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Android’s openness is one of its greatest strengths and makes it possible for most devices to be modified in a number of ways. Customizing your device can add new features and make it feel like it is, well, yours.
There’s just one problem. The Android modding community is naturally lead by tech-heads and programmers, two groups of people not known for their ability to communicate with the layman. If you ask them what your first steps should be they’ll tell you to unlock your bootloader, root your device and load a ROM. But what does that mean?
All electronic devices need fundamental firmware that allows the device to boot. This is often known as the bootloader. It is low-level software that starts the device when you press the power button. Most include fail-safes that restore a device to factory defaults in the event of catastrophic software failure.
Most Android devices come with a bootloader that will only start certain software, such as the ROM (see below) that shipped with the device. Replacing or modifying the original loader is usually required to install custom ROMs.
Some devices have encrypted bootloaders which are much more difficult to circumvent. If you read that a device is “locked” it usually means it is encrypted, which in turn means custom ROMs can’t be flashed until the encryption is circumvented.
As you might have guessed from the above section, unlocking a device is the process of cracking its bootloader so it can be replaced with another, open, bootloader. There are a lot of different ways to do this and the methods vary from device to device and sometimes even between different versions of the same hardware.
Not all devices can be unlocked. Obviously, a device that’s just been released usually cannot be unlocked for at least a few weeks because Android community members need time to find an exploit or crack that will work. Most phones are eventually unlocked, but that’s not always the case. A device must be unlocked before it can be rooted (see below).
You should note that the term “unlocking” is not very precise. It can be confused with the lock feature used to protect a device from unauthorized access. It also can be confused with phones that are “carrier unlocked,” which means a phone is sold without a contract and can be used with the carrier of your choice.
Android is based on Linux. The deepest level of access available in any Linux operating system is root access. A user with root access can change anything in the system at any time and has access to all features.
Android devices generally do not ship with root access. It’s not necessary for typical functionality and denying root access both improves security and makes modding more difficult. Manufacturers see both as positive results, but many custom ROM features and custom apps won’t work without root enabled.
Obtaining root access is known as rooting. It’s usually achieved by running custom software that exploits vulnerability in the target device. Though potentially complex, some devices enjoy excellent developer support via apps like SuperOneClick. Again, I advise checking the XDA Developers forums for your specific device. That’s where you will find the latest and greatest rooting techniques for your Android.
Most Android customizations, including custom ROMs, require a device that has been rooted.
ROM is an example of an acronym that’s taken on a life of its own. It is shorthand for read-only memory, a type of computer memory that can store data for long periods of time but can’t be written to (either due to limitations of the hardware or the software running on it). ROM is where a device stores system files critical to its operation.
In the Android community, however, a ROM is a piece of software loaded into your device which replaces the original Android system files. A custom ROM is a customized version of the Android operating system. There are many different versions available from different teams and independent coders. A ROM is not read-only but it does serve as the basis for all of Android’s functions and features.
A comparison to Linux distributions is apt. Linux is an operating system that has many different versions, most of which are crafted by independent programmers or teams. Android, which is based off Linux, is similar. The main difference is Google, which acts as a central driving force and develops the main fork of the operating system. No organization of similar clout exists in the Linux ecosystem.
The term flash is confusing since it might be mistaken for Adobe Flash, which is unrelated. Flashing is instead the term used to describe the installation of a custom ROM.
When you flash a device you install a new ROM on it. This usually consists of loading the ROM file onto a memory card, wiping out the existing ROM installation via the device’s recovery menu and then loading the new ROM.
Exact instructions are more complex, of course, so you should check out the XDA Developers Flashing Guide. You also should check out the XDA Developers device forums. You can usually find device-specific instructions there.
A device that’s been bricked has been made useless because of a problem that prevents it from starting. It’s literally as useful as a small plastic-and-glass brick.
Not all bricks are the same, however. A “soft” brick occurs when a device starts but does not completely load Android. It may be a reboot loop (where the device keeps shutting off and restarting, over and over again), display error message or have some other issue. Most soft bricks can be recovered by resetting the phone to factory defaults or using its built-in recovery mode.
A device that does not even begin to boot is called a hard brick. A device with a hard brick has experienced a fundamental failure which may even include damage to the phone’s memory. It’s rare, but it does happen, and replacing hardware in the device is the only way to fix it.
AOSP & AOKP
AOSP stands for Android Open Source Project. It’s the project maintained by Google that allows anyone, including both manufacturers and individuals, to build their own version of Android and distribute it.
Downloading the source is easy. Understanding it and using it is hard. You won’t be able to do much with it unless you’re a decent programmer, but it’s nice to know that it’s available. Most importantly for our purposes, a ROM that is “AOSP” or “based on AOSP” tries to closely adhere to the original version of Android, and offer a “pure” Android experience, as close as possible to the one you get with a Google device like the Nexus S phone.
AOKP is shorthand for Android Open Kang Project, the name of a popular open-source custom ROM. The AOKP ROM is a heavily modified version of the original Android ROM, with lots of tweaks added in. It is often used as a basis for other ROMs, so you will sometimes see lists of ROMs with “AOKP” used as a headline. It is unrelated to AOSP but commonly confused because of the similarities in the acronyms.
Hopefully this article has cleared up some of the terms commonly used to describe Android customization. If you have any additional questions feel free to post a comment – or head over to MakeUseOf Answers. | <urn:uuid:fb04ea00-454e-40f5-b7d7-48aa6d1b3567> | CC-MAIN-2017-13 | http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/customize-android-device-start/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-13/segments/1490218189316.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20170322212949-00285-ip-10-233-31-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947724 | 1,551 | 2.546875 | 3 | {
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Advances in Consumer Research Volume 11, 1984 Pages 697-702
WORD OF MOUTH COMMUNICATION AS NEGATIVE INFORMATION
Marsha L. Richins, Louisiana State University
Negative word-of-mouth (NWOM) is a consumer response to dissatisfaction. This paper reviews existing literature on NWOM and related topics, especially examining the circumstances under which it occurs and the factors which influence the impact of this form of communication on recipients.
A DEFINITION OF NEGATIVE WORD-OF-MOUTH
Because so few studies have systematically investigated negative word-of-mouth, no definition of the construct appears in published literature. By synthesizing and slightly modifying definitions of word-of-mouth advertising (Arndt 1967a, p. 190) and negative information (Weinberger, Allen, and Dillon 1981b, p. 398) negative word-of-mouth ma be defined as:
interpersonal communication among consumers concerning a marketing organization or product which denigrates the object of the communication.
Two characteristics of this definition are noteworthy. First, it says nothing about the direction of the communication. While traditional communications theory has emphasized a linear communications model from source to receiver, more recent communications research has emphasized the two-way nature of most interpersonal communications. This definition preserves this dynamic relationship among communicators.
Second, no statement about the veracity of the word-of-mouth communication is made in this definition. Researchers have not investigated how much NWOM is true relative to that which is false, perhaps because of the difficulty of making such measurements. Because a large amount of NWOM concerning products and companies is based on communicators' personal experiences, most of it is probably true, though subject perhaps to some exaggeration and to usual distortions in message communication. From a manager's point of view, the veracity of NWOM is probably unimportant: As long as the recipient of NWOM believes the information to be true it has the potential to affect his or her attitudes.
One may distinguish between random and systematic NWOM. As the name implies, there is no particular pattern to the occurrence or content of random NWOM. Most NWOM is of this type and frequently arises from the source's own negative experiences with the company or product involved. Since this type of communication is in fact random, it tends to be offset by positive word-of-mouth from other sources. Random NWOM tends to reflect occasional lapses in product quality control or customer relations .
Systematic NWOM occurs when large numbers of customers experience the same problem with a product or company. Such NWOM will normally not be offset by positive word-of-mouth. Systematic NWOM indicates potentially serious problems for a marketing organization. It may reflect problems in product design or serious quality control inadequacies or stem from marketing factors such as misleading advertising. If the magnitude of systematic NWOM is sufficiently great, the problem causing NWOM may be reported by mass media and reach the attention of various government monitoring agencies. rn such cases current customers may defect to competitors and potential new customers may avoid the firm. Clearly, systematic NWOM can have a serious impact on a marketing organization.
NWOM involves dynamic, two-way communication. However, one party normally initiates the topic or stimulates the communication of negative information. Studies conducted in the 1960's rather consistently reported that about 50% of word-of-mouth communications are initiated by the source of the information (see Arndt 1967a, b). Unfortunately, these studies failed to separate positive word-of-mouth from negative in determining these percentages and examinedly conversations concerning only relatively low-cost, low-risk products. Percentages ma,v differ for high importance items such as appLiances or automobiles.
THE IMPORTANCE OF NWOM
The importance of negative word-of-mouth in the marketplace can be gauged by the amount or incidence of NWOM and by its impact on NWOM recipients. Each of these factors is discussed below.
Incidence of NWOM
Several studies have investigated the incidence of NWOM. Diener and Greyser (1978) found that 34% of those consumers dissatisfied with a personal care product told others about their dissatisfaction. Richins (1983a) reported that 57% of consumers dissatisfied with either a clothing item or an appliance told individuals outside their immediate family about the dissatisfaction (word-of-mouth rates did not differ for the two product classes) and in another study (Richins 1983b) found that those experiencing a dissatisfaction with a clothing item told an average of 5 other persons about the dissatisfaction. On the average, 3 of these individuals were household members and 2 were coworkers or other acquaintances. These studies show that the incidence of NWOM, once a dissatisfaction is experienced, is quite high and can be extensive, since most consumers tell several others about their dissatisfaction.
While the extent of NWOM makes it a factor of concern for marketing organizations, its impact may be blunted if it is offset b,v positive word-of-mouth. Thus it is of interest to know whether consumers are more likely to relate their negative experiences or their positive experiences to other consumers. Three studies have examined this question.
Holmes and Lett (1977) studied consumers with favorable and those with unfavorable reactions to a product sample of instant coffee they received through the mail. Those with favorable brand attitudes told significantly more others about their reaction than those with unfavorable attitudes. Engel, Kegerreis, and Blackwell (1969) examined the amount of word-of-mouth b,v customers satisfied and dissatisfied with an innovative automobile diagnostic center, finding no difference in extent of word-of-mouth by these two groups. Finally, a study by the Technical Assistance Research Program (1981) compared the extent of word-of-mouth by those satisfied and those dissatisfied with the corporation's response to their complaint. Results, contrary to the preceding studies, showed negative word-of-mouth more likely to occur than positive word-of-mouth.
Clearly the studies examining this phenomenon are contradictory. Their differences may be reconciled, however, by examining their differing contexts. The study involving the least effort or commitment on the part of the consumer (Holmes and Lett 1977) resulted in the lowest ratio of negative to positive word-of-mouth; the study where the situation involved a rather high degree of effort or commitment (making a complaint to the corporate customer relations department) showed the nighest ratio of negative to positive word-of-mouth. While the conclusion is tentative because of its post-hoc nature, evidence does suggest that the greater the consumer commitment to the product or situation causing dissatisfaction, the higher the likelihood the consumer will engage in NWOM when dissatisfaction occurs.
Impact of NWOM
The impact of NWOM on recipients has been noted many times. Rogers (1962), in his study of the diffusion of innovations, documented the role of "active rejectors," opinion leaders who effectively inhibit the diffusion of an innovation through negative comments about it. Arndt (1967b) studied word-of-mouth communications among wives living in married student housing and determined that those wives receiving NWOM were less likely to purchase a new coffee brand than those receiving positive word-of-mouth or those receiving no word-of-mouth communications about the product. More recently Tybout, Calder, and Sternthal (1981) studied NWOM in a laboratory experiment. Those subjects who heard from a stooge that McDonald's hamburgers were rumored to contain worm meat had a less favorable evaluation of eating at McDonald's, even when they reported they did not believe the rumor.
Negative word-of-mouth information seems to be especially potent in affecting recipients' attitudes for a number of reasons. Borgida and Nisbett (1977) compared the effectiveness of face-to-face word-of-mouth from communicators with summary data based on the experiences of a large group of individuals. This latter type of data is similar to that offered by some consumer publications such as Consumer Reports summaries of automobile repair experiences of subscribers. The researchers found that the face-to-face communications had a substantially greater effect on recipients than the written summary data and hypothesized that the greater vividness of face-to-face communication partially accounts for its superior impact.
Word-of-mouth communication is also especially impactful because it comes from a non-marketing dominated source. The superiority of such sources has been documented repeatedly.
The negativity of NWOM partially accounts for its substantial impact. Research on negative information has repeatedly demonstrated that negative information has more impact on consumers than positive information. Weinberger, Allen, and Dillon (1981a) further demonstrated that the impact of negative information persists even when it has been refuted. While several explanations for the stronger impact of negative information have been offered, they all in some way hypothesize that the rareness of unexpectedness of negative information leads to greater attention to and weighting of that information (see Mizerski 1982).
MOTIVATIONS FOR ENGAGING IN UNSOLICITED NWOM
Because of NWOM's potential impact upon recipients, it would be valuable to understand consumers' motivations for engaging in it. Research in consumer behavior and on rumors is reviewed.
Two authors have investigated motivations for engaging in word-of-mouth. Arndt (1967a) reviewed studies investigating word-of-mouth and suggested six possible motivations: altruistic. instrumental (the desire to appear well-informed), ego-defensive, ego-involvement, to establish cognitive clarity in an ambiguous situation, and to reduce cognitive dissonance.
Dichter (1966) used an involvement framework and identified four motivations for word-of mouth.
1. Product involvement, where "experience with the product (or service) produces a tension which .. must be channeled by way of talk..." (p. 148). Indirect evidence for the existence of this motivation comes from work by Holmes and Lett (1977), who determined that heavy users of a product engage in more word-of-mouth than light users, and from Engel et al. (1969), who found that innovators (assumed to be higher in product involvement than non-innovators) engage in more word-of-mouth than other consumers
2. Self-involvement, where word-of-mouth is used to meet the consumer's need to reassure himself in front of others. Several studies have shown that individuals high in anxiety engage in more word-of-mouth and are more likely to transmit rumors than those low in anxiety (e.g., Biberian, Anthony, and Rosnow 1975), pointing to the validity of self-involvement explanations for some occasions of word-of-mouth.
3. Other involvement, where consumers engage in word-of-mouth with the intent to help others.
4. Message involvement, where word-of-mouth is "mainly stimulated by the way the product is presented through advertisements ... but is not necessarily based on the speaker's experience with the product proper" (p. 148).
Both Dichter and Arndt were concerned primarily with positive word-of-mouth. For negative communications, it is useful to examine the body of research concerning rumors, a type of word-of-mouth activity frequently negative in content.
Knapp (1944) in his classic work identified three types of rumors: (1) Pipe dream or wish rumors are usually positive and express the hopes of the communicator. Knapp gave as an example the unconfirmed tales of Allied victories in World War II. (2) Bogies are rumors which mirror fear and anxiety and are negative or frightening. A rumor that table salt is carcinogenic may fall into this category. (3) Wedge-driving or aggressive rumors are negative in content and serve to divide groups or create scapegoats. Many rumors concerning racial groups fall into this category Knapp's work suggests that rumors mirror and provide outlets for emotions. According to Dichter, word-of-mouth can serve the same function. However, even with emotional arousal rumors do not always occur.
Allport and Postman (1947) and Rosnow and Fine (1976) all agree that for rumors to occur, evidence pertaining to an important topic is ambiguous or lacking. Rosnow and Fine further stipulate that emotional arousal in the form of anxiety must also be present for rumor to occur.
What, then can we conclude are the motivations for engaging in unsolicited NWOM? It appears that under most circumstances the impetus for NWOM arises from a first-hand negative experience with a product or company, though in some cases the dissatisfaction may have been experienced by an acquaintance or family member of the communicator. Once this dissatisfaction occurs, synthesis of the rumor and word-of-mouth literatures suggests three major motivations: (1) catharsis and anxiety reduction, basically an attempt to reduce emotional arousal by sharing verbally the experience with others, (2) altruism, an attempt to prevent others from experiencing a similar fate, and (3) vengeance, an aggressive motivation similar to that documented by Knapp (1944) in which the communicator attempts to "get back at" the offending marketing institution by turning other consumers against it. The importance of the product involved or the strength of the dissatisfaction may increase the likelihood of NWOM occurring by strengthening the motivations, e.g., by heightening emotional arousal and anger and/or increasing the importance of warning others. Richins (1983a) in fact found that the more severe the problem experienced with a Product, the greater the likelihood of engaging in NWOM.
It should be noted that the desire to engage in NWOM is frequently at odds with self-presentation needs. Individuals normally desire to present themselves in as positive a fashion as possible (Goffman 1959). Telling others that a product one purchased was unsatisfactory is, in essence, admitting failure as a consumer. Apparently, when NWOM does occur the motivations listed above are stronger than self-presentation needs, at least momentarily. Attributions of blame and individual self-esteem may also affect whether NWOM occurs in the face of this conflict.
The research described above primarily refers to communicator characteristics inciting NWOM. There is some evidence that situational or environmental factors may also give rise to such conversations. Belk (1971) reported that food-related cues (shopping for food, drinking coffee) were present in at least 75% of the reported incidents of word-of-mouth activity about a new brand of coffee. Consistent with this, Richins (1983b) found that the most frequent situational context in which NWOM about an unsatisfactory clothing item occurred was while dressing or wearing the item. These findings suggest that use of the product itself or other products in the product class stimulate NWOM, perhaps by reminding consumers of their dissatisfaction and again arousing the emotions experienced earlier.
TRANSMISSION BIASES IN NWOM
Communication theory has documented the distortions which occur in communication, and word-of-mouth is no exception. Early studies of rumor (see Allport and Postman 1947) found at least three possible distortions. Leveling is the elimination of some of the message details, sharpening is selective attention to or heightening of particular message details, and assimilation is message bias which occurs presumably to build a better overall il formation structure or to fit new information into existing structure. More recently Pace and Boren (1973) reviewed research on transmission biases and listed nine message transformations which may occur during serial transmission, most of which simplify the message to ease transmission.
While the existence of severe and even wild distortion in rumor transmission has been frequently noted, numerous studies show that word-of-mouth communications are usually quite accurate (see Davis 1977). Buckner (1965) suggests that distortions are less likely to occur when the communicator and receiver are motivated to separate true from false information. This type of screening probably can be assumed to operate in many word-of-mouth communications concerning products. Certainly, receiver relying on word-of-mouth information to make a purchase decision will be motivated to question unreasonable statements.
It is important to note that distortions carl occur in the initial transmission of a message is well as in retelling. When a consumer relates a negative experience to another, a number of biases may occur. First, the individual may not have possessed all the facts of the situation initially. Thus, the communicator may incorrectly believe himself to be communicating a true picture of the situation. Second, even if the individual knew the relevant facts initially, at the time of transmission some facts may not be communicated because of memory and cognitive processing limitations. .A third important consideration involves attributions of blame. Where NWOM is concerned both the communicator and receiver usually are interested in who is responsible for the dissatisfaction's occurrence. Attribution research has repeatedly shown that participants in a situation are more likely to attribute failure (i.e., purchasing a unsatisfactory product) to "circumstances" while they tend to attribute success to personal factors such as effort or skill. While several factors account for this finding, one explanation is that such attributional biases partially reflect attempts to maintain self-esteem. If a consumer feels his or her self-esteem or image is damaged by a dissatisfaction experience, some biasing of the NWOM communication may occur. This can be as minimal as a change in the emphasis or exclusion of particular details of the message; or the communicator may knowingly pass along untrue information to preserve the desired image.
The communicator's motivation for engaging in NWOM may also result in selective emphasis or other distortions. When the motivation is primarily altruistic, the communicator may emphasize the seriousness of the dissatisfaction or the marketing organization's role in causing it to strengthen the warning to recipients. If the motivation is primarily that of revenge, exaggeration of the organization's misdeeds may occur.
Finally, audience factors may cause distortion. Communicators are known to adjust their messages to recipient characteristics (Crawford 1974). The desire to impress the recipient or to make the message appear more interesting may result in conscious leveling and sharpening, as will the possible desire to say what the recipient wishes to hear.
THE IMPACT OF NWOM
The study of NWOM is important for its potential impact upon recipients. While NWOM impact can be considered a form of attitude change, the attitude change literature will not be reviewed exhaustively but only as it specifically relates to NWOM.
Several theories have addressed the conditions under which attitude change will occur and the persistence of this effect. Petty and Cacioppo (1980) note that there are two routes through which attitude change from a message is likely to occur. Persuasion through the central route occurs when the message recipient is motivated and able to think about the issue. Persuasion through the peripheral route occurs when either motivation or ability is low. In these cases attitude change occurs due to the reward for advocating a particular viewpoint, because of source attractiveness, or for other reasons unrelated to cognitive processing of the message itself. .Attitude changes via the central route are relatively enduring; those through the peripheral route are not likely to endure useless the change is subsequently bolstered by cognitive processing.
Kelman's (1958) identification of three sources of attitude change can be examined in terms of Petty and Cacioppo's framework. Compliance occurs when one believes that agreement with the communicator will bring rewards or allow the avoidance of punishment. Attitude change based on identification occurs when one likes or is attracted to the source of the attitude change message. Both compliance and identification are peripheral routes to attitude change. Internalization, the third source of attitude change, results when message recipients believe message acceptance will help them to realize important, central values; it involves at least a moderate degree of cognitive processing as in the central route described by Petty and Cacioppo.
The above approaches and numerous studies of attitude change suggest that the impact of NWOM depends at least in part on the amount of cognitive processing the NWOM message stimulates. Factors expected to influence degree of processing are discussed below and are classified into source message, and receiver characteristics. Channel factors are presumed to be relatively constant, consisting of face-to-face interactions among consumers.
Attribution theorists have studied source credibility and suggest that the recipient of a message attempts to infer reasons for the communication (e.g., Eagly, Wood, and Chaiken 1978). When a recipient hears positive information concerning a product recently purchased by the communicator. less credibility is placed on that information because the recipient may infer that the source is attempting to justify his or her purchase by saving positive things about it. The positive information is "expected" from the source and therefore discounted. This discounting is less likely to occur if the source makes negative, and therefore unexpected, statements about the newly-purchased product. In such situations the message is more likely to be believed.
Likability and physical attractiveness are source characteristics which have been shown to result in attitude change (Chaiken 1979). Such characteristics may lead to identification. As noted previously, however, such influences on attitude are likely to be short-lived unless the recipient has an ongoing relationship with the source.
If the source of the NWOM is a reference group member, the likelihood of attitude change is enhanced. There are two avenues through which attitude change may be effected by reference groups. First, reference group members are normally well-liked, and attitude change through identification may occur. Second, if group norms are especially strong there may be pressure to conform with resulting attitude change through compliance. The extent and persistence of this attitude change will probably depend on whether reference group members can continue to observe the receiver's expression of attitude (see Cook and Flay 1978) and by the degree of consensus among reference group members on the topic in question.
