straits and vital sea lanes open, improving the early detection of emerging maritime threats, denying adversaries hostile use of the air domain, and ensuring the responsible use of space. As one key effort in the sea domain, for example, we will pursue ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea."
The following links provide additional information on UNCLOS:
- Why the United States Needs to Join the Law of the Sea Convention Now
- Eight National Security Myths: United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea
- Letter from the Joint Chiefs of Staff
- Statement by Adm. Thad Allen, Commandant of the Coast Guard, on the Convention on the Law of the Sea
- Letter from former Chiefs of Naval Operation
- Letter from former Commandants of the Coast Guard
- Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Testimony from Deputy Secretary, Department of State, The Honorable John D. Negroponte
- Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Testimony from Deputy Secretary, Department of Defense, The Honorable Gordon England
- Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Testimony from Vice Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Patrick M. Walsh
- 1994 Law of the Sea Convention Letters of Transmittal
- Also for more information on the UNCLOS, visit http://www.un.org/Depts/los/ or http://www.state.gov/www/global/oes/oceans/index.html
Many of the publications available on this Web site are Portable Document Format (PDF) files. To view and print these documents, download and install the free Adobe Reader software.</s>
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By Mitchell Bard
The boundaries of Middle East countries were arbitrarily fixed by the Western powers after Turkey was defeated in World War I and the French and British mandates were set up. The areas allotted to Israel under the UN partition plan had all been under the control of the Ottomans, who had ruled Palestine from 1517 until 1917.
When Turkey was defeated in World War I, the French took over the area now known as Lebanon and Syria. The British got Palestine and Iraq. In 1926, the borders were redrawn and Lebanon was separated from Syria.
Britain installed the Emir Faisal, who had been deposed by the French in Syria, as ruler of the new kingdom of Iraq. In 1922, the British created the emirate of Transjordan, which incorporated all of Palestine east of the Jordan River. This was done so that the Emir Abdullah, whose family had been defeated in tribal warfare that had taken place on the Arabian peninsula, would have a Kingdom to rule. None of the countries that border Israel became independent until this century. Many other Arab nations became independent after Israel.
Land for Peace and Security
Israel's boundaries were determined by the United Nations when it adopted the partition resolution in 1947. In a series of defensive wars, Israel captured additional territory. On numerous occasions, Israel has withdrawn from these areas. As part of the 1974 disengagement agreement, Israel returned territories captured in the 1967 and 1973 wars to Syria. Under the terms of the 1979 Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty, Israel withdrew from the Sinai peninsula for the third time. It had already withdrawn from large parts of the desert area it captured in its War of Independence. After capturing the entire Sinai in the 1956 Suez conflict, Israel relinquished the peninsula to Egypt a year later. In September 1983, Israel withdrew from large areas of Lebanon to positions south of the Awali River. In 1985, it completed its withdrawal from Lebanon, except for a narrow security zone just north of the Israeli border. After signing peace agreements with the Palestinians, and a treaty with Jordan, Israel agreed to withdraw from most of the territory in the West Bank captured from Jordan in 1967. A small area was returned to Jordan, the rest was ceded to the Palestinian Authority. The agreement with the Palestinians also involved Israel's withdrawal in 1994 from most of the Gaza Strip, which had been captured from Egypt in 1973.
Negotiations continue regarding the final disposition of the remaining disputed territories in Israel's possession. Israel's willingness to make territorial concessions in exchange for security proves its goal is peace, not expansion.
Israel cannot withdraw from all the territories it captured, however, as the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff concluded in a June 29, 1967, memorandum for the Secretary of Defense. "From a strictly military point of view, the Joint Chiefs wrote, "Israel would require the retention of some captured Arab territory in order to provide militarily defensible borders."
When Israel does take the risk of conceding territory for peace, it does so only after negotiating safeguards to minimize any future danger. For example, several pages of Israel's peace treaty with Egypt are devoted to security arrangements. Article III of the treaty's annex concerns the areas where reconnaissance flights are permitted, and Article V allows the establishment of early-warning systems in specific zones.
The security guarantees, which were required to give Israel the confidence to withdraw, were only possible because the Sinai was demilitarized. They provide Israel a large buffer zone of more than 100 miles. Today, the Egyptian border is 60 miles from Tel Aviv and 70 from Jerusalem, the nearest major Israeli cities. The Sinai remains sparsely populated desert, with a population of less than 250,000.
The situation in the territories is entirely different. Roughly one million Arabs live in the West Bank, many in crowded cities and refugee camps. Most of them are located close to Israeli cities such as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. It is important for Israel that the West Bank not fall into the hands of hostile neighbors.
Lieutenant General (Ret.) Thomas Kelly, director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Gulf War observed:
Territory is Still Vital in the Missile Age
Saddam Hussein's ability to lob missiles into Israel during the Gulf War has led to suggestions that Israel's demands for defensible borders are unrealistic. History shows, however, that aerial attacks have never defeated a nation. Countries are conquered by troop occupation of land. A recent example of this was Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, in which the latter nation was overrun and occupied in a matter of hours. Though the multinational force bombed Iraq for close to six weeks, Kuwait was not liberated until the Allied troops marched into that country in the war's final days. Defensible borders are those that would prevent or impede such a ground assault.
Israel's return to its pre1967 borders, which the Arab states want to reimpose, would sorely tempt potential aggressors to launch attacks on the Jewish State-as they did routinely before 1967. Israel would lose the extensive system of early-warning radars it has set up in the hills of Judea and Samaria. Were a hostile neighbor then to seize control of these mountains, its army could split Israel in two: From there, it is only about 15 miles-without any major geographic obstacles-to the Mediterranean.
At their narrowest point, these 1967 lines are within 9 miles of the Israeli coast, 11 miles from Tel Aviv, 10 from Beersheba, 21 from Haifa and one foot from Jerusalem.
In 1989, the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, an Israeli think tank, published a study that noted:
The study concluded: "As long as such missiles are armed with conventional warheads, they may cause painful losses and damage, but they cannot decide the outcome of a war."
The Strategic Heights of the Golan
From the western Golan, it is only about 60 miles-without major terrain obstacles-to Haifa and Acre, Israel's industrial heartland. The Golan Heights-rising from 400 to 1700 feet in the western section bordering on pre1967 Israel-overlooks the Huleh Valley, Israel's richest agricultural area. In the hands of a friendly neighbor, the escarpment has little military importance. If controlled by a hostile country, however, the Golan has the potential to again become a strategic nightmare for Israel.
For Israel, relinquishing the Golan to a hostile Syria could jeopardize its early-warning system against surprise attack. Israel has built radars on Mt. Hermon, the highest point in the region. If Israel withdrew from the Golan and had to relocate these facilities to the lowlands of the Galilee, they would lose much of their strategic effectiveness.
Nevertheless, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin began negotiations with Syrian President Hafez Assad regarding the possibility of an Israeli withdrawal from part of the Golan Heights in exchange for peace. Rabin's successors have also suggested that territorial compromise is an option. Assad, however, remained unwilling to settle for anything less than the total return of the area, while offering only vague hints of an improvement in relations with Israel in exchange. Assad died in June 2000 and no further talks have been held as Assad's son and successor, Bashar has moved to consolidate his power. Rhetorically, Bashar has not indicated any shift in Syria's position on the Golan.</s>
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| 3.796875
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Dr. Goode 3 credits
Acknowledged by scholars from a variety of fields as a transformative period, the ‘long’ eighteenth century (1660-1800) and its drama embodied notions of gender, class, sexuality, and political identity. We will read a variety of dramatic genres – sentimental comedy, heroic romance, personal tragedy, social comedy, political tragedy, and she-tragedy. Through these diverse genres, we will consider such dramatic figures as the libertine, the fop, the tragic hero, the man of feeling, the amorous widow, the witty heroine, the cross-dressed woman, the fallen woman, the romantic friend, and the virginal victim. We will examine how changes in the political, economic, and social landscape of eighteenth-century England helped determine the evolution of these various representations of gender and sexual identity, and influenced the changing genre conventions on the period’s stage.
Back to Courses</s>
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<urn:uuid:41d321f1-13d9-4ef7-ad60-16836a858c11>
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CC-MAIN-2015-32
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http://www.jmu.edu/english/course_descriptions/322Goode.html
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| 0.888532
| 195
| 3.28125
| 3
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2.3-3 Knowledge -- § 53a-3 (12)
Revised to December 1, 2007
A person acts "knowingly" with respect to conduct or to a circumstance described by a statute defining an offense when (he/she) is aware that (his/her) conduct is of such nature or that such circumstance exists. An act is done (knowingly / with knowledge) if done voluntarily and purposely, and not because of mistake, inadvertence or accident.
Ordinarily, knowledge can be
established only through an inference from other proven facts and
circumstances. The inference may be drawn if the circumstances are such that a
reasonable person of honest intention, in the situation of the defendant, would
have concluded that <insert factual statement of the crime charged; for
example: "the instrument was forged">. The determinative question is
whether the circumstances in the particular case form a basis for a sound
inference as to the knowledge of the defendant in the transaction under inquiry.</s>
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<urn:uuid:e9a2bee4-606a-4e89-969c-e099ed26ca97>
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CC-MAIN-2015-32
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http://www.jud.ct.gov/ji/criminal/part2/2.3-3.htm
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en
| 0.920718
| 209
| 2.53125
| 3
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The text is a poem by Lydia Avery Coonley Ward (1845-1924), a wealthy (non-Mormon) patron of the visual and musical arts, who wrote dozens, if not hundreds, of sweet and largely forgotten poems. Mildred Tanner Pettit is, as we’ve seen before, the Latter-day Saint composer of “I Am a Child of God” and other LDS works.
This song appeared in the 1939 Primary songbook.
Why do bells for Christmas ring?
Why do little children sing?
Once a lovely shining star,
Seen by shepherds from afar,
Gently moved until its light
Made a manger cradle bright.
There a darling baby law,
Pillow’d soft upon the hay;
And the mother sang and smiled,
“This is Christ, the Holy Child.”
Therefore bells for Christmas ring,
Therefore little children sing.</s>
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CC-MAIN-2015-32
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http://www.keepapitchinin.org/2009/11/17/advent-2009-the-holy-child-mildred-tanner-pettit/
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| 0.911874
| 198
| 3.15625
| 3
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Kenya became a Member of the United Nations after attaining independence in December 1963. It was a giant step in the exercise of independence and sovereignty in the arena of the community of nations.
The role of Kenya Mission to the United Nations is to effectively represent Kenya at the diplomatic apex of interactions in the global community of nations. The multilateral character of the Kenya Mission in New York poses very unique diplomatic challenges. All States in the world with their diverse ideological, cultural, political and strategic characteristics intermingle in the halls of negotiations, in the corridors and in receptions. It is a setting which tests diplomatic skills to the limit.
Kenya mission to the United Nations has and continue to discharge her obligations at the United Nations with an efficiency which has earned her great admiration. The country has not only adhered to and upheld the principles enshrined in the Charter of the organization but has also contributed tremendously in the furtherance of shared goals.
The passage of time since 1945 has witnessed many transformations globally. The political, economic, social, military and strategic spheres have seen tremendous changes. As a result, the United Nations has had to adjust to face the emerging challenges.
Organs, Agencies and Programmes of the United Nations take on an ever-expanding agenda shaped by fresh and changing challenges in a most complex situation. Kenya has a special place within the United Nations as it is the only developing country hosting two United Nations programmes.
As the United Nations evolves, especially with the end of the Cold War and the bi-polar nature of politics and strategic alliances, other forces have come to the fore. Globalization and WTO rounds of negotiations, United Nations Special Sessions and Global Summits have enmeshed States, regions and groups in a most complex web of negotiations which focus on the work of the United Nations and its Subsidiary organs, Agencies and Programmes.
There are also six (6) Standing Committees of the United Nations charged with issues of Security and Disarmament; Economic and Finance; Social and Humanitarian; Decolonization and special political; Budgetary and administrative Legal Matters.
The background negotiations which later transform themselves into formal negotiations, resolutions and programmes of action are as a result of negotiations undertaken by all these committees. The Kenya Mission ensures that the interests of Kenya as enshrined in the national goals and the country’s foreign policy are protected and furthered in all these negotiations.
the Kenya Mission works very closely with the government ministries and departments on positions regarding key issues and policy matters. From time to time, the Ministers and the Head of State address the United Nations either in Special Sessions or during the General Assembly.
At all other times, the Ambassador/Permanent Representative is in-charge of all activities giving guidance to the staff as they undertake their duties and responsibilities.
The placing of Kenya in important Committees is another prerogative. Over the years, Kenya has been very proud to join the privileged group of States in the Security Council as a temporary member periodically. Kenya has been a member of committees and commissions including statistics, population and development, programme coordination, ECOSOC and many others at different times.
While in 1963, African countries championed the cause of decolonization and the abolition of apartheid, the 21st century has witnessed a emergence of new challenges. The Millennium Summit in 2000 identified special needs of Africa, which the African Union through the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), has put in proper perspective. Through the African Union, NEPAD and other continental frameworks, Africa has demonstrated its readiness to embrace democracy, prosperity and contribute to the ideals of the United Nations. The Kenya Mission to the United Nations is at the center of efforts in the realization of this dream through national, sub regional and regional arrangements.
Kenya is committed to the noble course of the United Nations. The country is fully engaged in follow-up, discussions and implementation of the outcome of major United Nations conferences and summits, including internationally agreed development goals including Millennium Development goals.</s>
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| 0.948487
| 817
| 3.046875
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Kansas, part of the stable interior, has a cover of sedimentary rocks, nowhere more than about 9,500 feet thick, which is thin when compared to the section in basinal areas on the craton. When viewed in proper perspective, the relatively simple succession of thin sedimentary strata, perhaps representing only 15 to 50 percent of post-Precambrian time, appears as a veneer covering the Precambrian basement complex.
Beds of Quaternary age, consisting of unconsolidated sand, gravel, silt, and clay, are confined mostly to present drainage systems and are relatively thin; Pleistocene glacial deposits cover much of northeastern Kansas. Nonmarine Tertiary (Pliocene) rocks, mainly unconsolidated gravel, sand, and silt, blanket the western one-third of Kansas, masking the underlying stratigraphy and structure. Rocks of Mesozoic age, predominantly thick accumulations of marine shale, limestone, and chalk, and nonmarine deposits of sandstone and shale, cover the western one-half of Kansas and increase in thickness westward. Basal units of the Mesozoic sequence overstep Paleozoic beds with a pronounced unconformity.
Rocks of Pennsylvanian and Permian age, characterized by cycles of marine and nonmarine strata, occur statewide. Thin but persistent units can be traced over large areas of the Midcontinent region. Lateral facies changes occur between the shallow shelflike areas and the deeper basins. Channel sandstones mark many of the disconformities, which are numerous owing to the cyclical deposition. There are rocks representing all pre-Pennsylvanian systems, consisting mainly of marine sediments--limestone and dolomite and some shale and sandstone. The thickest sections of pre-Pennsylvanian rocks are found near the centers of basins, where they have been protected from extensive erosion. Unconformities separate all rock systems.
Five peridotitic intrusive igneous plugs crop out in Riley County, and one peridotitic and one granitic outcrop are known in Woodson County. One of the plugs has been dated as early Tertiary.
The Precambrian basement complex consists mainly of granite, quartzite, and schist. Distribution of sediments, mafic igneous rocks, extrusives, granodiorite, syenite, and granite, however, is at best only vaguely known. A weathered or detrital material known as "granite wash" covers large areas beneath Paleozoic sediments at this major unconformity.
Two major structural units and parts of seven others are present in Kansas. Four of these are uparched areas that separate larger downwarped basins and serve to delimit them. These major pre-Desmoinesian post-Mississippian structures, almost unchanged since their formation, outline the petroliferous provinces of Kansas.
Only the southwestern part of the Forest City Basin extends into Kansas. It is bounded on the west by the Nemaha Anticline and on the southwest by the low, indistinct, northwest-trending Bourbon Arch. The basinal axis trends slightly east of north and lies close to and parallel to the Nemaha; hence, the basin has an asymmetrical profile and a steep west flank. The present basin, formerly part of the older North Kansas Basin, became a separate feature after Mississippian time. South of the Bourbon Arch in southeastern Kansas is the Cherokee Basin, which developed on the older Chautauqua Arch. The basinal axis lies near and parallel to the Nemaha Anticline, making the basin asymmetrical.
The long, narrow Nemaha Anticline trends northeastward across Kansas, separating the Forest City and Cherokee Basins on the east from the Salina and Sedgwick Basins on the west. The Precambrian core of the Nemaha, within about 600 feet of the surface near the Nebraska border and 4,000 feet at the Oklahoma border, is characterized by a series of local knobs along its crest. Pre-Pennsylvanian strata have been upturned, truncated, and overstepped on both sides at the north end, but farther south the Paleozoic beds are folded over the crest. The anticline is faulted along the east side in several areas, and earthquakes indicate that movement is continuing.
The northern part of the Salina Basin extends into Nebraska from Kansas; the axis of this second largest basin in Kansas trends northwestward. The Sedgwick Basin, a shelflike extension of the Anadarko Basin of Oklahoma, is roughly symmetrical and plunges southward. Strata are characterized by facies change and thicken southward.
The Central Kansas Uplift (and associated minor structures) is the structural backbone of Kansas and separates the Salina Basin on the east from the Hugoton Embayment on the west. On its higher parts, Precambrian rocks are overlain by rocks as young as Pennsylvanian, and on the flanks pre-Pennsylvanian units are upturned, truncated, and overstepped. To the northwest and on the same trend as the Central Kansas Uplift is the Cambridge Arch (and subsidiary features). This arch, the Central Kansas Uplift, and the Chadron Arch of Nebraska, form an arcuate chain of features convex to the southwest. The Pratt Anticline, a large, broad, southward-plunging nose of the Central Kansas Uplift, dies out southward in Oklahoma. On parts of its crest Mississippian rocks are absent and Pennsylvanian beds overlie Viola Limestone and older formations.
The Hugoton Embayment, a northern shelflike extension of the larger Anadarko Basin of Oklahoma, extends over parts of four states, including one-third of Kansas. The embayment plunges southward and sediments thicken both toward the axis and southward into the Anadarko Basin.
Present structure of Kansas is shown and contrasted by maps on top of the Ogallala (Pliocene), Dakota (Cretaceous), Stone Corral (Permian), Lansing (Pennsylvanian), Mississippian, "Hunton" (Silurian-Devonian), Arbuckle (Cambrian-Ordovician), and Precambrian rocks. Many shallow beds in the Paleozoic succession accurately reflect deeper structure, but because of effects of solution and other modifying conditions, others do not.
Patterns of deformation in Kansas have changed through geologic history; although some areas have always been structurally positive and others always negative, some have been reversed. Incompleteness of the rock record impedes interpretation of events, but stratigraphic studies show that at least since Precambrian time, Kansas has been in a tectonic setting similar to that of the present. By study of a series of isopachous maps it is possible to systematize the pulsating up-and-down movements of the crust and to recognize past patterns of deformation.
Small folds and faults exhibit cross trends at approximately N 12° E, N 40° E, and N 42° W. Structural closure ranges from near nothing to several hundred feet and may change in magnitude and position with depth. Some deep structures are represented at the surface by mere nosing; conversely, many surface structures die out at depth. Structural shapes range from domes to sharp, elongated anticlines.
Small structures, commonly known as plains-type folds, are characterized by uplift with no adjoining depression, thinning of beds over the crest (or increased magnitude with depth), asymmetry, and association with normal faulting; Many explanations have been offered for the origin of these structures, according to the presumed major factor in forming them: (1) tangential compression, (2) torsional stress, (3) differential settling of sediments, and (4) local vertical uplift. Probably all four are important, and each may partly explain a given structure. The present structural pattern in Kansas is believed to be the result of vertical relief of stresses transmitted through the rigid crystalline basement. It is reasonable to assume that anticlinal structures developed as local areas remained high during regional subsidence. Zones or lines of weakness, along which adjustment has developed plains-type folds, are thought to be inherited from Precambrian orogenic movements.
Kansas, located in the heart of the United States on a buried southern extension of the Canadian Shield, which is part of the continental nucleus, is ideally situated for a study of the stable interior of North America (Fig. 1). Sedimentary rocks of the region are those typical of a shallow-shelf environment, structure is gentle--in fact, so gentle that it is sometimes difficult to find--and the land is stable. Nothing in the geologic makeup is dramatic or spectacular; simplicity is the usual, rather than the unusual. The neatly arranged geology of Kansas has been described as monotonous, and perhaps rightly so, by those interested in the bizarre. Geology of the Interior Lowlands has been termed the "science of gently-dipping strata" by King (1959).
Figure 1--Index map of North America showing Kansas in relation to Canadian Shield and Central Stable Region (adapted from Eardley, 1951). Kansas occupies a key position intermediate to cratonic shield area, north and east, and mobile belts, south and west.
Kansas is in a critical position to supply information concerning correlations of the stratigraphy between surface outcrop areas in western Missouri; Nebraska and the Dakotas; the Rocky Mountain area including Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico; and Oklahoma. It is part of a vast area in Mid-America, known as the Great Plains, stretching from the Canadian border on the north to the Rio Grande on the south, and from the Rocky Mountains on the west to the Central Lowlands on the east. It is for the most part blanketed by unconsolidated deposits of Tertiary and Quaternary age that mask the stratigraphy and structure of older beds. The shape and mode of formation of the various geologic units, especially older ones in the area, are of utmost importance in determining geologic history of the Great Plains, as well as in locating buried deposits of mineral wealth.
Within the last decade accelerated test drilling for oil and gas and for ground water in the central part of the Great Plains, in Kansas in particular, has added much new information on the geology of rocks concealed beneath the mantle of younger, unconsolidated deposits. Sufficient control now is available to permit tracing of stratigraphic units and to allow reasonably accurate portrayal of regional structure. This information, in the form of electric and radioactivity logs and well samples, was utilized in preparing this report.
The objectives of this study were multiple. First, and perhaps most important, was the desirability of better understanding the geologic history of Kansas. With an appreciation of the geologic history of Kansas, special problems could then be investigated. Second, it was obvious that stratigraphic units on the surface in eastern and central Kansas should be traced into the subsurface in order to determine which units are present westward. Because only Tertiary, Mesozoic, and upper Paleozoic rocks crop out in Kansas, emphasis was placed on their stratigraphic relations, both at the surface and in the subsurface, and on their regional correlations into adjacent areas. As a result, lower Paleozoic units were, unfortunately, neglected; however, through the work of others considerable data are available regarding them. Special units were selected for study to serve as examples of types of sediments occurring in a stable-shelf environment. Third, it was hoped that some contribution toward the understanding of plains-type folding could be made, based on information accumulated in the last two decades. Plains-type folds are structurally unique in an otherwise almost featureless expanse. The key to the problem, the Precambrian basement complex, is elusive, and much work needs to be done on the predictability of various aspects of these most interesting structures (Merriam, 1961).
The scope of this endeavor is broad. Although much remains to be done, it is hoped that some aims of the project have been met and that with information assembled here other problems can be investigated advantageously. Work on the project began in the fall of 1953 and with only minor interruptions has continued until the present. Because of the nature of the project it was decided that information would be released as it became available. Accordingly, the first publication appeared in 1954 and others followed. A considerable amount of early work, therefore, had to be brought up to date for inclusion here. Most of the published material is included here for completeness and clarity, and credits are made where appropriate. The amount of material available for study--approximately 130,000 drillers logs, 35,000 electric and radioactivity logs, and 10,000 sample logs--required help to collect, compute, and plot in order to bring the project to the present stage of completion. The help, much of it voluntary, is most appreciated and is recognized in the acknowledgments. Although it is not always possible to acknowledge all work, it is hoped that no major omissions have been made; the bibliography is extensive but by no means complete.