Shibutani (1966) proposed that for a rumor to be accepted by recipients it must fit with that person's beliefs and inclinations and be plausible. Certainly, such stipulations are consistent with social judgment theory (Sherif and Sherif 1967), which suggests that the greatest amount of attitude change occurs when a message is slightly discrepant from receivers' beliefs rather than highly discrepant.
Repetition of NWOM is likely to influence the impact of NWOM. Numerous studies (see Cialdini et al., 1981) have shown a relationship between repetition and attitude change, especially if the message is complex in which case repetition will facilitate cognitive processing.
In NWOM situations repetition may act in other ways. If a consumer hears the same NWOM message from a variety of sources, patterns of distinctiveness, consensus, and consistency (see Kelley 1973) will emerge and increase the likelihood that attributions of blame for the dissatisfaction should be placed on the product or marketing organization rather than on the product user (i.e., communicator). This would then lead to a negative shift in attitude.
When NWOM does influence recipients' attitudes, it normally has a negative influence. However, several consistency approaches to attitude change (e.g., dissonance and self-perception theories) suggest that under some circumstances NWOM would have an opposite influence on attitude, causing a positive shift (see Cook and Flay 1978). For example, if a consumer hears NWOM about a well-liked and highly valued product he or she owns, cognitive imbalance and a threat to self-esteem may result. This may be handled by derogation of the source of the information or by questioning message veracity Another avenue to restore balance would be to increase the emphasis on positive aspects of the product.
Involvement with the product class is probably the receiver variable most likely to affect the impact of NWOM. Social judgment theory (Sherif and Sherif 1967) suggests that individuals with high involvement with the topic of a message are least likely to be affected by that message, presumably because they have a more firmly fixed attitude than those lower in involvement. Petty and Cacioppo (1979), however, found that those with high issue involvement were more likely to be persuaded than others if the message contains good arguments, apparently because such individuals are motivated to process the information in the message.
Issue involvement has been said to bear a relationship to product involvement, and here it is necessary to distinguish between enduring and situational involvement with a product class (Bloch and Richins 1983; Rothschild 1979). Enduring involvement consists of a long term interest in and enthusiasm for a product class such as that exhibited by audiophiles and wine connoisseurs. Situational involvement refers to short term interest in the product class due to situational factors, such as an anticipated purchase of an expensive item.
Enduring involvement can affect the impact of NWOM in two, sometimes competing, ways. First, receivers possessing high enduring involvement will be motivated to process the information contained in the NWOM message and therefore will experience a change in attitude if the evidence is compelling. Second, however, they are likely to possess a high degree of knowledge about the topic and will thus be unconvinced by information short of compelling. Research on McGuire's (1964) inoculation theory has shown that if receivers have information or experience with which to refute an attitude change message, persuasion is less likely to occur.
Situational involvement occurs when a purchase is near and risk perceptions are high (Bloch and Richins 1983). Two factors are normally accepted to determine the level of perceived risk--level of uncertainty about choice outcomes and the amount at stake in the purchase. Uncertainty will be high if product knowledge is low and/or product complexity is high (among other factors); thus susceptibility to NWOM will be enhanced. Amount at stake in a purchase is high if the product is expensive, will be used in an important situation, etc. Evidence from several studies (e.g., Midgely 1983) suggests that the impact of NWOM will be positively related to the degree of perceived risk. However, the only systematic study of perceived risk and NWOM, while supporting this relationship, had a sample size too small for results to be conclusive (Arndt 1967b).
Shibutani (1966) identified the factors which make individuals susceptible to rumors as anxiety, tension, frustration, and lack of trusted information sources. Many of these conditions are present when perceived risk is very high and may increase susceptibility to NWOM.
Research in information processing also supports the link between perceived risk and the impact of NWOM. Studies have found a greater emphasis on negative information when personal relevance of the decision is high (Einhorn 1971) or when the decision involves greater finality of commitment for the decision-maker (Slovic 1969). Many products for which perceived risk is typically high (e.g., automobiles, home purchases) are characterized by a high level of commitment.
AREAS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH
As this review clearly indicates, only a few studies have directly investigated NWOM. Most of our understanding about this phenomenon comes from studies of positive word-of-mouth or attitude change. Because of the widespread occurrence and importance of NWOM, at least three areas especially need further investigation. First, more knowledge about the impact of NWOM is needed. From research in attitude change, one can infer that NWOM frequently influences attitudes. However, the extent of this impact on attitudes and on subsequent behaviors has not been adequately examined. For instance, it is now known if attitude change from NWOM persists longer than changes from other sources or whether the impact on behavior is stronger for NWOM than for other types of information.
Second, the communication network for NWOM has not been clearly identified. While a few studies have investigated the number of individuals to whom a dissatisfied consumer relates a dissatisfaction, research has not investigated whether this information is retransmitted by the receiver and in what form.
Third, reporting biases in NWOM have not been investigated. It is not known to what extent intentional and unintentional distortions occur and whether such distortions are influenced by communicator characteristics such as blame attributions, self-esteem, emotional arousal, and so forth. Given the importance of NWOM in the marketing environment, greater understanding of the phenomenon is clearly indicated.
Allport, Gordon W. and Leo J. Postman (1947), The Psychology of Rumor, New York: Henry Holt.
Arndt, Johan (1967a), "Word of Mouth Advertising and Informal Communication," in Risk Taking and Information Handling in Consumer Behavior, ed. D. F. Cox, Boston: Harvard University, 188-239.
Arndt, Johan (1967b), "Perceived Risk, Sociometric Integration, and Word of Mouth in the Adoption of a New Food Product," in Risk Taking and Information Handling in Consumer Behavior. ed. D. F. Cox, Boston: Harvard University, 289-316.
Belk, Russell W. (1971), "Occurrence of Word-of-Mouth Buyer Behavior as a Function of Situation and Advertising Stimuli," paper presented at the American Marketing Association Educators Conference.
Biberian, M. J., Susan .Anthony and Ralph L. Rosnow(1975), "Some Determining Factors in the Transmission of a Rumor," cited in Rumor and Gossip, R. L. Rosnow and G. A. Fine, New York: Elsevier.
Bloch, Peter H. and Marsha L. Richins (1983), "A Theoretical Model for the Study of Product Importance Perceptions," Journal of Marketing, 47 (Summer).
Borgida, Eugene and Richard E. Nisbett (1977), "The Differential Impact of Abstract vs. Concrete Information on Decisions," Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 7(3), 258-271.
Buckner, H. Taylor (1965), "A Theory of Rumor Transmission," Public Opinion Quarterly, 29, 54-70.
Chaiken, S. (1979), "Communicator Physical Attractiveness and Persuasion," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 1387-1397.
Cialdini, Robert B., Richard L. Petty and John T. Cacioppo (1981), "Attitude and Attitude Change," Annual Review of Psychology, 32, 357-404.
Cook, Thomas D. and Brian R. Flay (1978), "The Persistence of Experimentally Induced Attitude Change," Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Vol. 11 New York: Academic Press. 1-57.
Crawford, T. J. (1974), "Sermons on Racial Tolerance and the Parish Neighborhood Context," Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 4, 1-23.
Davis, Keith (1977), Human Behavior at Work, New York: McGraw-Hill.
Dichter, Ernest (1966), "How Word-of-Mouth Advertising Works," Harvard Business Review, 44 (November-December), 147-157.
Diener, Betty J. and Stephen A. Greyser (1978), "Consumer Views of Redress Needs," Journal of Marketing, 42 (October), 21-27.
Eagly, Alice H., W. Wood and S. Chaiken (1978), "Causal Inferences About Communicators and Their Effect on Opinion Change," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36, 424-435.
Einhorn, Hillel J. (1971), "Use of Nonlinear, Noncompensatory Models as a Function of Task and Amount of Information," Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 6, 1-97.
Engel, James F., Robert J. Kegerreis and Roger D. Blackwell (1969), "Word-of-.Mouth Communication by the Innovator," Journal of Marketing, 33 (July), 15-19.
Goffman, Erving (1959), The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday Anchor.
Holmes, John D. and John D. Lett, Jr. (1977), "Product Sampling and Word of Mouth," Journal of Advertising Research, 17 (October), 35-39.
Kelley, Harold H. (1973), "The Process of Causal Attribution," American Psychologist, 28 (February), 107-128.
Kelman, Herbert C. (1958), "Compliance, Identification, and Internalization: Three Processes of Opinion Change," Journal of Conflict Resolution, 2, 51-60.
Knapp, Robert H. (1944), "A Psychology of Rumor," Public Opinion Quarterly, 8, 23-37.
Midgely, David F. (1983), "Patterns of Interpersonal Information Seeking for the Purchase of a Symbolic Product," Journal of Marketing Research, 20 (February), 74-83.
McGuire, William J. (1964), "Inducing Resistance to Persuasion: Some Contemporary Approaches," Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 1, 192-229.
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Pace, R. Wayne and Robert Boren (1973), The Human Transaction, Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman.
Petty, Richard E. and John T. Cacioppo (1979), "Issue-Involvement Can Increase or Decrease Persuasion," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 1915-1926.
Petty, Richard E. (1980), Attitudes and Persuasion: Classic and Contemporary Approaches, Dubuque: Brown.
Richins, Marsha L. (1983a), "Negative Word-of-Mouth by Dissatisfied Consumers: A Pilot Study," Journal of Marketing, 47 (Winter), 68-78.
Richins, Marsha L. (1983b), "Word-of-Mouth as an Expression of Product Dissatisfaction," in International Fare in Consumer Satisfaction and Complaining Behavior, eds R. L. Day and H. K. Hunt, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University, 100-104.
Rogers, Everett M. (1962), Diffusion of Innovations. New York: Free Press.
Rosnow, Ralph L. and Gary Alan Fine (1976), Rumor and Gossip: The Social Psychology of Hearsay, New York: Elsevier.
Rothschild, Michael L. (1979), "Advertising Strategies for High and Lo; Involvement Situations," in Advertising Research Plays for High Stakes, eds. J. Maloney and B. Silverman, Chicago: American Marketing Association, 74-93.
Sherif, Carolyn W. and Muzafer Sherif (1967), Attitude, Ego-Involvement and Change, Ne York: Wiley.
Shibutani, Tamotsu (1966), Improvised News: A Sociological Study of Rumor, New York: Bobbs-Merrill.
Slovic, Paul (1969), "Differential Effects of Real vs. Hypothetical Payoffs on Choice Gambles," Journal of Experimental Psychology, 80(3), 434-437.
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Tybout, Alice M., Bobby J. Calder and Brian Sternthal (1981), "Using Information Processing Theory to Design Marketing Strategies," Journal of Marketing Research, 18 (February), 73-79.
Weinberger, Marc G., Chris T. Allen and William R. Dillon (1981a), "The Impact of Negative Marketing Communications: The Consumers Union/Chrysler Controversy," Journal of Advertising, 10(4), 20-28.
Weinberger, Marc G. (1981b), "Negative Information: Perspectives and Research Directions," in Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 8, ed. K. B. Monroe, Ann Arbor: Association for Consumer Research, 398-404. | <urn:uuid:fc973dd4-3522-4287-81da-3215cbbdab78> | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://www.acrwebsite.org/search/view-conference-proceedings.aspx?Id=6334 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246659449.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045739-00151-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931884 | 7,418 | 3.21875 | 3 | {
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Difference Between Alpha and Beta Decay
Alpha vs Beta Decay
Here are the different characteristics of Alpha and Beta decay:
Alpha decay is a radioactive decay wherein an atomic nucleus emits an alpha particle and transforms or decays into an atom with a mass number 4 less and atomic number 2 less. It happens when a nucleus with too many protons will decay and produce an alpha particle with two neutrons and two protons.
It is the most common cluster decay where the parent atom ejects a collection of nucleons that leaves a defined product behind. It combines extremely high binding energy and a relatively small mass of helium-4 product nucleus or alpha particle.
It is governed by the interplay between the nuclear force and the electromagnetic force. It occurs in the heaviest nuclides and has a kinetic energy of 5 MeV and a speed of 15,000km/s.
Alpha particles are heavy, can be stopped by a sheet of paper or aluminum, and lose their energy when they interact with other atoms and their forward motion stops within a few centimeters of air. Alpha emissions produce an element two places to the left of the periodic table.
Alpha decay of underground mineral deposits that contains uranium or thorium produces helium. It was first described in 1899 and in 1907 was identified as He2+ions.
The theory of alpha decay was solved through tunneling. An alpha particle trapped in a nucleus tunnels through it and appears on the other side of the nucleus.
Alpha decay is used in the production of smoke detectors. It is also a safe power source for radioisotope thermoelectric generators used for space probes and artificial heart pacemakers. It can be shielded more easily against other forms of radioactive decay.
Beta decay is a radioactive decay wherein a beta particle like an electron (beta minus) or positron (beta plus) is emitted. It occurs when a nucleus with too many neutrons will decay and turn into an electron, proton, and anti neutrino. The electron which is produced is called beta particle and the process is called beta decay.
It can penetrate several millimeters of aluminum and beta emissions from one element can produce another element one place to the right in the periodic table.
1. Alpha decay happens when alpha particles are produced when a nucleus with too many protons will decay and produce an alpha particle with two neutrons and two protons while Beta decay occurs when beta particles are produced when a nucleus with too many neutrons will decay and turn into an electron, proton, and anti neutrino.
2. The alpha particles in alpha decay are heavy and can be stopped with a sheet of paper or aluminum while beta particles in beta decay can penetrate into several millimeters of aluminum.
3. Alpha decay emissions produce an element two places to the left of the periodic table while beta emissions from one element can produce another element one place to the right in the periodic table.
4. In alpha decay, the nucleus disintegrates while in beta decay the nucleus is converted into a proton and releases an electron.
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Leave a Response | <urn:uuid:79d86c8e-28e9-48e9-880e-5efbf259fad2> | CC-MAIN-2015-32 | http://www.differencebetween.net/science/difference-between-alpha-and-beta-decay/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-32/segments/1438042990177.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20150728002310-00222-ip-10-236-191-2.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.898324 | 659 | 4.0625 | 4 | {
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When less is more
By Linda Lim & Geh Min
THE current bout of global inflation, mostly but not only in food and fuel prices, may be viewed, like global warming, as a wake-up call that the future of global and local economies cannot be like the past.
Fundamental lifestyle changes may be in store for all of us, particularly those in developed countries, including Singapore.
Today's inflation is symptomatic of substantial long-term world market forces at work, rather than a short-term business cycle or bad government policy. The coincidence of slowing growth with accelerating inflation - popularly known as 'stagflation' - indicates that excess demand resulting from economies operating beyond full-employment levels is not at work here.
Most governments today also understand that excessively 'easy' monetary policy, subsidies or price controls, and undervalued exchange rates all contribute to inflation.
The recent moves by many governments - including those of China, Indonesia and Malaysia - to reduce or remove fuel subsidies are a case in point. Subsidies and government price ceilings make inflation worse because they increase rather than reduce consumption of scarce commodities. Far better for prices to rise to market levels that equate supply and demand.
Consumption of another scarce resource - the natural environment - is also subject to market forces but with a twist: Environmental assets - clean air, water, undisturbed land - are under-priced by the market, regarded as free, and thus are over-consumed.
The market does not capture 'externalities' such as the costs and benefits to the health of human beings, future generations and the earth of exploiting or conserving natural resources.
If externalities were included in market pricing, overuse of scarce natural resources would be limited but they would also be more expensive. Unfortunately, we cannot increase the supply of natural resources. We can only reduce our demand for them.
Governments through regulation can raise the cost to consumers of previously 'free' and thus under-valued and over-exploited resources.
Herein lies the link between inflation and sustainability. The part of today's worldwide inflation which is here to stay is due to long-term changes in demand and supply. Rising incomes and wealth have created large new consuming populations in emerging markets such as China, India and Russia.
Their consumption adds to global demand, including for scarce resources like fuel. This will only intensify.
On the supply side, land and natural resources are fixed, and have already been fully utilised and exploited throughout most of the world. They are only going to become more scarce, though technological innovation can help us conserve the resources which remain by increasing the amount of output that can be generated with the given resources.
Global warming already signals that we may, according to scientists, be at or close to a 'tipping point' of no return to the balances of the past.
Both inflation and global warming signal a ratcheting upwards of the supply-demand equilibrium for scarce resources to a new and permanently higher level. Market forces will compel us all to consume less of scarce resources because they will become more expensive, properly reflecting their true scarcity value, inclusive of externalities.
In this context, both short- term 'inflation pay-outs' and aggressive long-term GDP growth targets are part of the problem rather than the solution to both inflation and environmental degradation.
'Inflation pay-outs' are simply another version of the 'cost-of-living indices' that perpetuated high inflation in Latin America for decades until the 1990s. By 'cushioning the impact' of inflation, they discourage adjustment to the higher cost of resources.
'Inflation pay-outs' by private companies also increase their costs, reduce their competitiveness, and in Singapore's already high-cost open economy, risk undermining investment and growth.
From a public policy perspective, it may be desirable to subsidise the consumption levels of the poor in a society. But this should be done by taxing those who are richer, who consume more than the poor, and thus contribute more to both inflation and environmental degradation.
Society as a whole needs to consume less. If we do not make that choice ourselves as individuals or governments, the market, nature and society (through political unrest) will do it for us - sooner and with greater force.
The imminent demise of the petrol-guzzling SUV in America, the financial woes of the energy-intensive global airline industry, food riots and protests over high fuel prices in many countries - these are only the first of many examples of lifestyle, business model and even socio-political changes that market prices will impose upon us if regulators will not.
Globally, aggressive GDP growth targets are justifiable for lower-income countries to lift them out of poverty. But they are less justifiable for higher-income countries like Singapore, whose citizens by and large already enjoy a comfortable standard of living.
We are also land- and labour-scarce, bereft of natural resources, already compelled to go further afield to source necessities such as foodstuffs, and vulnerable to supply disruptions.
With our per-capita energy consumption already among the world's highest, policies such as targeting a further 50 per cent increase in our population and resource-wasting practices like the high turnover of buildings - through collective sales, for example - need to be re-thought. We suggest a few simple initial principles.
First, the economic theory of comparative advantage tells us that no country can be internationally competitive in everything, because competition among different sectors for scarce resources will push up resource costs.
As a very small resource- poor country, Singapore cannot expect to be competitive in all of high-value manufacturing, finance, creative industries, life sciences, tourism, education and health services, and so on.
At a minimum, importing the labour and talent to fuel these industries will raise land costs and property prices to a point where the cost-competitiveness of these industries is eroded. Already, Singapore's housing-price inflation last year topped that in other countries by a wide margin.
Second, for both economic and environmental reasons, sustainability should be an important factor in choosing between sectors. This can be achieved by a clear regulatory framework which, for example, encourages energy efficiency in the production of output.
Social cost-benefit analysis techniques can be employed to include the imputed costs of 'externalities' such as pollution and congestion, in project evaluation. Excessively energy-intensive sectors could be penalised through taxes while energy conservation could be encouraged through tax breaks and other investment incentives.
Third, the criteria for measuring successful economic performance should be modified to include sustainability. Some years ago, China required that government agencies be evaluated for their performance on the basis of 'green GDP'. This requires the subtraction of environmental costs from the market value of goods and services produced (or standard GDP).
As a country with a per capita income 10 times China's and per capita carbon emissions about five times China's, Singapore should follow Beijing's lead in this.
It will help us moderate, even if we cannot eliminate, both inflation and environmental degradation as well as contribute to our own present well-being and future sustainability.
Linda Lim is professor of strategy at the Ross School of Business and director of the Centre for South-east Asian Studies, University of Michigan.
Geh Min, an ophthalmic surgeon, is a former president of the Nature Society of Singapore.
[Comment: Would Singapore accept a lower GDP growth for the sake of the Earth? This is a problem of the commons. ] | <urn:uuid:8511957e-c6ac-4006-9a80-07de4e373269> | CC-MAIN-2015-48 | http://heresthenews.blogspot.com/2008_06_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-48/segments/1448398464536.35/warc/CC-MAIN-20151124205424-00008-ip-10-71-132-137.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944596 | 1,549 | 2.96875 | 3 | {
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Since the lines in polygons are straight in geometry, defining the region is simple for the students who are studying geometry. In certain cases, though, the lines on a graph may be curved rather than straight. These are the graph representations of functions.
When calculating the area of a polygon on a graph of a function, the formulas used to calculate the area of a polygon would not perform because they are imprecise when a curved line is involved. Calculus is used instead to determine the precise result for curved lines.
In this post, we will explain the fundamental theorem of calculus, its importance, applications, and why you should go for calculus in school. If you are a math geek or love to do calculus, you will find this post much more meaningful than a whole lecture in class.
Calculus – Fundamental Theorem
The fundamental theorem of calculus must be used to find the area of space on a graph centered on a function. It is presumed in this theorem that there is a function on the graph and that there are two points denoting the start and end of the field to be evaluated. The integral is the distance between these two lines.
The theorem can be separated into two sections. The first part indicates what is needed, and the second part clearly indicates how to solve it. The theorem states that the integral of f(x)dx from a to b is equal to g(b)-g(a), where g is the antiderivative of f(x).
Simply stated, the region is determined by subtracting the antiderivative of the function solved for a from the antiderivative of the function solved for b.
It is important to find the antiderivative of a function in order to solve the theorem for that function. You can use an antiderivative calculator or integral calculator (same term used for integration) to find the antiderivative (integral) of a function. This is transformed into g (x). So, a and b are plugged into this and the dilemma is solved. Finally, the result for a is subtracted from b to obtain the needed area.
Solving for Antiderivative
Understanding how to locate the antiderivative of a function is one of the most important aspects of solving the basic theorem of calculus. The method for determining the antiderivative is determined by the form of function in the problem. The power law, for example, would apply to functions with an exponent. In certain instances, the reverse rules would be necessary to locate the function’s antiderivative.
Why Calculus Is Simple?
Calculus consists of only two components:
Differential calculus is specifically concerned with deciding derivatives, while integral calculus is concerned with determining integrals in general. Finding derivatives involves dividing and finding integrals involves multiplying. This is the fundamentals of calculus, and as long as a person knows the algebra and trig formulas used to do the above, they can find it simple to solve a wide range of calculus problems.
While it is straightforward to identify the area where all of the lines are parallel, this is not always feasible. Calculus and the fundamental theorem of calculus allow students to calculate the field of graphs that have a structure rather than a straight line.
One of the most common examples of this in practice is using the fundamental theorem to calculate how fast a vehicle was traveling at a given time, rather than just the average of how fast they were going during the journey. Since the car will accelerate and decelerate, the graph will have a curved line, so the fundamental theorem is needed since the methods used for polygons would not have a detailed result.
Applications of Calculus in real life
Calculus can be used in a variety of ways and applications.
- Medicine, physics, finance, statistics, and chemistry are only a few of the fields that use calculus.
- It is used to construct mathematical equations in order to find the best solution.
- Calculus is used in many physics terms. Dynamics, electricity, harmonics, motion, acoustics, astronomy, and heat are some of the physical concepts that use calculus.
- It is used in advanced physics principles such as electromagnetism and Einstein’s theory of relativity.
- It can be used to model functions of chemistry such as reaction rates and radioactive decay.
- In genetics, it is used to calculate rates such as birth and death rates.
- Calculus is used in economics to compute marginal cost and marginal income, allowing economists to estimate maximum benefit in a given situation.
- It is also used to validate responses for various mathematical subjects such as analytical geometry, probability, algebra, and statistics.
Why you should study Calculus?
As an undergraduate, you probably regard calculus as yet another illogical memorization of calculations that must be completed in order to graduate from high school. You believe you will never have to use any of the ‘hypothetical gibberish’ you have learned. As a result, you treat the issue with intellectual cynicism and prepare yourself to bear what you cannot heal.
Perhaps this ill-will stems from the idea that calculus is a vital weapon for your survival in the real world. Regardless of how you measure progress, learning calculus is not needed for your well-being. In reality, to say that it is required to become a scientist is an exaggeration.
After all, many professional engineers are not afraid to confess their lack of knowledge on the matter. The knowledge of calculus of such engineers is restricted to learning the equations and how to use them. If an engineer has a clear sense of what to expect based on previous experience, number crunching isn’t as relevant. The best of them just need the numbers crunched to affirm what they believe the outcome would be.
What can you do with Calculus?
Calculus gives you the opportunity to determine the impact of shifting circumstances on the methods under investigation. You will learn how to manipulate the system and make it do what you want by learning it. Calculus allows engineers incredible influence over the structural works by allowing them to model and manipulate structures.
The invention of this and its applications to physics and engineering is likely the most important influence in the advancement of scientific science outside Archimedes’ time. And it was Calculus that was responsible for the industrial revolution and all that came with it, including almost all of the great developments of the last few decades.
How to Protect Yourself from Phishing Emails
In 2019, one of the executives at Microsoft received an email which appeared to be coming from one of the…
7 Tips on Choosing Drones Online for New Users
The drones industry appeared out of nowhere as if you didn’t even hear them flying up behind you! Well, in… | <urn:uuid:76a47876-ea31-4b8b-8f9a-8251a2849ecb> | CC-MAIN-2021-25 | https://www.theitbase.com/education/an-overview-of-calculus-for-school-and-college/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-25/segments/1623487610841.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20210613192529-20210613222529-00069.warc.gz | en | 0.946036 | 1,395 | 4.34375 | 4 | {
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Today we view Halloween as a day for the children to dress up and get candy Many Christians see it as the Devil's holiday, but the real history of halloween started with the church and didn't involve children or candy. Halloween's history starts in the church, like most holidays and merged with the pagan culture. Like most holidays.
The real history of halloween goes back to 609 A.D. The Roman Pope, Boniface IV, dedicated the Pantheon (a Roman monument) to honor Christian martyrs with a feast and called it All Martyrs Day.
Later Pope Gregory III expanded the festival to include saints as well, and moved the observance from May 13 to November 1.
Yep! The origin of Halloween was to honor the Saints and Martyrs!
By the 9th century, the influence of Catholicism had spread into Celtic lands, and merged with certain Celtic rituals. The Catholic All Saints’ Day (also called All-hallows from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints’ Day)was celebrated on Nov 1. The Celtic holiday, Samhain (called All Souls Day) was celebrated on November 2. Eventually Oct 31 began to be called All-Hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. Now a church sanctioned holiday.
Merging the two festivals was easy to do because they were celebrated in similar ways. Both had bonfires, parades and dressing up as animals, saints, angels and devils. The Catholic church always found a way to merge the relevant culture's pagan practices into a "holy" day. Were they trying to be politically correct and let the pagan sinners in? Or were they trying to have fun and santicied the sinful activities? It's not my place to judge. Merging cultures and religious practices happen over time eventually.
Another reason merging the two was easy was because both the Celts and the Catholics recognized this particular time-the midpoint between the fall equinox and the winter solstice-as a time when the veil between the Spirit world and the physical world would be lifted. This allowed for more interaction with ancestors, fairies and spirits. People would dress as animals and monsters to avoid getting kidnapped by fairies and leave offerings in the fields for a shape-shifting monster.
Over centuries this practiced morphed into going door to door in costumes to
sing songs to the dead (payment for this service was CAKE!) and playing tricks on people and blaming it on fairies.
In America, halloween morphed into people in costumes going door to door to ask for food or money and eventually turning it over to children who asked for treats.
Now that you understand the real history of halloween you get to decide whether it's something you want to participate in or not and HOW you are going to participate. Don't just go by a religious person telling you, "It's not of God." Or, 'It's the devil's holiday!'
ANY holiday that's celebrated you can transmute that energy for your benefit. For a number of years we didn't celebrate Christmas because I was disgusted by the commercialization of it. As my children got older I realized Christmas is about the magic of LOVE and GIVING. And that has been our focus.
With the understanding of the history of Halloween in mind make it work for you. | <urn:uuid:466d7816-2d1a-43e1-8d35-e1165c0e2eb2> | CC-MAIN-2022-05 | https://www.heavenandearthconnect.com/blogs/news/real-history-of-halloween | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-05/segments/1642320300997.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20220118182855-20220118212855-00184.warc.gz | en | 0.970251 | 684 | 2.921875 | 3 | {
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Common Wild Edible Plants that Can Save Your Life
Have you ever watched a news broadcast and heard about someone who got lost in the woods and survived because they ate wild plants they knew were safe?
OK, this isn’t a scenario most of us would ever find ourselves in, but who knows? Accidents happen. What would happen if there was a real disaster, such as an earthquake, nuclear bomb, or some other type of civil unrest that left you unable to visit a grocery store for weeks or maybe even months?
It never hurts to know exactly how to find edible foods in the wild should the need arise. Did you know that even just knowing 4 edible plants can mean the difference between life and death?
The time to learn is now. Don’t wait until an emergency situation comes up; you should be able to walk out to areas close to your home and be able to identify plants or parts of trees that are edible. It takes a bit of practice.
One of the main things you want to consider is how to establish between an edible plant and a poisonous one. Although you don’t have to have an extensive knowledge, there are a few simple rules you can commit to memory and you should be fine.
Avoid Plants That Have:
- An almond scent to the leaves or woody parts
- Plants with a three leaf growth pattern
- Milk or any type of colored sap
- Spines, thorns, or fine “hairs”
- Bulbs, beans, or seeds that are inside a pod
- Soapy or bitter taste
- Dill, parsley, carrot, or parsnip type of foliage
- Grains that have black, purple, or pink spurs
Of course these rules don’t apply to plants or seeds that you know are safe, but if you aren’t sure, this is a good list to go by. Many poisonous plants show one or more of the above characteristics. Better to avoid an edible plant than to eat a poisonous one.
Commit that list to memory, then print out some pictures of the following edible plants so that you can become accustomed to what they look like and easily identify them should the need arise.
Plants, seeds, and edible wild grains
1. Amaranth (amaranthus retroflexus)
This plant is native to the Americas but is now found on almost every continent. Amaranth is an edible weed that the Aztecs used for food on a regular basis. You can eat all parts of this plant; however, some species have spines on the leaves.
Although they are not poisonous, the spiny leaves of this plant contain oxalic acid, so it’s a good idea to boil the leaves if you can. If you have this plant growing locally without spines, feel free to dig it up and eat all parts of it. The seeds of this plant are especially delicious. | <urn:uuid:0cc12569-da23-4c24-bde6-7cfa1b205656> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://naturalon.com/common-wild-edible-plants-can-save-life/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224655027.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20230608135911-20230608165911-00462.warc.gz | en | 0.942474 | 719 | 2.65625 | 3 | {
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Two new reports provide more evidence besides volumes already available.
Explaining daily life in Occupied Palestine, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) said about half of Palestinian households experience Israeli and other forms of violence.
For Gazans, it's slightly higher than in the West Bank - 49.1% - 47.8%. In Qalqiliya governorate, however, (in northern West Bank) it's 60%.
Youths are especially affected, notably males. From July 2010 - July 2011, about 10% were targeted, including about 3% of children aged 12 - 17.
About 6% in this age category experienced psychological trauma during the same time frame.
Violence happens often at checkpoints. Over 13% of males are affected. Women face sexual harassment. However, street violence is most common, affecting about 20% of youths aged 18 - 29. About 29% of males are exposed.
In addition, physical and/or psychological violence can occur anywhere, including at home. Over 14% of youths are affected. In educational institutions, 9% suffer psychological trauma. Over 20% experience physical violence.
Other physical and/or psychological violence is committed by one family member against another. Women are mostly affected. So are children witnessing it. Elderly females more than males experience it through "health negligence."
PCBS defines violence as acts causing or threatening "physical, sexual or psychological abuse," including actions generating fear.
It can also be economic, political, verbal, and in other forms by anyone, including occupiers, settlers, household members or others.
Deprivation of basic rights are also included "such as shelter, food, drink, clothing, education, freedom of movement and loss of self-determination and self security."
Life in Palestine is harsh and intolerable. Imagine being repressively occupied under a system of institutionalized racist persecution.
As a result, Palestinians have no power over their daily lives. They live in constant fear. They're collectively punished and economically exploited. Free expression, assembly, movement and other basic rights are denied.
Gazans are besieged. West Bank and East Jerusalem residents face militarized state terror, cantonized separation, closed borders, imposed curfews, roadblocks, checkpoints, electric fences, Separation Wall land theft and isolation, neighborhood incursions, other forms of land theft, home destruction, dispossessions, targeted assassinations, mass arrests, torture, and virtually all other forms of abuse and cruel indignities.
Crimes against humanity occur daily. Troops, tanks, heavy armor, and other militarized equipment enter neighborhoods dozens of times weekly. Middle-of-the-night arrests are made, including children young as 10 treated no differently than adults.
Under siege, Gazans experience regular air, ground, and sea attacks, as well as suffocating isolation.
Throughout the Territories, mostly civilians suffer horrifically. Blamed for the crimes of their occupier, they're criminalized for their faith, ethnicity and presence in a land Israel wants only for Jews.
Their durability and redoubtable spirit alone let them persist and survive, no matter Israel's unspeakable daily terror, violence and slow-motion genocide.
Discriminatory Hardships Israeli Arabs Endure
About 20% of Israeli citizens are Arabs. However, the chasm between Jews and Muslims is enormous.
Jews alone have rights, though increasingly fewer of them in one of the industrialized world's most unequal societies.
In contrast, Arabs are marginalized, exploited, isolated, and treated like fifth column threats.
In November, the Adalah Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights published a Rawyah Handaklo report titled, "Security Inspections, Racial Profiling, and the Violation of the Basic Rights of Arab Citizens of Israel," saying:
Institutionalized racism is virulent inside Israel. Arabs aren't wanted. At best they're tolerated, just barely at times, and at others not at all.
For example, "Arab students, academics and ordinary citizens often undergo a humiliating physical inspection when they leave the country through the airport, sea ports or land border crossings" because they're "Israeli citizens of Arab nationality."
Israeli security services and other authorities classify them as "dangerous," based on racial, ethnic and national characteristics.
Arabs are also affected entering commercial centers, tourist sites, entertainment facilities, workplaces, educational facilities, and other locations where security inspections may occur at entrances.
Arabs anywhere, including on streets, buses, in cars, work areas, schools, mosques, open spaces, and other locations can be accosted, harassed, interrogated, and racially denied basic rights.
From 1948 - 1966, Israeli Arabs lived under militarized rule to monitor and control their lives repressively. In his Knesset speeches, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion called Israeli Arabs more threatening than "the Arab enemy outside."
Nothing changed since then to today. "Over the years, the State has maintained a light hand on the trigger in all matters regarding Arab citizens."
Under Israel's stringent security system, there's "no real possibility of concealing one's national and ethnic background." In public, especially when traveling, Arabs are rigorously monitored, often interrogated, and subjected to humiliating harassment and indignities as common practice. Questions and other procedures pertain to security.
Arabs simply aren't trusted, liked or wanted. "Racial profiling has one end result: violation of the rights of Arab citizens of Israel." As a result, Jews and Arabs face mirror opposite treatment.
Former Israeli Supreme Court Chief Justice Aharon Barak addressed the right to equality in one of his rulings, saying:
"The need to ensure equality is not natural to man. It is based on considerations of justice and decency. One who asks for recognition of his rights needs to recognize the rights of the others to ask for a similar recognition."
"The need to maintain equality is vital to society and to the social pact it is built upon. Equality protects the regime from arbitrariness. Therefore, there is no greater destructive element in a society than the sense her subjects have that they are being treated with discrimination."
"The sense of inequality is one of the most difficult feelings. It harms the forces that unify society. It harms a person's self identity."
Racially profiling its own citizens is only exceeded by daily Gaza/West Bank/East Jerusalem state terror against a people whose only offense is not being Jewish.
Decades of state terror and institutionalized racism earned Israel its pariah status.
Inaction by world leaders makes them complicit in Israel's worst crimes and discriminatory practices.
As a result, Palestinians and Israeli Arabs have been on their own for decades. Nonetheless, they're buoyed by growing millions everywhere who stand with them for justice.
It's coming. It's just a matter of time.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at [email protected].
Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening. | <urn:uuid:a16fc1a8-cc6d-4d3a-bdee-27d8c8cdfedf> | CC-MAIN-2018-47 | http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Article/101591-2011-12-19-terrorizing-palestinians-and-israeli-arabs.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-47/segments/1542039742937.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20181115203132-20181115225132-00347.warc.gz | en | 0.951799 | 1,495 | 2.59375 | 3 | {
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} | Politics |
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War was an important issue in both documents. In the Constitutin of Independence, congress the power to declare war and maintain an army and navy. This was also allowed in the Articles of Confederation. But in Article IX of the Articles of Confederation, the congress could not engage in a war . Ratification in the Constitution of Independence required nine states to agree to establish the Constitution of Independence... displayed 300 characters
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War was an important issue in both documents. In the Constitutin of Independence, congress the power to declare war and maintain an army and navy. This was also allowed in the Articles of Confederation. But in Article IX of the Articles of Confederation, the congress could not engage in a war . Ratification in the Constitution of Independence required nine states to agree to establish the Constitution of Independence... displayed next 300 characters
Stress triggers the brain which in turn triggers the body in the flight or fight mode. In a threatening and dangerous situation it would be good for the body but when there is constant stress the body will think it is being threatening at all time, which can cause chronic diseases...
As I mention in the introduction, an organization is composed with individuals, the fluctuation of their physical and emotional, each of whose action and reaction will affect the whole organization phenomenon and stressful occur...
The organization and Management can work together to support there employees and reduce the high turnovers. They can provide more training, support. togetherness (luncheons, recognizing a sick employee by passing a card around for all employees to sign) and providing upward mobility for the employees to grow and remain in the organization...
An example of breathing techniques is the techniques used in Lamaze classes. These techniques are used to help relieve women under stress and in pain. Deep breathing is a simple, but very effective, method of relaxation (Mindtools...
An example of this is someone such as an extrovert working a position that is better suited for an introvert. Sometimes one personality may not fit what they are doing at work and will be more successful in a different position...
Our aim is to provide a new option which can help students write their researches taking as guideline excellent examples of any kinds of papers. This option is new and progressive; it is even easier than buying a custom written paper! Due to this service you can find and choose what you need by yourself without paying almost anything. | <urn:uuid:6e52e7e0-93bb-42bd-a0f6-65dcdbf67f69> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://essaysbank.com/essay/articles-of-confederations | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394414.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00051-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954017 | 641 | 3.015625 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 2.1357545852661133,
"reasoning_level": 2,
"interpretation": "Moderate reasoning"
} | Education & Jobs |
Your preschool-aged child exhibits “stutter-like” behaviors (word repetitions, part-word repetitions, and prolongations). He is working with a speech therapist to control his disfluencies, but as a parent you want to contribute to his success. What can you do to help your child speak more fluently? More comfortably? More confidently? The answer is a lot! Below are 6 ideas parents can use to help their child become a more successful communicator.
6 Ways To Help Your Child With A Stutter:
It may sound simple, but in our fast-paced lives many people find it hard to simply listen. Allow your child the time he needs to finish his thoughts. Instead of finishing your child’s sentences, positively reinforce when he finishes a sentence, thought, or idea on his own. This will promote healthy, natural conversational skills, rather than leading your child to believe his conversational partner will finish his thoughts.
Example: When your child gets “stuck” on a word, continue listening without interrupting. Allow him to finish, then comment with a positive remark about what he said, rather than the fact that he said it.
2. TAKE TURNS
Yes, this is something we teach our children all the time. Taking turns is just as important when it comes to speech! When your child has a hard time waiting his turn to speak, say, “I know you have something to say, but it’s my turn to talk right now. When I’m finished it will be your turn.”
Example: Books are a great way to encourage turn-taking. Let one child tell you about the first page, then switch. Each child has the chance to make up his part of the story without being interrupted!
3. USE EYE CONTACT
Eye contact is a very important component to our communication success. Using eye contact appropriately sends the message that we are listening, interested, and engaged in the conversation. If your child uses appropriate eye contact, his peers will be less likely to interrupt and finish his thoughts when he gets “stuck”.
Example: Model great eye contact while you are speaking (be a good example for your child) and listening (communicate to your child that you are interested in what he is saying)!
Speaking slowly and using pauses will help to decrease the tension your child may feel while speaking. Modeling this type of relaxed language will provide a good example for your child to follow. Simply use a relaxed tone, add more pauses, and decrease your rate of speech to a slower (but still natural) level.
Example: Model thinking time by pausing and saying, “hmmm I think I would like to play this game first.”
Feeling stressed, tired, and keeping a fast-paced lifestyle may trigger a spike in your child’s disfluencies. Although these feelings are never completely avoidable, you can make adjustments to control these triggers. Keeping your child’s routine consistent and predictable is extremely important! A not so jam-packed schedule that is predictable and consistent will decrease your child’s stress by removing the “unknown” and helping him to feel a sense of control. As a parent, you can make a conscious effort to discuss the day’s activities. This will help your child transition more easily from one activity to another (another time that is often difficult for children who stutter).
Example: Make a visual schedule with pictures to represent the day’s activities. Discuss the schedule the night before so the child knows what to expect when he wakes up!
6. SHOW YOUR SUPPORT
Speaking should be a task that is enjoyable for your child. In order to help reinforce your child’s willingness to use verbal language and communicate consistently, smile and praise your child for simply attempting to communicate (even if he does so with disfluent speech).
Example: “I’m so glad you told me about that game. I love listening to you tell me about your day!” | <urn:uuid:74f7df46-d35d-477d-8fe8-8883458abf9f> | CC-MAIN-2020-29 | https://www.nspt4kids.com/parenting/my-child-stutters-%C2%85what-can-i-do-to-help/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-29/segments/1593657172545.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20200716153247-20200716183247-00469.warc.gz | en | 0.952136 | 845 | 3.3125 | 3 | {
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Examples of Music Therapy Activities
Music has the unique power to stimulate the brain, particularly in therapeutic settings. According to the American Psychological Association, it causes various mental, emotional and physical reactions such as calming the nervous system, increasing motivation levels and stimulating physical activity desires.
Music therapy activities can be used in sessions by a licensed music therapist to enhance mental and physical wellbeing. Some of the common techniques include active listening, receptive listening, creative arts and rhythmic movement – just to name a few!
Actively listening to music can help you relax and get to know your therapist better, according to Stewart. You might learn new ways of expressing yourself or build self-confidence; this technique has been used in clinical situations such as depression, anxiety and grief.
This method involves therapists introducing musical pieces to clients and encouraging them to pay careful attention to each one. Doing so helps the client build a stronger bond with the therapist, who then can offer more support and guidance as needed.
Lyric discussions in music therapy allow patients to express their thoughts and feelings regarding a song’s lyrics. This can help the client identify their issues with lyrics and work them through with their therapist. It also teaches assertiveness and empathy skills.
Performing simple instruments is a fun exercise that benefits everyone, from toddlers to seniors. Not only does it build social skills and boost creativity, but the therapist leading this exercise may also improvise along with the group for added enjoyment!
Similar to improvisation, composition is a process that allows clients to craft a song on their own or with guidance from a therapist. This could involve writing lyrics or crafting instrumentals.
Music therapy is often employed with children, but can also be beneficial to adults. It has proven particularly useful for those struggling with confidence or self-expression issues, as well as those dealing with trauma.
This music therapy activity is an engaging one that can be used with children of all ages. It teaches students to express emotions without words and build relationships with their peers and therapist.
In this activity, the therapist uses a worksheet to explain the story and encourage everyone to join in singing it. They ask each group member to sing a part while being accompanied with their instrument; then they have the option of reorganizing the story as they chant it or trying another part of the song.
An alternative activity for this activity is to use miniature coloring pages as the pictures and have the group color them after singing the story. The therapist summarizes the narrative, then allows members of the group to sing it again or choose someone from among peers or themselves for support during their performance. | <urn:uuid:0586f738-cc0b-4290-aa3e-909381173384> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | https://www.soundtherapy.com/examples-of-music-therapy-activities/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233506480.35/warc/CC-MAIN-20230923062631-20230923092631-00349.warc.gz | en | 0.959849 | 526 | 3.59375 | 4 | {
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} | Health |
Latest posts by Ross Kaminsky (see all)
- There’s a Huge New Demand for Guns — Not from Fear of Confiscation, but for Self-Protection - December 30, 2015
- Obama’s Keystone Confusion - December 21, 2014
- Who Says you Need a Doctor to Fight Ebola? - October 22, 2014
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, the Nobel Prize-winning former political prisoner who became the first president of post-apartheid South Africa and that republic’s first black president, passed away Dec. 5 at the age of 95.
The young Mandela, an African nationalist and leftist, became active in politics in the mid-1940s, opposing the Nationalist Party of white Afrikaners (South Africans primarily of Dutch descent) and their imposition of racial segregationist policies known as apartheid.
Under apartheid, South Africans were classified into racial groups which, according to the Nelson Mandela Foundation website, “determined where someone could be born, where they could live, where they could go to school, where they could work, where they could be treated if they were sick and where they could be buried when they died. Only white people could vote and they had the best opportunities and the most money spent on their facilities.”
Over the next decade and a half, while in various elected positions within the African National Congress — the key black anti-apartheid movement and eventually the nation’s dominant political party — Mandela opposed the segregationist regime, going through multiple arrests and four trials. Mandela is also thought to have been a member of the Communist Party for some time, beginning in the early 1960s, though Mandela denied membership at his 1964 trial.