Acknowledgments--The study was accomplished under the direction and inspiration of Dr. Raymond C. Moore, whose guidance and counsel is more than appreciated. Dr. Louis F. Dellwig, Dr. Carlile S. Smith, and Dr. H. A. Ireland graciously gave time and effort in helping me with various problems. Dr. M. L. Thompson and Dr. Walter L. Youngquist kindly read parts of the preliminary manuscript. The opportunity to work on the problem was most generously made possible by Dr. John C. Frye.
The project has been supported in its entirety by the Kansas Geological Survey. I am grateful to Dr. Frank C. Foley, State Geologist and Director, who has granted many special privileges and offered many helpful suggestions to speed completion of this work. I especially thank Dr. William W. Hambleton for his many years of encouragement and assistance when most needed. To Mr. Wallace Lee, I am most grateful for acquainting me with Kansas' subsurface and its many problems. Several of my co-workers, including Mr. Paul C. Franks, Dr. Floyd W. Preston, and especially Mr. Edwin D. Goebel, deserve special mention for long hours of discussion with me concerning many geological problems and their solution. My admiration goes to Dr. Ralph H. King, for his patience in editing the entire manuscript. His knowledge of many subjects has been helpful. To Mrs. Polly Smith Boley I extend thanks for checking information and helping to assemble data for final manuscript compilation. She processed and assembled many of the data for later stages in the project, especially material on the Precambrian.
I also thank many petroleum and service companies and geologists working in Kansas for assistance in collecting information that otherwise could not have been obtained; Messrs. Virgil B. Cole, Robert H. Glover, Wendell S. Johns, Roy P. Lehman, Harvel E. White, and Dr. Robert F. Walters have helped in many ways.
Many former students at The University of Kansas have helped the project immeasurably by assembling, computing, and plotting data and by contributing and developing ideas. Their contribution has been considerable, and I hereby gratefully acknowledge the assistance of each: Messrs. N. Sam Ashley, William R. Atkinson, James K. Hays, Sidney N. Hockens, Tim E. Kelly, Richard H. Lefebvre, Robert L. Mehl, Robert W. Parkhurst, Richard L. Schuman, Robert G. Walton, Richard L. Winchell, Rodger White, and Dr. C. John Mann.
Dr. L. B. Ronca kindly provided the Italian abstract; the drafting was supervised by Mr. Ronald Obenchain; the manuscript was typed by Mrs. Carol Roper and Mrs. Lila Watkins; Mrs. Roberta L. Gerhard and Miss Sally S. Liggett helped prepare copy for publication.
Kansas Geological Survey, Geologic History of Kansas
Comments to [email protected]
Web version April 2006. Original publication date Dec. 1963.</s>
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A recent visit to the
garden at the Berks County Campus proves to be an exciting nature lesson and a
feel for how gardening is truly therapeutic for the children who are lucky
enough to participate in the project. Clinician Fred Indenbaum proudly
displayed the 2,200 square foot garden. The 20 beds contained a variety of
crops. Root vegetables like beets, potatoes, and carrots will produce a fall
harvest, along with leafy greens, such as, spinach and lettuce. Tomatoes, spinach, green beans, and
herbs are still plentiful. Decorative gourds and pumpkins are bountiful, as are
huge sunflowers and cabbages. There is much work to be done now that the larger
student body has returned, and Fred is very busy supervising the garden, the
worms in the vermicomposting bins, and planning for next spring.
Fred plans big, and he
usually attracts donors to fund his new projects. This year, he would like to
build a greenhouse, containing a water garden with plants and fish and grow
lights that would allow the children to garden year round. “This fall we will
be very busy clearing the garden beds, planting a cover crop, collecting and
mulching leaves, beautifying the beds in front of the school, and building a
border around the garden. We also need
to clean out our birdhouse to make room for next year’s residents,” Fred
The Therapeutic Effect
Fred is producing some
incredible therapeutic effects through the garden and vermicomposting projects.
He works with kids from grades 1-12, in all three levels of the Berks Partial
Hospitalization program. “I design group activities to address our common
themes – learning to respect all living things and living responsibly.”
For example, Fred takes
the children out to the garden to observe bees. Some children are afraid that
bees will sting them. Fred observes that the bees are very busy working to
collect food for their hive. They have no reason to sting unless the children
tried to harm them. “The garden is not a metaphor for life,” Fred explains, “It
is life. The children are learning to respect others, bees and human beings, so
they can live more peacefully, more harmoniously.”
According to Fred, there
are many life lessons for the children to learn in the garden. He tells the
children that the plants are providing them with gifts, and that they should
always be thankful for these gifts. “I suggest that when they harvest
vegetables, they give thanks for what the plants willingly given them.” Fred
continues, “I relate garden gifts to their parents, who care for them and
willingly give them what they need.
Gratitude, love, and respect are important lessons.”
Many of these children
have been abused, mistreated, or neglected to the point that they do not
respect others. Fred starts fresh with them, helping the children learn to love
and respect plants and then extend those feelings to the people in their lives.
He encourages them to care for the plants and learn to understand them. He
teaches the kids that they can communicate with all living things – plants,
pets, people. Communicating across different languages requires greater effort.
“We should embrace, not dismiss others just because they speak or look
different from us. The garden
teaches us diversity with its many textures, colors, and sizes,” Fred explains.
“All of the plants are different, and they need to be, because they all
contribute to the health of the garden community.”
Many of the children with
whom Fred works are low functioning, and many have significant anger management
issues. He has found that having an angry child water the garden can be very
calming and healing. He also tells them that, without water the plants will
die. “The sound of water is very
soothing. It sparkles in the
light. It pulses in their
hands. The kids also take this
task (watering) very seriously.
The plants are counting on them.
The child’s job is important, which makes the child important.”
Seeds are another learning
tool for Fred to teach the children about life and responsibility. “Seeds are
invigorating because they bring forth life,” Fred says enthusiastically. “I
tell the children that the mother plant protects her babies by putting them
inside a hard shell called a seed.
The babies are inside the seed. The children become more protective of
the seeds as soon as they understand that they are holding babies that need
gentle care.” He adds that seeds and plants do not look or talk like us, but we
are all living things and have much in common.
The Berks County Campus
now has four bins of red worms.
Each bin is 8ft long, 4ft wide, and 1ft deep. Each contains 32 pounds of worms, which will reproduce to 64
pounds to fit their new home. The
worms are very industrious, eating half their weight every day. The children collect their food waste –
compostable tableware and uneaten food – and deliver it to a pulper that chops
it. The kids feed this mixture to
the worms and provide water as needed.
The worms turn this mixture into compost every few months. Fred explains
that the worms move to new “food” once they have digested one section of the
bin. Not only do the worms produce rich compost for the garden, but they have
also reduced the school’s waste by 80%, saving the program approximately $4,000
annually in trash hauling costs.
“These bins contribute to
the community,” Fred explains. “They save landfill space, which is beneficial
for the environment and helps reduce local taxes related to trash pickup. The
children are very proud of their efforts and many have adopted recycling into
their home lives.”
Because President Obama is
promoting green schools, Fred and the children are eager to share their success
with him. They are inviting their local congressional representative to visit
the school, learn about the Garden Program, and deliver an invitation to the
President from the children. With the help of the art teacher, the children
completed a 10ft X 6ft painting of the President, which they intend to give
Fred’s work is driven and
focused and wonderful for the children. They are learning to love and respect
nature and to see how all living things are interconnected in a larger
community of life. Most
importantly, however, the kids are healing the wounds that limit their success</s>
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Chris De Santis ’89 Expanding the Legacy of Langston Hughes
December 15, 2003
In Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, surrounded by the lifework of blues poet Langston Hughes, Chris De Santis eagerly pored over thousands of manuscript pages. The goal of his research? To uncover whether Hughes was a serious writer of nonfiction.
Langston Hughes was one of the most prominent figures to emerge from the 1920s artistic movement known as the Harlem Renaissance. He wrote extensively about the African-American experience.
“Hughes has been widely known as a poet of the people,” says De Santis, an associate professor of African-American and American literature at Illinois State University. “I have been researching his nonfiction works to present a Hughes who is more complex and intellectual.”
In July 2000, the University of Missouri Press asked De Santis to edit Volumes 9 and 10 of The Collected Works of Langston Hughes (November 2001), a compilation to commemorate the 100th anniversary of his birth—February 1, 2002. Volume 9,Essays on Art, Race, Politics, and World Affairs, covers all of Hughes’ nonfiction writings from the early 1920s to his death in 1967. Volume 10, Fight for Freedom and Other Writings on Civil Rights, included Hughes’ history of the NAACP and writings on the civil rights issues of his era.
“Hughes used the essay form as a vehicle through which to comment on the contemporary issues he found most pressing at various stages of his career,” says De Santis. “He generated some of his most powerful critiques of economic and racial exploitation and oppression through the genre of the essay.”
Despite the difficulties of tracking down copyrights and securing permissions to republish, De Santis found working on this project exhilarating. “Hughes’ writings on the blues, the Soviet revolution, and the Jim Crow laws illuminate him as a deep thinker engaged in world events.”
While at Lewis & Clark, De Santis took inspiration from John Callahan, Morgan S. Odell Professor of Humanities, who is widely recognized for his work in African-American literature, especially his editions of four posthumous volumes of Ralph Ellison’s work.
“Callahan had a way of challenging me intellectually,” De Santis recounts. “He’d have me revise my ideas over and over again in order to come up with something amazing.”
In producing these comprehensive volumes on Hughes’ prose, De Santis clearly has lived up to his teacher’s expectation.
—by Shannon Smith</s>
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|Origin:||reducere 'to lead back', from ducere 'to lead'|
re‧duce S1 W1
to make something smaller or less in size, amount, or price [= cut; ↪ reduction]:
The governor announced a new plan to reduce crime.
The helmet law should reduce injuries in motorcycle accidents.
Small businesses will need to reduce costs in order to survive.
reduce something by something
The workforce has been reduced by half.
reduce something (from something) to something
All the shirts were reduced to £10.
The new bridge should reduce travelling time from 50 minutes to 15 minutes.
2 [intransitive and transitive]DFC
if you reduce a liquid, or if it reduces, you boil it so that there is less of it
3 [intransitive] especially American EnglishDCDFN
to become thinner by losing weight [↪ diet]
to be poorer than you were before
reduce somebody/something to somethingphrasal verb
to make someone cry, be silent etc:
She was reduced to tears in front of her students.
to make someone do something they would rather not do, especially when it involves behaving or living in a way that is not as good as before:
Eventually Charlotte was reduced to begging on the streets.
to destroy something, especially a building, completely:
A massive earthquake reduced the city to rubble.
to change something into a shorter simpler form:
Many jobs can be reduced to a few simple points.</s>
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| 3
| 3
|
Evaluation / LD Testing
How is a learning disability identified? What do the test scores mean? For individuals with learning disabilities, assessment becomes a major part of their academic experience. Articles within this section cover issues such as state assessments and standards of learning, high-stakes testing such as graduation tests, and important information for parents regarding evaluations for special education.
There are 37 articles in this section.
Sort by: | Date | Title |
More schools are using a process called Response to Intervention (RTI) to see if a child might have a learning disability. Response to Intervention provides specially designed instruction for children who have scored low on general tests. The students are tested sometimes as often as every week to measure progress. Those who improve after the instructional intervention go back to their normal classroom activities. Those who do not improve receive additional testing to confirm the presence of a disability.
About half of people with learning disabilities also have other related disorders. Learn about ADHD, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, depression, and other difficulties. This article, written by Larry B. Silver, a psychiatrist, tells parents about other related disorders, how they can impact your child, and how you can get a diagnosis.
Information on assessment and who can diagnose LD or AD/HD in adults.
Sometimes a child's differences can be something you can easily see, but for other children, those differences may be hidden.
This PACER Center fact sheet informs parents about evaluation, a process to help determine whether a child has a disability and what the child's educational needs might be. The article discusses the reasons why parents might choose to evaluate their child, types of tests available, factors that should be considered when selecting tests, and questions parents should ask when an evaluation is proposed.
Having seen her older son struggle for years, Jennifer Simpson was able to recognize her daughter�s reading challenges in preschool and get her help right away.
Children who struggle with reading often need extra help. This help usually comes from the school, but some parents choose to look outside the school for professionals who can assess, diagnose, tutor, or provide other education services. The following article provides information on how to find the right person for your child.
The symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder can look like ADHD. This article encourages a comprehensive assessment of children who act inattentive and hyperactive in school.
A valuable resource educators of children with ADHD. The U.S. Dept. of Education shares and easy-to-read outline of tips and legal considerations. Causes, legal requirements for evaluations, treatment options, and hints for effective educational performance are included.
The National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities developed an overview on screening, diagnosing and serving children age four or younger. The document was developed for researchers, administrators, and people who need an academic overview.</s>
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Why Small Groups?
Q. Why do Whooping cranes migrate in small groups and leave at separate times?
A. "The fact that Whooping cranes
have staggered departures helps the species survive. If they all
flew together and encountered a blizzard, or tornadoes, or if they arrived at the nesting grounds too early and
couldn't find food in the ponds still covered with ice, the entire
flock would be in peril. Even with different departure times, all
the adult birds will need to reach the nesting grounds in time to
nest because the northern summer is so short. For this reason,
that depart from the Texas wintering grounds one or two
weeks later than most will make a more rapid migration north and
will nearly catch up with some of the birds that left first." —Biologist
and Whooping Crane Coordinator Tom Stehn, USFWS, Retired
Courtesy of Laura Erickson
Copyright 1997-2015 Journey North (www.learner.org/jnorth). All Rights Reserved. Search</s>
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| 219
| 3.015625
| 3
|
Lat. 'To be informed of.' Refers to the order a court issues so that it can review the decision and proceedings in a lower court and determine whether there were any irregularities. When such an order is made it is said that the court has granted certiorari. Also called 'Cert.'
An order issued by the Supreme Court directing the lower court to transmit records for a case for which it will hear on appeal. Certiorari is the general method most cases make their way to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court since it has specific jurisdiction over a very limited range of disputes.
To be certified of; to be informed of. This is the name of a writ issued from a superior court directed to one of inferior jurisdiction, commanding the latter to certify and return to the former the record in the particular case. A certiorari differs from a writ of error. There is a distinction also between a habeus corpus and a certiorari. The certiorari removes the cause; habeus corpus only supersedes the proceedings below.
By the common law a supreme court has power to review the proceedings of all inferior tribunals and to pass upon their jurisdiction and decisions on questions of law. But in general the determination of such inferior courts on questions of fact are conclusive and cannot be reversed on certiorari unless some statute confers the power on such supreme court. When any error has occurred in the proceedings of the court below different from the course of the common law, in any stage of the cause, either civil or criminal cases, the writ of certiorari is the only remedy to correct such error, unless some other statutory remedy has been given. A certiorari, for example, is the correct process to remove the proceedings of a court of sessions or of county commissioners in laying out highways.
Sometimes the writ of certiorari is used as auxiliary process in order to obtain a full return to some other process. When, for example, the record of an inferior court is brought before a superior court by appeal, writ of error, or other lawful mode, and there is a manifest defect, or a suggestion of diminution, a certiorari is awarded requiring a perfect transcript and all papers.</s>
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- May 8, 2015
- 1 comment
This is the EV3 projectile launcher, inspired by RobotlCare’s Ball3r. The goal behind the EV3 Projectile Launcher is to provide students with a way to explore projectile motion by creating a LEGO EV3 robot to generate it. After creating the launch structure, students will need to derive a relationship between EV3...</s>
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| 2.65625
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Click the following link to bring up a new window with an automated collection of images related to the term: Roburite Images
Lexicographical Neighbors of Roburite
Literary usage of Roburite
Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:
1. Transactions of the Manchester Geological Society by Manchester Geological Society (1890)
"He said he had had some experience of the use of roburite in mines, as the Wigan Coal and Iron ... At Kirkless they tried to explode the gas by roburite ..."
2. Outlines of Industrial Chemistry: A Text-book for Students by Frank Hall Thorp, Charles D. Demond (1905)
"... they are very powerful in many cases, and some of them are extensively used. roburite consists of ... and securite are somewhat similar to roburite. ..."
3. The Hygiene, Diseases and Mortality of Occupations by John Thomas Arlidge (1892)
"Vigorous purging and sweating was the treatment adopted (British Medical Journal, 1891, p. 800). roburite.—In the same number of the journal, at p. ..."
4. A Text-book of Coal-mining: For the Use of Colliery Managers and Others by Herbert William Hughes (1898)
"roburite.—This belongs to the hydrocarbon class of explosives, ... roburite cannot be exploded by blows of a hammer, as it requires a very powerful ..."
5. Nitro-explosives: A Practical Treatise Concerning the Properties by Percy Gerald Sanford (1896)
"Explosives derived from Benzene—Toluene and Nitro-Benzene—Di- and Tri-nitro-Benzene—roburite : Properties and Manufacture ..."
6. The Hygiene, Diseases and Mortality of Occupations by John Thomas Arlidge (1892)
"801, Mr. Spurgin shortly described a case of poisoning by roburite, a substance known to contain nitric oxide and carbonic oxide. ..."
7. A Handbook on Modern Explosives: A Practical Treatise on the Manufacture and by Manuel Eissler (1897)
"THE Sprengel Explosives—Flameless Explosives—roburite—Experiments with roburite and other Explosives—Mr. Hilton-s Rules for using ..."</s>
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What is urology?
Urology is a surgical specialty that deals with conditions and diseases of the genitourinary system – specifically the male and female urinary tract -- as well as the male reproductive organs. A urologist treats a wide variety of conditions affecting the bladder, urethra, kidneys, adrenal glands, ureters, as well as male reproductive organs (tests, epididymis, seminal vesicles, vans deferens, prostate and penis).What are urologists and what do they do?
Urologists, also known as genitourinary surgeons, treat conditions that are, chronic, acute, malignant or benign. Conditions may include kidney stones, genital trauma, impotence and incontinence, as well as disorders of the kidney, bladder and prostate. Some of the common conditions a urologist treats are incontinence
(leaking of urine), the inability to urinate, urinary urgency (a sudden, compelling urge to urinate), and urinary tract infections
. Some of the procedures urologists perform include endurology, a minimally invasive technique using small cameras and instruments inserted in the urinary tract; laparoscopy and robot-assisted surgery of the prostate, kidney and ureter.
Since urologists encounter a wide variety of urological conditions, they must have knowledge of internal medicine, pediatrics, gynecology and other specialties. Urologists often interact with internists, pediatricians and gynecologists in managing patient care. What are the subspecialties of urology?
The American Urological Association defines seven subspecialty areas of urology:
What other conditions does a urologist treat?
Urologic oncology – Cancer of the kidneys, bladder, prostate or ureter
Renal transplantation – Kidney transplant
Andrology – Male infertility, erectile dysfunction and ejaculatory disorders
Calculi– Urinary tract stones
Female urology – Urinary incontinence and pelvic outlet relaxation disorders
Neurourology– Voiding disorders, urodynamic evaluation of patients
In addition to common conditions such as incontinence and urinary tract infections, urologists treat:
Related Articles:How to Prevent and Treat Urinary Tract InfectionsStraight Talk on Overactive Bladder5 Sex Problems Women Face5 Solutions for Lopsided Libido
- Enlarged prostate – When the prostate gland grows larger than normal; also known as benign prostatic hyperplasia
- Erectile dysfunction – Trouble developing or maintaining an erection
- Sexual dysfunction– Difficulty experienced by an individual or couple during any stage of sexual activity, including lack of desire, arousal or orgasm
- Interstitial cystitis – Painful bladder syndrome
- Kidney stones/bladder stones – Solid concentrations created from dietary minerals in the urine that congregate in the kidneys, ureters or bladder
- Pediatric urology – Congenital (present from birth) anomalies, bed wetting
- Peyronie's disease– Curvature of the penis. An abnormal bend in the penis that occurs during erection
- Reflux nephropathy - Kidney damage due to backwards flow of urine
- Varicocele – Abnormal enlargement of the vein in the scrotum draining the testicles
- Wegener’s granulomatosis – A life-threatening form of vasculitis (inflammation of the blood vessels) that affects the nose, lungs, kidneys and other organs</s>
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Main Page | Risk Factors | Symptoms | Diagnosis | Treatment | Screening | Reducing Your Risk | Talking to Your Doctor | Resource Guide
Bariatric surgery may be done on people who:
This type of surgery promotes weight loss by restricting food intake or by interrupting the digestive process. It may be a good option for people who are unable to lower their weight by other means. But even after surgery, the best long-term results are achieved by eating appropriately and participating in a regular physical activity program.
A thorough evaluation, particularly of your nutritional status, will precede any discussion of obesity surgery. An additional requirement is that you have made multiple attempts to lose weight by nonsurgical means. Before deciding if surgery is the right option for you, you will probably meet with a dietitian who will help you to prepare for the dramatic change in your eating habits that will occur after surgery. You will learn how to balance sound nutrition with smaller portions. This is because after surgery you will not be able to eat very much at each sitting.
The two main types of weight loss surgery are:
Restrictive operations restrict food intake and do not interfere with the normal digestive process. To do the surgery, doctors create a small pouch at the top of the stomach where food enters from the esophagus. As a result of this surgery, most people lose the ability to eat large amounts of food at one time and food must be well chewed.
Although restrictive operations lead to weight loss in most patients, they are less successful than malabsorptive operations in achieving substantial, long-term weight loss. About 30% of those who undergo VBG achieve normal weight, and about 80% achieve some degree of weight loss. Some patients regain weight. Others are unable to adjust their eating habits and fail to lose the desired weight. Successful results depend on your willingness to adopt a long-term plan of healthy eating and regular physical activity.
Restrictive operations for obesity include:
In this procedure, your doctor will place a row of staples down your stomach. This will reduce your stomach to a banana size pouch. The remaining part of the stomach will then be removed. About 85% of the stomach will be removed.
This procedure is often done as a laparoscopic surgery. With this type of surgery, only small incisions are needed. Tiny surgical instruments including a camera will be passed through these incisions. The doctor can use these tools to complete the surgery. An open surgery may be needed for some. During an open surgery a larger incision is needed. The incision will allow your doctor to see the stomach and surrounding area.
In this procedure, a hollow band made of special material is placed around the stomach near its upper end, creating a small pouch and a narrow passage into the larger remainder of the stomach. The band is then inflated with a salt solution. It can be tightened or loosened over time to change the size of the passage by increasing or decreasing the amount of salt solution. After this procedure, weight loss averages 50% of excess body weight.
Adjustable Gastric Banding
Copyright © Nucleus Medical Media, Inc.
In VBG, both a band and staples are used to create a small stomach pouch. This procedure is less commonly done now. .
A common complication of restrictive operations is vomiting. This is caused when the small stomach is overly stretched by food particles that have not been chewed well. After laparoscopic AGB, up to 89% of patients complained of side effects, including abdominal pain, heartburn, nausea, band slippage, or band erosion. Moreover, 25% wanted the procedure reversed either due to side effects or inadequate weight loss. Risks of VBG include wearing away of the band and breakdown of the staple line. In a small number of cases, stomach juices may leak into the abdomen, requiring emergency surgery. In less than 1% of all cases, infection or death may occur.
Malabsorptive operations are the most common gastrointestinal surgeries for weight loss. They restrict both food intake and the amount of calories and nutrients the body absorbs.
Malabsorptive operations produce more weight loss than restrictive operations and are more effective in reversing the health problems associated with severe obesity. Patients who have malabsorptive operations generally lose two-thirds of their excess weight within two years.