In 1962, Mandela was sentenced to five years of hard labor; he was sent to Robben Island in May 1963. However, in June 1964, following what is known as the Rivonia Trial, Mandela and eight others were sentenced to life in prison for sabotage. Mandela remained in prison until February 11, 1990.
In 1994, working with then-President F.W. de Klerk, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with Mandela, South Africa had its first elections in which all races could vote, and Mandela was elected president.
With de Klerk, Mandela oversaw the writing of a new constitution and worked tirelessly to overcome the nation’s deep-seated divisions – hatreds would not be too strong a term – through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Mandela was self-term-limited, and did not run for re-election after his presidential term ended in 1999.
But the usual dates and titles don’t do justice to one of the truly great figures of modern history and his nearly miraculous successes in unifying what was perhaps the world’s most divided nation at the time.
To give some context, I’d like to share a story: In 1989, during apartheid, I went to South Africa to visit a friend who was serving in the Peace Corps in Lesotho (a small mountainous country located wholly within the borders of South Africa).
My friend and I went to a small town called Alldays in the northern area of the former Transvaal province (now Limpopo) to do some hunting. In the evening, we went to the local bar to have a cold beer and meet some locals. Our hunting guide, a most interesting local named Dirk Uys (pronounced something like “ice”), came along with us.
We sat down with a few locals, white men in their 60s, who were interested in talking politics with the Americans. We learned that they were affiliated with a political party called the AWB. I asked Dirk if they were Nazis and Dirk said, in a moment I will never forget, “No, they’re much more conservative than the Nazis.”
These men spent much of the next hour talking about their military experience, specifically how proud they were to have fought in Angola. By fighting, they meant, and said explicitly, “killing kaffirs,” a highly defamatory term which is the South African equivalent of what we commonly call “the n-word” in the United States today.
They asked us what guns we had brought to hunt with. We said we had borrowed rifles from Dirk. They were disappointed and asked us to bring guns from America next time, saying they thought they would really need good guns in the not too distant future.
As these men were slightly drunk and not shy even when sober, I asked a very direct question: “Do you mean you want guns to kill black people when the revolution comes?” The answer was equally direct, and shocking: “Of course.”
As with all nationalist racist lunatics, the men went on to opine, and I quote, “blacks are bad but our real problems are all caused by the Jews.” Needless to say, I declined when they asked me if I wanted to hunt with them the next day. I presume these men had never met a Jew and other than that frightening hour at the bar, I didn’t want to be their first.
These people, while somewhat a fringe minority, nevertheless represented a real part of the nation that the new black president had to pacify when he took office.
And then there was the majority:
South Africa is well-described as a Second World country, with an incredible range of urban and industrial wealth, with factories and communities not just “gated” but surrounded by fences covered with razor wire and patrolled by armed guards with Rottweilers, often within shouting distance of large ghettos, called townships, such as Soweto (actually a collection of townships in the greater Johannesburg area), which is home to approximately 1.3 million poor blacks.
South Africa has some of the most beautiful wine country you’ll ever see (about an hour from Capetown) and hundreds of dusty hovel-filled villages where blacks eke out an existence farming and weaving baskets which tourists buy from shops in larger towns and cities.
Matching its extremes of topography, from beach to mountains to jungle to desert, South Africa also has social and economic extremes you will rarely find elsewhere. It would not be hard to imagine it as a powder keg; indeed it would be hard to avoid it.
Imagine the man needed to keep that large, recently and brutally oppressed, uneducated, socialist black majority representing about 80 percent of the population (the country’s total population was about 40 million at the time apartheid ended, and is about 52 million today) from exacting bloody revenge on the country’s white minority, under 10 percent of the population, many of whom they did not even share a language with. The fact that the black population is made up of various different tribes and clans was surely a double-edged sword in Mandela’s pleading for peace and tolerance.
While a comparison of post-apartheid South Africa to the Reconstruction period following the American Civil War initially seems apt, the fact that blacks represent the vast majority of South Africa’s population is an important differentiator.
Neither George “I’m a Uniter” Bush nor Barack “Post-Partisan” Obama can even get relatively similar Democrats and Republicans to get along, but Nelson Mandela, largely through sheer force of personality, prevented what could have been bloody vengeful separatist insurrection among people with deep and serious grievances.
With all this in mind, it is impossible to visit South Africa (as I have three more times since the end of apartheid) and the notorious Robben Island prison, South Africa’s own Alcatraz, without gaining a sense of the true greatness of Madiba, as Mr. Mandela was known within his Xhosa clan.
The country still has substantial problems and yawning racial economic divides: 28 percent unemployment among blacks, under 7 percent for whites; a massive black underclass with little opportunity to make better lives for their children; and an estimated 13 percent of blacks being HIV-positive (compared to under 1 percent of whites.)
Yet while crime rates in some cities are high, in day-to-day life people of all races treat each other (at least superficially) with friendship and courtesy. In my experience, South Africans, regardless of race, are the friendliest people on Earth.
One more short story: About a decade after the end of apartheid, I was in a taxi in Capetown, speaking with the cab driver about South African politics. He said that things were OK, basically stable, but not great. I asked what would make his life better. He said he had an idea to start a business but couldn’t get a loan of even a few hundred dollars to start, and then said: “I think it would be better if there were more white people in government; they understand economics better.” My gut reaction was that this black cab driver showed why there was real hope for his country. He was interested in results, not revenge.
The fact that South Africa did not have years of blood running through the streets, or the theft and thuggery and impoverishing anti-white policies of Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe, the fact that they have a functioning democracy, the fact that the nation has a real, if not easy, path toward a successful future, is largely due to Nelson Mandela — a man who withstood more than a quarter century of hard labor, sleeping on a straw mat in a prison cell barely a foot wider than he was tall.
The question for the Republic of South Africa now is whether its people have the will, and its politicians the skill, to live up to the dream and the potential which Nelson Mandela saw, created, and embodied.
No man is perfect, and Nelson Mandela was undoubtedly not a saint. But when history needed a man of the strongest character to defeat, without bloodshed, an aggressive, evil political system which had survived years of international opposition and outrage, Madiba achieved what few others could even have conceived.
[First published at the American Spectator.] | <urn:uuid:b5e45741-5ad5-4962-b4ee-4f39dacff59d> | CC-MAIN-2016-50 | http://blog.heartland.org/2013/12/the-greatness-of-nelson-mandela/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-50/segments/1480698542112.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20161202170902-00288-ip-10-31-129-80.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980387 | 2,112 | 3.171875 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 2.9165680408477783,
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} | Politics |
Betelgeuse is a star in the dazzling constellation of Orion. North of the equator, this makes it a jewel of the winter sky. Orion, the Celestial Hunter, is far too brilliant to be overlooked. Though we may not notice all the stars which form this constellation, we are all familiar with the five brilliants which form a neat narrow diamond. The three close stars in a row are in Orion's belt. The bright star directly below the belt is Rigel. The bright star directly above is Betelgeuse, in Orion's shoulder.
To the unaided eye, Betelgeuse glows with a reddish tinge. In fact, it is classed as a red star, a red giant among the stars. Compared with Big Bet in size, our sun is but a pygmy. The diameter of our sun is 860,000 miles. This gives it a volume large enough to swallow up more than a million planets of the size of our world. The diameter of Betelgeuse is 0 million miles.
We cannot understand this vast size from mere figures. We must exercise the old brain to grasp it. A good way to do this is with a few stretching exercises. Let's begin with a small idea and grow.
The diameter of our earth, which is a straight line through the middle from side to side, is a little less than 8,000 miles. On land, this distance would take you clear across the United States and back again. To grasp the diameter of the sun, you have to stretch this distance to 100 times as great, and then some. And the diameter of Big Bet is 510 times the diameter of the sun. No wonder this star is called a giant,
Let's imagine that Betelgeuse had changed places with the sun in our Solar System. Let's place the center of the red giant where the center of our sun is now. The radius of the red giant star is 230 million miles. This means that the big star would spread out this distance in all directions.
Naturally, the size of Betelgeuse would swamp the sun and spread beyond the orbits of the inner planets. Earth is some 93 million riles from the sun, So our planet would be engulfed by the big star. Mars is roughly 141 million miles from the sun and Jupiter some 483 million miles. Hence, the rim of Big Bet would be somewhere between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The red giant would swallow up four of the nine planets of our Solar System.
For all its size, Betelg3use is a light‑weight star, It weighs only 15 times more than the sun. For this to be so, its gases must be very rare indeed. It is estimated, that the density of Betelgeuse is about equal to the vacuum in a thermos bottle. Its gas molecules are widely separated from each other. | <urn:uuid:105c3889-8cdd-4035-9aaf-ae3eb1f6ec74> | CC-MAIN-2015-06 | http://youaskandy.com/questions-answers/article-series-1950/17492-how-big-is-betelgeuse.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-06/segments/1422115862441.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20150124161102-00212-ip-10-180-212-252.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943417 | 592 | 3.703125 | 4 | {
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Better or Beyond Certification?
Ensuring sufficient, adequate and sustainable food for all is one of the 21st century’s key challenges. Over the past decades, certification schemes have emerged as widely accepted tools to overcome this challenge. The idea behind certification is that by promoting the consumption of sustainable products, actors in the supply chains are incentivized to move towards sustainable production. However, an increasing number of people and organizations realize that certification is not the silver bullet as it seemed to be.
Andre de Freitas, director of the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN) – the organization that founded Rainforest Alliance – announced that the organization had stopped working with certification in agriculture altogether, because of various limitations of the instrument. Nico Roozen, director of Solidaridad – one of the founding fathers of Fair Trade certification – also recently expressed the importance to acknowledge the overpromise of the tool and the need to look beyond certification.
Such statements may not be a surprise given the various weaknesses that most certification schemes bear. Perhaps the weakest point is impact, or rather the lack thereof. Study after study shows that certification does not necessarily lead to improved sustainability or better incomes for farmers. A recent systemic review concludes that “certification schemes have unclear impact on the wellbeing of farmers and workers”. I believe this lack of impact can be attributed to various causes:
- Certification is expensive. Most schemes rely on third party auditing agencies to verify compliance with their standards. These transaction costs are high and farmers have to pay for these costs themselves or in a group. Due to the variety of certifications and labels in the market, farmers need to obtain more than one certification, with the additional transaction costs related to it. Auditors are usually accredited by another organization, adding to the costs of the system as a whole. What is more, annual audit visits (announced or even the unannounced) are not necessarily the most adequate form of verification. Altogether this leads to a verification system in which there is a downward pressure on the quality of verification.
- Certification does not ensure rewards. Although in theory the market would reward certified producers, this is not the case in practise. Even if there is a higher farm gate price or improved productivity, the high costs often cancel out these benefits. Moreover, as producers obtain a certification for all their annual production, they usually do not succeed to sell all their production under that certification and have to make up for their certification costs with a part of their sales.
- Certification is complex. The standards that food producers have to adhere to are complex, lengthy documents that are difficult to implement in practice. This also leads to heavy documentation requirements, creatinga barrier for small-scale farmers with little or no education. The standards tend to be far off from the realities of farmers living in poverty. Together with the high auditing costs, this leads to unfair competition with large farms that have the resources and capacity to deal with the transaction costs and complexity.
- Certification is limited. Any scheme has its limitations: some include social criteria, others do not. Some are applicable to the entire supply chain, others focus on one stage only. This has resulted in a proliferation of schemes with different labels, leaving the consumer confused.
- Consumer demand for certified products is limited. Conscious consumerism is growing, but mostly in selected Northern markets. There is a limit of what can be achieved by relying on consumer demand, especially considering the low interest of consumers in rapidly growing Southern markets.
Because of these reasons, certification does not reach the impact and scale that it aims for. Many farmers are ‘left out’ or simply do not see the benefits. The theory of change of certification appears to have flaws – or so I believe. It does not reach the people and places where most improvements need to be made. The idea of ‘if you like it, put a label on it’ is simply not enough. Simon Bush and co-authors refer to this as the ‘devils triangle’ of certification: ensuring credibility, continuous improvement and accessibility at the same time seems to be a big challenge.
I am convinced that the reason that certification is not as effective as hoped for, is that it does not deal with systemic pressures arising from market dynamics. As long as there is a downward pressure on the prices of agricultural products because of competition, consolidated market power or ‘price wars’ amongst retailers, certification can only serve as a band-aid solution.
These are good reasons to start looking beyond certification for alternative solutions. But what lies beyond this horizon is still undefined. In the fuzzy search for ways to transform our food system, a few alternatives start to crystalize (NB: this list is not exhaustive):
- Making retailers responsible
Instead of setting standards for production, norms can also be set to retailers. In the end, they are accountable for the sourcing of the products they put on their shelves. As powerful and resourceful actors in food supply chains, retailers are able to carry the responsibility of ensuring adequate and sustainable food. This reverses the burden of proof. In practice, this means that retailers will implement so-called due diligence assessments on the social and environmental risks of their products. To encourage this, it is even imaginable to certify retail instead of production. Such due diligence assessments can also be applied throughout a value chain.
- Landscape approaches
Instead of regarding food production as part of a value chain, we can also regard farms and food producers as part of a wider ecological and social landscape in which resources such as land and water have to be shared with other landscape functions and users. Bringing together all different stakeholders in a geographical area to come to an agreement on how to best use the landscape is an alternative way of ensuring the sustainability of food production.
3. Technological solutions
Technological solutions provide alternative ways of promoting and monitoring sustainable food production. Data-driven monitoring using technologies such as satellite imagery, geodata, drones, mobile phones and monitoring devices linked to the internet (‘the internet of things’) provide opportunities for remote monitoring as an alternative to third party certification. Blockchain technology enables the traceability of products without the need of a certifier and can even set preconditions on so called ‘smart contracts’, which are automatically verified using data-driven monitoring.
These approaches – and undoubtedly there are others (for example due diligence systems throughout a value chain or multi-stakeholder initiatives per value chain) – provide solutions for some of the challenges of certification. However, they all have shortcomings of their own. Instead of ‘throwing the baby out with the bath water’, I believe that improving certification schemes will help facing the food challenges of this century. For example, by reducing the complexity of standards for smallholders. The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) recently introduced a smallholder strategy, in which it defines ‘core sustainability criteria’ which simplify the certification for smallholders. Various organizations have also started developing ‘improvement programs’ that explicitly target hard-to-reach producers. Although not addressing all flaws, such improvements show that there are still opportunities to increase the effectiveness of certification schemes. Along the same lines, due diligence, landscape approaches and technological solutions can serve as complimentary and mutually reinforcing instruments with certification. The common definitions and standards that have been set by certification initiatives form a valuable point of departure in this respect.
The question is not so much whether certification schemes should be put in a coffin, but what can be realistically achieved building on such schemes through improvements, and what cannot be expected from certification – for which other solutions are needed. I believe that we need both better certification and look beyond it for alternative and complementary solutions, that can mutually reinforce each other. For me the crucial point is to empower farmers, farm workers and communities to make necessary changes, whilst retailers and traders at the same time take up their responsibility as central points in the food system. Only in that way we can face the food challenges fruitfully and make global food markets truly sustainable.
This article was written by Sake Kruk. Sake is intern at the Food, Land and Water unit, in the ALIVE team (Access to Land, Inclusive Value Chains, and Empowerment). He works on promoting inclusive value chains and building capacity for private sector influencing strategies. Contact Sake on LinkedIn!
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.
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Wat fantastisch dat je je hebt aangemeld als vrijwilliger! Samen kunnen we armoede verslaan en zorgen voor een rechtvaardige wereld. Houd je mail goed in de gaten voor de eerst volgende acties waar jij bij kunt helpen. | <urn:uuid:cd8795cd-a2ad-4ec1-8606-5768968ac989> | CC-MAIN-2020-29 | https://www.oxfamnovib.nl/kenniscentrum/blog-kenniscentrum/better-or-beyond-certification | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-29/segments/1593655912255.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20200710210528-20200711000528-00037.warc.gz | en | 0.939192 | 1,824 | 2.625 | 3 | {
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In doing research, should we say it in future projects, as modes of performance expectations at varying levels of schooling and different stems of learning environments, can be a central topic in the architectural design education. Educators will need to take control of specific content in relation - ship to music theory. The social - cultural perspective.
FOSS Your final research paper must have a thesis. It is not simply reporting facts. Rather, it is making a case, proving a point, using the facts you research to back up your case.
The thesis is the point your paper is trying to prove. Here are some essential points to keep in mind about the thesis, starting with a definition.
The point that an essay is trying to prove. Also known as the claim or argument.
Everything in a persuasive essay relates to the thesis, either as evidence, explanation, elaboration or rebuttal of alternative claims. Think of the thesis as the spine of your paper. Just as all the parts of your body are connected to the spine, and without the spine your body could not stand, so too in your essay all parts must be connected to the thesis, and without the thesis the essay cannot stand.
Parts that are not connected must be revised so that they do connect, or else eliminated. A thesis, in other words, is not the same as the thesis statement, which is a sentence or two in your introduction that tells the reader what the thesis is.
The thesis is not limited to one spot in your essay; it runs through the whole thing, from start to finish. A thesis is arguable An arguable thesis is one you have to give reasons for, that is worth proving i.
So my example above is not a valid thesis, because everybody knows what color the sky is. This statement is not obvious, and it would require evidence about the nature of the atmosphere a billion years ago, and explanations of why that evidence is reliable, in order to be proved.
Theses can be statements about matters of fact e. In this class theses about values are not allowed. Your paper should make a persuasive case about some question of fact, interpretation or analysis. Your paper will then attempt to answer this question, and the answer you provide will be your thesis.
Descriptive and prescriptive theses A descriptive thesis makes a claim about how things are. A prescriptive thesis makes a claim about how things should be.
Therefore, prescriptive theses deal with questions of values, ethics or morality. And as I said, such theses are not allowed in this class.What is a Thesis Statement? The thesis statement is the sentence that states the main idea of a writing assignment and helps control the ideas within the paper.
It is not merely a topic. It often reflects an opinion or judgment that a writer has made about a reading or personal experience.
You may conclude that writing a thesis for a research paper is a thorny way. It requires the entire knowledge, set of skills, and in-depth research. If you lack any of these qualities or run out of time, do not forget about the opportunity to order a custom research essay with a strong thesis statement online.
The sentence that captures your position on this main idea is what we call a thesis statement. How long does it need to be? A thesis statement focuses your ideas into one or two sentences. Ph.D. Thesis & Research Proposal Writing Services to Build Your Career. If you need a thesis statement of few sentences alone, it has an impact on the entire essay or research paper: a good thesis statement guarantees a high grade and vice versa.
If you need a thesis proposal, it means that you need a large, serious document on some issue. This sentence is the thesis statement, and it serves as a summary of the argument you’ll make in the rest of your paper. What is a thesis statement? A thesis statement.
We all know that thesis for a research paper is very important. Thesis statement conveys the main debatable idea - the last sentence or two of your ashio-midori.com need to make your thesis clear. | <urn:uuid:bac5cd95-a5da-4705-b5ce-2cf924881a18> | CC-MAIN-2020-40 | https://fesihoz.ashio-midori.com/what-is-a-thesis-sentence-in-a-research-paper-711bp.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-40/segments/1600400227524.63/warc/CC-MAIN-20200925150904-20200925180904-00431.warc.gz | en | 0.949226 | 848 | 2.96875 | 3 | {
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Last December, Congress approved a $290 billion increase of the debt limit to support the government's borrowing through February. This lifted the total amount the federal government can borrow to $12.4 trillion.
But today Congress wants to go into even more debt. According to news reports, on Wednesday, Democrats proposed allowing the federal government to borrow an additional $1.9 trillion to pay its bills, a record increase that would permit the national debt to reach $14.3 trillion (roughly the size of our GDP) to support the federal government's borrowing through 2010.
Since they have been in full control of the federal purse strings, Democrats have spent a lot of money and got the country into a lot of debt. Hence the two consecutive increases of the debt limit in 3 months. And they aren't the only ones. According to the Office of Management and Budget, the federal debt limit has been increased 98 times since 1940—more than once a year on average. Under President George W. Bush alone, Republicans voted to raise the debt limit by more than $6.4 trillion.
When the statutory debt limit was instituted in 1939, its explicit goal was to limit congressional spending—which is supposedly still its purpose today. Technically, if the debt nears its statutory limit, the Treasury cannot issue new debt to manage short-term cash flows or manage the annual deficit and the government may then be unable to pay its bills.
Obviously, that worked for a while. The chart above shows increases in the federal debt and the statutory debt limit since 1940. From 1940 to the beginning of the 1980s, the debt and its limit grew slowly. However, during the 1980s both the debt and the limit started increasing faster. Almost each year during this period, Congress would pass a new law raising the debt, though it didn't systematically grow the debt to the level capped by the limit.
It took a Republican in the White House and a Republican Congress to change that. In 2005, for the first time in history, the debt limit had to be extended after the debt had already gone $487 billion above the cap. This happened again in 2009, after the debt issued by the Treasury went above the limit by $1.5 trillion. Finally, this year the debt has already outgrown the limit by more than $2 trillion, which explains the need for a second increase of the cap in less than two months.
Many lawmakers will argue that they have to raise the limit because, by law, the debt must be below the limit. However, raising the debt cap is only a symptom, not the cause, of the bigger problem. Namely, the federal government's endless appetite for spending.
In practice, the debt limit is a very poor budget constraint because it does not alter either the spending or revenue policies that determine debt and deficits. Think about it this way: If you want to lose weight, the only solution is to reduce your current weight. Just telling yourself that you can't gain an additional 30 pounds in the next year won't help. In fact, it will only make things worse. Congress needs to stop spending money rather ruling that it should simply increase the debt by more than $2 trillion this time around. | <urn:uuid:682077ec-fdf8-4afc-8e9d-80ff4c6f85b5> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://reason.com/2010/01/21/the-governments-endless-appeti | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195527474.85/warc/CC-MAIN-20190722030952-20190722052952-00229.warc.gz | en | 0.970736 | 655 | 3.5 | 4 | {
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Sunday morning, NOVA adjunct geology instructor Chris Khourey and I went out to Sugarloaf Mountain, near Comus, Maryland, to poke around and assess the geology. Sugarloaf is so named because it’s “held up” by erosion-resistant quartzite. It’s often dubbed “the only mountain in the Piedmont,” which refers to the Piedmont physiographic province. Here’s a map, made with GeoMapApp and annotated by me, showing the general area:
On the far west, you can see the Valley & Ridge province, which ends at the Blue Ridge Thrust Fault. Then the Blue Ridge province runs east from the Blue Ridge itself to Catoctin Mountain. From there, you enter the Piedmont, including both the “crystalline” Piedmont (Paleozoic metamorphism of various ocean basin protoliths, plus infusions of granite) and the Culpeper Basin, a Triassic/Jurassic rift valley. The Potomac River cuts a series of three spectacular water gaps across the Blue Ridge province just west of Sugarloaf. Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, is located at the confluence of the Potomac and the Shenandoah Rivers by the westernmost of these water gaps, and the name for the easternmost one is “Point of Rocks.”