Malabsorptive operations for weight loss include:
is the most common and successful type of malabsorptive surgery. First, a small stomach pouch is created to restrict food intake. Next, a section of the small intestine is attached to the pouch to allow food to bypass the lower stomach, the duodenum (the first segment of the small intestine), and the first portion of the jejunum (the second segment of the small intestine). This bypass reduces the amount of calories and nutrients the body absorbs.
In this more complicated malabsorptive operation, portions of the stomach are removed. The small pouch that remains is connected directly to the final segment of the small intestine, completely bypassing the duodenum and the jejunum. Although this procedure successfully promotes weight loss, it is less frequently used than other types of surgery because of the high risk of nutritional deficiencies. A variation of BPD includes a “duodenal switch,” which leaves a larger portion of the stomach intact, including the pyloric valve that regulates the release of stomach contents into the small intestine. It also keeps a small part of the duodenum in the digestive pathway.
In addition to the risks of restrictive surgeries, malabsorptive operations also carry greater risk for dietary deficiencies. This is because the procedure causes food to bypass the duodenum and jejunum, where most
, and other nutrients are absorbed. Menstruating women may develop
because not enough
and iron are absorbed. Decreased absorption of calcium may also lead to
and metabolic bone disease. Patients are required to take nutritional supplements that help prevent these deficiencies. Patients who have the BPD must also take fat-soluble (dissolved by fat)
RGB and BPD operations may also cause “dumping syndrome,” which means that stomach contents move too rapidly through the small intestine. Symptoms include nausea, weakness, sweating, faintness, and sometimes
after eating. Because the duodenal switch operation keeps the pyloric valve intact, it may reduce the likelihood of dumping syndrome.
The more extensive the bypass, the greater the risk of complications and nutritional deficiencies. Patients with extensive bypasses of the normal digestive process require close monitoring and life-long use of special foods, supplements, and medicines.
Surgery is only the beginning of your weight loss program. Expect to be in close touch with your healthcare team for years afterward. There may come a time when the surgical changes can be or must be returned to normal, either because of your successful weight reduction and behavior changes or because of complications.
Obesity in adults. EBSCO DynaMed website. Available at:
. Updated August 16, 2012. Accessed August 28, 2012.
Obesity in children and adolescents. EBSCO DynaMed website. Available at:
. Updated July 25, 2012. Accessed August 28, 2012.
Bariatric surgery. EBSCO DynaMed website. Available at: http://www.ebscohost.com/dynamed/what.php. Updated August 24, 2012. Accessed August 28, 2012.
Walsh J. Sleeve gastrectomy as a stand alone bariatric procedure for obesity. California Technology Assessment Forum website. Available at: http://www.ctaf.org/UserFiles/File/2010%20Oct/Vertical%20Sleeve%20Gast%20final%20draft.pdf. Updated October 2010. Accessed July 26, 2012.
Mechanick JI, Kushner RF, Sugerman HJ, et al. American Assocaition of Clinical Endocrinologists, The Obesity Society, and American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery medical guidelines for clinical practice for the perioperative nautritional, metabolic, and nonsurgical support of the bariatric surgery patient.
Weight-control Information Network.
National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases
website. Available at:
. Accessed August 28, 2012.
Snow V, Barry P, Fitteman N, Qaseem A, et al. Pharmacologic and surgical management of obesity in primary care: a clinical practice guideline from the American College of Physicians.
Ann Intern Med.
Way LW, Doherty GM.
CURRENT Surgical Diagnosis and Treatment
. 15th ed. New York, NY: Lange; 2002
2/19/2010 DynaMed's Systematic Literature Surveillance
DynaMed's Systematic Literature Surveillance
: Picot J, Jones J, Colquitt JL, et al. The clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of bariatric (weight loss) surgery for obesity: a systematic review and economic evaluation.
Health Technol Assess.
2009;13:1-190, 215-357, iii-iv.</s>
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That's a question stamp collectors hear pretty regularly. It's also a question that many collectors like to ask each other.
Stamp collectors are frequently seen peering intently through a magnifying glass at a stamp.
Magnification brings up a number of details that are important to stamp collectors, from information about the stamp's condition to the tiniest images concealed within the design.
An important feature of a magnifier is the apparent degree of magnification, expressed as "power." For example, a magnifier that enlarges an image to appear twice its actual size is described as having a "two power" magnification. In print, this is usually indicated with a symbol "x," as in "2x" magnification.
Some larger magnifiers have a power of 1.5x, which increases the overall visibility of a small object — but not by much.
That type of magnifier can be used to make a general inspection of a postage stamp a little easier.
Greater magnification makes it possible to closely inspect the outer edges of the stamp for condition faults. Magnification of 6x or more gives the collector an enhanced view of small details within the stamp design.
One drawback of any handheld magnifier is that the collector must find the focal point — the precise distance between the lens and the object where the object is properly in focus when viewed through the lens — and hold the magnifier steady at that location.
A static magnifier works differently. With a magnification of 8x or 10x, the static magnifier rests on the stamp or other object that is being examined and enlarges it enough to study finer details of printing, paper and more. It has a fixed focal point between the lens and the object, so the viewer does not need to adjust the distance.
Because the lightweight static magnifier rests upon the object that is being studied, it is always a good idea to lift the magnifier carefully off the stamp before moving it to inspect another area. This should avert the potential for damage to the stamp.
Another type of magnifier is the illuminated microscope. Although it sounds expensive, some handheld illuminated microscopes sell for as little as $10.
Some pocket microscopes provide 30x magnification. This degree of image enlargement has at least a couple of useful applications. The United States Postal Service makes occasional use of a security printing feature known as microprinting. Extremely small lettering, normally invisible to the naked eye, is placed within the stamp design on selected issues to help detect counterfeit stamps.
While microprinting is normally legible when viewed with powerful magnification, the relatively low resolution of standard scanners and photocopiers causes the lettering to become unreadable on a reproduction of the stamp.
The microscope also provides a remarkably close examination of printing details, such as the dot-like impressions of gravure printing or the raised images found on line-engraved designs.
A number of illuminated handheld magnifiers are available, some with adjustable light intensities and plug-in capabilities. Collectors can also purchase magnifiers with precision scales that measure the detail of the magnified object.
Regular stamp hobby supply advertisers in Linn's Stamp News offer a large selection of magnifiers, with prices ranging from a couple of dollars to a couple hundred dollars. The higher prices are charged for additional features like protective lens coatings, color correcting lenses and so on.
So, with your magnifier in hand, just what is it that you're looking at?
Most collectors use magnification to check details of condition and design.
The condition of a stamp is a significant component of its value. If a stamp has physical faults, its value is substantially reduced.
Because of the small size of the postage stamp, even minute faults are a matter of concern.
It is important for the collector who intends to buy or trade for a stamp of any value to first inspect that stamp for possible defects.
The best reason of all for using a magnifier is to admire the beauty of a line-engraved stamp design.
For more than a century, the vast majority of United States stamps were intaglio-printed, reproducing via a recess printing process a design that is line-engraved in steel.
The resulting image consists of extremely fine lines and remarkable detail that are a testimony to the engraver's skill. For the stamp collector, the magnifier is a tool that allows him to learn about the fantastic items he collects.
July 23, 2015 04:35 PMThe Tieton, Wash., post office is a simple 1935 cement block building with a slat wood facade. Townsfolk in the agricultural community of 1,200 in central Washington believe the post office could become a landmark, if only the United States Postal Service would allow them to cover the front with a stamp-like mosaic. Read More ›
July 23, 2015 03:11 PMThe American Philatelic Society will host the nation’s largest annual stamp exhibition Aug. 20-23. The show will take place at the DeVos Place Convention Center, 303 Monroe Ave. NW, Grand Rapids, Mich. Read More ›
July 21, 2015 01:00 PMLinn’s Washington Correspondent Bill McAllister recently reported that the Inspector General of the United States Postal Service has taken the nation’s mail agency to task for intentionally creating 100 upright $2 Jenny Invert panes. Read More ›
July 19, 2015 07:23 PMHere in Sidney, Ohio, when the hot, sultry days of summer are upon us, the Scott catalog editors begin to feel the heat of deadlines for the two Scott specialized catalogs. Read More ›
Watch as Scott catalog senior editor Marty Frankevicz discusses the largest souvenir card produced by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. The card is one of three issued to honor the centenary of San Francisco’s Panama-Pacific International Exposition.
Watch as Linn’s Stamp News associate editor Michael Baadke discusses Canada’s recently recalled $1.20 Dinosaur Provincial Park stamps featuring inaccurately described Hoodoo rock formations.
Watch as Linn’s Stamp News editorial director Donna Houseman discusses the discovery of another pane of the intentionally created upright variety of the $2 Jenny Invert stamp.
Chad Snee discusses the recent sale of the glass locket containing the famed 1918 Jenny Invert airmail error stamp.
It is always a treat to get to see stamp dealers’ own collections.
In the recently concluded Linn’s United States Stamp Popularity Poll, the Circus Posters set of eight stamps was chosen as the overall favorite issue of 2014.
Dispersal of the splendid Daniel B. Curtis collection continued March 25, with Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries gaveling items from United States back-of-the-book and possessions.
The 175th anniversary of the first postage stamp, Great Britain's Penny Black, is May 6, but the stamp was placed on sale May 1, 1840, for mailers to use beginning on May 6, the designated issue date.</s>
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O'Reilly Book Excerpts: J2ME in a Nutshell
The Mobile Information Device Profile and MIDlets, Part 4by Kim Topley
To illustrate the MIDlet lifecycle and how it can be controlled, we'll create a very simple MIDlet that does the following:
- Prints a message when its constructor is called.
- Creates a timer that fires from time to time, putting the MIDlet in the paused state if it is active and returning it to the active state if it is paused. When the timer has been through this cycle twice, it terminates the MIDlet.
- Creates a background thread when it is started that simply prints a message every second. This thread is allowed to run only when the MIDlet is active.
Since you haven't yet seen how to create user interfaces, this example MIDlet communicates by writing messages to its standard output stream. On a real device, you can't see what is written to standard output or standard error (unless you are using debug facilities provided by the device vendor), but most device emulators provide a way to monitor the content of these streams. There are several products available that allow you to build and test MIDlets either in an emulated environment or on the real device; some of these products are described in Chapter 9. Here, we'll use the Wireless Toolkit, which is available free of charge from Sun.
Building a MIDlet with the Wireless Toolkit
The Wireless Toolkit provides an implementation of MIDP together with an emulator that can be customized to look and behave somewhat like a number of real cell phones. It can also be used in conjunction with a third-party emulator that allows you to see how your MIDlets would behave on handhelds that are based on PalmOS. It is not, however, a complete development enviroment, because it does not provide an integrated editor to allow you to create, view, and modify source code. Consequently, if you want to use the Wireless Toolkit as part of a complete development cycle, you will need a text editor or IDE to manage the source code. At the time of writing, the Wireless Toolkit can be installed to integrate with Forte for Java, which is available for download from Sun's web site, and Borland JBuilder, but any IDE will do.
The first step when using the Wireless Toolkit is to create a project, which manages the source code, classes, and resources corresponding to a MIDlet suite. To do this, start the
KToolbar and press the New Project button to open the New Project dialog, which is shown in Figure 3-5. For this example, the name of the MIDlet's main class should be
ora.ch3.ExampleMIDlet, and the project name can be anything you like.
When you press the Create Project button in the dialog, the Wireless Toolkit opens another window, shown in Figure 3-6; it contains a set of tabs that allow you to provide the attributes used to generate the manifest for the MIDlet's JAR and the JAD file. You can edit these attributes by clicking the cell that you want to change and typing the new value. The fields on the Required tab contain the attributes shown in Table 3-2 that are marked as mandatory. Most of the values supplied by default can be used without modification. For example, the
MIDlet-Name field (which is actually the name that will be used for the MIDlet suite, not for any individual MIDlet) matches the project name, and the name of the JAR that will be created is also derived from the project name. The only field you might want to change on this tab is
MIDlet-Vendor, which is initially set to
Sun Microsystems by default.</s>
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Action-lists are a unified approach to various different mechanisms for running initializations, or "hook" functions at various points during the life of the system. They provide central gathering points for applications to trigger on system-wide events such as start-up, disk-save, and so on.
An action-list is a tagged list of data, to be executed (in some sense) in sequence whenever the circumstance identified by its tag occurs. It is expected that whatever code detects or causes the circumstance will take care of running the action-list.
An execution-function can be specified for the action-list when it is created. Otherwise, the default behavior is to treat the data of each action as a callable and apply it to any additional arguments specified at execution time. At its simplest, an action-list emulates
(map nil 'funcall)
Names of action-lists and action-items are general lisp objects, compared with
. This allows strings and other objects to be used as unique identifiers.
Actions can be specified to depend on other actions; when defining an action-item, you can say that it must be before or after other action-items using the
keywords. Aside from that, actions are assumed to have no dependencies, and no order of execution should be counted on for the actions in a list.
You can (and are encouraged to) specify a documentation string for action-lists or action-items.
In addition you can create action-lists that are not registered globally. This allows applications to have disembodied action lists for their own internal purposes. The other action-list functions allow an action-list to be passed in instead of a name, to accommodate this.</s>
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A species of snail-eating caterpillar from Maui. You can see how the caterpillar has used silk, like a spider, to pin down its snail prey. Having rendered the snail helpless and immobile, the caterpillar is entering the snail's shell to being feeding on its soft flesh. [Image © Science]
Caterpillars in Hawaii trap snails with silk webs and devour their captive prey alive, scientists announced today.
Predatory caterpillars are very rare -- only a few other species are known in the world. Of the 150,000 species of moths and butterflies known worldwide, only about 200 are predatory.
This newly described species, Hyposmocoma molluscivora, is the only known moth or butterfly larva to eat shelled animals like snails. The caterpillars are small -- only about eight millimeters -- and lug their silk casings from leaf to leaf.
This discovery Daniel Rubinoff and William Haines of the University of Hawaii is published in the July 22 issue of the journal Science.
Meat only, please
The caterpillars are strictly meat eaters -- they don't eat plants even when starving.
They take a page from the spider handbook of hunting, using silk otherwise designed for cocoon-making to snag their snail snacks. When a hungry caterpillar runs into an unsuspecting snail on a branch or leaf, the caterpillar immediately begins to attach the snail to the leaf with silk webbing.
The webbing apparently prevents the snail from sealing itself against attack or fleeing by dropping to the ground. Next, the caterpillar wedges its case next to or inside the opening of the snail's shell.
It stretches its body out from the case, and corners the snail in the back of its own home. There is no place for the snail to run or hide as the caterpillar eats it alive, leaving nothing but an empty shell.
And that's not even the trickiest part. Many caterpillar casings were observed to have the tiny shells stuck to them, probably as camouflage.
The new caterpillars join a collection of unusual insects native only to Hawaii. Ambush caterpillars, damselflies with nymphs that live on the ground, and spiders that spear their prey in flight are all examples of Hawaiian insect oddities.
The Hawaiian island chain is the most isolated land mass in the world, and the authors say this discovery provides further evidence for how species isolation leads to the evolution of unusual hunting strategies and other traits.
Although these caterpillars have only been recently discovered, it's possible they may not be around for long. Current widespread destruction of lowland habitats and the wiping out of large numbers of native Hawaiian plant species could lead to the caterpillar's extinction.
Today, some of the last bits of the forests these snail-eating caterpillars call home are located in nature preserves.</s>
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One hundred fifty years ago, Michigans first telegraph line was completed from Detroit to Ypsilanti, just in time for Christmas. Even more than e-mail today, the telegraph changed the way Americans communicated with each other in 1847 and for a long time thereafter.
What has largely been forgotten in the decades since is that the federal government first controlled the telegraph business. Only when it was privatized did it expand beyond the East Coast and become profitable. By the time the telegraph system was built in Michigan, it had become a genuine experiment in successful private enterprise. Heres the story.
In 1844, the federal government subsidized and controlled the nations first telegraph wirea Washington to Baltimore line built by Samuel Morse. His system of dots and dashes, run electronically through a magnetic wire, instantly conveyed letters of the alphabet to listeners many miles away.
When the effectiveness of this Morse Code was proven, some people wanted only the governmentthrough the Post Officeto build and operate lines throughout the country. For example, Cave Johnson, the Postmaster General, argued that the use of the telegraph "so powerful for good or evil, cannot with safety to the people be left in the hands of private individuals uncontrolled." Only the government, Johnson concluded, could be trusted to operate the telegraph in "the public interest."
Americans today are more likely than those 150 years ago to accept the argument that if something is good, government ought to do it and, in fact, can do it in "the public interest" better than private enterprise. At the time of the telegraph debate, however, people respected the Constitution as a check on the growth of government and the federal telegraph monopoly didnt last very long.
Not only was there no authority in the Constitution for the government to build a telegraph, but the Washington to Baltimore line was losing money every month of its operation. During 1845, expenditures for the telegraph exceeded revenue by six-to-one and sometimes by ten-to-one each month. Washington bureaucrats could not figure out how to market the new invention and could not imagine what uses people might have for it. In 1846, Congress officially turned the telegraph business over to private enterprise and allowed an unfettered marketplace to spread its wings.
Finally, in the hands of entrepreneurs, the telegraph business expanded immediately. Telegraph promoters showed the press how it could instantly report stories occurring hundreds of miles away. Bankers and stock brokers saw how they could live in Philadelphia and invest daily in New York. Even policemen used the telegraph to catch escaped criminals. As the quality of service improved, telegraph lines were strung all over the settled portions of the country.
By 1847, two private companies were competing for business in the old Northwest Territory. Bringing the telegraph hundreds of miles into Michigan was a major challenge for private enterprise. Keeping wires from breaking, sealing them under water, and maintaining the strength of the signal over half the continent did stretch the capabilities of even the best entrepreneurs.
F. O. J. Smith, head of the Erie and Michigan Telegraph Company, showed much enthusiasm coming to Detroit. "Our Lake lines are to be the great receptacles of the Western intercourse with the Atlantic," Smith proposed. And he reminded his staff to "keep boldly in view the cheapness of the lines offered and the magnificence of the main arteries." The Detroit to Ypsilanti line was built along the Michigan Central Railroad and, when it was completed, Michigan had instant access to news and financial markets back in New York.
The Michigan connection gave courage to Smith and other private investors to build wires across the continent and, in 1866, across the Atlantic Ocean. Such a connection with the outside world must have been even more startling to Michiganians of the mid-1800s than radio, television, and e-mail were to later generations.
When government operated the first telegraph, Washington bureaucrats received no profits from the messages they sent on the wire. And the cash they lost each month was not their own; it was mere taxpayer money. Therefore, officials had no incentive to improve service on the telegraph, find new customers, or expand it to more cities.
When Congress privatized the telegraph, Samuel Morse, F. O. J. Smith and other entrepreneurs had strong incentives to find new customers, give them good service, and build wire into Michigan and across the continent. The cheaper and better they could do this, the more business they could attract. Just fifteen years after Congress privatized the telegraph, both the costs of construction and the rates for service linking the major cities were as little as one-tenth of the original rates established by Washington.
Contrary to Postmaster Johnson, Americans had learned that it was privatization, not government control, that really supported the "public interest."</s>
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Bay Backpack - Chesapeake Bay Program/NOAA
Everything Chesapeake is right here! Learn some creative ways to integrate the Chesapeake Bay and environmental issues into your classroom lessons. The Bay Backpack's books, multimedia, curriculum guides, individual lesson plans and online data sources help bring environmental education into the classroom.
Bayville Online Field Trip!
Students become virtual research assistants for a video production company looking for significant stories about the science of the Chesapeake Bay.
Chesapeake Bay- Introduction to an Ecosystem
Full document from NOAA's Chesapeake Bay Program and EPA
Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) Air, land and water resources for students, teachers and the community
Clean Air Partners On the Air curriculum featuring seven units on air quality, health and climate change. Sign up for the Air Alert or get the app from Clean Air Partners.
CLEAN: Climate Literacy & Energy Awareness Network A Part of the National Science Digital Library, contains reviewed resources and an online community to share teaching strategies
Environmental Literacy and Inquiry Middle school teaching modules on energy, climate change and land use from Lehigh University.
National Sustainability Education Standards
Includes a national listserv for K12 educators focused on education for sustainability
JASON Project Curriculum
Curriculum, professional development and live events in STEM education.
American Museum of Natural History
Searchable catalog of lessons and learning materials including videos and data visualizations about global biodiversity, Earth & Space science, human biology and evolution
Project Wild Links to MD Curriculum
Social Studies middle school modules about Environmental History and Forests!
School & Classroom Projects
The Amphibian Project
- multiple sources of amphibian curricula; conceptual and hands-on projects for all grades
Every October, thousands of Growing Native volunteers collect native hardwood tree seeds, such as acorns and walnuts. These seeds are donated to state nurseries, which grow them into seedlings. In the spring, volunteers plant seedlings grown from seeds collected two to three years prior along the banks of rivers and streams in their communities.
DNR's School Check-Up Guide
Get your free copy of the new guide with lessons on energy, waste, and water assessments for your school!
Oyster Recovery Partnership Students, families and organizations working to restore oyster populations.
Citizen Science (Scientific American) Various projects, ZomBee, Students' Cloud Observations Online (S'COOL), and Marine Debris Tracker, for individual students and classes.
Bird Sleuth (Cornell Lab of Ornithology) K-12 resources and activities to build science skills and encourage students to investigate habitats and explore biodiversity.
Planning a Low Impact Car Wash Fundraiser
School System Environmental Pages
(Informal Environmental Education Centers are listed under "Organizations.")
National Renewable Energy Lab (USDoE)
Solar Sprint/Hydrogen Fuel Cell Car Competition for Middle School
National Atlas WebSite
U.S. Department of the Interior
Create maps and layer them with data from agriculture, geology, hydrology, topography, biology, more.
National Park Service Curriculum Materials
Energy Star for K12 School Districts Success Stories, Resources and Recognition
NASA LandSat lesson plans Global climate change education modules
Environmental Education Resources NAAEE (EE-Linked)
Environmental Literacy Council Information and resources on environmental topics, curriculum materials and textbook reviews.
Geographic Information Systems Accessing the right data is the key to getting the most value out of your GIS enterprise. ArcData and Geography Network offer search tools, services, and software
Global Climate Change NASA global climate change education resources
EPA Environmental Projects, Resources & Awards</s>
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Make fresh produce part of the school day!
Photo courtesy of Yough Glades Elementary School
What is it?
A new U.S. Department of Agriculture initiative, the Fresh Fruits and Vegetables Program (FFVP), administered by the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE)’s School and Community Nutrition Programs Branch is working to increase children’s consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables.
The FFVP reimburses selected elementary schools for serving fresh fruit and vegetables to students at a rate of $50-75 per student per year. This popular program targets schools with a high percentage of low-income students. The fruits and vegetables are served as a snack during the school day, outside the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs.
The FFVP became a nationwide program starting July 1, 2008. The funding level is $65 million nationwide for School Year (SY) 2009-2010 and will increase to $101 million for SY 2010-2011 and $150 million for SY 2011-2012.
The FFVP has made a positive impact on the eating habits of students in participating schools. Schools are building exciting learning activities around the FFVP. Students, teachers, parents, and principals love the program.
“The students eagerly await the delivery in the afternoon of the fruits and vegetables to the classrooms, to see what they will be receiving.”
- Hillcrest Elementary School, Frederick County
“Ferndale has had many parents comment that their child is now eating more fruits and veggies, trying more fruits & vegetables, and not so much afraid to try new things.”
– Ferndale Elementary School, Anne Arundel County
MSDE would like to get more schools involved next year. The program helps students build healthy habits that last a lifetime by combining tastings with nutrition education!
Who is Eligible?
To participate, schools must be elementary schools, participate in the National School Lunch Program, and at least 50 percent of students in the school must be eligible for free or reduced-price meals. Schools must apply for participation each year.