Here’s a look at a detail from the southeastern corner of the geologic map of the Buckeystown, MD quadrangle, by Scott Southworth and David Brezinski:
The map pattern shows a that the area around Sugarloaf Mountain is a doubly-plunging anticlinorium of Sugarloaf Mountain Quartzite [SMQ] and overlying (younger) Urbana Formation. Overall, it’s got that typical “Appalachian” northeast-southwest trend. Notice the thrust fault on the west side: a typical hanging wall anticline? The ridges, including the summit of Sugarloaf Mountain itself, are held up by the toughest quartzite. This overall “squashed donut” shape shows up pretty well in the physiographic map up at the top of this post.
Sugarloaf is quartzite (metamorphic), but you can clearly see the sand grains that composed its protolith (sedimentary). There’s also reports of cross-bedding, and so Chris asked me to take a look at a few structures to assess them with my point of view. I found a pervasive cleavage in the rock, far more than I would have suspected would be there. We did find bedding exposed as compositional/grain size layers in several locations, including on the summit. I also paid a lot of attention to the many quartz veins which cut the metasedimentary quartzite. These veins of “milky quartz” are often arranged in lovely en echelon series, like these tension gashes:
I took the above photo several years ago on a visit there, but it’s typical of the sorts of stuff we saw Sunday. The kinematic sense of this outcrop would be “top to the right.” Interestingly, none of the Sugarloaf outcrops show really deformed tension gashes (i.e., they’re not folded into Z or S shapes like those I showed you a few days ago).
What we really wanted to get a sense of, though, was which way was up in these rocks. We were in search of geopetal structures: primary sedimentary structures that indicate the “younging direction” of the beds. Graded beds can do this, though I didn’t see any unambiguous graded beds in the SMQ on Sunday’s trip. We wanted some cross-beds. We found some hummocky / swaley examples, looking approximately like this USGS photograph (black & white; hammer for scale) of an outcrop somewhere “north of the summit”:
Image source: USGS
Ours wasn’t as beautiful as the one pictured above, but it was clearly hummocky cross-bedding, and it was right-side-up (in beds tilted at ~30°). Interestingly, the SMQ has been correlated by Southworth and Brezinski (2003) with the Weverton Formation of the Chilhowee Group, a rock unit exposed in the Blue Ridge. Just as the Weverton is overlain by the finer-grained Harpers Formation, so too is the SMQ overlain by a finer-grained unit, the Urbana Formation. Both are interpreted as metamorphosed continental margin deposits. The Urbana is mostly phyllite in the areas I’ve seen it (including phyllite that’s full of quartz grains, a first for me). The Urbana is well exposed in a creek-side outcrop north of Sugarloaf Mountain, and I took Chris there to show him the lovely intersection of bedding and cleavage.
Here is a weathered piece of the Urbana Formation that Chris collected there, looking at the plane of cleavage (ruler in background for scale):
You can see the bedding running ~horizontally across it, though the photo cannot convey the lovely phyllitic sheen that results from waggling these samples back and forth in good light. It’s pretty cool. In places, the transition from sandy to phyllitic is gradational, probably relict graded bedding.
So, what does it mean if Southworth and Brezinski (2003) are correct in their correlation, and the Weverton and the SMQ are really the same rock layer, but in different provinces and at different metamorphic grades? Recall that the Blue Ridge province to the west is also a thrust-faulted anticlinorium, launched up and to the west by the Alleghanian Orogeny from an original position deeper in the crust and further towards the east. It’s a shard of the craton, snapped off and shoved bodily up and to the northwest. (In class, I often liken it to Joe Theismann’s leg: a compound fracture of the continental crust.) Might the Sugarloaf Mountain Anticlinorium [SMA] be a smaller version of the Blue Ridge pulling the same trick? It too is arched up and snapped off …but it would be a “Mini-Me” that’s only just surfacing, like a baby whale swimming above momma whale’s back…
We know that deeper down in the Blue Ridge stratigraphy, we find the Catoctin Formation, the Swift Run Formation, and the basement complex. If we drilled down through the crest of the SMA, would we find the same units (or more metamorphosed equivalents thereof)? It’s an intriguing thought…
Filed under: analogies, blue ridge, cambrian, cleavage, folds, geology, maryland, metamorphism, minerals, mississippian (carboniferous), north america, paleozoic, pennsylvanian (carboniferous), piedmont, primary structures, quartz, rivers, sediment, structure, weathering | 7 Comments » | <urn:uuid:2a76affc-cd04-4a6a-b87d-14288031e6e0> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | https://mountainbeltway.wordpress.com/2010/03/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988719463.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183839-00047-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945292 | 1,542 | 2.84375 | 3 | {
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The researchers have demonstrated an innovative way to measure a phenomenon known as the Casimir effect -- findings that also could have implications for the design of microscopic machines that contain tiny parts on the size scale of nanometers -- or billionths of a meter.
The scientists are taking their theoretical findings a step further by conducting an experiment to prove that the theory works, said Ephraim Fischbach, a professor of physics at Purdue University.
A paper that describes the theory for the experiment will appear in the Nov. 4 issue of Physical Review Letters, a journal published by the American Physical Society. The paper was written by Fischbach and Dennis E. Krause, a professor of physics at Wabash College, in Crawfordsville, Ind.
The Casimir effect, predicted in 1948 by Dutch physicist Hendrick Casimir, is a force that pushes together two plates of metal placed near each other in empty space -- or a vacuum. The closer the plates are to each other, the stronger the force.
What may be thought of as empty space is actually teeming with fleeting particles and electromagnetic fields. However, because the plates are so close to each other, many of the particles and fields cannot get between the plates. That means the space surrounding the plates contains more particles and energy than the space between the plates. The more energy-dense space surrounding the plates exerts a force on the metal, pushing the plates together.
The strength of the Casimir effect depends on the number of electrons in the metal out of which the plates are made. For that reason, the Purdue physicists will test the effect using plates made of isotopes of the same metal. Isotopes are elements that contain the same number of electrons but different numbers of neutrons in the atom's nucleus.
One portion of the experiment will use plates made out of nickel 58, an isotope of nickel that contains 28 protons and 30 neutrons in its nucleus. A second portion of the experiment will use plates made of nickel 64, which contains 28 protons and 36 neutrons.
Because the plates made of nickel 58 and 64 have the same number of electrons, the Casimir forces acting on both sets of plates will be nearly identical. That means any measurable difference in force between the two sets of plates must be attributed to some entirely new, as-yet undiscovered force acting on the respective nuclei.
Such knowledge could prove critical in the design of future devices containing tiny gears and motors that are measured in nanometers. Because these devices will contain moving parts placed extremely close to one another, they may be subjected to exotic forces that do not affect the parts inside large-scale machines.
"When you actually make little gears, for example, they may stick together in funny ways," Fischbach said. "You can't just make a microscopic version of your car's transmission and expect it to work. Suddenly, on such small size scales, when moving parts are very close to one another, a lot of funny things happen.
"In order to go from fundamental physics to applied nanotechnology, you really will have to understand the laws that govern what happens at a very small scale. This research helps to bridge the gap between very fundamental physics and really applied physics."
The discovery of new forces, could, in turn, provide evidence for the existence of additional dimensions beyond the three spatial dimensions of length, width and height.
"A new kind of gravity-like force would be the fingerprint of the fact that we may really live in a world that is more than three spatial dimensions," Fischbach said. "You wouldn't see this force over large distances, but you could see it over small distances."
However, scientists must first devise a way to confidently measure the Casimir force.
"Physicists know that the Casimir force exists," Fischbach said. "But we have to now understand it sufficiently well that we can say, 'I know when I line up the plates exactly like this, that I should see a certain force, which I can measure, and if I see something different, then there might be a new force on top of the Casimir force.'"
Because nickel 58 and 64 have the same number of electrons but different nuclei, any difference in forces observed between the two sets of plates could provide evidence that those nuclei were interacting with "extra dimensions" that exist side-by-side with the known three dimensions, Fischbach said.
Scientists have proven the existence of four fundamental forces of nature: gravity; electromagnetism; the strong force, which holds the nucleus of the atom together; and the weak force, which governs the energy production in stars and is responsible for some forms of radioactivity.
Researchers have theorized that the universe contains additional dimensions beyond the three spatial dimensions observed in the everyday world. Theory also has suggested that, of the four known fundamental forces of nature, all but one -- gravity -- are confined to three dimensions. This could help to explain why gravity is weaker than the other forces.
"In a sense, gravity gets dissipated by being spread out over more dimensions, and that's why gravity looks weak compared to the other forces," Fischbach said. "Gravity might sense and interact with these extra dimensions in such a way as to reveal their presence.
"The point is that gravity actually penetrates these other dimensions."
Previous research by Fischbach has suggested the existence of a so-called "fifth force" of nature. If other dimensions do exist, a gravity-like "fifth force" might be used to study and communicate with those dimensions, Fischbach said.
Fischbach and Krause have worked recently with Ron Reifenberger, a Purdue professor of physics, and Stephen W. Howell, a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Physics. They are now collaborating with two experimentalists, Ricardo Decca, a professor of physics at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, and Daniel Lopez, a scientist who is a member of the Nanofabrication Research Lab at Lucent Technologies.
The experiment currently being designed by the team will use nanofabrication techniques to replace one of the plates in the above experiment with a tiny sphere. The remaining plate with the nickel coatings will be attached to a "microelectromechanical torsion oscillator," a setup that could be likened to a nanometer-scale version of a record player in which the record player's needle is the sphere. The device will record the force between the sphere and the plates, searching for a difference in the forces on the two nickel isotopes.
The research has been funded by the U.S. Department of Energy.
Writer: Emil Venere, (765) 494-4709, [email protected]
Source: Ephraim Fischbach, (765) 494-5506, [email protected]
Related Web sites:
Ephraim Fischbach: http://www.
American Physical Society: http://www.
Isotopic Dependence of the Casimir Force
Dennis E. Krause and Ephraim Fischbach
We calculate the dependence of the Casimir force on the isotopic composition of the interacting objects. This dependence arises from the subtle influence of the nuclear masses of the electronic properties of the bodies. We discuss the relevance of these results to current experiments utilizing the iso-electronic effect to search at very short separations for new weak forces suggested by various unification theories.
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NOTE TO JOURNALISTS: An electronic or paper copy of the research paper is available from Emil Venere, (765) 494-4709, [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:1d13de49-6db4-40d2-b34d-8134ba587bfc> | CC-MAIN-2018-47 | https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-10/pu-ecr102902.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-47/segments/1542039746386.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20181120110505-20181120131747-00004.warc.gz | en | 0.932824 | 1,610 | 4.28125 | 4 | {
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Have you ever marveled at how large the full Moon looks when it’s just peeking up over the horizon? It looks so much larger than when it’s high in the sky. It’s not changing in size, your brain is tricking you.
This is called the Moon Illusion, and people have noticed it for thousands of years. If you take a camera and capture images of the Moon all the way from the horizon until it’s at its highest point, the size stays exactly the same. But from your perception, it’s huge on the horizon and much smaller when it gets higher.
You can even confirm this without a camera. Hold your hand out at arm’s length, and the full Moon is about the size of the tip of your pinky finger. Do this when the Moon is down near the horizon, and then do it again when it’s much higher and you’ll see, it’s exactly the same size.
So, why is this happening? Researchers think that the shape of the sky could be the cause. The Moon moves in a circular shape around us, but the sky and clouds are in a bowl shape above us. This difference causes our brain to perceive the Moon larger when it’s down at the horizon.
The illusion is a combination of two things. the first is the Ponzo illusion, where your brain interprets things as being bigger if it thinks they are farther away.
Second, the sky is not exactly hemisphere-shaped to our brains, it actually looks like an inverted bowl. Think of it this way: clouds overhead are maybe two miles up, but clouds near the horizon are a hundred miles away. So the sky looks bowl-shaped.
So when the Moon is on the horizon, your brain thinks it’s farther away than when it’s overhead. The Ponzo illusion kicks in, and your brain gets fooled into thinking the Moon is HUGE. As it gets higher, the illusion vanishes. If you actually observe the Moon with binoculars or with a ‘scope, you can see it is no bigger on the horizon. In fact, it should look smaller because it’s a few thousand miles farther away than when it’s overhead.
So when your friends are admiring the huge moon, hanging low in the sky, feel free to let them in on the secret.
It’s all an illusion.
Original Source: Science@NASA | <urn:uuid:17ff349f-8684-4f15-96fc-c69670d8287c> | CC-MAIN-2015-06 | http://www.universetoday.com/1999/explaining-the-moon-illusion/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-06/segments/1422115860608.29/warc/CC-MAIN-20150124161100-00025-ip-10-180-212-252.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941641 | 516 | 3.65625 | 4 | {
"raw_score": 2.495332956314087,
"reasoning_level": 2,
"interpretation": "Moderate reasoning"
} | Science & Tech. |
Short-term planning of politicians
A democracy with short legislation periods lends itself to the basic problem that those who are politically responsible tend to think and plan only for periods of a few years, but not for decades or centuries. Usually, politicians act to address the current pressing needs and interests of living citizens, who are their primary voters, while the interests of future generations remain unconsidered.
However, the effects of technological progress, for example nuclear power, will be sustained far into the future or even permanently. They have substantial influence on the quality of life of future generations. To the great detriment of future generations, the historical record of long-term planning by decision makers has not kept up with technological developments. Today’s decisions are often made without taking responsibility for incurring their future devastating consequences. After their term of service, decision makers can leave their positions of power free from the responsibility of the effects their decisions produced—decisions whose effects may not emerge until some fifty years later.
New future ethics
It is said that the freedom of the individual ends where the freedom of the next one begins, and so the freedom of every generation is limited by the freedom of future generations. Dieter Birnbacher, a moral philosopher of future ethics, summarises: „The promise to prolong the bliss of the present leads to neglecting the future“. Massive violations of generational justice occur because our society has been constructed to benefit from short-term profits and immediate advantages. The costs of this system are transferred into the future.
The „futurisation“ of ecological problems poses an existential threat for the next generations. The happiness of present generations is bought at the expense of misery for future generations. In the face of present and future problems, we can no longer afford this short-sighted policy. We need a new future ethics that will preserve the opportunities and potential of future generations.
Theory of Generational Justice
In the past decades, systematic concepts and theories on justice between non-overlapping generations have been developed for the first time ever—2600 years after the first theories on justice between contemporaries had been articulated. This delay can be explained by the different impact of mankind’s scope of action, then and now.
In the last few years the number of scientific magazines and articles referring to justice between generations and to the ethics of the future (in the broadest sense) has soared. The concept of ‘intergenerational justice’ may very well become an intellectual leitmotif of the new century. Not only does it deal with the future, it is also set to influence the future direction of philosophy and politics.
FRGF discusses definitions and concepts of intergenerational justice. Scarcely any scientist denies that scientific terms must be well-defined and precise. The possibility to criticize theories in a constructive way becomes more difficult, if theories contain terms which are imprecise and ambiguous. FRFG therefore aims to achieve a clear understanding and definition of key terms such as ‘justice’, ‘future generations’, ‘intergenerational equity’ and ‘intergenerational justice’. How do we distinguish ‘intergenerational justice’ from ‘social justice’ or ‘gender justice’? Do we see a generation of people as something static? What do we mean when we talk about overlapping generations? Can we really draw a dividing line between different generations? Is ‘sustainability’ synonymous to ‘generational justice’?
For further reading:
FRFG has done a lot to clarify the term „intergenerational justice“ and to compare it with the concept of sustainability. An important resource is the Handbook of Intergenerational Justice, issued by the FRFG. Also several issues of our English/German Journal Intergenerational Justice are devoted to the theoretical foundations. | <urn:uuid:52843e1d-c3d0-4e3c-ad67-c7717a554cad> | CC-MAIN-2018-39 | https://www.intergenerationaljustice.org/topics/theoretical-foundations/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-39/segments/1537267158450.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20180922142831-20180922163231-00461.warc.gz | en | 0.93913 | 792 | 2.9375 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 3.0129992961883545,
"reasoning_level": 3,
"interpretation": "Strong reasoning"
} | Politics |
There are many spectacular cliffs in Donegal, this would be due to the different degrees of exposure of wave energy from the Atlantic Ocean, creating platforms of different rock types including rocky shores, storm beaches and the unique sandy mochair grasslands. Many of the cliffs in Donegal, including the Slieve League which reaches 1,950ft (600m) above sea level are made of Pre-Cambrian, quartzite and Gneiss which do not readily form suitable ledges for sea birds, but their height and north- facing exposure makes them the habitat for Arctic and Alpine plants.
Donegal is surrounded by these ancient rocks, which are referred to as the basement rocks of Ireland. Almost all of these rocks have been radically altered from their original state by being subjected to extreme pressure and heat at some stage in their history and referred to metamorphic rocks because of their changed form. The lime- stones have become marbles and mud- stones have turned to hard but brittle slates, sand- stones have formed into the rock type called Quartzite.
Almost all of these altered rocks are more compact and resistant to erosion than their original counter- parts and commonly form uplands or individual mountains. Quartzite and the altered form of sand- stones, are a good example of resistance to the elements, some of Irelands most spectacular mountains are composed of quartzite. Another further distinctive characteristic of these mountains is the bleached appearance of the rocks due to the quartzite, which is composed almost entirely of the grey white mineral called Silica.
The climate of the earth was very cold and Ireland would have looked like Greenland does now, allowing snow and ice to spread over most of the earth. During the times of these cold periods the whole of Ireland was buried beneath ice and snow, which is now is the sea surrounding us. The Irish climate was dry and cold, with intensely cold snowy winters but no permanent cover of snow very similar to the high tundra of Canada and Siberia today. If the snow of the winter before had not melted in time for the next fall of snow by the following year, it would cover that layer and every year the snow would get deeper and deeper, this would compact the snow underneath into ice.
The highest mountains are where this action took place first and thus these mountains developed their own ice caps. When this ice sheet melted it was responsible for the newer deposits of boulder clay over the parts of Ireland covered by the sheet. The valleys were scoured and plucked, widened and deepened due to the constant movement of the glaciers in these valleys, the bared rock surfaces were striated, polished and moulded and the many rock basins, lakes and waterfalls among the mountain valleys were to further indicate the activity of the ice.
Many rivers were forced by glacial deposits to seek new path- ways to the sea; among the mountains, glacial dams held up lakes until the waters escaped in many cases through spillways. When the melted water from the ice raised the sea level above the low-lying coasts so that the sea poured over the entrances to the lower valleys. Since the ice age, the other agents of weathering and erosion have been active. Wind and water have spread the debris over the plains and along the coasts. The poor drainage and heavy a rainfall, together have produced the solution lakes and the growths of peat which are so typical of our present Irish scenery.
Also from the forces of nature acting on the solid rocks of the country are the various landscape features it produced. Soil itself is the link between the rocks and the landforms and also animal and plant life, it has a passive function, the soil blankets the land smoothing the rough edges in the rocks below and creating the long swelling slopes that are also a characteristic of the Irish scenery. | <urn:uuid:a6bf9422-7a78-4864-a2f7-369bba6a591a> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | http://www.donegalbluestacks.ie/index.php/the-area/geology-of-donegal/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141195417.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20201128095617-20201128125617-00269.warc.gz | en | 0.976198 | 773 | 3.859375 | 4 | {
"raw_score": 2.52730655670166,
"reasoning_level": 3,
"interpretation": "Strong reasoning"
} | History |
In December over 190 countries will converge in Paris to finalize a new global agreement on climate change that is scheduled to come into force in 2020. A central part of it will be countries’ national pledges, or “intended nationally determined contributions” (INDCs), to be submitted this year which will serve as countries’ national climate change action plans. For Latin American countries, the INDCs present an unprecedented opportunity. They can be used as a strategic tool to set countries or at least some sectors on a cleaner path toward low-carbon sustainable development, while building resilience to climate impacts. The manner in which governments define their plans will determine the level of political buy-in from civil society and business. The implementation of ambitious contributions is more likely if constituencies consider them beneficial, credible, and legitimate.
This paper aims to better understand the link between Latin American countries’ proposed climate actions before 2020 and their post-2020 targets under a Paris agreement. We look at why Latin American climate policies and pledges merit attention, and review how Latin American nations are preparing their INDCs. We then examine the context in which five Latin American nations (Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Costa Rica, and Venezuela) are developing their INDCs—what pledges and efforts have already been made and what this context tells us about the likely success of the INDCs. In doing so, we focus on flagship national policies in the areas of energy, forests, cities, and transportation. We address what factors are likely to increase or restrain efforts on climate policy in the region this decade and the next.
Latin American countries are playing an active role at the U.N. climate change talks and some are taking steps to reduce their emissions as part of their pre-2020 voluntary pledges.
Latin American countries are playing an active role at the U.N. climate change talks and some are taking steps to reduce their emissions as part of their pre-2020 voluntary pledges. However, despite some progress there are worrying examples suggesting that some countries’ climate policies are not being implemented effectively, or are being undermined by other policies. Whether their climate policies are successful or not will have significant consequences on the likely trajectory of the INDCs and their outcomes. The imperative for climate action is not only based on Latin America’s contribution to global carbon emissions. Rather, a focus on adaptation, increasing the deployment of renewable energy and construction of sustainable transport, reducing fossil fuel subsidies, and protecting biodiversity is essential to build prosperity for all Latin Americans to achieve a more sustainable and resilient development.
[On the EU's proposed tax on high carbon imports] There's some concern that U.S. industry could also get caught up ... because we don't have a carbon price on industry in the United States, and we're not likely to have one in the future ... When you start getting into the details, it's an absolute bear to implement. But nonetheless Europe seems quite serious about it. | <urn:uuid:3422d145-da17-4538-b9f7-243d2a7cad30> | CC-MAIN-2021-21 | https://www.brookings.edu/research/a-new-global-agreement-can-catalyze-climate-action-in-latin-america/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-21/segments/1620243988986.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20210509122756-20210509152756-00110.warc.gz | en | 0.958104 | 600 | 2.953125 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 3.021665096282959,
"reasoning_level": 3,
"interpretation": "Strong reasoning"
} | Politics |
Notwithstanding Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the World Wide Web, was not in favor of using the term “Web 2.0” because, according to him, the original goal of the WWW was precisely working together with others (Anderson, 2006), the truth is that prior the emergence of the set of technologies that O’Reilly coined as Web 2. 0, the amount of interaction allowed by the WWW was very limited. Indeed, I recall that in the first years of the WWW, a web user was called a “surfer” reflecting the fact that users mostly “surf” or “navigate” on the Web, meaning that users were mainly passive consumers of information.
Most content posted o the Web on its early years belonged to corporate, governmental and educational institutions and it was near to impossible for a regular user to have his or her own individual web space, unless he or she could get a web server account and had knowledge about creating web pages. Web 2.0 technologies changed this passive way to access the Internet. Users switched from being mere consumers of information to be the producers of it. There is no need of any sophisticated knowledge to post whatever one thinks, believes or feels on a web page using blogs or wikis.
The level of interactivity among web users has also changed dramatically. Before Web 2.0, most “surfers” would need to use third-party applications such as email or ICQ to be able to communicate. Nowadays, communication is possible from within the web itself. Social networks make it possible to be in touch with classmates, friends and relatives. Moreover, social networks are also being used for educational purposes such as learning a second language (Naone, 2007).
I believe that Web 2.0 technologies have the potential to promote personalized learning because students have a great variety of options to choose from when they are really interested in learning. Students should take advantage of their strengths and learning styles to select the best way for them to learn whether they are visual or aural learners.
Anderson, N. (2006). Tim Berners-Lee on Web 2.0: "nobody even knows what it means". Retrieved on November 29 from http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2006/09/7650.ars
Naone, E. (2007). “Learning Language in Context: Startup Live Mocha Leverages Social Networking to Teach Foreign Languages,” Technology Review (October 5, 2007), http://www.technologyreview.com/Biztech/19484/?a=f | <urn:uuid:4971e06f-9434-4973-beb2-e69d6b7d1403> | CC-MAIN-2017-47 | http://r685worldisopen.blogspot.com/2010/12/networks-of-personalized-learning.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-47/segments/1510934806856.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20171123180631-20171123200631-00774.warc.gz | en | 0.950898 | 540 | 3.21875 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 2.808500051498413,
"reasoning_level": 3,
"interpretation": "Strong reasoning"
} | Education & Jobs |
Measurement of high
amplitude impulsive signals, such as ESD, can incur errors due to
radiated effects. The characteristics of these effects are discussed
and ways to spot such errors in a measurement are given.
: Figure 1 shows an example of an impulse accompanied by radiated EMI, e
nterference, from the impulse source itself. Note the high frequency
noise in the waveform preceding the main impulse. Although it is
possible the waveform represents the true source, more likely, the high
frequency noise before the pulse represents error in the measurement.
The noise starts about 10 nanoseconds before the impulse. In this case, the EMI
generated by the impulse radiated into the end of the cable at the
scope. The impulse itself traveled down the cable at a slower speed
(~1.5 ns/foot) while the radiated EMI traveled faster in space (~1
ns/ft) and through a more direct route to the scope input, arriving at
the scope about 10 nanoseconds earlier than the impulse itself. Noise like this
on a waveform, occurring before an impulse, often is a sign of direct radiated
interference into the measurement. Figure 2 shows another example where
the noise starts about eight nanoseconds before the impulse.
Another Impulse with Radiated EMI Preceding It
Mechanisms whereby radiated EMI can affect a measurement in this way include:
- Poor shield connection at the oscilloscope either because of the
connector itself (BNC connectors vary widely in quality) or how the
shield interfaces the connector (360 degree, secure connection is best).
- Sometimes an impulsive source like ESD can be powerful enough to
leak through the shielding in a scope and directly affect internal
circuits of the scope.
- The quality of the shielded cable itself can be an issue. I
have seen BNC cables labeled as RG-58/U that provide poor shielding
effectiveness. In fact, those of you who have attended some of my
seminars/classes have seen an experiment that uses just such a
Characteristics of radiated EMI on the scope screen include:
- Noise starts before the impulse being measured.
- The noise, as displayed, often contains frequency components that are higher than the rest of the waveform.
- Subsequent events show similar delays between the start of the higher frequency noise and the impulse to be measured.
- The delay between the start of the noise and the impulse is affected by moving the source and/or cable.
Interference from impulsive sources to measurements can be significant.
There are several characteristics of such interference, the main one is
high frequency noise that starts before the intended pulse to be
Other articles on this website related to interference from impulsive sources are:
tutorial on this subject, covering background as well as more technical details, is available at:
If you like the information in this article and others on this website, much more information is available in my courses.
to see a listing of upcoming courses on design, measurement, and
troubleshooting of chips, circuits, and systems. | <urn:uuid:cf8a053c-8cac-4d92-b18c-153056dac6f5> | CC-MAIN-2014-23 | http://www.emcesd.com/tt2005/tt070405.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-23/segments/1406510273513.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20140728011753-00402-ip-10-146-231-18.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913019 | 667 | 2.6875 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 2.952713966369629,
"reasoning_level": 3,
"interpretation": "Strong reasoning"
} | Science & Tech. |
Scientists have said any climate change agreement must limit temperature rises to less than two degrees
Cancun climate summit fails to agree successor to Kyoto Protocol
12th December, 2010
Major industrialised powers claim progress has been made towards a legally-binding agreement but campaigners warn new deal will be 'weak' and 'wholly inadaquate' in preventing climate change
A legally-binding commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions has still not been reached following the latest international climate change summit in Cancun, Mexico.
The Summit was taking place to agree a successor to The Kyoto Protocol, the only global agreement on climate change so far, which comes to an end next year. It set industrialised countries like the UK targets to reduce their emissions to an average of 5 per cent below 1990 levels between 2008-2012.
Speaking after the conference ended campaigners said they feared major polluters were trying to 'usher it [Kyoto] quietly out the back door'.
After two weeks of negotiations, governments agreed to a new draft document that pledged to keep temperature rises to two degrees, outlined how reductions could be scrutinised and, reported and plans for paying less industrialised countries to protect their forests.
It also set out plans to establish a Green Climate Fund to help less industrialised countries adapt to climate change. However, the source of the $100 billion annual fund has still not been confirmed and there many countries still object to the World Bank taking responsibility for distributing any funds. Of the $30 billion pledged since last year's Copenhagen Summit, only $7.9 billion has actually been committed to international climate change programmes.
Bolivia was among a number of countries that objected to the new draft document and called it a 'hollow and false victory' with the richest nations having offered nothing new in terms of emission reductions or financing.
'There is only one way to measure the success of a climate agreement, and that is based on whether or not it will effectively reduce emissions to prevent runaway climate change,' read a statement.
Friends of the Earth International said the Cancun agreement was 'wholly inadaquate' and could lead to catastrophic climate change.
'This agreement provides a platform for abandoning the Kyoto Protocol, replacing it with a weak pledge and review system, which would lead to a devastating five degree Celsius warming.'
They also worried that the draft agreement on reducing deforestation did not safeguard the rights of Indigenous Peoples or the protection of natural forests.
WWF remained optimistic that despite the failure to agree a successor to the Kyoto Protocol this year, progress had been made and a deal may be able to be reached at next year's summit in South Africa.
Full agreement from UNFCCC website
Using this website means you agree to us using simple cookies. | <urn:uuid:2d6d4f74-eb6b-419b-bfc9-3af057378c44> | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_round_up/693711/cancun_climate_summit_fails_to_agree_successor_to_kyoto_protocol.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246639674.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045719-00083-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950465 | 561 | 3.109375 | 3 | {
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"reasoning_level": 3,
"interpretation": "Strong reasoning"
} | Science & Tech. |
Carriers band together for biofuel trip
Air Canada and three other airlines took steps into the world of biofuels today, operating a series of flights between Canada and South America using planes powered by biofuels. Air Canada’s Airbus-supported flight, which was partially fueled by recycled cooking oil, is part of an initiative by the International Civil Aviation Organization and was undertaken to correspond with the Rio +20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development.
"Today's flight with Air Canada proves that the aviation industry is in a strong position to reduce emissions," Airbus’ Fabrice Bregier said in a statement. "To make this a day-to-day commercial reality, it requires now a political will to foster incentives to scale up the use of sustainable biofuels and to accelerate the modernization of the air-traffic-management system. We need a clear endorsement by governments and all aviation stakeholders to venture beyond today's limitations."
ICAO Secretary General Raymond Benjamin traveled on the Air Canada flight from Toronto to Mexico City to make his way down to Rio de Janeiro for the summit. But the Toronto-Mexico flight was just one leg of a journey that involved a handful of carriers and the world’s top three airline manufacturers. Benjamin began his itinerary in Montreal, traveling on flights operated by Air Canada, Porter Airlines, Aeromexico and GOL.
“This is truly a world-first series of flights, and one which demonstrates that the whole air transport sector is working together to make significant advances across a range of sustainability issues, so that it can continue to fulfill its role as a catalyst for economic and social development, while reducing its impact on the environment,” Benjamin said in a statement.
The trip amounts to a series of test flights to show that biofuels are a viable alternative for the aviation industry. Such flights have been happening for years, but the cost of these small flight batches would be prohibitive if they were conducted on a larger scale. Currently, the cost of producing biofuels is a the main barrier to entry into the alternative fuel world; while the demand might be there at a lower cost, the supply hasn’t caught up.
According to Boeing’s Terrance Scott, 85 percent of the cost of production is tied to feedstock — growing it, cultivating it and bringing it to market. Once producers figure out how to decrease their costs, biofuels will become more affordable. More research into Jatropha, Camelina and other viable biofuel sources is needed to figure out how to increase the production yield and grow these plants more economically. Until then, test flights are simply an exercise in what could be.
“We’ve now moved beyond the technical feasibility questions. We know it works; we know there’s no engine issues; we know the performance values. The issue now is not technical, it’s quantity. There’s a demonstrated industry demand for these fuels, but there’s not enough to go around,” Scott said in a statement. “The challenge is: How do you increase capacity and reduce the price?” | <urn:uuid:fac364e8-9c20-4b49-ad45-eb2d0a630da2> | CC-MAIN-2014-42 | http://www.aircargoworld.com/Air-Cargo-News/2012/06/carriers-band-together-for-biofuel-trip/197814 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-42/segments/1414637905189.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20141030025825-00235-ip-10-16-133-185.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950278 | 645 | 2.578125 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 2.8934690952301025,
"reasoning_level": 3,
"interpretation": "Strong reasoning"
} | Transportation |
Chlorosis in Trees
CHLOROSIS IN TREES – THE REST OF THE STORY
Sometimes fall comes early. Sometimes it appears to be happening year round.
Pin oak showing classic tell-tale form and color when planted in
alkaline conditions. It might as well be cut down.
Chlorosis is an abiotic (not related to insects or diseases) condition in plants where leaves lose color and turn yellow often with green veins left. It happens primarily on the newest growth first. This discoloration is often diagnosed as “iron deficiency” followed by the recommended solution of iron and sulfur products.
Like most purely chemical recommendations, this is not very good advice. Iron availability may be an issue, but it may not be the only deficiency. Chlorosis is often a deficiency of many elements – iron, magnesium, manganese, zinc, molybdenum, and other trace minerals. One of the most common causes of chlorosis is the heavy use of high-nitrogen synthetic fertilizers. The key to solving this problem in many cases is to stimulate the biological activity of the soil so that the “tied-up” minerals are “released” and made available to plants. The overall solution to the problem is to apply the entire Sick Tree Treatment and add Epsom salts or sul-po-mag if magnesium is deficient in the soil and that is the case in many soils. And of course, go organic. Greensand can help by itself because it contains many trace minerals including iron. By the way - greensand is the only iron supplement I recommend.
There is one more possible reason for the yellow chlorotic leaves on plants and it is a common problem. Many red oaks are not adapted where they have been planted. The most common culprit here is pin oak and mix-breed red trees being planted in alkaline soils. Pin oaks are great trees – but must have acid soil. They do best in sandy acid soils like those in east Texas, Oklahoma, and much of the eastern U.S. They will not grow well or even survive long term in alkaline soils like the black and white soils of north and central Texas except for those rare sandy spots that are primarily old waterways. What’s the solution for these ill-adapted trees? Don't plant them unless you have the right kind of soil. Even if you change the soil pH with vinegar, which can be done, you’ll still have to deal with the alkaline conditions of the irrigation water.
Pin oaks are sometimes hard to identify but here’s some guidelines. They have a stiff overall appearance usually with a strong, straight central trunk. They are generally upright, pyramidal shape, especially when young, spreading with age and have red oak type leaves and usually a weeping nature, especially on the lower limbs. Texas red oaks have more of an upright candelabra effect. The most important characteristic is the presence of small pin-like twigs.
Classic look of chlorotic leaves with green veins.
To make this problem even more difficult, oaks (especially red oaks) are very promiscuous. They naturally cross breed like crazy, and when the red oaks being sold are heavily crossed bred with the “blood” or genetics of pin oak, northern red oak, southern red oak and other trees suited to acid soils, they will never be healthy in alkaline (high pH soils).
Solution? Take the ill-adapted trees out and plant natives and well-behaved introductions that like the alkaline soils.
Early fall color of pin oak in alkaline soil. Pins of the pin oak.
Problem red oaks with better branching structure but
are still strongly crossbred with pin oak as is evident.
Additionally, bald cypress trees have the same issue from a little different standpoint. Bald cypress propagated from trees grown in acid soils in Louisiana for example will often be chlorotic and yellow when planted in alkaline soils. The exact same species propagated from trees growing in alkaline conditions will be dark and have no problems in the high pH soils – especially under organic management.
If you have any questions on this newsletter or any other topic, tune in Sunday 8 am -11 am (CST) to the Dirt Doctor Radio Show. Listen on the internet or find a station in your area. The phone number for the show is 1-866-444-3478. Please share this newsletter with everyone in your address book and all of your friends on Facebook and Twitter to help me spread the word on organics.
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click reply and put Unsubscribe in the subject line. | <urn:uuid:ea2dd76e-8407-4f5b-bb32-de5b0c8a4ed6> | CC-MAIN-2018-43 | https://www.dirtdoctor.com/garden/Chlorosis-in-Trees_vq4245.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-43/segments/1539583511642.47/warc/CC-MAIN-20181018022028-20181018043528-00223.warc.gz | en | 0.928935 | 1,036 | 3.5 | 4 | {
"raw_score": 2.3602373600006104,
"reasoning_level": 2,
"interpretation": "Moderate reasoning"
} | Home & Hobbies |
Power distribution unit
||The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with North America and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. (December 2010)|
||This article needs additional citations for verification. (March 2009)|
A power distribution unit (PDU) is a device fitted with multiple outputs designed to distribute electric power, especially to racks of computers and networking equipment located within the data center.
The term (PDU) may refer to two major classes of hardware power devices; the first and typically the general unqualified term refers to the category of relatively higher-cost floor-mounted power distribution devices which transform one or more larger capacity raw power feeds into any number of lower capacity distributed power feeds. These floor-mounted PDU devices are typically composed of transformers and circuit breakers and may optionally include monitoring controllers using protocols such as Modbus or SNMP. In a typical data center for example, there would be relatively few of these floor-mounted PDU devices, located along the walls or in central locations for larger spaces. Each floor-mounted PDU would feed a much larger number of racks and rows of racks.
The second class of device is a much smaller and lower cost device which is fitted with multiple appliance outlets designed to distribute electric power within a rack, especially to computers and networking equipment located within a data center. The second type of PDU is sometimes called a Smart-PDU, Rack-based PDU, Intelligent PDU or simply "Power Strip" by various IT professionals.
In the North American 110V/60Hz system, Rack-based PDUs are used for taking the supplied voltage and current and distributing it electrically to more common outlets, for example from 240 V 30 A single phase to multiple 120 V 15 A or 120 V 20 A plugs. They are used in computer data centers, in stage shows, by DJs, and in other electrically intensive applications. Some premium units have features like remote power monitoring and power state control down to the unit or individual plug level. Certain manufacturers also include environmental monitoring via RS485, USB, Dallas 1-Wire or serial ports. The power outlets themselves are typically IEC-C19, IEC-C13 or NEMA 5-20 style outlets.
In the international 230V/50Hz system, Rack-based PDUs simply distribute incoming power, typically from a 230V/16A, 230V/10A or 400V/16A 3-phase==3 x 230V/16A input to multiple individual 230V outlets, which may either rely on the input fusing or be individually protected by smaller 10A or 6A fuses. The outlets are typically either IEC-C13 or one of the country-specific types of power socket. Additional features such as monitoring of power consumption, noise and overvoltage filtering, environment monitoring and remote management are generally the same as in North American Rack-based PDUs.
Rack-based PDU refers to what amounts to a well-constructed power strip suitable for data center use. Two basic varieties distinguished by the type of input power are common: single-phase and three-phase. The output power (i.e. the power to the load device) is almost always single-phase, however. In the case of a three-phase PDU, each of the three phases appears individually on one-third of the included receptacles. Rack-PDUs can be dumb—meaning that they have no instrumentation and are not manageable, or they can be metered—meaning that they are equipped with a display that shows current load on each phase, or they can be switched and metered meaning that some or all of their receptacles can be individually switched on or off remotely and the meter usage as well.
A typical application area could be a mobile measurement station, where several devices can be supplied with power from a single distribution unit.
Some PDUs provide remote access. Common methods include a RS-232 serial connection or a LAN network-controller accessible through Telnet, SSH, SNMP, or a web page. This allows an administrator to access the PDU from a remote terminal and interface with it to turn outlets on or off, to schedule power shutdowns, to control load, etc. This can be helpful if a remote machine has gone into an unresponsive state and will not restart through normal means. An administrator can connect to the PDU the machine is plugged into to power-cycle the machine.
One of the challenges in selecting PDUs for a data-center application is to balance the cost of the rack-PDU in the context of an organization's energy-management goals. Inexpensive rack-PDUs may distribute power effectively, but they offer little if any understanding or control of that energy flow. With energy costs rising over the past several years (circa 2010[update]), IT professionals have begun to take a more comprehensive view of power management with rack-PDUs with more intelligence. The trend is more intelligence and higher-quality rack-PDU devices.
In North America the standard 240-volt circuit (120 volts x2 plus neutral and ground) has two legs at 120 volts. Most recently,[when?] data centers have begun to install single-phase 208-volt connections. Outside North America, the standard data center circuits are 230-volt AC and in higher end telecoms facilities 48V DC from giant UPS installations, neither of which are subdivided into other voltages by PDUs. | <urn:uuid:4ddbdaca-8fb1-4c58-a796-4124245dd842> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_distribution_unit | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00093-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932236 | 1,117 | 3.25 | 3 | {
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The Paris Agreement on Climate Change: What does the world do now?
Last week at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon invited world leaders to a Signing Ceremony for the Paris Agreement on climate change at the UN in New York. The date of the ceremony on April 22, 2016 will coincide with Earth Day--also known as International Mother Earth Day. This agreement was endorsed at COP21 in Paris this past December by all 196 member Parties of the UNFCCC, which includes nearly universal membership of nations.
What needs to happen now?
The Paris Agreement will open for signature by each nation at the ceremony in New York. Nations will have up to one year to become signatories to The Agreement. It will enter into force the following year provided 55 % of the UNFCCC Parities representing 55% of total global greenhouse gas emissions sign on. Considering that the two largest greenhouse gas emitters--China and the US--have emerged as global leaders, along with the unanimous consensus of world leaders in Paris, there is little likelihood that the Paris Agreement will not take legal effect by Earth Day 2017.
What did we get?
Now that nations will begin to formally sign on, what did we get from the Paris Agreement and is it legally binding?
The heart of The Agreement is the non-legally binding Nationally Determined Contributions of each nation. Leading up to COP 21 in Paris, each nation submitted Intended Nationally Determined Contributions based on political realities within their own countries. This was a brilliant, politically savvy move on part of the UNFCCC. Had negotiators demanded legally binding commitments, any potential for a Paris Agreement would have ended up in the dust-bin of climate treaty failures like the Kyoto Protocol and the Copenhagen Accord.
In the US for example, an international legally-binding climate treaty would require ratification by our US Senate. Considering the current state of climate change denial and resistance to addressing climate change by ideological factions in our US legislature, the chances of getting a climate treaty ratified by the US Senate is slim to non-existent. Lack of US participation would doom the international treaty.
President Obama was able to commit the US INDC contribution through presidential authority encompassed under the Clean Air Act. Additionally, the EPA has regulatory authority to limit greenhouse gas emissions. The US INDC leading up to Paris promised a 26-28% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2025 measured against our 2005 level. Once The Paris Agreement opens for signature, Obama will now be able to formally commit our nation to these as Nationally Determined Contributions.
Mechanisms for checking up?
There are no punitive measures for a nation not following through with its NDC’s. However, there are a number of mechanisms that require stocktaking. That is, the binding sections of the Paris Agreement relate to enhanced transparency and accounting. Governments agreed to come together every five years and set even more ambitious targets based on the known science. Each nation must publically report how well they are doing through a transparent accounting system.
The key to success of the Paris Agreement is that all nations have agreed on a common cause--to avoid climate change catastrophe by limiting our global temperature increase to below a +2 Co increase by the end of the century. The agreement also contains language aimed at limiting the global temperature increase to +1.5oC. This will be a formidable challenge, but one that is required in order to keep small island nations from disappearing below rising seas and to protect the nearly 1 in 10 people who live in low-lying coastal areas.
Adaptation, Loss & Damage, and Support
Adaptation: Parties have agreed to enhance international support to developing countries to deal with the impacts of climate change.
Loss and Damage: The Agreement recognizes the need to address loss and damage associated with the adverse impacts of climate change, especially for poor and developing nations. Nations must enhance early warning systems, cooperate on emergency preparedness, and strengthen ability to recover from climate impacts.
Support: Financial support is needed for developing nations to build their own clean, low-carbon, climate-resilient futures. Wealthy countries are expected to doll out at least $100 billion in support for climate finance by 2020.
Sub-nationals and businesses leading the way
Linking COP20 in Lima with COP21 in Paris, the Peruvian and French COP Presidencies initiated the Lima-Paris Action Agenda. This action brought together cities, businesses, civil society and other sub-nationals in an effort to spur climate action. In support of the Paris Agreement, the UN set up a portal called “NAZCA” which allows sub-nationals to register their commitments for climate action. To date, more than 4,000 companies, regions, cities, and investors have registered their portfolios.
The global economic ship has turned
The most important outcome of the Paris Agreement is its universal statement that the global economic ship has turned. Even in the face of present-day cheap oil, nations and businesses recognize that we must pull up the fossil fuel anchor and steady the course toward a low- or zero-carbon climate-resilient world.
In the words of Ban Ki-moon, “The adoption of the Paris Agreement caps a remarkable year of multilateral achievements for people and the planet. It provides a solid foundation for the low-carbon, climate resilient transformation of the global economy. This transformation will help secure a future that is safer, healthier, and more prosperous for all.”
Driven by technological advances, policy, and business investment, the momentum for change is unstoppable. In future years, December 12, 2015--the day that all nations agreed--will be viewed as a pivotal moment in history. | <urn:uuid:f59a9779-6730-489b-8e96-0ccf3fb3b1ec> | CC-MAIN-2021-21 | https://www.ydr.com/story/news/world/blogs/global-hot-topic/2016/01/26/the-paris-agreement-on-climate-change-what-does-the-world-do-now/79376040/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-21/segments/1620243988966.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20210509092814-20210509122814-00002.warc.gz | en | 0.939098 | 1,171 | 2.984375 | 3 | {
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Grade Five – Math
YMOH mathematics program aims to incorporate unrivaled inquiry–based philosophy to breed independent learners who are not only problem solvers, but confident risk–takers. We understand that educational excellence is only pulled off when content is sequenced, applicable to students’ interests and needs, and applied to solving real problems.