Forty-four schools participated in the FFVP during SY 2008-2009. Increases in federal funding next school year will allow the program to expand. For further information and to learn more about how to participate contact 410-767-0214.
FFVP School Participation Data
FFVP Fact Sheet
FFVP Training for Teachers and School Nutrition Staff</s>
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Massachusetts law requires that human health be protected from harmful exposures to chemicals at hazardous waste sites. Under that law, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) enforces clean-up regulations that are designed to protect human health and the environment.
Could contamination from a site pose a risk of harmful health effects?
When people are exposed to chemical contamination from a waste site, the potential for health effects depends on the amount of a chemical taken into the body and the toxicity of the chemical. Chemicals can enter the body through activities such as drinking contaminated water and touching contaminated soil; this is called exposure. Many people who live or work near a waste site may not be exposed to contamination, so they would not be at a risk of harm.
How does MassDEP protect people from contamination?
MassDEP requires clean-up of waste sites to protect human health. To identify protective clean-up levels, MassDEP requires thorough risk assessments to evaluate the potential for health effects from the site. Risk assessments link the chemical toxicity and expected human exposure with the potential for health effects. The conclusions of the risk assessment determine contaminant levels at which an action should be taken to meet MassDEP risk limits and prevent health effects. The assessments do not predict actual health outcomes; in other words, even if risks exceed MassDEP risk limits, the results do not mean you have been harmed or will experience health effects.
What do the risk conclusions mean?
The risk assessment conclusions indicate whether site-related health effects can be ruled out or if clean-up is necessary. Risk assessments are designed to guide site cleanup activities that will protect human health. To link risk assessment results to clean-up decisions, MassDEP has established several risk levels of concern:
No Significant Risk means that long term exposure to chemicals from the site is not hazardous to health. The calculated health risks from current and foreseeable exposures must be below MassDEP limits to conclude No Significant Risk. A finding of No Significant Risk means a site is clean enough, and no further action is required to protect human health.
Significant Risk means that actions to reduce or eliminate exposures must be taken in order to protect against health effects from long term exposures.
Substantial Hazard means that actions to reduce or eliminate continued exposure must be taken to protect human health. If an ongoing exposure were allowed to continue for five more years at the site, it would pose a significant risk of harm to human health. A Substantial Hazard condition must be eliminated.
Imminent Hazard means that immediate action must be taken to reduce or eliminate the exposure at the site because short-term exposure (five years or less) poses a risk of harm to human health. An Imminent Hazard does not mean that health effects will occur. It means that health effects could result from short term exposures, and therefore immediate action to reduce or eliminate exposures is warranted.
How are risks estimated?
When contamination is discovered, environmental professionals evaluate the information about the chemical contamination at the waste site to determine whether it might pose a risk to human health. This is called a risk assessment, and it estimates the likelihood of health effects from exposures to hazardous chemicals. A risk assessment evaluates the potential for both cancer and non-cancer types of health effects and then compares the results to MassDEP risk limits. These risk limits are set to protect people who may be exposed to multiple chemicals at a site.
The risk assessment relies on calculations that include toxicity information from scientific studies and contaminant concentrations in soil, water, and indoor air at the site. It evaluates the potential for health effects to the most sensitive and exposed groups, such as children who frequently play in soil. By assuming exposure to the most sensitive groups or those who would be most exposed, the risk assessment addressees everyone who might come in contact with chemicals from the site. A conclusion of No Significant Risk therefore means that health effects for even the sensitive subgroups can be ruled out for anyone who might be exposed.
As an alternative to site-specific risk assessments, MassDEP has set risk-based standards for soil and groundwater to protect human health and the environment. Those standards are compared to site contamination levels to determine whether there is a health concern that must be addressed. If all soil and groundwater contaminants are below the standards, the site poses No Significant Risk to human health and the environment.
Does the risk assessment represent my own personal risk?
The risks calculated in a risk assessment are estimates based on general models of exposure and do not indicate any one individual's risk. You may want to consider how your exposures compare to the exposures evaluated in the risk assessment. For example, a risk assessment for residential drinking water usually assumes that people drink two liters of tap water each day, while you may drink either more or less tap water on a daily basis.
How do I know if my health has been affected?
Regardless of the risk assessment results, if you have concerns about your health status you should talk with your family doctor. Health effects are usually only linked to a waste site when scientific studies have connected those particular illnesses with the chemicals at the site. Your local Board of Health may also be able to provide you with more specific public health information and resources.
MassDEP Office of Research and Standards 12/2011</s>
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Your test results may be positive, negative or uncertain.
Positive test result
A positive test result means that you have a harmful mutation in one of the breast cancer genes, BRCA1 or BRCA2, and a much higher risk of developing breast cancer or ovarian cancer compared with someone who doesn't have the mutation. But a positive result doesn't mean that you'll ultimately develop cancer.
Follow-up care after a positive test result might include taking specific measures to reduce your cancer risk. What you choose to do depends on many factors — including your age, medical history, prior treatments, past surgeries and personal preferences.
To reduce your cancer risk after a positive test result, you might:
Increase screening (surveillance). Surveillance for breast cancer if you have a BRCA mutation means having clinical breast exams every six months and mammograms and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) exams every year. Some experts recommend alternating mammogram and breast MRI every six months. These tests don't prevent breast cancer but may help detect it early. A study assessing survival found that substituting mammography plus MRI screening for prophylactic mastectomy offered comparable survival.
You may also choose to perform monthly breast self-exams to become familiar with the normal texture of your breast tissue. Potentially worrisome breast changes may be easier for you to detect earlier if you know what's normal.
Surveillance for ovarian cancer with available tests has not been found effective in early detection of cancer, nor has it shown a survival benefit. The tests include having semiannual pelvic exams and yearly transvaginal ultrasound imaging and a blood test to measure your cancer antigen 125 level.
Use oral contraceptives. Oral contraceptive use has been shown to reduce ovarian cancer risk in BRCA mutation carriers. Your risk of breast cancer goes up slightly if you use oral contraceptives for more than five years, however.
Take a medication to reduce your risk of cancer (chemoprevention). Tamoxifen reduces the risk of developing breast cancer by about 50 percent in women who are at increased risk of the disease. Some small studies have shown that tamoxifen may help lower the risk in women specifically with a BRCA 2 gene mutation.
Another preventive medication is raloxifene (Evista), which also helps reduce the chance of breast cancer in postmenopausal women at high risk, though it hasn't been studied specifically in women with BRCA mutations.
Undergo preventive surgery. Preventive (prophylactic) mastectomy — surgical removal of healthy breast tissue — reduces breast cancer risk for BRCA gene carriers by about 90 percent, according to several studies. Removal of healthy fallopian tubes and ovaries (preventive salpingo-oophorectomy) reduces breast cancer risk by as much as 50 percent in premenopausal women, and it reduces ovarian cancer risk by as much as 90 percent in both pre- and postmenopausal women.
Preventive surgery doesn't eliminate all cancer risk. It's possible for cancer to develop in any tissue that couldn't be removed through surgery.
Negative or uncertain test result
A negative test result means that no BRCA gene mutation was found. However, assessing your cancer risk is still difficult. The test result is considered a "true negative" only if it finds that you don't carry a specific BRCA mutation that's already been identified in a relative.
An ambiguous result occurs when the test finds a genetic mutation that hasn't been associated with cancer in other people. This is known as a variant of uncertain significance, and it is helpful to meet with your genetic counselor to understand how to interpret this finding and decide on appropriate follow up. New models are being developed to help determine risk of cancer with ambiguous results.
Keep in mind that a negative test result doesn't eliminate the chance of developing a nonhereditary breast cancer. You still have the same cancer risk as that of the general population.
Although the BRCA gene test can detect the majority of mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, you could have a gene mutation that the test wasn't able to detect. Or you may be at high risk of hereditary cancer if your family carries a high-risk gene mutation that researchers haven't yet identified.
June 18, 2015
- BRCA1 and BRCA2: Cancer risk and genetic testing. National Cancer Institute. http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/BRCA. Accessed June 3, 2013.
- Isaacs C, et al. Genetic testing for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer syndrome. http://www.uptodate.com/home. Accessed June 3, 2013.
- Lindor NM, et al. A review of a multifactorial probability-based model for classification of BRCA1 and BRCA2 variants of uncertain significance (VUS). Human Mutation. 2012;33:8.
- Kurion AW, et al. Breast cancer risk for noncarriers of family-specific BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations: Findings from the breast cancer family registry. Journal of Clinical Oncology. 2011;29:4505.
- Pruthi S, et al. Identification and management of women with BRCA mutations or hereditary predisposition for breast and ovarian cancer. Mayo Clinic Proceedings. 2010;85:1111.
- Mackay J, et al. Genetic counseling for hereditary predisposition to ovarian and breast cancer. Annals of Oncology. 2010;21:vii 334.
- Raby BA, et al. Genetic counseling and testing. http://www.uptodate.com/home. Accessed June 3, 2013.
- Isaacs C, et al. Management of hereditary breast and ovarian cancer syndrome and patients with BRCA mutations. http://www.uptodate.com/home. Accessed June 3, 2013.
- Kurian AW,et al. Survival analysis of cancer risk reduction strategies for BRCA1/2 mutation carriers, Journal of Clinical Oncology. 2010;28:222.
- Pruthi S (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. April 24, 2015.</s>
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You are here: MEDICA Portal. Magazine & More. MEDICA Magazine. Archive. Infectious Disease.
Cats can carry the toxoplasma
parasite ; © SXC
Past research suggests that the parasite, estimated to infect 25 percent of people worldwide, can trigger or exacerbate psychotic symptoms and schizophrenia in genetically predisposed people.
The findings of the new study, published in the March issue of the journal Infection and Immunity, help explain why the infection causes serious disease in some but not in others and clarify its role in psychiatric disorders, the researchers say.
"We already know that toxoplasmosis can play a role in some psychiatric disorders, but up until now we didn't know why. Working with human nerve cells, our study shows the exact alterations triggered by each strain that can eventually manifest themselves as symptoms," says senior investigator Robert Yolken, M.D., a neurovirologist at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center.
The researchers injected human nerve cells with the three most common toxoplasma strains, each of which caused a different pattern of gene expression. One of the most basic functions in all living organisms, gene expression occurs when a gene is switched on to release a substance that tells cells what to do or not do, determining the cells' biologic behavior. Gene expression can be turned on and off, stepped up or down by various factors, including viral and bacterial invasions.
Cells infected with toxoplasma type I had the greatest impact on gene expression, altering more than 1,000 genes, 28 of them linked to brain development and central nervous system function and 31 others to nerve impulse and signaling.
Cells injected with the less virulent types II and III had low and moderate levels of gene expression. Infection with toxoplasma type II affected 78 genes, some of which were related to growth, certain hormones and circadian rhythm, while type III altered 344 genes, some of which were linked to metabolism.
A handful of genes were affected by all three strains, notably a gene called VIPR2 that regulates neurotransmitters and nerve signaling and may play a role in schizophrenia, the researchers say.
If these findings are confirmed in clinical studies with people, they could help physicians predict the severity of an infection by strain type and tailor treatments accordingly, the researchers say.
MEDICA.de; Source: Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions</s>
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Michael C. Fishbein, MD
Michael C. Fishbein, MD
Dr. Fishbein received his undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Illinois. He completed a residency in anatomic and clinical pathology at Harbor General Hospital/UCLA Medical Center. He is board certified in anatomic and clinical pathology.
Introduction to heart transplant
The idea of replacing a bad organ with a good one has been documented in ancient mythology. The first real organ transplants were probably skin grafts that may have been done in India as early as the second century B.C. The first heart transplant in any animal is credited to Vladimer Demikhov. Working in Moscow in 1946, Demikhov switched the hearts between two dogs. The dogs survived the surgery. The first heart transplant in human beings was done in South Africa in 1967 by Dr. Christiaan Barnard; the patient only lived 18 days. Most of the research that led to successful heart transplantation took place in the United States at Stanford University under the leadership of Dr. Norman Shumway. Once Stanford started reporting better results, other centers started doing heart transplants. However, successful transplantation of a human heart was not ready for widespread clinical application until medications were developed to prevent the recipient from "rejecting" the donor heart. This happened in 1983 when the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a drug called cyclosporine (Gengraf, Neoral). Before the advent of cyclosporine, overall results of heart transplant were not very good.
What is a heart transplant?
Believe it or not, heart transplantation is a relatively simple operation for a cardiac surgeon. In fact, the procedure actually consists of three operations.
The first operation is harvesting the heart from the donor. The donor is usually an unfortunate person who has suffered irreversible brain injury, called "brain death". Very often these are patients who have had major trauma to the head, for example, in an automobile accident. The victim's organs, other than the brain, are working well with the help of medications and other "life support" that may include a respirator or other devices. A team of physicians, nurses, and technicians goes to the hospital of the donor to remove donated organs once brain death of the donor has been determined. The removed organs are transported on ice to keep them alive until they can be implanted. For the heart, this is optimally less than six hours. So, the organs are often flown by airplane or helicopter to the recipient's hospital.
The second operation is removing the recipient's damaged heart. Removing the damaged heart may be very easy or very difficult, depending on whether the recipient has had previous heart surgery (as is often the case). If there has been previous surgery, cutting through the scar tissue may prolong and complicate removal of the heart.
The third operation is probably the easiest; the implantation of the donor heart. Today, this operation basically involves the creation of only five lines of stitches, or "anastomoses". These suture lines connect the large blood vessels entering and leaving the heart. Remarkably, if there are no complications, most patients who have had a heart transplant are home about one week after the surgery. The generosity of donors and their families makes organ transplant possible.
Medically Reviewed by a Doctor on 6/10/2015
- Allergic Skin Disorders
- Bacterial Skin Diseases
- Bites and Infestations
- Diseases of Pigment
- Fungal Skin Diseases
- Medical Anatomy and Illustrations
- Noncancerous, Precancerous & Cancerous Tumors
- Oral Health Conditions
- Papules, Scales, Plaques and Eruptions
- Scalp, Hair and Nails
- Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs)
- Vascular, Lymphatic and Systemic Conditions
- Viral Skin Diseases
- Additional Skin Conditions</s>
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Urine Blockage in Newborns (cont.)
In this Article
Syndromes That May Affect the Urinary Tract
In addition to defects that occur in a single spot in the urinary tract, some babies are born with genetic conditions that affect several different systems in the body. A condition that includes multiple, seemingly unrelated problems, is called a syndrome.
Birth defects and other problems of the urinary tract may be discovered before the baby is born, at the time of birth, or later, when the child is brought to the doctor for a urinary tract infection or urination problem.
Tests during pregnancy can help determine if the baby is developing normally in the womb.
Examination of Newborn
Sometimes a newborn does not urinate as expected, even though prenatal testing showed no sign of urine blockage. The baby may urinate only small amounts or not at all. An enlarged kidney may be felt during the newborn examination as well. Different imaging techniques are available to determine the cause of the problem.
Sometimes urine blockage is not apparent until the child develops the symptoms of a urinary tract infection. These symptoms include
If these symptoms persist, the child should be seen by a doctor. For any fever in the first 2 months of life, the child should be seen by a doctor immediately. The doctor will ask for a urine sample to test for bacteria. The doctor may also recommend imaging tests including ultrasound, VCUG, or nuclear scan.
Viewers share their comments
Urine Blockage in Newborns - Diagnosis Question: Please describe how a urine blockage was diagnosed in your child.
Urine Blockage in Newborns - Treatment Question: How was your child's urine blockage treated?
Urine Blockage in Newborns - Syndromes Question: Did your newborn have a particular syndrome that caused a urine blockage?
- Allergic Skin Disorders
- Bacterial Skin Diseases
- Bites and Infestations
- Diseases of Pigment
- Fungal Skin Diseases
- Medical Anatomy and Illustrations
- Noncancerous, Precancerous & Cancerous Tumors
- Oral Health Conditions
- Papules, Scales, Plaques and Eruptions
- Scalp, Hair and Nails
- Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs)
- Vascular, Lymphatic and Systemic Conditions
- Viral Skin Diseases
- Additional Skin Conditions</s>
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* This is the Professional Version. *
Chickenpox is an acute, systemic, usually childhood infection caused by the varicella-zoster virus (human herpesvirus type 3). It usually begins with mild constitutional symptoms that are followed shortly by skin lesions appearing in crops and characterized by macules, papules, vesicles, and crusting. Patients at risk of severe neurologic or other systemic complications (eg, pneumonia) include adults, neonates, and patients who are immunocompromised or have certain underlying medical conditions. Diagnosis is clinical. Those at risk of severe complications receive postexposure prophylaxis with immune globulin and, if disease develops, are treated with antiviral drugs (eg, valacyclovir, famciclovir, acyclovir). Vaccination provides effective prevention.
Chickenpox is caused by the varicella-zoster virus (human herpesvirus type 3); chickenpox is the acute invasive phase of the virus, and herpes zoster (shingles) represents reactivation of the latent phase (see Herpes Zoster). Chickenpox, which is extremely contagious, is spread by breathing infected droplets or by contact and is most communicable during the prodrome and early stages of the eruption. It is communicable from 48 h before the first skin lesions appear until the final lesions have crusted. Indirect transmission (by carriers who are immune) does not occur.
Epidemics occur in winter and early spring in 3- to 4-yr cycles. Some infants may have partial immunity, probably acquired transplacentally, until age 6 mo.
In immunocompetent children, chickenpox is rarely severe. In adults and immunocompromised children, infection can be serious. Mild headache, moderate fever, and malaise may occur 10 to 21 days after exposure, about 24 to 36 h before lesions appear. This prodrome is more likely in patients > 10 yr and is usually more severe in adults.
The initial rash, a macular eruption, may be accompanied by an evanescent flush. Within a few hours, lesions progress to papules and then characteristic, sometimes pathognomonic teardrop vesicles, often intensely itchy, on red bases. The lesions become pustular and then crust. Lesions initially develop on the face and trunk and erupt in successive crops; some macules appear just as earlier crops begin to crust. The eruption may be generalized (in severe cases) or more limited but almost always involves the upper trunk. Ulcerated lesions may develop on the mucous membranes, including the oropharynx and upper respiratory tract, palpebral conjunctiva, and rectal and vaginal mucosa. In the mouth, vesicles rupture immediately, are indistinguishable from those of herpetic gingivostomatitis, and often cause pain during swallowing. Scalp lesions may result in tender, enlarged suboccipital and posterior cervical lymph nodes. New lesions usually cease to appear by the 5th day, and the majority are crusted by the 6th day; most crusts disappear < 20 days after onset.
Sometimes vaccinated children develop varicella (called breakthrough varicella); in these cases, the rash is typically milder, fever is less common, and the illness is shorter; the lesions are infectious.
Secondary bacterial infection (typically streptococcal or staphylococcal) of the vesicles may occur, causing cellulitis or rarely necrotizing fasciitis or streptococcal toxic shock. Pneumonia may complicate severe chickenpox in adults, neonates, and immunocompromised patients of all ages but usually not in immunocompetent young children. Myocarditis, hepatitis, and hemorrhagic complications may also occur.
One of the most common neurologic complications is acute postinfectious cerebellar ataxia, which occurs in 1/4000 cases in children. Transverse myelitis may also occur. Reye syndrome (see Reye Syndrome), a rare but severe childhood complication, may begin 3 to 8 days after onset of the rash; aspirin increases the risk. In adults, encephalitis, which can be life threatening, occurs in 1 to 2/1000 cases of chickenpox.
Chickenpox is suspected in patients with the characteristic rash, which is usually the basis for diagnosis. The rash may be confused with that of other viral skin infections. If the diagnosis is in doubt, laboratory confirmation can be done; it requires PCR for viral DNA, immunofluorescent detection of viral antigen in lesions or culture, or serologic findings. Samples are generally obtained with scraping and transported to the laboratory in viral media.
Mild cases in children require only symptomatic treatment. Relief of itching and prevention of scratching, which predisposes to secondary bacterial infection, may be difficult. Wet compresses or, for severe itching, systemic antihistamines and colloidal oatmeal baths may help. Simultaneous use of large doses of systemic and topical antihistamines can cause encephalopathy and should be avoided.
To prevent secondary bacterial infection, patients should bathe regularly and keep their underclothing and hands clean and their nails clipped. Antiseptics should not be applied unless lesions become infected; bacterial superinfection is treated with antibiotics.
Oral antivirals, when given to immunocompetent patients within 24 h of the rash’s onset, slightly decrease symptom duration and severity. However, because the disease is generally benign in children, antiviral treatment is not routinely recommended. Oral valacyclovir, famciclovir, or acyclovir should be given to healthy people at risk of moderate to severe disease, including all patients ≥ 12 yr and those with skin disorders (particularly eczema) or chronic lung disease. The dose is famciclovir 500 mg tid or valacyclovir 1 g tid. Acyclovir is a less desirable choice because it has poorer oral bioavailability, but it can be given at 20 mg/kg qid with a maximum daily dose of 3200 mg. Immunocompromised children > 1 yr should be given 500 mg/m 2 q 8 h IV. Immunocompromised adults should be treated with acyclovir 10 to 12 mg/kg IV q 8 h.
Patients should not return to school or work until the final lesions have crusted.
Infection provides lifelong protection. Potentially susceptible people should take strict precautions to avoid people capable of transmitting the infection. Susceptible health care workers who have been exposed to varicella should be vaccinated as soon as possible and kept off duty for 21 days.
All healthy children and susceptible adults should receive 2 doses of live-attenuated varicella vaccine (see Table: Recommended Immunization Schedule for Ages 0–6 yr and Recommended Immunization Schedule for Ages 7–18 yr). Vaccination is particularly important for women of child-bearing age and adults with underlying chronic medical conditions. Serologic testing to determine immune status before vaccination in adults is usually not required. Although the vaccine may cause chickenpox in immunocompetent patients, disease is usually mild (< 10 papules or vesicles) and brief and causes few systemic symptoms.
Vaccination is contraindicated in
Patients with moderate to severe concurrent illness
Pregnant women and those who intend to become pregnant within 1 mo of vaccination (based on Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommendations) or within 3 mo of vaccination (based on vaccine labeling)
Patients taking high doses of systemic corticosteroids
Children using salicylates
After exposure, chickenpox can be prevented or attenuated by IM administration of varicella-zoster immune globulin, which is available as an investigational new drug from FFF Enterprises (800-843-7477). Candidates for postexposure prophylaxis include people with leukemia, immunodeficiencies, or other severe debilitating illness; susceptible pregnant women; and neonates whose mother developed chickenpox within 5 days before or 2 days after delivery. Neonates born at ≥ 28 wk and exposed to a nonmaternal source do not need immune globulin if their mother has evidence of immunity, but neonates born at < 28 wk do. The immune globulin should be given as soon as possible (and within 10 days of exposure) and may modify or prevent varicella. Vaccination should be given as soon as possible to susceptible healthy patients eligible for vaccination, and vaccination can be effective in preventing or ameliorating disease within 3 days and possibly up to 5 days after exposure.
To prevent nosocomial transmission, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends postexposure prophylaxis with vaccination or varicella-zoster immunoglobulin, depending on immune status, for exposed health care workers and patients without evidence of immunity (available at Immunization of Health-Care Personnel ).
Chickenpox causes pustular, crusting lesions on the skin (often including scalp) and may cause ulcerated lesions on mucous membranes.
Complications include secondary bacterial infection of skin lesions, pneumonia, and cerebellar ataxia.
Give oral valacyclovir or famciclovir to patients ≥ 12 yr and to those with skin disorders (particularly eczema) or chronic lung disease.
Give IV acyclovir to immunocompromised patients and to other patients at risk of severe disease.
Vaccinate all healthy children and susceptible adults.