We also know that the study of mathematics plays a vital role in the promotion of universal language, along with problem solving and reasoning skills that contribute to the growth of abstract, logical, and critical thinking. These factors form the basis of the engaging and rigorous mathematics program offered at YMOH. This program equips fifth grade students with knowledge, understanding, and such skills as problem solving, reasoning and proving, and prepares them to be life–long learners and responsible global citizens who are well–equipped for the challenges and opportunities of the Centuries to come.
Areas of study include;
Number and Operation: This focuses on number representation and order of up to 100,000; money representation of up to $1000; developing the concept of place value to hundredths; comparing and ordering fractional amounts with denominators; adding and subtracting decimal amounts to hundredths; multiplying two–digit whole numbers by two–digit whole numbers; dividing three–digit whole numbers by one–digit whole numbers; relating simple fractions to decimals.
Measurement: This equips students with the abilities to measure time intervals to the nearest second; measure temperature; and determine elapsed time. They can also learn how to convert from meters to centimeters and from kilometers to meters; relate the 12–hour clock to the 24–hour clock; develop and apply area and perimeter relationships for a rectangle; relate capacity and volume; develop and apply the volume relationship for a right rectangular prism.
Geometry and Spatial Sense: Students will be able to distinguish between polygons and prisms between 2D and 3D shapes identify angles such as acute, right, obtuse, and straight angles; measure angles to 90° with a protractor; construct triangles, nets of prisms and pyramids; locate objects using the cardinal directions; perform and describe translations.
Data Analysis: Students will be able to read, construct and interpret frequency tables, circle graphs and line graphs. Select and use a graph that is appropriate for the type of data to be displayed. Read and interpret increasingly complex displays of data, such as double bar graphs.
Probability: This teaches how to list and explain all possible outcomes in any given situation. Students will be able to identify the probability of events within a simple experiment, such as three chances out of eight. Use 0, 1 and ratio between 0 and 1 to represent the probability of outcomes for an event and associate the ratio with the likelihood of the outcome, compare what should happen (theoretical/expected results) with what did happened (experimental/actual results) in a simple experiment. Make predictions based on experimental and theoretical probabilities, and determine and use the range, mean, median and mode and explain what each does and does not indicate about the set of data.
Algebra: This treats the use of parentheses, brackets, or braces in numerical expressions, and how to evaluate expressions with these symbols. Students will be able to write simple expressions that record calculations with numbers, and interpret numerical expressions without evaluating them. They will also learn to generate two numerical patterns using two given rules, identify apparent relationships between corresponding terms, and form ordered pairs consisting of corresponding terms from the two patterns, and graph the ordered pairs on a coordinate plane. | <urn:uuid:9876fe6e-2cc9-4433-b94a-8546e7d05069> | CC-MAIN-2020-24 | http://www.wymoh.com/mod/page/view.php?id=6348 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-24/segments/1590347388012.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20200525063708-20200525093708-00558.warc.gz | en | 0.922285 | 728 | 3.765625 | 4 | {
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Spelling words, vocabulary and definitions, and tests can get repetitive. The holiday season upon us and now is a great time to interject some fun into your spelling routine. Use some of the suggested spelling words below, or any of the ideas for using your curriculum list words in a festive manner. The words and activities are geared for grades two through five, but they can be adapted to any grade level. This is true for the assignments too!
Suggested spelling words include the following:
Whether you choose to use any or all of the holiday words above, or your own list, here are some ideas to add some sparkle to your spelling routine:
1.Have your child write their spelling words in the shape of holiday objects. Maybe it is a driedel, wreath or snowman that would be fun to decorate. The goal is to write the word as the border of the shape and then decorate. If you use holiday themed words also, you can suggest they match the word and the picture.
2.Using all of the spelling list words, write a letter to Santa. Emphasize descriptive words, complete sentences and neat writing.
3.Assign a holiday themed recipe writing assignment for your child. At least half of the words should be used, along with a real or imaginary holiday recipe. This can be traditional or silly, depending on the words.
4.Create holiday cards with your homeschooler. Using his or her spelling words, create several cards using the words. Decorate them too!
5.Integrate math and spelling by a Christmas conversion activity. First, have your homescooler assign a monetary value to each of the spelling words by using the concept of A=$1, B=$2, C=$3, etc. Then have your student write their words and add up the value of each word. Figure out next what gifts could be bought with this "Christmas cash".
6.Create an Advent calendar using the December spelling and vocabulary words on your list. Have a new word daily for your child to master, along with definitions for the older students.
7.Use tinsel to craft out spelling words! This is great for younger children to practice their letter formation and shapes. You can even glue the tinsel words onto a large roll of flat butcher block paper!
8.Bake sugar cookies in the shapes to represent the holiday words on your list. Use a bell, star, snowman and other holiday shaped designs to go along with each holiday word on your list. Just don't eat all of the cookies during the spelling test!
9.Inspire your homeschooler to write some poetry and use the holiday words on his or her list. Or, write a holiday themed poem, using the regular list words. Couplets, Limericks, Free Verse and Rhyming poems are all great options for poetry styles.
10.Play a fun game of "Santa Charades" and act out all holiday spelling words. | <urn:uuid:2dcaf4a1-4962-4593-9b63-f5d0ecc82d81> | CC-MAIN-2017-26 | http://www.bellaonline.com/ArticlesP/art5146.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128319265.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20170622114718-20170622134718-00258.warc.gz | en | 0.915603 | 611 | 3.859375 | 4 | {
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"interpretation": "Basic reasoning"
} | Education & Jobs |
Significance of the Act
This act has added a new Part-IX to the Constitution of India. This part is entitled as ‘The Panchayats’ and consists of provisions from Articles 243 to 243 O. In addition, the act has also added a new Eleventh Schedule to the Constitution. This schedule contains 29 functional items of the panchayats. It deals with Article 243-G.
The act has given a practical shape to Article 40 of the Constitution which says that, “The State shall take steps to organise village panchayats and endow them with such powers and authority as may be necessary to enable them to function as units of self-government.” This article forms a part of the Directive Principles of State Policy.
The act gives a constitutional status to the panchayati raj institutions. It has brought them under the purview of the justiciable part of the Constitution. In other words, the state governments are under constitutional obligation to adopt the new panchayati raj system in accordance with the provisions of the act. Consequently, neither the formation of panchayats nor the holding of elections at regular intervals depend on the will of the state government any more.
The provisions of the act can be grouped into two categories—compulsory and voluntary. The compulsory (mandatory or obligatory) provisions of the act have to be included in the state laws creating the new panchayati raj system. The voluntary provisions, on the other hand, may be included at the discretion of the states. Thus the voluntary provisions of the act ensures the right of the states to take local factors like geographical, politico- administrative and others, into consideration while adopting the new panchayati raj system.
The act is a significant landmark in the evolution of grassroot democratic institutions in the country. It transfers the representative democracy into participatory democracy. It is a revolutionary concept to build democracy at the grassroot level in the country.
The salient features of the act are:
Gram Sabha The act provides for a Gram Sabha as the foundation of the panchayati raj system. It is a body consisting of persons registered in the electoral rolls of a village comprised within the area of Panchayat at the village level. Thus, it is a village assembly consisting of all the registered voters in the area of a panchayat. It may exercise such powers and perform such functions at the village level as the legislature of a state determines.
Three-Tier System The act provides for a three-tier system of panchayati raj in every state, that is, panchayats at the village, intermediate, and district levels. Thus, the act brings about uniformity in the structure of panchayati raj throughout the country. However, a state having a population not exceeding 20 lakh may not constitute panchayats at the intermediate level.
Election of Members and Chairpersons All the members of panchayats at the village, intermediate and district levels shall be elected directly by the people. Further, the chairperson of panchayats at the intermediate and district levels shall be elected indirectly—by and from amongst the elected members thereof. However, the chairperson of a panchayat at the village level shall be elected in such manner as the state legislature determines.
Reservation of Seats The act provides for the reservation of seats for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in every panchayat (i.e., at all the three levels) in proportion of their population to the total population in the panchayat area. Further, the state legislature shall provide for the reservation of offices of chairperson in the panchayat at the village or any other level for the SCs and STs.
The act provides for the reservation of not less than one-third of the total number of seats for women (including the number of seats reserved for women belonging the SCs and STs). Further, not less than one-third of the total number of offices of chairpersons in the panchayats at each level shall be reserved for women.
The act also authorises the legislature of a state to make any provision for reservation of seats in any panchayat or offices of chairperson in the panchayat at any level in favour of backward classes.
Duration of Panchayats The act provides for a five-year term of office to the panchayat at every level. However, it can be dissolved before the completion of its term. Further, fresh elections to constitute a panchayat shall be completed (a) before the expiry of its duration of five years; or (b) in case of dissolution, before the expiry of a period of six months from the date of its dissolution.
But, where the remainder of the period (for which the dissolved panchayat would have continued) is less than six months, it shall not be necessary to hold any election for constituting the new panchayat for such period.
Moreover, a panchayat constituted upon the dissolution of a panchayat before the expiration of its duration shall continue only for the remainder of the period for which the dissolved panchayat would have continued had it not been so dissolved. In other words, a panchayat reconstituted after premature dissolution does not enjoy the full period of five years but remains in office only for the remainder of the period.
Disqualifications A person shall be disqualified for being chosen as or for being a member of panchayat if he is so disqualified, (a) under any law for the time being in force for the purpose of elections to the legislature of the state concerned, or (b) under any law made by the state legislature. However, no person shall be disqualified on the ground that he is less than 25 years of age if he has attained the age of 21 years. Further, all questions of disqualifications shall be referred to such authority as the state legislature determines.
State Election Commission The superintendence, direction and control of the preparation of electoral rolls and the conduct of all elections to the panchayats shall be vested in the state election commission. It consists of a state election commissioner to be appointed by the governor. His conditions of service and tenure of office shall also be determined by the governor. He shall not be removed from the office except in the manner and on the grounds prescribed for the removal of a judge of the state high court. His conditions of service shall not be varied to his disadvantage after his appointment.
The state legislature may make provision with respect to all matters relating to elections to the panchayats.
Powers and Functions The state legislature may endow the Panchayats with such powers and authority as may be necessary to enable them to function as institutions of self-government. Such a scheme may contain provisions for the devolution of powers and responsibilities upon Panchayats at the appropriate level with respect to (a) the preparation of plans for economic development and social justice; (b) the implementation of schemes for economic development and social justice as may be entrusted to them, including those in relation to the 29 matters listed in the Eleventh Schedule.
Finances The state legislature may (a) authorise a panchayat to levy, collect and appropriate taxes, duties, tolls and fees; (b) assign to a panchayat taxes, duties, tolls and fees levied and collected by the state government; (c) provide for making grants-in-aid to the panchayats from the consolidated fund of the state; and (d) provide for constitution of funds for crediting all moneys of the panchayats.
Finance Commission The governor of a state shall, after every five years, constitute a finance commission to review the financial position of the panachayats. It shall make the following recommendations to the Governor:
The governor shall place the recommendations of the commission along with the action taken report before the state legislature.
The Central Finance Commission shall also suggest the measures needed to augment the consolidated fund of a state to supplement the resources of the panchayats in the states (on the basis of the recommendations made by the finance commission of the state).
Audit of AccountsThe state legislature may make provisions with respect to the maintenance of accounts by the panchayats and the auditing of such accounts.
Application to Union Territories The president of India may direct that the provisions of this act shall apply to any union territory subject to such exceptions and modifications as he may specify.
Exempted States and Areas The act does not apply to the states of Jammu and Kashmir, Nagaland, Meghalaya and Mizoram and certain other areas. These areas include, (a) the scheduled areas and the tribal areas in the states; (b) the hill area of Manipur for which a district council exists; and (c) Darjeeling district of West Bengal for which Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council exists.
However, the Parliament may extend the provisions of this Part to the scheduled areas and tribal areas subject to such exceptions and modifications as it may specify.
Continuance of Existing Laws and Panchayats All the state laws relating to panchayats shall continue to be in force until the expiry of one year from the commencement of this act. In other words, the states have to adopt the new panchayati raj system based on this act within the maximum period of one year from 24 April, 1993, which was the date of the commencement of this act. However, all the panchayats existing immediately before the commencement of act shall continue till the expiry of their term, unless dissolved by the state legislature sooner.
Consequently, majority of states passed the panchayati raj acts in 1993 and 1994 to adopt the new system in accordance with the 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act of 1992.
Bar to Interference by Courts in Electoral Matters The act bars the interference by courts in the electoral matters of panchayats. It declares that the validity of any law relating to the delimitation of constituencies or the allotment of seats to such constituencies cannot be questioned in any court. It further lays down that no election to any panchayat is to be questioned except by an election petition presented to such authority and in such manner as provided by the state legislature | <urn:uuid:9046c7b3-f432-4031-b01e-ecbe7ebb76e4> | CC-MAIN-2021-43 | https://www.shaktiiasacademy.com/blog/73rd-amendment-act-of-1992 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-43/segments/1634323585441.99/warc/CC-MAIN-20211021195527-20211021225527-00026.warc.gz | en | 0.947074 | 2,155 | 3.203125 | 3 | {
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The evolution of British modernism from the late 19th through the 20th century is a story less told than the familiar tropes of modernism that evolved in France over that same period. Although the names Manet, Monet and Matisse are familiar among those even with a slight interest in art, Nash, Bomberg and Sickert remain far less likely known. The recent decision by former education secretary Michael Gove to drop Art History from England’s A-level curriculum in the coming years-along with Archeology, Classical Civilisation and Statistics-to make exams “more challenging, more ambitious and more rigorous,” increases the odds that the subject will become even more obscure to those to whom it most belongs. Thankfully, not all share this opinion, and through an exchange with the Tate Museum at the Getty, recent acquisitions at The Huntington Library, and an exhibition skillfully culled from the permanent collection at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art by guest curator British art historian Peyton Skipwith, the oft-overlooked period is getting its due.
“As you all know,” began Skipwith at a recent lecture held at SBMA, “history has no beginning and no end, it is a continuum.” Though these words were spoken in direct reference to the current exhibition, “British Art from Whistler to WWII,” at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, they are equally apropos in considering the continuity and connections between the artists-colleagues, critics, mentors, friends and lovers-on view at all three SoCal institutions. David Bomberg, for example, with works on view at the Huntington’s “Blast! Modernist Painting in Britain, 1900-1940” and SBMA, taught both Frank Auerbach and Leon Kossoff, both featured artists in the six-person exhibition, “London Calling: Bacon, Freud, Kossoff, Andrews, Auerbach, and Kitaj” on view at The Getty.
Rebelling against the academic tradition was a defining aspect of the modern impulse, and English artists also paved multiple paths of dissent. The Pre-Raphaelites turned heads with their “offensive realism” at the British Royal Academy as early as 1849. The New English Art Club, another group of young rabble-rousers, collectively rebelled against the Academy in 1884. Walter Sickert, once a student and studio assistant of expatriate James Abbott McNeil Whistler, was a founding member of the Art Club was also a principle in the later Camden Town Group, organized in the early 20th century, whose members would often gather at his fittingly Camden-based studio. With a vision similar to the nearly contemporary Ashcan School in the US, the Camden painters sought to depict, in gritty detail with earthy palettes, the reality of their contemporary urban culture. Among the artists affiliated with this officially men-only group were Duncan Grant, J.D. Innes, and Wyndham Lewis who later founds the Vorticism movement.
“Percy Honri at the Oxford” (detail), c. 1920, Walter Richard Sickert
Oil on canvas. Courtesy: SBMA, Gift of Mary and Will Richeson, Jr.
The opening gallery of From Whistler to WWII at SBMA sets the mood for the years leading up to and following Roger Fry’s transformational “Manet and Post-Impressionists” exhibition of 1910 that famously introduced the likes of Cézanne, Seurat and van Gogh to English artists and the wider public-much to the latter’s chagrin. Works here include a stunning tonalist painting of Yachts Lying off Cowes: Evening (1882)by Philip Wilson Steer and early landscape paintings by Walter Sickert. “The attraction to plein-air painting, the idealism of Impressionism, is absorbed through Paris and the Académie Julian where many of the artists went to study,” explains SBMA’s chief curator and assistant director Eik Kahng as we pass by the works, “yet, this kind of plein-air painting is occurring almost a full 40 years after Impressionism.”
“Last Day” (detail), 1944, John Tunnard
Pastel, wash, gouache, crayon, pen and ink on paper
Courtesy: SBMA, Gift of Wright S. Ludington.
Moving in the second gallery is a revelation of the impact of Post-Impressionism on the English tradition. There’s “Cubism, Futurism, Vorticism, and then they all go crazy,” say Kahng, “All is thrown out and they start over again, and then there is just a huge explosion of creativity, and the response and the reaction to that.” Encompassing the period before, during and between the wars the exhibition also features many paintings crafted in a very English style of Surrealism, such as works by Eileen Agar and John Tunnard. The exhibition also held a few surprises with a pair of sketches by art critics Roger Fry and John Ruskin; haunting Studies for Gassed (1918), a pair of sketches featuring with a solemn line of soldiers walking through a field of their fallen comrades by John Singer Sargent-better known for his paintings of gossamer frocks than wartime fatigues; and a trio of works by the enigmatic artist Paul Nash whose work ranges from his years as a war artist, to lyrical and surreal landscapes (such as those on view here), to his later cross-disciplinary decorative arts.
Named for the short-lived eponymous avant-garde journal produced by Wyndham Lewis and Ezra Pound, the exhibition Blast! is organized around three recently acquired paintings, which as director of art collections at the Huntington Library Kevin Salatino points out, are also the first 20th-century British paintings that the Huntington has ever acquired. These works take center stage in a modestly sized exhibition space, contextualized by numerous works on loan from a private collection. Duncan Grant’s Vase of Flowers with Lemons (1913) provides clear evidence of the new direction in painting that marks British art of this period. Grant was a member of the Bloomsbury Set (another well-educated group of anti-academes, along with Vanessa Bell, Roger Fry, and Virginia Woolf to name a few), was among the artists to show in Fry’s second Post-Impressionist exhibition of 1912, and also involved with avant-garde Omega Workshops. This group followed the precedent set decades earlier by William Morris’s Arts & Crafts movement, but a decidedly Post-Impressionist twist. As one might expect, Grant’s still life is anything but traditional, a clash of warm jeweled tones-lemon yellow, tangerine orange and translucent reds-are offset with pale tints of blue and strident black outlines that do little to assert control over the composition.
“Vase with Flowers and Lemon,” 1913
Duncan Grant, Oil on canvas, 24″ x 19″
“Portrait of Dora Carrington,” 1912
Mark Gertler, Oil and tempera on canvas, 20″ x 16″
Courtesy: The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.
Following in close chronology is a painting of Dora Carrington by Mark Gertler, which combines a distinctive Cubist reduction of form with nod to Renaissance monumentality. “Flatness becomes very important to him, unmodulated color, and simplicity of line,” describes Salatino of the enigmatic portrait, “this is just as avant-garde at that moment in London as anything else that is going on, including people like Wyndam Lewis who creates Vorticism or what Ezra Pound does with language.”
Even in the intimately scaled Blast! exhibition, the sharp distinction between pre- and post-war artistic strategies is evident. The geo
metric forms of the early 20th century, as evidenced in David Bomberg’s cubist Figure Study (1913) give way to the later expressionist style found in the third acquired work, also by Bomberg, The Slopes of Navao, Picos de Europa (1935) inspired by the landscape of northern Spain. “What happens, of course, is that the war happens, and anything to do with the machine is suddenly less attractive…it is the return to order, a re-embracing of the human and the pastoral,” Salantino explains. “It is particularly pronounced in Britain. And that’s what happens to Bomberg.”
“London Calling” at the Getty takes up, chronologically, where the other two leave off. However, the stubborn tradition of figuration remains in even the most avant-garde of British Art at a time when the figure is notably absent in contemporary trends elsewhere (one might be tempted to insert a kitschy Brexit reference here). This pre-occupation with figuration, perhaps tied to that pesky undercurrent of British individualism, is a central component of the loosely affiliated “London School.”
The expansive exhibition devotes a separate space for each artist, allowing the synchronicities of each to manifest. Moving through, it is readily apparent that the unifying principle of “London Calling” is not a specific technique or style, but as Getty director Timothy Potts states, who co-organized the show with drawings curator Julian Brooks and Tate Britain curator Elena Crippa, provides a consistent look to the people, landscapes and urban settings of London as subject.
“Mornington Crescent with the Statue of Sickert’s Father Father-in-Law,”
Frank Auerbach, Oil on masonite attached to auxiliary wooden framework, 48″ × 60″
Courtesy of the Daniel Katz Family Trust, London © Frank Auerbach, courtesy Marlborough Fine Art
The exhibition opens with Michael Andrews, arguably the least recognized artist of the six, who studied at the Slade School of Art under Lucian Freud, among others. Within this space we are taken from his last year at Slade with the planarity of The Man Who Suddenly Fell Over (1952) to the literally gritty Thames Painting, the Estuary (1994-95) with sand and ash mixed into the paint created during the final year of his life. This is followed with Frank Auerbach, whose paintings show a strikingly consistent high-keyed palette of style throughout his long career from the icing-thick brushstrokes Morning Crescent with the Statue of Sickert’s Father-in-Law (1966) to the distilled Morning Crescent-Summer Morning (2004). The evolution is subtle in Auerbach, but as Crippa describes, “We get a sense of the energy of movement of the street with his strong perpendicular brushstrokes,” but over time, as Crippa quotes the artists words: “I began feeling like I could get rid of the history of the picture itself and each day start anew.”
The exhibition continues with Leon Kossoff, who, with paintings like Children’s Swimming Pool, Autumn afternoon (1971), sought, as Crippa describes, “to take the everyday into the monumental” through his paintings, and to “collect the memory of the city where he was born and lived and continues to paint every day.” The thickly encrusted surfaces of the paintings act almost like archeological layers to dig through and collect the experiences of the artist, who turns 90 this year and continues to explore the world through paint. Following is RB Kitaj, who coined the moniker “School of London,” and is described by the Getty’s Brooks as “the most bookish” of the artists on view, and whose works are a combinations of biographic, historic and literary references rendered in a boldly gestural, often disjointed and fragmented figurative style.
“Triptych August 1972,” Francis Bacon, oil on three canvases. Tate: Purchased 1980.
Photo © Tate, London 2016. Artwork © The Estate of Francis Bacon.