Give postexposure prophylaxis with varicella-zoster immune globulin to immunocompromised patients, susceptible pregnant women, and neonates whose mother developed chickenpox within 5 days before or 2 days after delivery.
Drug NameSelect Trade
aspirinNo US brand name
* This is a professional Version *</s>
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Michigan Department of Natural Resources
Barry County (T3N, R10W, Section 26)
Surveyed September and October 1988
James L. Dexter
Deep Lake is a kettle lake of glacial origin located in west-central
Barry County within the Yankee Springs Recreation Area (see map
of Deep Lake). It lies about 10 miles west of Hastings, Michigan.
Rolling hills and sandy soils characterize the geography of the area.
The watershed is predominantly a mixture of mature oak and red pine forest,
with a large amount of old fallow farmland returning to forest. The immediate
area surrounding the lake is primarily scrub-shrub and wetland underlaid
with well-drained loamy sand soils. One small unnamed inlet (top quality
coldwater) is at the southern end of the lake and drains through Houghton
muck soils. A small outlet, Turner Creek (top quality warmwater), is on
the north end; its water flows to the Thornapple River in the Grand River
watershed of Lake Michigan.
Deep Lake is 32.4 acres in size and up to 35 feet deep. Shoals, comprised
primarily of sand and marl, cover 30-40% of the area. Vegetation is sparse
except for cattails and rushes.
Water quality conditions were last surveyed on August 18, 1986. The water
was colorless, and quite clear with a Secchi disk reading of 13 feet.
Within the water column, alkalinity ranged from 134 ppm to 145 ppm and
pH ranged from 7.4 to 8.4. These indicate the water is hard and well-
buffered. Temperature varied from 77ÝF at the surface to 48ÝF
at the bottom, with the thermocline occurring between 10 and 20 feet.
Typically, summer oxygen levels are sufficient for fish down to a depth
of 25 feet. Dissolved oxygen in the thermocline ranged from 5-10 ppm.
Overall water quality is excellent and presents a very good environment
for a two-story fishery, with a combination of warmwater fish in the upper
layer and trout in mid-water.
Development around Deep Lake is very limited. The Yankee Springs Recreation
Area maintains a campground (120 sites) and a public launch site on the
northeast shore. There are a total of five buildings on the lake, but
three of these are scheduled to be demolished in 1990, as the state has
purchased this land recently.
According to historical records, Deep Lake has been actively managed
by the state since 1934, when largemouth bass were stocked. Bluegills,
yellow perch, and more largemouth bass were stocked in varying numbers
over the next 7 years. Rainbow trout fingerlings were stocked for the
first time in 1942 and 1943 to try to create a two-story fishery.
In 1944, gill nets were used to evaluate the rainbow trout plants. No
rainbows were found, but four large brown trout were captured. Hazzard
(1944) suggested that brown trout had not been stocked for at least 10
years, and that these fish were presumably the result of natural reproduction
(from the inlet). We have no records, however, of stocking prior to 1934.
The fish community in the 1930s and 1940s consisted mainly of bluegills,
largemouth bass, and yellow perch. Ciscoes were reported by fishermen,
but their presence has never been verified. Rock bass, black crappie,
and pumpkinseeds were also available to the angler.
The fish community was most recently surveyed on September 29-30 and
October 20-21, 1988. The netting effort entailed an overnight set of two
trap nets and six gill nets and a second overnight set of the gill nets.
Today's fish community is similar to that of 50 years ago (Table 1).
Large bluegills and perch remain the mainstay of the fishery. Other warmwater
species are limited by the small amount of shoal habitat. Largemouth bass
are not very abundant.
Northern pike are new to the lake. We netted a 40-inch pike in 1988,
and in May 1989, a 43-inch pike weighing 20 pounds was caught by an angler
and entered in the Master Angler Award program. Pike may have entered
Deep Lake either through Turner Creek (which drains into the Thornapple
River) or by an unapproved private introduction.
It is interesting to note that rainbow trout yearlings, stocked in the
spring since 1966 at 43 per acre, formerly provided a very good fishery.
In the mid-1980s, however, survival of stocked rainbows may have declined:
catches dwindled, and fishing pressure dropped off. The 1988 survey revealed
practically the same results as the 1944 survey-no rainbows but five wild
brown trout. The decline in the rainbow fishery could be linked to the
presence of northern pike. Just a few large pike could decimate the rainbow
stockings. Beginning in 1989, management direction changed to stocking
brown trout to supplement their low level of natural reproduction.
Growth rates of important game fish species are good (Table 2). Yellow
perch are growing above state average, and bluegill are growing at state
average. Wild brown trout are growing very rapidly.
Age composition and survival characteristics of sport fish appear to
be normal, considering that relatively few fish were sampled and that
the survey nets were not effective for small fish (Table 3). For perch
and bluegill, young fish have been regularly recruited to the populations
and the longevity of adults is satisfactory. Presence of age-II and age-III
brown trout indicates that environmental conditions will be good for the
carry-over of stocked trout from year to year.
Deep Lake produces larger bluegill and perch than many southern Michigan
lakes due to a favorable combination of growth and survival. On a scale
of 1 to 7 (Schneider 1990), the quality of the bluegill population ranked
4.8, "good". Bluegills as large as 8.4 inches, perch up to 11.1 inches,
and brown trout up to 19.9 inches were taken during the 1988 survey.
Fishing on Deep Lake is a very pleasurable experience. It does not receive
intense fishing pressure, and the water is clear and inviting. Water quality
will be preserved because the state owns almost all the land surrounding
the lake. Access is assured through the camp-ground. Bluegills and yellow
perch should continue to provide good fishing. Hopefully fishermen will
key in on the brown trout now stocked. With only a few buildings visible
from any point on the lake, and the good fishing available, the lake provides
a high quality experience.
This lake will continue to be managed as a two-story fishery. Currently
the only special management practiced on Deep Lake is the annual stocking
of 1,300 yearling brown trout. As very few lakes in southern Michigan
are stocked with browns, we are not sure how good a fishery they will
provide at Deep Lake. The possibility exists that a very high quality
fishery will develop, as evidenced by the lake's history of large brown
Our goals for the next 6 years will be to (1) maintain the bluegill and
yellow perch fishery, and (2) develop the brown trout fishery.
No problems are expected to develop with goal Number 1; however, goal
Number 2 may be difficult to reach. Brown trout are notoriously more difficult
to catch than rainbows. We will rely heavily on reports from park personnel
to determine if anglers are fishing for browns and their success rate.
In addition, we may evaluate the brown trout fishery by tagging fish and
soliciting tag returns from anglers.
Report completed: February 6, 1990.
Hazzard, A. S. 1944. Management check on Deep Lake, Barry County. Michigan
Department of Conservation, Fisheries Research Report 970, Ann Arbor.
Schneider, J. C. 1990. Classifying bluegill populations from lake survey
data. Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Fisheries Technical Report
90-10, Ann Arbor.
Table 1.-Number, weight, and length indices of fish
collected from Deep Lake with gill and trap nets, September 29-30 and
October 20-21, 1988.
1Note some fish were measured to 0.1 inch, others to inch
group: e.g., "5" = 5.0 to 5.9 inches; "12" = 12.0 to 12.9 inches; etc.
Table 2.-Average total length (inches) at age, and growth
relative to the state average, for five species of fish sampled from Deep
Lake with gill and trap nets, September 29-30 and October 20-21, 1988.
Number of fish aged is given in parentheses.
1Mean growth index is the average deviation from the state
average length at age.
Table 3.-Estimated age frequency (percent) of five species
of fish caught from Deep Lake with gill and trap nets, September 29-30
and October 20-21, 1988.
Last Update: 08/06/02</s>
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For students with at least 350 hours of prior formal instruction in Russian, or fewer hours of formal instruction but a semester or more in Russia. In this class, students already have a firm grasp of the grammatical problems in Russian, such as participles, verbal adverbs, quantitative expressions (measurements and other numeric expressions), and verbs of motion. Students work hard on expanding their vocabulary in this course, building up semantic fields in various topic areas related to both everyday and political/societal topics (active vocabulary of 2,250 words). Students watch Russian films, read short stories, poetry, and newspaper articles, complete listening and writing assignments on journalistic topics, and complete oral assignments including the preparation and delivery of short presentations. We expect students to complete this course with intermediate high to advanced low language skills.</s>
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With more than 1.8 million immigrants living in the United States, the Philippines was the fourth largest country of origin in 2013. Filipino immigrants stand out from other top immigrant groups with their unique historical experience as former nationals due to U.S. annexation of the Philippines in 1899, close historic ties to the U.S. military, and prevalence in health-care professions.
Public frustration with decades of poor governance and pervasive corruption in Ukraine culminated in the EuroMaidan revolution in November 2013. Since then, violent conflict and Russia's annexation of Crimea have displaced an estimated 2 million people, both internally and internationally. This feature article explores migration ambitions among Ukrainians in the lead-up and aftermath of EuroMaidan, and the impact of war and economic crisis on traditional migration patterns.
In 2013, more than 25 million people in the United States reported limited English proficiency (LEP), an 80 percent increase since 1990. The LEP population, the majority of which is immigrant, is generally less educated and more likely to live in poverty than the English-proficient population. This Spotlight explores key indicators of the LEP population, both U.S. and foreign born, including geographic distribution, language diversity, and employment.
As legal challenges continue to impede President Obama's deferred action programs to protect millions of unauthorized immigrants from deportation, it is becoming increasingly clear that the window of opportunity for implementation before the 2016 election is growing ever narrower. Even as advocates continue mobilizing immigrants to apply, attention is shifting to other new policies announced by the president last November.
Even as Nepal will lean more heavily on its international diaspora to help recover from devastating earthquakes that killed thousands and decimated parts of the country, the disasters have had effects on internal migration. Class and gender dynamics have long driven significant internal flows. This feature article explores migration trends in Nepal, including movement between ecological zones, growing urbanization, and the feminization of an increasingly mobile workforce.
Q&A with Norwegian Minister Solveig Horne (Photo: Marissa Esthimer)
With rising inflows of humanitarian and economic migrants, Norway faces a series of integration challenges. In conversation with the Migration Information Source, Solveig Horne, Norway's Minister of Children, Equality, and Social Inclusion discusses her work on integration policy, from the importance of language training and a feeling of belonging, to the protection of immigrant women and resettlement of asylum seekers.
Use this data tool—referred to as “one addictive interactive map”—to examine immigrant populations by country of origin and destination. Find out how many Americans live in Mexico, how many Ukrainians in Russia, or Filipinos in Saudi Arabia, for example.
Whether as migrant-sending or migrant-receiving locations—or both—many countries have rich, complex international and internal migration histories. MPI's online journal, the Migration Information Source, offers profiles of more than 70 nations. Written by leading scholars, these profiles delve into countries' migration histories, demographics, policymaking, and more.
The United Kingdom has faced changing immigration patterns over the last two decades driven largely by EU migration, and political upheaval caused by the rise of the United Kingdom Independence Party and the Scottish National Party. Upcoming general elections in May 2015 will have a significant impact not only on immigration policies but the United Kingdom's place in the European Union.
Immigrant women constitute a varied and dynamic population in the United States with 51 percent or 21.2 million of the country's total foreign-born population. Examining key gender-based socioeconomic indicators from origin and fertility to educational attainment and immigration status, this Spotlight raises implications for sending and receiving countries, with respect to labor opportunities, family structure, gender roles, and more.
Attention is now squarely focused on the U.S. federal courts where the legal battle over President Obama's executive actions on immigration continues. While congressional efforts to roll back the directives appear to have been put aside, at least temporarily, implementation of the signature deferred action programs announced in November 2014 remains blocked. The administration, however, is moving forward with other aspects of the executive order, as this article explores.
Faced with rising numbers of foreign entries (long- and short-term), China in 2012 adopted new legislation to manage its migration flows—the first reform to the country's immigration law since 1985. With an underlying tension in the legal framework between restricting immigrants deemed unwanted and welcoming those viewed as desirable, this feature examines the exit-entry law's key points.
An estimated 41.3 million immigrants lived in the United States in 2013, about 13 percent of the total U.S. population, constituting the world's largest foreign-born population. This Spotlight from MPI's Jie Zong and Jeanne Batalova offers the most current and sought-after data on immigrants in the United States—including origin, educational attainment, the unauthorized, deportations, and more—in one easy-to-use resource.
From a massive typhoon in the Philippines last November to the ongoing civil war in Syria, recent global events demonstrate that natural disasters and political strife occur suddenly and often without warning. This article examines the U.S. Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program that grants humanitarian relief to nationals of certain countries embroiled in violent conflict or recovering from natural disaster.
The humanitarian crisis unfolding in the Central African Republic (CAR) has received scant world attention, even as more than 20 percent of the population of 4.25 million has been displaced as a result of deadly sectarian violence. This article examines the causes of the violence, the international community response, and the impacts of large-scale displacement within the country and beyond its borders.
Approximately one-third of the population of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, a series of islands and atolls in the Pacific, has relocated to the United States, with Hawaii, Guam, and Arkansas key destinations. Lack of economic and employment opportunities are among the leading factors that have prompted this migration. Access to education and health care, which are critically important for a population that has reduced life expectancy and significant negative health indicators, also represent key factors.
As Qatar races to build its infrastructure for the 2022 World Cup, international civil-society actors increasingly are highlighting the harsh conditions under which temporary labor migrants often work in Qatar and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. This article examines the emerging roles, challenges, and opportunities that civil-society groups face in the region; it also analyzes the prevailing legal and political structures where civil society operates in the Gulf.
Internal migration spurred primarily by employment and marriage helps shape the economic, social, and political life of India’s sending and receiving regions. Labor migrants face myriad challenges, including restricted access to basic needs such as identity documentation and social entitlements. This article describes the barriers to integration that labor migrants face, and details the policy environment surrounding their integration challenges.
The U.S. immigrant population—estimated at 40.8 million in 2012 — is the nation’s historical numerical high, and it is also the largest foreign-born population in the world. About 20 percent of all international migrants reside in the United States, even as the country accounts for less than 5 percent of global population. This article presents the latest, most sought-after data on immigrants in the United States—by origin, residence, legal status, deportations, languages spoken, and more—in one easy-to-use resource.
In 2012, the United States granted humanitarian protection to more than 87,000 people, with grants of asylum up 19 percent and refugee admissions up 3 percent from a year earlier. This article provides a detailed look at the most recent refugee and asylum data in the United States, including country of origin, top states of settlement, and more.
More than 1 million people became lawful permanent residents (LPRs) of the United States in 2012, with family-sponsored immigrants accounting for two-thirds of those gaining a green card. This Spotlight examines federal statistics on foreign nationals who gained LPR status during 2012.
About 757,000 immigrants took U.S. citizenship in 2012, a 9 percent increase from the year before. As of 2012, 46 percent of the nation’s 40.8 million immigrants were naturalized Americans. This article examines the latest naturalization data available for the United States, including historical trends, data by country of origin and state of residence, as well as socioeconomic characteristics of the 18.7 million naturalized U.S. citizens residing in the United States in 2012.
Immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region residing in the United States are part of a migration flow that dates back several decades. The highly diverse MENA immigrant population has grown from about 50,000 in 1920 to nearly 961,000 in 2012. This article examines the latest data on immigrants from the MENA region in the United States, including population size, geographic distribution, admission categories, and demographic and socioeconomic characteristics.
In a highly selective way, flows of internal migrants within Taiwan have responded quickly to political, economic, and social changes throughout the nation’s history, and have spurred development of the country’s industrial, services, and technological industries. In the past 20 years, however, international migration has reemerged in relevance and now includes the immigration of foreign workers and wives and the emigration of some of Taiwan’s best and brightest.
Canada has long been a country of net immigration and has designed its current immigration policy around attracting highly educated and skilled migrants for entry into its labor force. In this country profile, Ashley Challinor discusses the challenges associated with this approach and provides a sense of the actual scale and nature of migration into Canada.
The realities of poverty, underemployment, and a large working-age population mean that international labor migration is an expected and necessary part of life for many Bangladeshi men and women. Nazli Kibria of Boston University explains the challenges and opportunities facing Bangladesh as the small nation struggles to balance the need for economic migration and its resulting remittances with the protection of its citizens abroad.
Ronald Skeldon of the University of Sussex maps out the past and present migration patterns of China — the source of tens of millions of migrants around the globe — and discusses the country's budding status as an immigrant-receiving nation.
Arno Tanner of the Finnish Immigration Service and the Universities of Helsinki, and Tampere discusses the historical and current state of migration to and from Finland, and the country's immigration policy priorities going forward.
While budget issues and the debt ceiling dominated the congressional agenda and public attention last week, thousands of activists in Washington were stepping up civil disobedience and mobilization tactics to pressure lawmakers into voting to overhaul the nation’s immigration system. This article explores this growing trend and its possible implications for immigration reform in the 113th Congress. It also provides an update on other national, state, and local developments in immigration policy.
Iowa has just become the third state to gain access to federal SAVE immigration data for the purpose of removing noncitizens from its voter lists. This practice, which signifies a major departure from the system's intended purposes, comes amid renewed focus over voting rights. This article explores the recent surge in state activism regarding the possibility of noncitizen voting and also examines the current leadership vacuum in the Department of Homeland Security, new guidance for immigration benefits for same-sex couples, and more.
On June 27, the U.S. Senate passed legislation to overhaul the U.S. immigration system on a scale not seen in decades. Despite this major breakthrough, it is clear that immigration reform faces an uphill battle in the House of Representatives, where the dynamics are much different than in the Senate. This article assesses the prospects for immigration reform in the House, explores provisions of the Senate bill, the implications for U.S. immigration policy of the Supreme Court's recent ruling on the Defense of Marriage Act, and more.
As the U.S. Senate continues its debate over a bill to overhaul the nation's immigration system, the fiscal impacts associated with enactment of such legislation have emerged as a divisive issue. Following the release of an official congressional cost estimate on Tuesday, this article examines the crucial question of how immigrants' contributions to the tax base compare to the public benefits they would receive under S. 744, the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013.
State-level immigration laws have gradually softened in tone since the Supreme Court in 2012 affirmed federal primacy in immigration enforcement in a landmark Arizona case — a trend further solidified by a changed post-election political calculus on immigration reform. This article examines this unanticipated shift away from restrictive state immigration actions as well as the recent new trend in the passage of immigrant-friendly laws regarding in-state tuition and the granting of driver's licenses to unauthorized immigrants.</s>
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Deep within a sprawling hi-tech government research complex, there’s a room that looks like something out of a horror movie.
The cramped, humid lab is lined with white tents containing thousands of buzzing flies. The stench is stomach-churning.
In another part of the room a seething mass of creepy-crawlies squirm on a tray. Hundreds more are drying on sheets in an open oven, and a nearby vat contains millions of shrivelled grub carcasses.
Welcome to the PROteINSECT maggot lab at the Food and Environment Research Agency – the nerve centre of a £3million, EU-funded project that might just save the world.
Scientists here – just outside York – are working to solve worldwide food shortages and may well provide us with new medicines and a new fuel for our cars in the process.
All they need to do is to work out how to mass-produce maggots, turn them into a safe source of protein and then convince us to eat them.
Governments and food agencies are increasingly serious about using insects as nutrition for both farm animals and humans.
The projections are worrying. Global food production needs to increase by 70% by 2050 to stop catastrophic famine, but the majority of agricultural land is already being used.
Consumption of meat has increased 20-fold in 40 years and will keep increasing. Raising livestock is expensive. Soya, the main protein source in animal feed, costs up to £1,000 a ton. Domestically we only produce 2% of the soya we need. We are reliant on imports.
Politicians and scientists agree that Europe is facing a huge and imminent protein deficit which could be filled by insects. Maggot-based meals could be as common on restaurant menus in the next 20 years as prawns and chicken.
Crickets – already a snack in several countries – need to eat just 2kg of protein to produce 1kg of edible food – whereas cattle need 8kg to produce 1kg.
Dried maggots contain 50% protein. Insect protein is similar to that of fish, pork or beef, but less fatty. It also contains high levels of vitamins and minerals.
An automated maggot farm could produce 200 times more protein per hectare than a soya farm. There are six million species of insects – they grow quickly and easily
and are environmentally-friendly as they feed
The case for bug pasties is so convincing that last week officials and scientists from around the world attended a conference in Holland to discuss ways of introducing insect-derived foods.
Experts at PROteINSECT are at the forefront of this food revolution.
They are currently testing ways to grow and process maggots with the aim of turning them into a sustainable, safe animal feed and eventually introducing them into human diets.
Project co-ordinator Elaine Fitches explains: “Our goal is to make meat production more sustainable, reducing reliance on protein imports from across the world and making meat cheaper.
“One of the longer term aims is to look at the feasibility of introducing insect protein for direct human consumption.”
Scientists involved in the PROteINSECT project use a £1million nuclear scanner to analyse house fly maggots.
Elaine says: “It is complex – we look at the best conditions to grow them in, how to process them, how to extract the protein from them.
“They have been forgotten as a food source. House flies are considered a dirty pest. But to survive, they have a strong immune system which means there is also the potential to extract biotics from them to be used in medicines.”
Elsewhere in the lab, one of the vials contains maggot oil, which is a product chemically similar to palm oil to be used in engines.
Elaine says: “You could power a tractor with it, but you’d need an awful lot of maggots.”
She admits it will take a big change of attitude to get us eating insects. “People might accept it as an added ingredient if it tasted good,” she says. “The trick is making something out of insects that doesn’t look like insects.”
In Europe, several companies have developed systems for growing and processing insects for animal feed and human consumption.
In Belgium, insect breeder Peter De Baptist is licensed to distribute and sell them as food.
“Breeding insects has 10 times less impact on the environment than the breeding of cows and pigs,” he says. “Plus, they are very healthy.”
According to him, raw mealworm larvae taste like hazelnuts and African grasshoppers taste like walnut, bacon or chicken, depending on how they’re cooked.
Jean-Gabriel Levon runs a company which creates animal feed from insect meal. He believes the successful introduction of sushi from Asia shows that public attitudes to foods can change.
“It’s not the kind of thing you can do in a few years,” he says. “It will take decades.”</s>
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ARTICLES > ASHRAM > The Tolstoy Farm : Gandhi's Experiments in 'Co-operative Commonwealth'
The Tolstoy Farm : Gandhi's Experiment In 'Co-operative Commonwealth'
By Surendra Bhana
Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) attributes the success of the final phase of the satyagraha campaign in South Africa between 1908 and 1914 to the "spiritual purification and penance" afforded by the Tolstoy Farm. He devotes a considerable number of pages in Satyagraha in South Africa to the discussion of the day-to-day activities on the farm as the experiment appeared important to him, even though it had not enjoyed much "limelight". He wrote:
I have serious doubts as to whether the struggle could have been prosecuted for eight years, whether we could have secured larger funds, and whether the thousands of men who participated in the last phase of the struggle would have borne their share of it, if there had been no Tolstoy Farm.
Contrary to the suggestion of political training at the Tolstoy Farm, there is little description of how life at the settlement specifically and directly helped to mould political defiance in the individual. Gandhi chose rather to stress the training of self-discipline which in his view assisted the individual in his spiritual and moral growth. As in his Sabarmati Ashram (1916-1933), which must have been uppermost in his mind when he reflected on his South African experiences, so at the Tolstoy Farm Gandhi considered the individual's struggle with himself closely related to his quest for political freedom.
The Tolstoy Farm was the second of its kind of experiments established by Gandhi. The first, the Phoenix settlement in Natal, was inspired in 1904 by a single reading of John Ruskin's Unto This Last, a work that extolled the virtues of the simple life of love, labour, and the dignity of human beings. Gandhi was not as personally involved in the daily running of the Phoenix settlement as he was to become in his stay of interrupted duration at the Tolstoy Farm which lasted for about four years. In part this was because the political struggle had shifted to the Transvaal after 1906, and he controlled it from its Johannesburg headquarters.
To a large extent Gandhi's more intimate involvement at the Tolstoy Farm coincided with the heightened tempo of the passive resistance campaign, and the development of the Gandhian philosophy of the perfect individual in a perfect new order. This essay will briefly discuss the historical context within which the Tolstoy Farm was founded, and explore the activities at the farm which led Gandhi to call the experiment a "cooperative commonwealth".
The satyagraha movement in the Transvaal galvanised around the Asiatic Registration Act of 1907 and the Transvaal Immigration Act of the same year. Both were discriminatory. The first act required all Indian males residing in the Transvaal to register by thumb-prints, and the second restricted the entry of Indians into the province. The campaign was broadened later to include other issues as well, most notably the £ 3 poll tax required of every member of the indentured family in Natal.
It is incredible that Gandhi should have been able to arouse such a large number of people to political activism even to the extent of serving jail sentences. At one stage some 2,500 Indians were in prison at the same time for deliberately violating the offending pieces of legislation. A few of the satyagrahis had known nothing but comfort and security outside the jails. Most had not even seen the inside of a jail before, and they must have found the hard labour sentences and the squalid conditions difficult to bear. Yet there was evidence to suggest that the satyagrahis were infused by a defiant spirit represented in the answer of a hawker who said, "Mr. Gandhi, he know. If he say go to prison, we go."
Much of this kind of implicit faith in this principled leader had been inspired by the fact that he had championed the cause of the Indians for over a decade when he could have opted for the less rigorous chores of being simply a lawyer. Gandhi's quiet and resourceful simplicity, his boundless energy, and his incredible staying power further enhanced his leadership. But it was probably the force of his satyagraha philosophy that impelled his followers forward. They may not have fully understood all its revolutionary dimensions, but they realised that it was a new and potent force as just in its implementation as the causes for which it fought. They captured its ethos, and were propelled by it in turn.
They understood the clear and simple terms in which Gandhi explained satyagraha. It was based upon truth, aimed against a clearly defined wrong, and not against those who directly or indirectly were responsible for its existence. But those responsible must be persuaded by peaceful means to eliminate the wrong over which satyagraha had been undertaken. A just cause, the satyagraha philosophy insisted, required a weapon untainted by force and falsehood. The removal of the wrong was not an end in itself. Only if these golden rules were observed would it be possible for the satyagrahis to suffer the hardships that would accompany their campaign. They must hold fast even in the face of death.
Gandhi's followers learnt further that satyagraha was based upon trust and compromise. When Jan C. Smuts (1870-1950) offered a compromise in 1908, he was ready to accept the Transvaal leader's word. What did it matter, Gandhi reasoned, if the Indians had to register by thumb-prints, something they had previously sworn not to do, if by doing so the law making registration compulsory were itself eliminated. There was a crisis of confidence in the Indian's leadership in this matter, and he nearly paid for it with his life when a disgruntled Pathan, to whom Gandhi's action appeared contradictory, savagely beat him. But the compromise with Smuts became a casualty of misunderstanding, and Gandhi's decision to re-open the campaign restored faith in his leadership. His followers had learned from this that satyagraha implied give and take, of allowing the adversary sufficient leeway to realise his error, but of never forcing upon him unwarranted humiliation. For Gandhi too, it was an object lesson to be less credulous about political promises.
During the final phase of the campaign when the Tolstoy Farm was established Gandhi's own growth became noticeable. During his three months of jail in 1909, first at Volksrust and then at Pretoria, he read about thirty books. He made further acquaintance of the works of Leo Tolstoy 1828-1910) and Henry D. Thoreau (1817-1862), among others, and of the Hindu religion. Gandhi had read of Thoreau when he was a student in London, and had summarized the American's essay on Civil Disobedience in an issue of Indian Opinion in 1907. Now in jail, he eagerly explored Thoreau further.
But it was Tolstoy's writings that impressed him the most. The Russian's ideas about renouncing force as a means of opposition were akin to Gandhi's own thoughts, although he did not share Tolstoy's intense dislike for organised government. The Indian had read Tolstoy's The Kingdom of God is Within You in 1894. This had stimulated his search for truth and non-violence in his own religion. It had set him upon a kind of thinking that was to mature into satyagraha later. Now in prison, he had another opportunity to read more deeply into the Russian author's works.
Prompted by his deeper appreciation of the Tolstoyan philosophy, Gandhi wrote in October 1909 the first of his four letters to the Russian. He described in it the struggle of the Transvaal Indians, and asked him to air his views on the subject of morality. In subsequent correspondence Gandhi sent Tolstoy a copy of Joseph Doke's biography on himself, and an English translation of a pamphlet, Hind Swaraj (Indian Home Rule) he had written on board the ship bringing him from London to South Africa. If Gandhi had hoped to draw the Russian into a full-fledged discourse on the ideas shared by the two, he was probably disappointed. He may not have been aware of Tolstoy's deteriorating health and his troubled life which had caused the Russian to abandon his wife a few days before he died on November 20, 1910.
It would be misleading to stress the influence of these ideas upon Gandhi without considering how they affected his own propensities. Gandhi was a functional reader and he generally selected from the works he read those aspects that reinforced his own concepts and beliefs. As an Indian he was aware of his rich cultural heritage, and he felt it to be a matter of duty to search for truth in the Hindu tradition in which he had been reared. He belatedly applied himself to the memorisation of the Bhagavad Gita - incidentally, while daily brushing his teeth - and succeeded in committing to memory the entire part of the Mahabharata, the great Indian epic, that forms the basis of modern day Hinduism. Gandhi was, as one might have anticipated, attracted by chapters that stressed selfless action, involvement, duty and discipline, that is karma-yoga, and raja-yoga (salvation through bodily discipline) and less by parts that dealt with bhakti-yoga (salvation through devotion), and jnana-yoga (salvation through knowledge).
Once out of jail, Gandhi proceeded to London to present the Indian case before the British government, then engaged in deliberations concerning the formation of the Union of South Africa. He talked to various persons, including Colonial Secretary Lord Crewe, without knowing whether he had been successful. Upon his return to South Africa he discovered he had not been.
But a more alarming discovery was that the passive resistance campaign had slackened most notably in the five months that he had been away. A combination of factors had brought this about. The Transvaal government had put fear in the hearts of the Indians by deporting some of them to India; and it was not freely arresting the satyagrahis - thereby to further their cause - as it had done earlier. The morale of the Indians had sagged dangerously low. Barely a hundred of the diehards among the satyagrahis were willing to court arrest.
The fact that so many satyagrahis had abandoned the campaign before its stated goal had been attained indicated to Gandhi that they had to be properly trained in the resolve necessary for satyagraha. This implied a need for a central place where a corporate sense of purpose might be instilled into the satyagrahis, and thereby revive the campaign. Such a centre might further accommodate some practical problems of running the campaign that Gandhi was then facing. Adult male satyagrahis worried over the plight of their wives and children in their absence; the system of relief money that was being doled out to the dependents of the satyagrahis was unsatisfactory and costly. And there was also the question of financing the campaign. The monthly expenditure of 300 then, Gandhi explained in his letter to India's nationalist leader Gopal K. Gokhale, would exhaust the credit balance of 3000 by January 1911.
It was under these circumstances that the idea of purchasing a farm near Johannesburg occurred to him. The farm would not only meet the expenditure problems as residents would be doing "something to earn a living", but would provide Gandhi with an opportunity to experiment with a kind of communal living he had seen in 1895 among the Trappists at the Marianhill monastery sixteen miles from Durban in the vicinity of Pinetown.
Since the centre of the campaign was in the Transvaal, the farm had to be close to Johannesburg. Herman Kallenbach, an architect until he became Gandhi's ardent follower, came to the rescue. A man of some means, Kallenbach bought a piece of land from Town Councilor Partridge, and officially placed it on May 30, 1910, at the disposal of the satyagrahis as long as the campaign lasted. Gandhi praised Kallenbach's action as one "calculated to bring East and West nearer in real friendship than any amount of rhetorical writing or speaking".
The distance of 22 miles between the location of the farm and Johannesburg, one would have thought, was a disadvantage. And yet, Gandhi must have weighed this against its many advantages: it was but a mile or two from the nearest railway station of Lawley; on its 1,100 acres of land there were nearly 1,000 fruit-bearing trees; and water was supplied from two wells and a spring. True, there were at the time no more than a "shed and a dilapidated house containing four rooms". But its open spaces - it was about two miles long and three-quarters of a mile broad - provided the opportunity for leading a simple life, and its distance from Johannesburg freed it possibly from "the varied distractions of a city".
The settlement was called the Tolstoy Farm at the suggestion of Kallenbach. Gandhi stated in his letter to Tolstoy that the former worldly architect had gone through most of the experiences that Tolstoy had so graphically described in his work My Confession: "No writing has so deeply touched Mr. Kallenbach as yours; and as a spur to further effort in living up to the ideals held before the world by you, he has taken the liberty, after consultation with me, of naming his farm after you."
The Tolstoy Farm offered him an opportunity to experiment with the implementation of his ideas. His challenge was the greater because the settlement consisted of men, women, and children for short, long, and irregular intervals, who were Hindus, Muslims, Christians or Parsees, white or Indians, people who spoke one or more from among Gujarati, Hindi, Tamil, and English. Gandhi recalls that there were 70 to 80 residents - 40 "young men", 2 or 3 "old men", 5 women, and 20 to 30 children - although the number must have varied from time to time in the course of the farm's existence. It was a heterogeneous microcosm in which his leadership would prepare him for his role in the macrocosm of his battles in India later.
In running the settlement, Gandhi worked from the basic premise that the prime goal in an individual's life was the self-realization that can come from the search for truth (satya) in specific instances and Absolute Truth (satya) as an ultimate reality. To reach the Absolute Truth, or God as Gandhi perceived it, an individual must determine what truth meant for him and practice it with single-mindedness. Another way he expressed the concept of truth was that "soul-force" was the power of good residing in an individual. It could be cultivated to realise its full potential. The "prolonged training of the individual soul" was necessary, he wrote in an article just before his departure from South Africa, for a person to be a "perfect" adult satyagrahi. But such a training might be most fruitfully undertaken in the education of young children.
In what way, specifically, did the Indian hope to achieve among the farm's residents the realization of "soul-force"? I have had to rely largely on Gandhi's own reflections in his two autobiographies. There is little description in newspapers that might yield that kind of information, although some of its activities were reported in Indian Opinion, launched in Durban in 1903, and by the occasional reporter of a major newspaper who happened to visit it. I interviewed several persons who spent some time in their childhood or early teens on the farm. They look upon their stay with reverence, and were able to relate memorable incidents which involved them or some of their co-residents. But their memories have faded in the sixty years and more that separate them from their stay on the farm, and their young minds were probably unable to absorb then the significance of Gandhi, the satyagraha movement, or the experiment itself.
Certain moral principles needed to be observed by the satyagrahis to realise their soul-force. In 1916, he laid down certain principles that the Sabarmati ashramites had to observe to realise satya. These were ahimsa (nonviolence), asteya (non-stealing, non-covetousness), aparigraha (non-possession, non-Acquisitiveness), and brahmacharya (celibacy), principles which had for ages been stressed in Hindu religious writing as being necessary for an individual's moral growth. While there is no evidence to suggest that he formally laid down such a code of conduct at the Tolstoy Farm, he directed the activities in the settlement so as to instill into the resident these principles. Gandhi believed that the principles would encourage among the satyagrahis the kind of discipline that would make them missionaries of change, the standard-bearers of a new order he valued and hoped to propagate. He was concerned therefore that their daily lives should reflect the new order.
An examination of the activities on the Tolstoy Farm suggests that Gandhi hoped to cultivate in the residents virtues he held high in his own life. He did not do this, from all the evidence that is available, willfully, or by long lecture sessions, but by simply stating their positive aspects. His personality had enormous sway over all who came into contact with him, so that where the logic of his argument did not prevail, his charisma helped it to do so. This self-assured man never demanded of any one tasks that he himself would not do, which in itself was a cause for embarrassment for those who felt above doing certain manual duties. He caused awkward moments among caste Hindus attending the 1901 Congress session in Calcutta when, with his capacity for doing the unusual, he decided to mop up a dirty lavatory, a task reserved for the outcast Untouchables. His presence on the Tolstoy Farm was felt everywhere, for he was, as Robert Payne states, "the chief judge, the chief sanitary inspector, the chief teacher in the children's school, the chief baker and marmalade maker" besides being the "prime minister."
The rural setting was obviously important to Gandhi. His own beliefs about the virtues of a simple life had made him suspicious about the trappings of a modern industrialized civilisation. Here, where man lived in close proximity to nature he might realise his full potential by labouring for his fruit. The open spaces and the fruit-bearing trees provided the residents with ample opportunities for farming and gardening. Adults as well as children daily engaged in agricultural duties which involved picking, pruning, growing and forest-clearing. The emphasis was upon simple communal living where individual self-interests had to be curbed for the good of all, where asteya and aparigraha might be cultivated.
To live close with nature implied striking harmonious relations with predatory animals and venomous reptiles that might be roaming on the farm. Hunting was strictly forbidden in accordance with Gandhi's belief in ahimsa. Mr. Barasarthi Naidu recalls the occasion upon which a group of the residents discovered a hunter with a gun in the area. He was promptly brought before Kallenbach, who, no doubt lectured to him about the sins of hunting. As for venomous snakes, of which there were plenty in the area, Gandhi's rule was not to kill them. Kallenbach even attempted "befriending" one of the reptiles, but as he well knew, and as Gandhi pointed out to him, there was little love and much fear in the relationship. Indeed, Gandhi ordered the killing of a snake on one occasion. It was a case of unavoidable himsa (violence).
A man given to simple life, especially when related to an agrarian way, would understandably have great faith in the healing properties of nature's elements. Gandhi had long been familiar with earth and water treatment for ailments from the writings of Kuhne, Adolf Just, and others. He had applied such a treatment successfully upon his second son Manilal when he became ill in India in 1901. Now on the farm, he was able to experiment with nature cure remedies on a more regular basis. Seventy-year-old Lutavan was cured of his asthma and cough by hydropathy, a prescribed diet, and, not-so-incidentally, by being forced to give up smoking. The station master's son who was afflicted with typhoid was cured with the help of cold mud poultices on his stomach, and regulated quantities of bananas, olive oil, and orange juice in it. At least two of the persons I interviewed recall how injuries that they had sustained or remember others sustaining during their stay on the farm had been treated with mud poultices. In later years, Gandhi was not quite as confident about nature cure remedies as he was at the Tolstoy Farm.
The satyagraha leader had for long placed great importance upon self-reliance. It encouraged discipline, self-esteem, and was a meaningful exercise in labouring for one's own fruit. Within six months of having started the settlement, the residents were able to complete largely by self-help three big buildings, two of them 53 feet long and the third 77 feet. One of the buildings served as women's quarters while another as men's residence complete with laundry and kitchen facilities. A third building was a combination of offices, workshop, and school.
Self-reliance extended to other aspects of communal living. There was a "tailoring department" responsible for producing clothes generally suitable for outdoor life: trousers, and shirts made up of coarse blue cloth. There was no use for stiff starched shirts, donors were reminded through the columns of Indian Opinion. As for footwear, Gandhi considered sandals ideal for the climate. He specially dispatched Kallenbach to the Marianhill monastery near Pinetown to learn the skill of sandal-making. Soon after Kallenbach's return, the workshop began producing sandals, most of which were worn by the farm residents, and a few sold to friends. Gandhi proudly wrote to cousin Maganlal Gandhi that he had completed 14 pairs of sandals by February 1911.
Gandhi had always been fastidious about hygiene. In a communal setting he became fanatically so. He insisted that all waste matter be buried in trenches and covered up. For night soil, 1 foot deep square holes were used; spades were provided to cover up the night soil with loose earth so as to prevent flies and odour. "A small spade," he said "is the means of salvation from a great nuisance." It is hardly surprising that he should have been known as a mahabangi (great scavenger) before he was called a mahatma.
There is evidence of discipline in the daily routine followed by the residents. Its purpose was to prevent, no doubt, idle time-wasting, and make them feel that they were being constructively useful. The bell rang at six in the morning, wrote a Rand Daily Mail (Johannesburg) reporter. After the toilets were completed and the beds made, the residents ate breakfast. Everybody was assigned a task for the morning. Work was stopped at 11 a.m. to go for a bath - the bath was postponed for this hour so as to make good use of the warm sun rays. The midday meal was served. At 1 p.m. Several classes of school began lasting until 5 late in the afternoon. The evening meal was taken at 5.30. There would be an hour of rest. At 7 p.m. the residents would assemble before Gandhi who would review the day's events, point out difficulties if any, and suggest ways of preventing their recurrence. The meeting ended with readings from books on religion and the singing of hymns.
The daily programme reported by the newspaper man may not have been quite as rigid on all days. The persons I interviewed recall a great deal more time for fun and games. It is clear, however, that Gandhi retained strict control on the days that he was at the farm. He was reported to spend one day - and sometimes three - in the week in Johannesburg whenever other business did not require longer spells of absence from the farm. In any event, discipline was exercised by himself when he was present, and by those to whom he delegated duties when he was not on the farm.
Once his early doubts about vegetarianism had been dispelled - by reading as a student in London Henry S. Salt's A Plea For Vegetarianism, among other things - Gandhi considered it to be vital in the moral and spiritual growth of the individual. His belief in ahimsa ruled out a non-vegetarian diet as "wanton himsa to the sub-human creation". The adult residents at the Tolstoy Farm decided to have an exclusively vegetarian diet out of deference for Gandhi's conviction.
Gandhi's dietary experimentation on the farm was not simply a matter of what was most nutritional, or essential for existence. He experimented with a view to "attaining harmony with nature", because "each organ of sense subserves the body and through the body the soul..." The meals were to be of the simplest kind. There were to be no condiments, or anything else specifically aimed at titillating the taste buds. Some of the provisions were home-made and simple, and, incidentally, money-saving: bread made from wheat ground in an iron handmill; groundnut butter made from roasted nuts; marmalade prepared from the supply of fruit on the farm; and cereal coffee made of baked wheat and water. Such foods assisted the residents, in Gandhi's way of thinking, in living in harmony with nature and spiritual endeavours, others had to be avoided for precisely the same reason. Gandhi prescribed dietary restrictions for himself and others. He abjured cow milk to assist him in observing his vow of brahmacharya, and was faithfully accompanied by at least one person - Kallenbach.
Fasting was a matter of spiritual discipline and religious significance for Gandhi. It helped the individual in attaining the "supremacy of the spirit over the flesh..." It was, he explained later in India, "the sincerest form of prayer". Gandhi fasted on days of religious significance, Hindu as well as Muslim, and urged others to do the same. He fasted to do penance, the most dramatic instance being the sexual misconduct of some boys at the Phoenix settlement.
What did Gandhi hope to impart to the young minds in the school he ran at the Tolstoy Farm? "It should be an essential of real education," he wrote in 1914, "that a child should learn that, in the struggle of life, it can easily conquer hate by love, untruth by truth, violence by self-sacrifice." This is presumably what he had in mind when he stated later in his autobiography that education should concern itself with the "culture of the heart or the building of character". His goals in the education of the young minds were similar to his insistence upon what adults should strive towards in their lives. What was important to this morally scrupulous man personally was also important in his educational programme.
Gandhi had little faith in formal education presumably because it did not concern itself with the building of character. That kind of education was best given by the parents themselves. If so, was not his own school on the Tolstoy Farm self-defeating? No so. He regarded the ashram as a "family", and he the "father". Hence, he decided to live amongst them "all the twenty-four hours of the day as their father". He meant this possibly in a figurative sense as he was away from the farm for one to three days in the week.
The fatherly teacher's programme included both "manual" and "mental" training. The ashramite children were expected to undertake for three hours in the morning duties which involved gardening, farming, sandal-making, or cloth-sewing. Such work was counterbalanced with a programme of lessons in geography, history, arithmetic, and writing; "bhajans" (hymns) and "interesting stories" were included in the teaching. No doubt they were stories with a moral lesson. Gandhi did not consider textbooks necessary. "Of textbooks...", he said, "I never felt the want." The "true textbook for the pupil was his teacher," which in this case was Gandhi. Given his emphasis in education, Gandhi probably felt that instruction based on the teacher's experience and convictions would carry more weight than the lifeless pages of a textbook.
Gandhi considered his experiment in co-education as the "most fearless of its type". His classes consisted of 25 to 50 boys and girls whose ages ranged from 7 to 20. He allowed them to mingle and move about freely believing that when sexual innocence (or sexlessness) was given a free rein, the minds of the children would remain above temptation. Gandhi's experiment was a reflection of his own status as a celibate. In 1906 when he was 37 years old he had become a brahmachari disavowing forever his "carnal desires". He had explained to the children "the duty of self-restraint", and allowed them to meet for a bath at the spring nearby. But Gandhi was not entirely free from anxiety: "my eye always followed the girls as a mother's eye would follow a daughter," and again, "there was an element of safety in the fact that they went in a body." Did the Indian's experiment constitute as Erik H. Erikson suggests, his own attempt "to tie together the loose ends of [his] restraints in a communal pattern which would provide a new kind of order'?"
It would appear so, for, on one occasion a young man made "fun" - apparently sexually suggestive - of two girls. Gandhi's reaction suggests that he did not take the incident lightly, for, if apparently innocent young people were capable of failing in their "duty of self-restraint", did he have reason to fear his own vow of self-restraint? To remonstrate with the young offender was not enough. He had to demonstrate by ritual the need "to sterilize" the sinner's eye. He decided to clip the fine long hair of the two girls. "I wished the two girls," he stated, "to have some sign on their person as a warning to every young man that no evil might be cast upon them, and as a lesson to every girl that no one dare assail their purity."
Gandhi's ritualized demonstration reflected the importance he attached to brahmacharya, for it involved control not only over one's carnal desires but also over thought, word, and deed. The Satyagrahi could not live both after the flesh and the spirit, for, to do so would mean surrendering principles like self-control, selflessness, and non-attachment. If the Satyagrahi failed in these principles, he could not very well discharge his obligations effectively to the campaign, to the experiment in communal living, or to his own moral and spiritual growth.
Gandhi himself was most firmly in command of his brahmacharya vow at the Tolstoy Farm. There were some doubts later in his life about it in his own mind. Towards the end of his life, however, he claimed complete success. He said: "Sixty years of striving have at least enabled me to realise the ideal of truth and purity which I have ever set before myself," which in effect meant that he was "capable of lying naked with naked women, however beautiful they may be, without being in any manner whatsoever sexually excited."
The function of religious teaching, as in education, was "to develop the spirit" so as to build character among the ashram students and to lead them towards self-realization, and ultimately to the knowledge of God. The "exercise of the spirit", he added, "entirely depended on the life and character of the teacher."
Gandhi's proviso sounded like self-recommendation, and perhaps it was. If he did not imply that he was the best person qualified for religious instruction, he was at least spiritually equipped to pass on to the children the activist and universalist perspective he had acquired in his own experience and study of religion.
The "Sermon on the Mount" strongly appealed to him because of its activist philosophy. It was, however, the Bhagavad Gita that supplied him with the basis of his religious beliefs. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna, an incarnation of the Supreme God Vishnu, urges Arjuna to dispel doubts about his action in battle since his station in life called upon him to take up his warrior duties. Krishna's message had a profound meaning for Gandhi: a man must not be diverted by distractions however great from seeking the truth about his position in relation to the scheme of things, and thereby realise God. The Bhagavad Gita offered one salvation through selfless action. Gandhi's personal philosophy about duty and service combined with social justice coincided with this aspect of Hinduism. It made him an ardent social activist with religious overtones.
Gandhi's study of other religions had developed in him an acceptance of the essential universality of all religions, however much he might dislike aspects in all of them. The man whom he acknowledged as being influential in this respect was Raychandbhai, a deeply philosophical man in India, who although only a few years his senior, came closest to being Gandhi's guru. Rayachandbhai had assured him in his early years that there was little formulated in other religions that was not to be found in Hinduism. He agreed with this without, however, accepting such things as Untouchability and blood sacrifices as being essential to Hinduism, or without rejecting the intrinsic validity of the other religions.
Given these views, the religious teacher's self-proclaimed eligibility is understandable. He naturally had no use for religious textbooks. As a teacher, Gandhi respected the various religious affiliations of the children: the Christians were instructed in the reading of the Bible; the Muslims in the Koran; the Parsees (Zoroastrians) in the Avesta. As for the Hindus, he had written out the fundamental teachings of Hinduism, a document he regarded as representing his own "spiritual progress", but which he had regrettably misplaced later when he no longer needed it. He encouraged common respect for all religions by asking the ashramites to observe the fasts of the others. Non-Muslims joined the Muslims in their month of fasting during the Ramzan.
Mutual respect and tolerance between Hindus and Muslims assumed an important role in India at the time that he reflected on his South African experiment some fifteen years later. Gandhi proudly records that he taught the Tolstoy Farm residents against "infection of intolerance, and... to view one another's religions and customs with a light-hearted charity. They learnt how to live together like blood-brothers". It is not surprising, in view of this, that he should have remembered his religious experiment as "among the sweetest reminiscences of the Tolstoy Farm..."
The Tolstoy Farm was in part born out of practical necessity. Funds were running short, morale was sinking, and the movement missed the benefits that might accompany the establishment of a centre where its followers might assemble and coordinate their activities. The Transvaal settlement accommodated all three. Money was saved, morale was boosted, and the satyagrahis, according to Gandhi, received "training" that proved to be "of great use in the last fight."
The training imparted in a modern-day revolutionary camp might mean acquiring skills in the use of firearms, and learning tactics in attack and self-defense. On the other hand, the "soldiers" at the Tolstoy Farm trained in the use of a different kind of weapon, namely, satyagraha. It appealed to the residents. Gandhi prescribed for them a "mode of life" in which satyagraha might be assured of becoming fully realised. He believed that each one of the residents was capable of realising the perfection of satyagraha by a rigorous spiritual and mental exercise. Gandhi had no doubt that the "mode of life" accepted by the farm's satyagrahis proved to be "an invaluable asset" in the campaign, even though there were probably no more than 60 of them present at any given time. From among this number came the core of Satyagrahi workers who assisted in the successful operation of the last stages of the campaign. Such was the case of the eleven "sisters", who, having been "trained" in satyagraha at the Tolstoy Farm, persuaded the Indian coal miners in Newcastle to come out on strike at the end of 1913 in support of the general satyagraha movement.
It is important to note, however, that the weapons Gandhi provided had also supra-political objectives. He hoped that they would assist the residents, the old as well as the young, in the struggle with life itself. Who can deny the universality of the benefits to people seeking truth and simplicity by means of tolerance, hard-work, discipline, and self-reliance? These were the virtues that Gandhi hoped to inculcate among the participants of his "cooperative commonwealth," a new order, he hoped, that would spread to the world without. The message has not been in vain among some of those who stayed on the farm even as children.
It is difficult to evaluate the significance of the Tolstoy Farm in Gandhi's development to Mahatma ship, and to his political fortunes in India. The pressures of the campaign caused him to be absent from the farm for long and short periods of time. The absence possibly made the development of uninterrupted plans and programme difficult. Hence, the Tolstoy Farm's total impact becomes blurred by influences outside its boundaries. And yet, Gandhi used the farm much as he was to use the Sabarmati Ashram later in India. One can say that the Tolstoy Farm was a laboratory for experimenting with problematic issues: diet, nature cure, harmonious living with nature, brahmacharya, and so on. It also proved to be a "training ground" - I must add, incidentally - for his leadership among the people and in the politics of India.</s>
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Facts about the meharry sickle cell center
- Meharry's Sickle Cell Center is one of the oldest in the country, celebrating 40 years
of service to the community in 2012. Although it was officially established in 1972,
it had already been conducting blood screenings for at-risk populations for some time.
- In 2009, the center celebrated its 20th anniversary as the Hemoglobinopathy Confirmatory
and Reference Laboratory for the State of Tennessee Department of Health's Newborn
- The center is able to detect multiple hemoglobin abnormalities in the blood. Using
isoelectric focusing electrophoresis; alkaline, acid, and neutral electrophoresis;
high performance liquid chromatography; and DNA testing, the center can identify hundreds
of different hemoglobinopathies, in addition to sickle cell and other blood disorders.
- The Meharry Sickle Cell Center tests literally thousands of blood samples a year for abnormalities. Not only are newborn blood tests confirmed for the state of Tennessee, but individuals of all ages may contact the center directly for testing.</s>
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Exploited by powerful corporate and political interests in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Midwestern farmers banded together in the early twentieth century to fight for their political and economic rights. Farmers formed the Nonpartisan League (NPL) and wrote a significant chapter of Minnesota's progressive-era history.
In the 1910s, farmers began to decry poor market conditions and violations of their economic rights. Middlemen in the grain elevator, stockyard, cold storage, banking, and rail industries regularly gouged farmers. To fight corporate interests, the NPL was formed in North Dakota in 1915.
The NPL was founded by former Socialist Party member Arthur Townley, who was also a failed flax farmer. The NPL advocated state-run mills, grain elevators, stockyards, and warehouses. In order to protect farmers further, the NPL fought for state insurance programs, pensions, and employment bureaus. After success in North Dakota's 1916 election, the NPL began to expand. Minnesota became the center of its activities.
During the election cycle of 1918, Minnesota farmers tried to take control of the state's politics. On March 19, NPL delegates from across Minnesota met at the Pioneer Building to select candidates and develop a party platform. These farmers represented forty-eight counties that the NPL felt they could carry. The counties not represented were urban, or part of the Iron Range. The NPL agreed to back labor candidates from those counties. The farmers were joined by supporters of the labor movement.
Former Sixth-District congressman and farmer Charles A. Lindbergh Sr. was endorsed to head the NPL ticket as its candidate for governor. Lindbergh was considered the "farmer-labor" candidate. The meeting became a rally attended by seven thousand people. In a foreshadowing of events to come, Governor Burnquist and the mayor of St. Paul declined invitations to speak.
From the inception of its Minnesota campaign, the NPL faced strong opposition from the Minnesota Commission of Public Safety. With the United States' entry into World War I, loyalty and patriotism became political weapons. Fear of socialism and pro-German sympathizers spread throughout the nation. To combat disloyalty and sedition, the Minnesota Legislature created the Commission shortly after the start of the war.
Lindbergh opposed the United States' entry into World War I, making him and the NPL targets for accusations of disloyalty. As Governor Burnquist started his reelection campaign, backed by the Commission, he called himself the "loyalist" candidate. Burnquist and his allies successfully framed the campaign in terms of "loyalists" and the "disloyal." By doing so, they hoped to spur Democrats to cross over and vote for the governor. In addition, those opposed to the NPL used its socialist principles against it, labeling all members "Bolsheviks."
Lindbergh's campaign across Minnesota revealed a divided state. In some towns he drew very large crowds, and was welcomed as a hero. In others, however, he faced violence and strong opposition. Law enforcement, local citizens, and home guards prevented many NPL meetings. Townley and other NPL leaders were arrested. Lindbergh was stoned, hung in effigy, and shot at.
The wave of loyalism during World War I proved too much for the League. Lindbergh was defeated in an election that saw many Democrats vote for Burnquist due to his "loyalty." After Lindbergh's defeat, delegates of the NPL and organized labor met separately, but worked closely to endorse new candidates. In doing so the League deviated from its principle of endorsing candidates of existing parties. Needing a party name to place their candidate on the ballot, the NPL and labor delegates agreed on the "Farmer-Labor Party."
The NPL declined in popularity during the 1920s, as the decade was prosperous for farmers. The formation of the Farmer-Labor party also drew the politically active. Though the NPL never gained a strong political foothold in Minnesota, the campaign of 1917–1918 remains a prominent chapter in the history of the Progressive Era. In 1925, the United States Supreme Court examined the events of the Minnesota Campaign and determined that the civil liberties of NPL members had been violated. The court ruled that states could not interfere with the Bill of Rights.
"Burnquist's Sand." Princeton Union, March 14, 1918.
"Farmers are the Better Bluffers." New Ulm Review, February 27, 1918.
Jenson, Carol. "Loyalty as a Political Weapon: The 1918 Campaign in Minnesota." Minnesota History 43, no. 2 (Summer 1972): 42–57.
Morlan, Robert L. Political Prairie Fire: The Nonpartisan League, 1915–1922. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1985.
———. "The Nonpartisan League and the Minnesota Campaign of 1918." Minnesota History 34, no. 6 (Summer 1955): 221–232.
National Nonpartisan League Papers, 1915–1927 (microfilm)
Manuscript Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
Description: Correspondence and miscellany with particular focus on the NPL's efforts in Minnesota.
Henry G. Teigan Papers, undated and 1916–1941
Manuscript Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
Description: Correspondence and other material collected by Teigan as secretary of the National NPL.
"Nonpartisan League Head Under Arrest." Bemidji Daily Pioneer, February 28, 1918.
"Opening Campaign Rally!!" Willmar Tribune, April 24, 1918.
Starr, Karen. "Fighting for a Future: Farm Women of the Nonpartisan League." Minnesota History 48, no. 6 (Summer 1983): 255–262.
On March 19, 1918, delegates of the Minnesota Nonpartisan League meet at the Pioneer Building in St. Paul to adopt a party platform and nominate candidates for office. A two-day rally follows that inaugurates one of the most tumultuous campaigns in Minnesota history.
The Nonpartisan League (NPL) is formed in North Dakota.
The NPL moves its headquarters from Fargo, North Dakota to St. Paul.
Charles A. Lindbergh Sr. is endorsed as the NPL's candidate for governor. He and members of the League face violent opposition during the campaign.
The NPL has over fifty thousand members in Minnesota.
NPL candidates are defeated in Minnesota elections and the organization is greatly damaged by accusations of disloyalty.
The NPL declines in Minnesota during a prosperous decade for farmers.
The United States Supreme Court decides that the rights of NPL members had been violated in Minnesota during the 1917–1918 election. The court rules that states cannot interfere with the Bill of Rights.</s>
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Live From Britain: 50 Things For Kids To Do Outdoors Before They Turn 12
by Judy Molland
Britain’s National Trust, an organization that preserves outdoor spaces as well as historic buildings in the UK, earlier this year announced a campaignto improve people’s links with nature and wildlife.
The Trust’s director general Fiona Reynolds said that in particular, children needed freedom to discover nature for themselves, stating her belief that more children go to hospital having fallen out of bed than having fallen out of a tree.
Now we are finding out more details about this campaign.
The National Trust has come up with 50 things for children to do before they are 11 ¾. Five ‘Super Rangers’ at National Trust properties around Britain will teach children how to climb a tree, make a den, and skim stones in an effort to get kids off the couch and into the great outdoors.
Each ranger is an expert in certain activities. Tree man is a 6ft 3″ tree climbing expert who has scaled 50 metre-high trees, Captain Skim can skim a stone over 26 times, Den-Boy is an outdoor hideaway-building champion, Midas will lead treasure hunts and the Bug Catcher can identify 300 species of moth. You can see a photo of these Super Heroes by clicking here.
From The Daily Telegraph:
The new initiative comes after a report commissioned by the Trust found children today spend fewer than ten per cent of their playtime in wild places. Instead the younger generation spend an average of two-and-a-half hours a day watching the television.
Dame Fiona Reynolds, the Director General of the Trust, said children need to reconnect with nature by playing the games generations before them have enjoyed.
“Children today are unfamiliar with the countryside. They need to be given the confidence and the skills to go into the wood and build a den or climb a tree.”
Here’s The List Of The First 10 Things to Do Before You’re 11 ¾:
1. Climb a tree
2. Roll down a really big hill
3. Camp out in the wild
4. Build a den
5. Skim a stone
6. Run around in the rain
7. Fly a kite
8. Catch a fish with a net
9. Eat an apple straight from a tree
10. Play conkers</s>
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The Many Creatures Who Call Mono Home
Nothing is more commonly remarked by noisy, dusty trail-travelers in the Sierra than the want of animal life—no songbirds, no deer, no squirrels, no game of any kind, they say. But if such could only go away quietly into the wilderness, sauntering afoot and alone with natural deliberation, they would soon learn that these mountain mansions are not without inhabitants, many of whom, confiding and gentle, would not try to shun their acquaintance.
The Mountains of California
HARD LIFE ON THE HOOF
Between the highway, hunters, and mountain lions, mule deer face a host of predators. Traffic on highway 395 kills hundreds of mule deer in Mono County each year (studies indicate that hundreds per year are run over). Mule deer typically migrate to lower elevations during the colder months and move to higher elevations in the summer, so they are often forced to cross the highway. Most of the year you can find them near Mono Lake, or up Lee Vining Canyon. Mule deer have even been seen on Paoha and Negit Islands! (Do deer do the dog paddle?) With the exception of the islands, wherever you find deer you can assume mountain lions are not far away, and if it's hunting season—hunters. Mountain lions feed almost exclusively on mule deer, following their movements throughout the year and keeping them continually on the alert. Hunters however, do not rely on mule deer alone for food (humans do most of their hunting with a shopping cart). You are far more likely to see a deer than a mountain lion in the Mono Basin—deer and mountain lion numbers are now much larger than they were when the Great Basin was settled 150 years ago. If you do see a mountain lion, consider yourself lucky, since few people in the Eastern Sierra ever see these magnificent, elusive predators. If you see a deer alive, consider yourself fortunate as well, since they are far too commonly found dead along the highway.
AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE
In 1986 Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep were reintroduced to the Tioga Pass region directly to the west of Mono Lake. After promising increases, their numbers declined dramatically in the 1990s and rebounded slightly, splitting into two herds. Their native progeny, the Mt. Baxter herd, one hundred miles to the south, also declined in the 1990s and rebounded slightly (2005 graph). Mountain lion predation, disease transmission from domestic sheep, difficult winters, and a variety of human impacts in the surrounding area are all threats, however mountain lion predation was the primary cause of the sudden declines of the 1980s. As a result the sheep abandoned the lion-filled winter ranges, key areas for their recovery. A California law protecting mountain lions prevented managers from killing a few lions that targeted the sheep. When the sheep were declared endangered, managers were able to override state law and protect them from lions under the federal Endangered Species Act.
In 2008 the Mt. Warren population lost 10 of its 26 animals, likely due to disease. This was the first time pneumonia has been documented in the Sierra. Without mountain lion predation and disease transmission from domestic sheep, the Mono Basin population would have a much larger population than the 37 animals released in the 1980s. Today the Mt. Warren and Mt. Gibbs herds are still tenuously hanging on by a thread, with only about 30 sheep remaining. There are plans for more reintroductions in 2009. Around 400 adult bighorn remain in the entire Sierra Nevada range—although mountain lion predation is on the increase once again, with 38% of the ewes in the Sawmill herd being killed by lions in 2008. This mammal is one of the most endangered in all of North America. You might see Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep in Lundy Canyon or along Hwy 120 just east of the Sierra Crest. From the highest peaks, these threatened sheep roam free, gazing over the blue expanse of Mono Lake.
LOOK CAREFULLY, PATIENTLY
If you visit the South Tufa grove along the shores of Mono Lake during the summer you will see plenty of tufa, flies, and brine shrimp, but you might be hard-pressed to find wildlife among the desert scrub in the middle of the day. During the day desert mammals slow down, saving much of their activity for the hours after sunset. With good eyes, patience, and a little stealth, you may spot a Nuttall's cottontail, black-tailed jackrabbit, or perhaps a Belding's ground squirrel. Hang around a little longer, and you may see more. Coyotes, long-tail weasels, and the occasional mountain lions have all been sighted in the vicinity of South Tufa. If you camp in Lee Vining or Lundy Canyon closer to the mountains, there is a slight chance of seeing a black bear. Black bears did not usually range in the Eastern Sierra, but increased human presence here has provided a new food source for the bears in the form of human garbage and campers' food.
TOADS, LIZARDS, AND SNAKES THAT SLITHER
Rattlesnakes are rare in the Mono Basin. They generally shun the alkaline habitat near the lake. The only recent sightings have come from the northwest corner of the Mono Basin and from irrigated areas of Lee Vining next to sagebrush habitat. Garter snakes and gopher snakes are far more common, and to the west of the lake in nearby canyons, you may encounter the wayward rubber boa, a smooth, brown, rubber-looking snake that is harmless to humans. You are more apt to run into lizards than snakes. The Side-blotched Lizard and the Sagebrush Lizard, both with the nickname "blue belly" are the two most common. Great Basin spadefoot toads make their appearance as early as March near the lakeshore and in nearby irrigated meadows. Their croaking chorus in the evening hours reveal their presence. They emerge from underground burrows, mate, and lay eggs in shallow pools of water (not in the lake itself) before returning underground for most of the year.</s>
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Desiree Bell is inspired by botanicals and natural materials. She is a vegetarian who has a certificate in herbal studies and a certificate from Australasian College of Health Sciences in Aromatherapy. When she isn't in her suburban garden, hiking or crafting, she is teaching pre-k with an emphasis on nature and gardening. For more ideas on Simple Living With Nature you can visit her blogs at www.beyondagarden.blogspot.com and www.kidsnaturespot.blogspot.com.
Conveying specific messages through the giving of herbs, flowers, and plants is known as The Language of Flowers or Florigraphy. In the 19th century, people spoke or communicated with flowers instead of words, which was influenced by Queen Victoria (1839-1901).
Authors gathered plant symbolisms from every possible source. Besides previous dictionaries, they used Egyptian hieroglyphics, Greek and Roman mythology, the Bible, religious beliefs, natural myths, classical poetry and literature. They also used flower colors and fragrances.
The rose was considered “the queen of flowers,” which many phrases came from. For example: rosy complexion, everything’s rosy, lovely as a rose.
Each variety and color had a different meaning, for example: coral (glory), lavender (pure love), pink (grace), red (love), and white (warmth of love, regard or friendship).
The shape of violet's leaves and flowers resemble that of the human heart. A syrup was made from the flower, which was used in treating heart disease. It was given the meaning “happiness,” which was thought to originate in the heart.
The same plant was often called different names by different authors, depending on locality and conversational style. There were so many dictionaries with so many different meanings that the sender and receiver of the flower would have had to use the same one in order to interpret the message correctly. Flora’s Dictionary, written by Mrs. E.W. Wirt in 1829, was the first floral dictionary.
Today we can make tussie-mussies, nosegays, cards pressed with flowers and potpourri to send a silent message, but be sure to include a explanation note.
Photo by Carolina Gonzalez/Courtesy Flickr
Meaningful Potpourri Mix
This is a simple blend of dried herbs from my home garden that I use to create a meaningful potpourri. (Flora’s Dictionary: The Victorian Language of Herbs and Flowers, by Kathleen Gips).
• Lavender flowers (devotion)
• Orange mint leaves (wisdom)
• Rose petals (love)
• Rosemary leaves (remembrance)
• Sunflower petals (pride)
Sweetheart Potpourri Mix
I created this recipe for a herbal valentine’s class I taught
• 1 tablespoon iris-florentine root, or orris root (I have a message for you)
• 1 tablespoon myrrh gum resin (gladness)
• Essential oils of jasmine and rose
• ½ cup jasmine flowers (I attached myself to you.)
• ½ cup lemon verbena leaves (delicacy of feeling)
• ½ cup rose buds and petals (I love you)
• ¼ cup hibiscus flowers (consumed by love)
• 2 tablespoon allspice berries (compassion)
• 2 tablespoon rosemary leaves (remembrance)
• ½ tablespoon nutmeg seed (your love is addicting.)
1. Put the fixatives (orris root and myrrh resin) in a bowl.
2. Add 1 to 3 drops of each essential oil or, due to cost, fragrance oil. Mix well.
3. Add the rest of the potpourri ingredients and mix well.
4. Cover and let meld for 1 to 2 weeks, stirring periodically.</s>
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Remember that your due date is just an estimate. Nine months is an average. Each baby has her own length of gestation. Try to set a range rather than a date as the time to expect the baby. Instead of “The baby is due on December 20th,” say, “The baby is due in late December.” Add a couple of weeks to your due date so you can relax and not be inundated by well-meaning phone calls toward the end of your pregnancy.
Here’s a visualization exercise you can use if you’re worried about the due date of your baby.
Find a place where you can sit quietly for 15 to 30 minutes. Take a few deep breaths and bring your attention to your breathing. Place your hands on your abdomen as you slow your breathing by letting your breaths get longer and longer.
Begin to imagine your baby. Silently say to yourself:
My body has everything my baby needs.
My body knows how to give birth.
My baby knows when to be born.
Repeat these phrases a few times as you breathe deeply with your hands on your abdomen. Turn them into a song if you like.
Finish with a few moments of silent breathing.</s>
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Friday, May 17, 2013
One in five children is diagnosed with dyslexia, yet it remains the most publicly misunderstood learning difference. The Center for Learning Differences Education at Trident Academy invites the community to learn more about dyslexia at a free screening of “The Big Picture: Rethinking Dyslexia,” accompanied by a panel discussion at Cinebarre Theater (Mount Pleasant) on Sunday, May 19 at 3 p.m. Please RSVP to [email protected].
“The documentary is extremely well-done and offers an informative look at dyslexia,” says Sandi Clerici, interim head of school at Trident Academy. “The opportunity for the public to gain a better understanding of dyslexia, and the importance of individualized, multisensory education, like that provided at Trident Academy, is incredibly important.”
“The Big Picture: Rethinking Dyslexia” follows a dyslexic high school student who pursues admissions to a leading college – a challenge for a boy who didn’t learn to read until fourth grade. Additional accounts of the dyslexic experience from children, experts and iconic leaders at the top of their fields, help us to understand that dyslexia, a persistent problem with learning to read, can be as great a gift as it sometimes is an obstacle.
Following the 50-minute movie, a panel will lead a discussion on dyslexia. Panelists will include teachers, an Orton-Gillingham Fellow, licensed psycho-educational specialists, and alumni of Trident Academy.
“The panelists will help break open the mystery surrounding dyslexia,” says Clerici. “Each panelist has an intimate understanding of dyslexia and the importance of early intervention.”
For more information, contact Niki Leiva at 843-884-3494.
Moultrie News is pleased to offer readers the enhanced ability to comment on stories. We expect our readers to engage in lively, yet civil discourse. We do not edit user submitted statements and we cannot promise that readers will not occasionally find offensive or inaccurate comments posted in the comments area. Responsibility for the statements posted lies with the person submitting the comment, not Moultrie News.</s>
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In the absence of a catalyst (left),
conversion of a substrate (S) to a product (P)
requires the input of a large energy of activation (Ea).
For example, many reactions will proceed when heated: the albumin
protein in an egg coagulates when boiled.
However, the amount of energy required is typically incompatible with
processes: most biological systems will not survive boiling.
In the presence of
an enzyme catalyst (E) (right),
an enzyme / substrate complex (ES) forms, for which the
required Ea is much less, and the reaction can proceed
conditions. When the reaction is complete, the enzyme is released
and can be recycled for use in subsequent reactions.</s>
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In the context of the late 1970s and early 1980s when digital liquid crystal display (LCD) watches were becoming the popular choice of consumers, a memorandum was prepared considering the pros and cons of using digital display wristwatches for military use.
The memorandum was prepared by the Australian Defence Science and Technology Group (DSTG) in response to a request from the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) for an evaluation of an United States Air Force (USAF) report describing the results of a questionnaire to evaluate digital LCD watches for military use and a US Department of Defense military specification for digital wristwatches with liquid crystal displays (MIL-M- 87967).
The USAF evaluation of 500 prototype Timex Marathon digital LCD wristwatches over the period June 1978 to March 1979 and the subsequent report led to the development of mil spec MIL-M- 87967 released in December 1980. The result was the manufacture of the Stocker & Yale Military Type III, Class A Chronograph Digital LCD wristwatch. Extending this time-line a little further, does the Casio G-Shock which was introduced in April 1983 owe its origin to MIL-M- 87967?
USAF Evaluation of Digital LCD Watches (1979)
In 1977 the USAF recognised the need to adopt a standard commercial quartz crystal watch movement to replace the mechanical analogue navigator’s watch. The necessity for a replacement of the mechanical movements surfaced principally because of spiralling buy programs and the requirement for increased performance at reduced costs. The use of standard commercially available quartz movements in lieu of mechanical movements specifically built and qualified for the military was considered to be beneficial because of the inherent reliability, ruggedness, and accuracy of the quartz movement. This recognition was made in the context of the sudden saturation of the commercial market in 1976 and 1977 with digital wristwatches. As a first step toward adopting a standard commercial quartz crystal watch movement, the USAF undertook a project/study to investigate the possible application of small electronic timepieces to the various requirements within the military for wristwatches and stopwatches.
Objectives of the Study
The key objectives of the study were as follows:
1. determine the acceptance of digital display by military and civilian personnel who normally use government-issued mechanical analogue dial timepieces.
2. determine what features are essential and desired on a digital display electronic timepiece in relation to the individual’s job requirements.
3. determine what types and style of digital display wristwatches could be used in place of mechanical analogue styles.
4. develop a specification for navigation/submersible wristwatches.
5. develop a commercial item description for a simplified version of a digital watch which would meet the general timepiece requirements of GSA and DLA customers.
To meet the objectives of the study, the USAF procured 500 wristwatches. Of the 500 watches obtained, 50 were used in various laboratory hardware performance tests. The other 450 were distributed throughout the USAF, Army, Navy and other US government agencies that had personnel who were authorised to use a government issued watch.
450 testers were requested to respond to a questionnaire on the prototype wristwatches after one to four months of use (425 actually responded). Questions concerning five major areas of evaluation were asked: (1) evaluator’s background; (2) watch design and construction: (3) assessment of digital display; (4) mechanical problems; and (5) overall assessment. The questionnaires were analysed in detail, including detailed data recording and a computer statistical analysis of the responses.
The 500 wristwatches were prototypes. A standard Timex Marathon wristwatch was modified to include the following characteristics: black anodised case, plastic unisex strap, tritium backlight, 15 minute stopwatch, larger digit size, larger LCD viewing window, and enhanced water resistance to meet the requirements of mil specs MIL-W-46374B General Purpose Watch; and MIL-W-50717A Navigation and Submersible Watch. Unlike most commercial watches, the prototypes had a shutdown feature which allowed the watch to be turned off for long term storage, thereby eliminating any drain on the battery.
USAF: Assessment of the Study
According to the USAF report, the digital LCD watch was very favourably received by most of those who participated in the evaluation. The most favourable comments concerned the extremely precise accuracy of the watch, the clarity and easy visibility of the digits under varied lighting conditions, and the continuous readout function. The latter two features provided for hands-off operation and hence, the watch did not hinder normal aircrew operations. Another feature which was very favourably received was the stopwatch function. From the analysis of the evaluators’ responses and comments, it was strongly concluded that the digital dial quartz crystal style of watch could be integrated into the US Government inventory.
Prototype Wristwatches: Proposed Improvements / Modifications
The prototype watch under evaluation by the USAF, was however, not considered acceptable without modifications. The following paragraphs summarise USAF’s suggested improvements to the design and construction of the prototype watch.
Proposed Improvements: Watch Design and Construction
1. Reduce the thickness of the case to improve comfort.
2. Adapt the watch to accept a mil spec nylon web strap.
3. Improve the finish to prevent chipping of the black coating.
4. Mode buttons be positioned in the upper right and/or left-hand corners of the octagon-shaped case to avoid the accidental activation of the buttons.
5. adopt a ‘push-in’ setting button rather than the setting button being required to be rotated 180 degrees.
6. crystal be recessed or hardened to reduce scratching.
7. Shock and vibration features continue to be incorporated.
8. It was noted that the test watch was extremely accurate and surpassed military/federal specifications for timepieces.
9. A number of test watches were evaluated by Explosive Ordnance personnel against non-magnetic mil spec MIL-M-19595B which required a device to read less than five gamma at a distance of 4 1/2 inches. The watches were tested against this mil spec and were found to read greater than 200 gamma. To overcome this problem, it was suggested that the buckle, strap pins, and push buttons could be made of a non-magnetic material such as brass.
Proposed Improvements: Digital Display
1. It was noted that hours-minutes-seconds continuous display was required for navigation tasks, bombing time tolerances, underwater use, and a few other selected activities. But for most other activities, a display of continuous seconds was not a necessity.
2. A 24 hour display was considered essential for celestial navigation and was a desirable feature for many military activities due to the extensive use of Greenwich Mean Time.
3. While the stopwatch function was very favourably received, it was suggested that it be redesigned to provide for a longer time duration (i.e., one hour versus 15 minutes). It was further suggested that for divers, this function be increased to at least three hours. Additionally, it was recommended that the stopwatch function incorporate a memory circuit that would allow uninterrupted operation when changing between the stopwatch mode and the hours-minutes-seconds mode.
4. It was considered that the Tritium backlight may not be appropriate for ground combat operations or during escape and evasion attempts. It was desirable, however, for most other military activities.
An Australian Perspective: A Biased USAF Report?
The conclusions of the USAF study, in the opinion of DSTG, were somewhat over-generalised and biased in favour of digital wristwatches and appeared to discount important minority opinions.
The DSTG observed that the USAF analysis of results of a questionnaire survey of digital watches for military use was found to be somewhat biased in favour of digital LCD wristwatches and it appeared to unfairly discount a minority of respondents who found difficulty in accepting and/or using digital wristwatches. It was noted that digital time displays may be preferable to analogue time displays in particular tasks requiring an exact quantitative representation of time. Analogue displays, in contrast, have the added advantage of providing a visual cue (clock or watch hand position) of the relationship between different times, thus providing both quantitative and qualitative information.
As DSTG pointed out, the results of the questionnaire indicated that there was not unanimous agreement. For example, 15% of respondents experienced difficulty operating the buttons controlling the display functions, 44% found that the face crystal was easily scratched and an average of 9% of individuals rated the watch poorly on a visibility scale to estimate the clarity of the display image under different lighting conditions. Of greater importance was the acceptance of the digital format. Eleven per cent of the subjects indicated that they had difficulty in mentally adjusting to the digital display in calculating specific time in relation to the hour. It was stated that this difficulty was experienced both by navigators and pilots “especially during flight when time compression is more severe”.
MIL-M- 87967 (1980): Shortcomings Identified
The US specification for digital wristwatches (MIL-M- 87967, dated 12 December 1980) describes three classes of digital watches: Type I general purpose watch; Type II divers’ watch and; Type III aircrew/navigator/shallow water divers’ watch. Under the specification, watches differed with respect to the stopwatch duration, waterproof and shockproof limits, optional seconds readout, background lighting, and the number of numerals in the liquid crystal display.
In its report, the DSTG concluded that mil spec MIL-M- 87967 appeared to include most of the characteristics necessary to ensure compliance with military operational and safety requirements, although it was further noted that the specification allowed little scope for technological advances.
DSTG did however identify several perceived shortcomings of MIL-M- 87967 and recommended changes to the US mil spec should the specification be used in procurement of military digital watches in Australia. The proposed changes to MIL-M- 87967 were as follows:
1. The replacement of the battery should not degrade the waterproofing characteristics of the watch.
2. The dark viewing requirement in the US specification should be extended. The specification requires that the background luminance of either the incandescent, electroluminescent or self-luminous lighted background should allow the watch to be read in darkness by a person of 6/6 visual acuity at a minimum viewing distance of 12 inches (about 305 mm). The distance should be increased to about 600 mm to include operational situations in which it is inconvenient to move either the head or the arm in order to read the time, for example, a pilot flying with his left arm (with wristwatch) placed on the control wheel.
3. Any Australian legal restrictions or safety recommendations on the use of radioactive substances in self-luminous displays ought to be examined.
4. The International System of Units (SI) should be used in an Australian specification.
The DSTG also recommended that should an Australian Defence specification be developed for digital LCD watches, then the specification should require either a continuous self-luminous light source or an incandescent/electroluminescent lamp to backlight the time display for night viewing. According to DSTG, it would also be important that the display be lit more uniformly than was usually the case with a single incandescent source in one corner or at one of the short sides of the display.
To date, I have been unable to unearth evidence to indicate that a separate Australian military specification was prepared for digital LCD wristwatches.
Stocker & Yale Autoranging Chronograph Type III Class A Wristwatch
At least one type of wristwatch was manufactured in accordance with MIL-M- 87967, which is the Stocker & Yale Autoranging Chronograph Type III Class A Wristwatch (S&Y Chrono).
Photos: Ted (xpatUSA)
Photo: MWR Archives
MIL-M- 87967 describes the autoranging function as follows:
the chronograph mode watches shall accumulate time for a minimum of 3 hours and the autoranging feature shall reflect minutes in digit positions 1 and 2; seconds in digit positions 3 and 4; and tenths and hundredths of seconds in digit positions 5 and 6 during the first hour of operation. When autoranging after 1 hour elapsed time, the watch shall reflect hours in digit positions 1 and 2; minutes in digit positions 3 and 4 and seconds in digit positions 5 and 6.
However, under MIL-M- 87967 Type III watches were required to have a one hour stopwatch and a continuous second display (HH:MM:SS), six digits. With a one-hour stopwatch, and a six digit display, autoranging was not required, the display (MM:SS:TT) only needs to go to 59 minutes: 59 seconds: 99 tenth seconds.
The Type II was required to have a continuous second display, and because the stopwatch was required to go to 24 hours, it must autorange. For the first 59 minutes: 59 seconds: 99 tenth seconds the display was MM:SS:TT, as soon as it hits 1 hour, the display changes to HH:MM:SS.
The Type I only required a four position display (no seconds), and a one-hour stopwatch. For this, the display could be just HH:MM for time and MM:SS for the stopwatch.
So why is the “autoranging” feature included in the S&Y Autoranging Chronograph Type III Class A Wristwatch? The mil spec provides the minimum requirements, allowing scope for manufacturers to exceed those requirements if desired. This is precisely what S&Y appears to have done, because it was cheaper to standardise the module than differentiate between Type II and III watches.
MIL-M- 87967 Reviewed and Cancelled
A notice dated 15 December 1988 indicated that MIL-M- 87967 had been revised and determined to be valid for use in acquisition. A subsequent notice dated 15 May 1993 cancelled mil spec MIL-M- 87967 without replacement.
Beyond MIL-M- 87967
Despite the cancellation of MIL-M- 87967 in 1993 and as a testament to their usefulness, digital LCD wristwatches continued to be procured and issued by the US military. For example, Casio G-Shock DW5600E-IV (NSN 6645-01-356-5944), Casio G-Shock DW-6900-IV (NSN 6645-01-441-2762), Timex Ironman T5K478GP (NSN 6645-01-592-0538), Suuntos (NSN 6645-01-544-8874 and 6645-01-544-8873) and an analog/LCD combination – the Timex Expedition T83512 (NSN 6645-01-231-5540).
Watches such as the Casio G-Shock replaced the S&Y Chrono manufactured IAW MIL-W-87967, most likely earlier than 1993* when the specification was cancelled. Apart from the self-luminous feature, the ubiquitous G-Shock performed all the functions required under MIL-W-87967, however, the unit cost was lower than the cost of a MIL-W-87967 spec S&Y Chrono.
The G-Shock and Ironman were issued to student pilots in the USAF (and may still be today).
* Starting right after the first Iraqi war, there was a general house cleaning of specifications that were obsolete, not being used, or that had industry specifications that covered the same ground (these were really just reprints of the Mil-Specs, but maintained by ASTM, SAE and others).
In 1979 a quartz LCD watch with chronograph feature cost as low as US$50 to $100. In contrast, a mechanical chronograph with only a 30 minute cumulative timer cost about US$200. It is very easy to see why the USAF wished to place the LCD quartz watch in a good light when reporting on the results of the evaluation.
Examining the procurement records shows that analogue watches continued to be the first choice of many in the US military including in the USAF throughout the 1980s and 1990s. For example, around 38,000 Steel Marathon Navigators were purchased in a period of 10+ years. More recently, around 40,000 Plastic Marathon Navigators have been purchased in the past ten years.
Questions / Further Information
Does any MWRine have in his/her collection one of the 500 prototype Timex Marathon used in the study?
Would it be possible for a fellow MWRine to post the operating instructions for the S&Y Type III Class A?
Feel free to post any further information on the S&Y Type III Class A watches, including additional images.
Many Thanks Ted and Lysander
My sincere thanks to Ted (xpatUSA) for kindly allowing me to use his photographs taken of his S&Y chrono. I know that Ted is seeking replacement (backlight) tubes for his S&Y Chrono, can anybody assist?
Many thanks also to Lysander for continuing to be an invaluable source of information and in particular, providing technical advice relating to the S&Y Chrono and related mil specs. Lysander has undertaken extensive research on the procurement of digital LCD watches by the US military, which is best presented by him (hopefully as part of this thread).
In a sense it was a team effort, however, any mistakes/omissions are mine.
Best Regards, Ken</s>
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Stay up-to-date with all that's new at my-island-jamaica.com Click here to subscribe for my updates.
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Discover the endemic, unique and native plants and animals in Jamaica!
|"Your site helped us get a better understanding of the country and what things to look for!" - Shanii|
Our tropical Caribbean climate facilitates our renowned diverse ecosystems. It shelters, nurtures and stimulates the beautiful plants and animals life in Jamaica.
Jamaica's plant life however has changed considerably over the centuries.
When the Spanish came here in 1494, except for small agricultural clearings, the country was deeply forested. But the European settlers cut down the great timber trees for building purposes and cleared the plains, savannas, and mountain slopes for cultivation.
Many new plants were introduced including sugarcane, bananas, and citrus trees. We still however have a lot to be thankful for.
In the areas of heavy rainfall are stands of bamboo, ferns, ebony, mahogany, rosewood plus many indigenous flowers.
Cactus and similar dry-area plants are found along the south and
southwest coastal area.
Parts of our west and southwest areas consist of large grasslands, with scattered stands of trees. More on our Plants here.
The Jamaican animal life- typical of the Caribbean, includes a highly diversified bird life. Parrots, hummingbirds,cuckoos, and green todies provide examples. Other birds are abundant.
The wild hog is one of the few native mammals in Jamaica, but there are many reptiles and lizards, including the protected Jamaican Iguana.
Jamaican waters contain considerable resources of fresh-and saltwater fish. The chief varieties of saltwater fish are kingfish, jack, mackerel, whiting, bonito, and tuna. Freshwater varieties include snook, jewfish, grey and black snapper and mullet. More on the animals here.
Among the variety of terrestrial, aquatic and marine ecosystems are dry and wet limestone forests, rainforest, riparian woodland, wetlands, caves, rivers, sea grass beds and coral reefs. Our biodiversity is indicated by a number five (5) ranking amongst countries worldwide.
[I secured a few pictures from my daughter's 'AnimalFarm' trip to share with you. You can take a peek at them here when you get a chance.
The authorities, recognized the tremendous significance andpotential of this aspect of our heritage, designated some of our more 'fertile' areas 'protected'.
Among the island's protected areas are the Cockpit Country, Hellshire Hills, and Litchfield forest reserves.
In 1992, Jamaica's first marine park, covering nearly 6 square miles (about 15 square km), was established in Montego Bay. [Just a few kilometers from where I live]
The following year Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park was created on roughly 300 square miles (780 square km) of wilderness that supports thousands of tree and fern species, rare animals and insects,such as the Homerus swallowtail, the Western Hemisphere's largest butterfly and the Jamaican Boa snake.
The JPAT (Jamaica Protected Areas Trust) is developing a website which will provide helpful information on most of the Protected Areas in the island, which are home to many of the native plants and animals in Jamaica.
Here too are insightful pages about Jamaica:
Back to Top of plants and animals in JamaicaGo to Interesting Facts About Jamaica from Plants and Animals in Jamaica
BOOK YOUR TRAVEL
|Interested in becoming a partner? email me here|
(Click on the drink below)</s>
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When exposed to a foreign substance, some people suffer reactions identical to anaphylaxis, but no allergy (IgE antibody) is involved. These reactions are called anaphylactoid (meaning anaphylaxis-like) reactions.
While the immune system must be "primed" by previous exposure to cause anaphylaxis, anaphylactoid reactions can occur with no previous exposure at all. An example of something that can bring on this kind of reaction is radiographic contrast material. This is the dye injected into arteries and veins to make them show up on an X-ray.
Although the mechanism of an anaphylactoid reaction is different, the treatment is the same as for anaphylaxis.</s>
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Macular Degeneration (ARMD / AMD)
Macular Degeneration (AMD, ARMD) is the gradual breakdown of the macula cells, a small yellowish part of the eye near the retina's center. This is your central vision, the point where your vision is most exact. The deterioration weakens your ability to read, write, drive, and recognize faces, which are all activities requiring healthy central vision. Peripheral, or side vision isn't damaged. Take the Amsler Test.
Self Help & Tips
Get Vitamins & Supplements to Support the Macula
Homeopathic Macular Degeneration Pellets
Helpful for macular degeneration
- Daily juicing of vegetables and fruits (preferably organic). We recommend a combination of the following: ginger, garlic, leeks, parsley, beets, cabbage, carrots, celery, spinach, kale, collard greens, apples, grapes, raspberries, lemon, chlorophyll, and wheat grasses (but not too much fruit). Learn more about juicing.
- Drugs. Be aware of drugs that damage the macula.
- Stop smoking.
- General tips supporting healthy eyes
- You might also consider our new Yoga & Vision DVD.
Blindness is not inevitable for people who have ARMD. There is a large amount of peer review research showing ARMD to be a nutritional and lifestyle responsive eye disease, and that you can stabilize and possibly even improve your vision with healthy lifestyle choices.
Most people with ARMD have dry macular degeneration. In dry macular degeneration tiny, yellow drusens develop. Drusens are accumulations of fatty, yellow material that form in the macula and people with ARMD have more and larger drusens than what is common with aging. They are thought to be comprised of waste proteins and lipids (oily material) that begin to accumulate due to poor circulation and waste-flushing in the eye. Antioxidants are important for the normal waste-clearing process. The drusen slowly crowd, distort, or break the cells in the macula leading to deterioration and resulting in blurred vision. Because drusen also include immune-system regulating molecules, it is thought that they are part of the immune system.3
The second type of macular degeneration is the "wet" form, (also known as choroidal neovascularization) in which new blood vessels begin to develop near the macula, causing fast and serious vision loss. Wet macular degeneration can result from progression of dry macular degeneration, left untreated, and affects about 10% of macular degeneration patients.
- Lines look distorted or wavy. (try the amsler test) In more developed AMD, the amsler grid can look quite distorted
- Shapes look blurred, fuzzy, or hazy
- Colors appear more dim and less distinct
- Words are hard to read because they are blurred
- Blank or dark areas hide the center area of your vision
- The center of vision looks foggy or cloudy
- Heredity is a risk factor.
- Free radicals can damage the eyes. They are formed when the blue and ultraviolet sunlight passes through the crystalline lens of the eye. Free radicals also result as natural metabolism byproducts. These chemical are highly reactive and cause oxidation. The result is destabilization of healthy macula cells in the eyes.
- Smoking, chronic fatigue and a weak immune system hasten damage from free radicals.
- Poor digestion and nutritional deficiencies - People with ARMD are often deficient in a number of nutrients that are essential to eye health such as lutein, essential fatty acids, zeaxanthin, taurine, antioxidants, zinc, bioflavonoids, selenium, and vitamin B-complex.
- Systemic inflammation, indicated by high levels of c-reactive protein has been tied to increased macular degeneration risk.2
Who is at Risk?
- Smokers - smoking increases the risk of AMD by 200-300%
- Adult diabetics
- Those with a family history of AMD
- People with high blood pressure
- People who have difficulty absorbing nutrients which are needed for the healthy macula, especially lutein and zeaxanthin.
- Plaquenil (hydroxychloroquine sulfate), often prescribed for rheumatoid arthritis, has been found to cause permanent damage to the retinal.
- Chloridine (Catapres), for high blood pressure
- NSAIDS (non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory drugs) side effects from regular use include retinal hemorrhages. This group includes ibuprofen, aspirin1, ibuprofen, ketoprofen, flurbiprofen, and naproxen sodium. In addition acetaminophen (Tylenol), though not an NSAID, can harm vision.
Doctors now acknowledge that at least the AREDs formulations can be helpful as macular degeneration supplements. Sometimes laser surgery is the recommended treatment, but it may not completely repair a leaking blood vessel without permanently damaging nerve fibers passing through the retina. The National Eye Institute reports that macular degeneration treatment using laser technology can make vision worse, and benefits towards slowing progress of the condition not appear until at more than a year following surgery.
Photodynamic Therapy (PVT) is a generally less damaging procedure to seal blood vessels in the eye than traditional laser treatments.
Antiangiogenesis drugs such as Macugen can be injected into the retina for wet macular degeneration; they help prevent the body from growing new, leak-prone blood vessels in the retina. Lucentis and Avastin are considered more effective injection treatment strategies. Research suggests that the best results are using a combination of Lucentis and PVT to help stabilize wet macular degeneration.
Drugs can have potentially serious side effects, so the benefits of going on these therapies have to be evaluated with your eye doctor and family.
The best cure is prevention. You can use complementary medicine to address underlying causes of AMD, along with conventional medicine to alleviate acute event damage. Since less than 1% of those with ARMD are legally blind, most people are able to benefit greatly from prevention.
- Poor Circulation
- Elevated Homocysteine
- Choroidal Neovascularization
- Macular Pucker
- Stargardt's Disease
- Retinitis Pigmentosa
Studies and Information
1. The Association of Aspirin Use With Age-Related Macular Degeneration; Gerald Liew, PhD, et al; JAMA Internal Medicine, Feb 25, 2013, Vol 173, No. 4
2. C-Reactive Protein and the Incidence of Macular Degeneration, Vinod P. Mitta, MD, MPH; et al, JAMA Ophthalmol. 2013;():1-7
3. "An integrated hypothesis that considers drusen ... macular degeneration", Hageman GS, et al, Progressive Retina Eye Res., November 2001, 20(6), p 705-32</s>
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Sixty years ago The Nature Conservancy’s first act was conserving a forest in New York; today we work with people all over the world to protect the life-giving services their forests provide.
In North America we're working to collaboratively accelerate the pace and scale of forest restoration.
We work to maintain fire’s role where it benefits people and nature, and keep fire out of places where it is destructive.
Many of America's trees and forests are being destroyed by invasive insects and diseases.
We're racing to save Ash Trees in America - see why.
Learn more about how fire is helping to revive a California community.
The Conservancy is using data from bears' tracking collars to determine the most important lands to protect.
Watch our new documentary and find out how you can help trees in North America.
A serious issue prompts a hilarious misunderstanding in this video from our Don't Move Firewood team.
Invasive ant species, including the red imported fire ant, have caused biological and economic damage ecosystems around the world.</s>
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