All rights reserved. / DACS, London / ARS, NY 2016
A hallway devoted to drawings and sketches by the sextuplet leads to the shows finale, features iconic works by Francis Bacon and Lucien Freud. The two final rooms are each anchored by two very different works: Bacon’s soul-wrenching Triptych August 1972, painted following the suicide of his lover, George Dyer and Freud’s monumental, in surface and scale, nude portrait of the performer Leigh Bowery (1991). The aggressive fragmentation of the figure in Bacon’s painting is nearly unparalleled, unsettling and all consuming. Contrasting Bacon who, according to the Getty preferred to paint portraits from photographs, Freud “seemed to have rarely left the studio.” The early style of Freud’s portraits crisply articulated planar evolves into the lush surfaces, somewhat akin to those of Kossoff and Auerbach but devoted to devastating renderings of human flesh. As Brooks describes of the iconic work, “Bowery worked with his body, a performance artist, a fashion designer, but that’s all stripped away and you just get the naked body. And yet, there is something incredibly Herculean, like the Farnese Hercules, like a big classical sculpture.”
Finally, it is the sum of these experiences that manifest in the so-called “School of London,” or the “Camden School” or the “Omega Workshops”-the anguish of Bacon, dark intimacies of Sickert, or the formal explorations following Fry’s exhibitions. These histories and paintings are contemporary explorations of the private and public spaces, of urban cities and country landscapes, of London and beyond. They document myriad views into the turbulence of the 20th century and its surrounding decades. They are neither too elite nor unambitious. They are, unarguably, well worth knowing and preserving, even at the A level.
The Slopes of Navao, Picos de Europa, 1935
Oil on canvas, 33 11/16 x 41 1/8 in.
Courtesy: The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. | <urn:uuid:78acf88f-c37b-4685-b16d-713e73bbd8eb> | CC-MAIN-2018-26 | http://artltdmag.com/2016/10/report-british-art-history/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-26/segments/1529267860570.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20180618144750-20180618164750-00049.warc.gz | en | 0.953651 | 3,039 | 2.5625 | 3 | {
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If you've picked up this website, chances are that diabetes has touched your life or the life of someone close to you. Whatever the manifestation type 1, type 2, or gestational diabetes can be a frightening and personally devastating diagnosis. Fortunately, patient knowledge and action are probably the two most important components to staying on top of this disease. A key phrase in the lexicon of diabetes care is good control. For those new to the topic, good control means keeping your blood glucose, or blood sugar, in a range at or close to normal through diet, exercise, and/or medication. Control is the key to managing diabetes mentally as well as physically. The power is in your hands to make a difference in how diabetes affects your life. Many people feel out of control of their diabetes. Some ignore it completely in a fog of denial. Others follow medical instructions to the letter yet never ask questions of their doctor or provide any feedback. The latter may get a handle on their blood glucose levels, but are so miserable it hardly matters.
Managing diabetes requires education, dedication, and a certain doggedness of character. Most important, it requires a commitment to being a leader, not a follower, in your own health care. Surrounding yourself with good people endocrinologists, internists, certified diabetes educators, registered dietitians, and more-is an excellent start. But it takes more than a crack medical team to control diabetes. Even the best team will falter without a coach, and that leader is you. Playing an active role in your own health care is essential to staying both healthy and happy.
Uncontrolled blood glucose levels wreck havoc on the body, short circuiting just about every system over time if not managed properly. Heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, retinopathy, kidney disease, and nerve damage are just a few of the complications that diabetes leaves in its wake. This is why educating yourself about the intricacies of glucose control through diet, exercise, medication, lifestyle, and more is so very essential. Medical breakthroughs like islet cell transplantation, advances in glucose monitoring technologies and new oral medications and insulin formulations have drastically improved the quality of life for all people with diabetes, but there is still no cure for the disease. Until there is, staying current on developments in diabetes management, communicating with your health care team, and staying on top of self care through positive lifestyle choices are absolutely essential to wellness. The Everything Diabetes Book was designed to be your reference partner in staying healthy with diabetes. | <urn:uuid:87581d74-16c2-4600-92c1-44c7e5cd1091> | CC-MAIN-2014-23 | http://www.diabetessymptom.org/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-23/segments/1405997900573.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20140722025820-00027-ip-10-33-131-23.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94289 | 512 | 2.640625 | 3 | {
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} | Health |
Many elements make a complete cover
Stamp collectors don't much care for damaged stamps, and cover collectors aren't very fond of tattered covers.
The word "cover" refers to an envelope, postal card or other item that has been mailed or received postal markings.
Many collectors seek out covers to show how a stamp was properly used or how a specific postal rate was fulfilled.
In many cases, a postage stamp has more value if it is kept on a cover than if it is soaked off and placed into an album.
Many cover collectors research postal history, learning about how specific stamps were used to mail letters at different rates and during different periods.
First-day covers (FDCs) bearing postmarks that indicate when (and often, where) a stamp is issued are also popular collectibles.
As with postage stamps, the condition of a cover plays an important role in the value of the collectible item. Though two similar covers may show the same rate fulfillment, postal marking or stamp usage, a difference in the condition of the covers may make one more desirable than the other.
Condition is just one factor that can affect the value or cost of a cover in a dealer's inventory. The relative scarcity of the cover is another important element.
There are times when rarity makes a cover desirable despite serious faults.
When given a choice between similar covers, though, collectors should always take the time to examine the available items, to determine which would be the best example to add to a collection.
Here are a few of the characteristics that collectors can examine when looking though covers.
Paper. The condition of envelope paper varies from one extreme to another with covers, and the collector has a lot to look for when inspecting a cover.
Paper from decades ago is prone to signs of aging that range from yellowing to actual deterioration.
Older covers that have been exposed to extremes of humidity, heat or light may have become the home for microorganisms that can cause spots and damage to the paper.
Any cover of any age can have detracting wrinkles or folds. Some folds may be a natural part of the cover, as with folded letters or parcel wrappers, but envelopes that have been inadvertently creased are another matter.
Stains, including fingerprints, grease and food remnants, are another form of damage to the paper of a cover.
Overall, collectors should look for examples that have been carefully handled and do not have obvious areas of damage to the paper.
Edges. Postcards and envelopes are both vulnerable to damage along their edges. For postcards this often includes edges that are worn soft (instead of being crisp and fairly sharp).
Envelopes may have tears that come from mishandling or from deterioration of the paper.
Sealed envelopes that were opened come in all sorts of conditions. Some are opened so cleanly that it's hard to tell it was ever sealed, while others are carelessly torn by hand and show shredded envelope paper across the length of one side.
The corners of envelopes and postcards can also suffer blunt edges and creases from striking hard surfaces.
Notations. Some collectors and dealers have made pencil notations on covers, a practice that actually causes damage to the collectible item. The notation might be a price for the cover or some identifying information.
In some cases pencil marks can be removed with a soft gum eraser, but the indentation of the writing often remains. Erasing can cause damage to the paper as well, or leave an unnaturally lightened area on the paper of the cover.
Address. Many collectors of modern first-day covers prefer to find examples that are unaddressed, while earlier FDCs and most other mailed covers are naturally found with a mailing address.
In most cases the address does not affect the desirability of the cover, though covers addressed to celebrities or well-known personalities may add interest.
One important aspect of the address is the location, for often the destination helps to determine the postage needed to mail the cover. An envelope mailed in the United States, for instance, would have a different rate for delivery within the United States as it would for delivery to a destination overseas.
Auxiliary postal markings. Postal authorities worldwide have applied many different auxiliary markings to mailed items. These markings can take the form of handstamps, labels or written notations.
Some indicate a problem with the mailed item, such as insufficient postage or address. Others help to clarify the class of mailing or properly direct the item.
Often these markings are applied to the cover in a hurry, so the best find is one that is clear and legible.
Learning about such markings involves research and study. Because some markings are rare or hard to find, the study may pay off with some exciting discoveries.
Backstamp. Most backstamps are another form of auxiliary postal marking, often a receiving mark to indicate the date and location of delivery for a cover. Although this is usually applied when an item is mailed using a special service, a cover can also receive a backstamp if it is accidentally missent to a location other than its intended destination.
It's a good idea to check every cover for marking on the reverse.
Franking. A significant element in the study of covers is the franking.
Franking is the postage that is applied to pay for delivery of the mail piece. This can take the form of postage stamps, postage meter stamps, or even the word "free" written on some U.S. military mail.
Collectors who study postal rates try to find examples that are properly franked to meet a specific rate: that is, bearing the exact value in stamps or metered postage to fulfill the rate.
Stamps used on mail may suffer damage while in the mailstream, and a collector can watch out for scuffs, tears, folded stamps and other forms of damage. Sometimes stamps are damaged by the mailer or postal clerk before they are applied to the cover.
Postmark. The word postmark is a general term for any postal marking, but it is often used to describe the marking that cancels the stamp and gives information about the location and date of mailing.
The term cancellation is also used in this sense.
A clear strike of a postmark provides the greatest amount of information. Many times, information in a postmark cannot be read because it was applied very quickly and some element is illegible. Collectors seek out the clearest examples possible.
Information in the postmark can be used to research the cover. Given a specific date of mailing, the collector can then find out the prevailing rates for postage and special services. The location where the item was mailed may also play a part in the study of the cover.
Return address. Usually found in the upper-left corner of the front of the envelope, the return address gives information about the mailer. Sometimes it can be used to guess at a point of mailing on an item with an illegible or mute postmark (one that intentionally has no location information), but generally this cannot be the only source for the information.
A cover, after all, may have one city named in the return address but can be transported to another location for mailing.
A preprinted return address is called a corner card. These may include advertising messages or other interesting details about the mailer.
Return addresses are sometimes found on the reverse of envelopes, on the back flap.
As with postage stamps, it is difficult to find a cover that has appealing characteristics in every area. Often the collector has to determine which features are most important for the type of collection that is being assembled, and use that information to decide which cover is the best choice.
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Postal UpdatesMar 22, 2019, 12 PM
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US StampsMar 20, 2019, 1 PM | <urn:uuid:8f92aa93-afeb-4723-a80e-b0ad60eca8ca> | CC-MAIN-2019-13 | https://www.linns.com/news/postal-updates-page/stamp-collecting-basics/1997/september/many-elements-make-a-complete-cover-.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-13/segments/1552912203491.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20190324190033-20190324212033-00500.warc.gz | en | 0.952615 | 1,637 | 2.578125 | 3 | {
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Winter season is coming, and it’s also the easiest season for you catch a cold. Common cold is very common disease that everyone could easily get it no matter who and no matter when or season, but we most likely to more frequent of common cold cases during winter season. Common cold is a viral infection disease. Children and older age populations are most at risk.
Common cold is most likely harmless or fatal disease even it is viral infection , but it will cause you come uncomfortable feelings such as fever, runny nose, soar throat, sneezing, watery eyes and cough . Most of the common cold cases will disappear itself with 7 days or some cases could longer due to your health conditions.
What to do when you catch common cold?
As it is a viral infection disease, common cold don’t have specific drugs or medication method, but some of these below method recommended by most health organizations:
1. Drink lots of fluids: Fluids including pure water, coconut juice, fruit juices or any kind of vegetable mixed juices. These fluids would help us to prevent from keep loosing during mucus production as well as fever. Caffeine and alcohol should be avoid because it could increase the dehydration .
2. Get some rest: In condition of bad coughing, or fever, you should take some rest at home or take some leave from your work and get yourself some rest. This could help prevent from spreading the viruses and also get yourself to gain some energy to fight against viruses .
3. Exercises: Doing some exercise could also help to reduce the fever and boost your immune system as well, but DO NOT over do, it will harm yourself in contrast.
4. Soar throat problem solve: To solve soar throat you can either use fresh lemon juice or saltwater gargle. Dissolve 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of salt with 230ml of warm water and drink it .
5. Try chicken soup: Myo Clinic recommended common cold patients try chicken soup in order to boost up their immune system cells to fight against inflammation or viruses.
What kind of medicine should you take?
There is no cure medication or drugs for common cold. These below medicines could help you in case your symptom is bad :
1. Pain reliever drugs: You can take pain reliever drugs or medicines such as paracetamol, Advil, Panadol, ibuprofen or Tylenol or any other pain relievers when you have severe headache, or fever. Ask your pharmacists or physicians for more information about those medicines/drugs.
2. Nasal spray: When you have runny nose, you can use some of nasal spray products, but adults should not use more than few days because prolonged use can cause chronic rebound inflammation of mucous membranes. And children shouldn’t use decongestant drops or sprays at all.
3. Cough syrups: If you have severe cough symptoms you can use cough syrups. There are so many kind of cough syrups out there in the pharmacies. Ask your pharmacists or physicians for more information about cough syrups.
4. Vitamin C: Taking vitamin C could potentially shorten the during of common cold, but vitamin C itself could not prevent you from common cold .
Visit your doctors if the symptoms won’t disappears within a week or longer or if you have severe symptoms. | <urn:uuid:710a95fc-5550-4cf7-a3b7-82be9dcd4a0f> | CC-MAIN-2018-39 | https://madiary.wordpress.com/tag/headache/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-39/segments/1537267155634.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20180918170042-20180918190042-00425.warc.gz | en | 0.944355 | 699 | 2.984375 | 3 | {
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} | Health |
passage from Wordsworth's "Descriptive Sketches" (1793)
To facilitate close analysis of a travel text, examples of focus on: time, place, perspective, movement, distance, feeling, memory, intertextuality (history not appropriate here). For views of Como see below.
|time: contrast of temporal and atemporal, apprehending
in a moment ("the eye that greets") what is outside time or
beyond its reach ("unwearied"; "never-ending"); time
appears indeterminate, daylight; but then turns unexpectedly to evening
||place: the western shore of Lake Como, probably the upper section beyond Menággio; main emphasis is on contrast and variety of scene, the insistence on this making for some awkward syntax: "thy cliffs that scales"; "from the water tow'r / Insinuated" (much improved in 1836); but opening lines correspond to the two types of view announced in line 121, open and secluded||perspective: position of observer seems indeterminate, sometimes above the waterside, sometimes beside it; no organizing perspective, rather a series of vignettes of different types of location; use of deictic terms*; the contrast of lake and forested shore implies a coherent landscape|
|movement: the narrator's movements are unrecorded: W. was following the lakeside path, but no reference to walking occurs in this passage; tropes of movement enliven the scene, e.g., "sweep"; "scales"; "tow'r"; and actual movement animates other scenes: "sprinkling"; "droop"; "shooting"; but otherwise the descriptions seem static||
Wordsworth, from "Descriptive Sketches" (1793)
|distance: everything appears viewed from the middle-distance, making for apparently generic descriptions ("Th' unwearied sweep of wood"; "sprinkling all the shore"), with perhaps greater distance comprised by the collective nouns of the last four lines: "Thy torrents"; "Thy towns"; the towns seem especially distant|
|feeling: two direct references to narrator's feelings occur: "delicious" and "fantastic"; W. suggests here he is experiencing that "deliquium of the soul, an enthusiastic sensation of pleasure" described by Gilpin ("Essay") as the highest emotion of the picturesque||memory: being written during 1792, two years after W.'s walking tour, how far the descriptions revert to the poet's more familiar scenery of the Lake District or mark the difference (e.g., "fantastic"; and "towns . . . on high" contrast with the English scene); W. will appear to remember much more specific detail later when returning to this experience in The Prelude of 1805||intertextuality: seclusion of cots, cf. Hutchinson on the Lakes*; recurs in "Tintern"; romanticism of evening scene suggests the influence of the same writers (e.g., Young) that influenced Radcliffe's evening settings and terms ("glimmer," "dim"); that the poem is in the picturesque mode is denied by W. in his note to line 347|
*deictic terms: words indicating relative position in time or space, or speaker (e.g., here, there, now, then, etc.). In this passage, see "those" (124), "where" (129); "under" (125), "beside" (127), "from" (133); but the terms are unspecific in locating the speaker who is observing these things, hence a certain sense of abstraction. Deixis is defined on a pragmatics site as:
any linguistic element whose interpretation in simple sentences makes essential reference to properties of the extra-linguistic context in which they occur, that is, an element that the speaker uses to refer to some aspect of the context. They are the most obvious way in which the relationship between language and context is reflected in the structures of the languages themselves. They standardly include demonstratives (this, that, etc.), pronouns (I, you, etc.), tense/aspect, and can also include definite descriptions and many other types of expressions. The essential categories of information expressed by the traditional deictics are (i) Person, (ii) Spatial location relative to the speaker and possibly the hearer, (iii) Temporal location (time reference) relative to the time of utterance. (from: http://sino-tibetan.cityu.edu.hk/pragmatics/deixis.pdf)
In "Descriptive Sketches," see also use of "Here" (106), "There" (110), to convey a representative landscape; contrast with "here" (116) involving a specific location.
|Nobiallo, just north of Menággio on the western shore of Lake Como||Gravedona, western shore of Lake Como| | <urn:uuid:ec12a6d3-27f4-45cd-a8eb-8e1bb914c849> | CC-MAIN-2013-48 | http://www.ualberta.ca/~dmiall/Travel/Wordsworth_extract.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-48/segments/1386163035819/warc/CC-MAIN-20131204131715-00068-ip-10-33-133-15.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.907254 | 1,050 | 2.828125 | 3 | {
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How the Internet came to be: The birth of the Internet
by Vinton Cerf, as told to Bernard Aboba
Copyright (C) 1993 Vinton Cerf. All rights reserved. May be reproduced in any medium for noncommercial purposes.
This node is a part of How the Internet Came to Be node
Bob Kahn described the packet radio
and satellite systems, and the internet
problem, which was to get host computers to communicate across multiple packet networks without knowing the network technology underneath. As a way of informally exploring this problem, I ran a series of seminars at Stanford attended by students and visitors. The students included Carl Sunshine
, who is now at Aerospace Corporation
running a laboratory and specializing in the area of protocol proof of correctness; Richard Karp
, who wrote the first TCP
code and is now president of ISDN technologies
in Palo Alto
. There was Judy Estrin
, a founder of Bridge Communications
, which merged with 3COM
, and is now an officer at Network Computing Devices
(NCD), which makes X display terminals. Yogen Dalal
, who edited the December 1974
specification, did his thesis work with this group, and went on to work at PARC where he was one of the key designers of the Xerox Protocols. Jim Mathis
, who was involved in the software of the small-scale LSI-11
implementations of the Internet
protocols, went on to SRI
International and then to Apple
where he did MacTCP
. Darryl Rubin
went on to become one of the vice presidents of Microsoft
. Ron Crane
handled hardware in my Stanford lab and went on to key positions at Apple
. John Shoch
went on to become assistant to the president of Xerox and later ran their System Development Division. Bob Metcalfe
attended some of the seminars as well. Gerard Lelann
was visiting from IRIA
and the Cyclades
project, and has gone on to do work in distributed computing. We had Dag Belsnes
from University of Oslo
who did work on the correctness of protocol design; Kuninobu Tanno
(from Tohoku University
); and Jim Warren
, who went on to found the West Coast Computer Faire
. Thinking about computer networking problems has had a powerful influence on careers; many of these people have gone on to make major contributions.
The very earliest work on the TCP protocols was done at three places. The initial design work was done in my lab at Stanford. The first draft came out in the fall of 1973 for review by INWG at a meeting at University of Sussex (Septemer 1973). A paper by Bob Kahn and me appeared in May 1974 in IEEE Transactions on Communications and the first specification of the TCP protocol was published as an Internet Experiment Note in December 1974. We began doing concurrent implementations at Stanford, BBN, and University College London. So effort at developing the Internet protocols was international from the beginning. In July 1975, the ARPANET was transferred by DARPA to the Defense Communications Agency (now the Defense Information Systems Agency) as an operational network.
About this time, military security concerns became more critical and this brought Steve Kent from BBN and Ray McFarland from DoD more deeply into the picture, along with Steve Walker, then at DARPA.
At BBN there were two other people: William Plummer and Ray Tomlinson. It was Ray who discovered that our first design lacked and needed a three-way handshake in order to distinguish the start of a new TCP connection from old random duplicate packets that showed up later from an earlier exchange. At University College London, the person in charge was Peter Kirstein. Peter had a lot of graduate and undergraduate students working in the area, using a PDP-9 machine to do the early work. They were at the far end of a satellite link to England.
Even at the beginning of this work we were faced with using satellite communications technology as well as ARPANET and packet radio. We went through four iterations of the TCP suite, the last of which came out in 1978.
The earliest demonstration of the triple network Internet was in July 1977. We had several people involved. In order to link a mobile packet radio in the Bay Area, Jim Mathis was driving a van on the San Francisco Bayshore Freeway with a packet radio system running on an LSI-11. This was connected to a gateway developed by Virginia Strazisar at BBN. Ginny was monitoring the gateway and had artificially adjusted the routing in the system. It went over the Atlantic via a point-to-point satellite link to Norway and down to London, by land line, and then back through the Atlantic Packet Satellite network (SATNET) through a Single Channel Per Carrier (SCPC) system, which had ground stations in Etam, West Virginia, Goonhilly Downs England, and Tanum, Sweden. The German and Italian sites of SATNET hadn't been hooked in yet. Ginny was responsible for gateways from packet radio to ARPANET, and from ARPANET to SATNET. Traffic passed from the mobile unit on the Packet Radio network across the ARPANET over an internal point-to-point satellite link to University College London, and then back through the SATNET into the ARPANET again, and then across the ARPANET to the USC Information Sciences Institute to one of their DEC KA-10 (ISIC) machines. So what we were simulating was someone in a mobile battlefield environment going across a continental network, then across an intercontinental satellite network, and then back into a wireline network to a major computing resource in national headquarters. Since the Defense Department was paying for this, we were looking for demonstrations that would translate to militarily interesting scenarios. So the packets were traveling 94,000 miles round trip, as opposed to what would have been an 800-mile round trip directly on the ARPANET. We didn't lose a bit!
After that exciting demonstration, we worked very hard on finalizing the protocols. In the original design we didn't distinguish between TCP and IP; there was just TCP. In the mid-1970s, experiments were being conducted to encode voice through a packet switch, but in order to do that we had to compress the voice severely from 64 Kbps to 1800 bps. If you really worked hard to deliver every packet, to keep the voice playing out without a break, you had to put lots and lots of buffering in the system to allow sequenced reassembly after retransmissions, and you got a very unresponsive system. So Danny Cohen at ISI, who was doing a lot of work on packet voice, argued that we should find a way to deliver packets without requiring reliability. He argued it wasn't useful to retransmit a voice packet end to end. It was worse to suffer a delay of retransmission.
That line of reasoning led to separation of TCP, which guaranteed reliable delivery, from IP. So the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) was created as the user-accessible way of using IP. And that's how the voice protocols work today, via UDP.
Late in 1978 or so, the operational military started to get interested in Internet technology. In 1979 we deployed packet radio systems at Fort Bragg, and they were used in field exercises. The satellite systems were further extended to include ground stations in Italy and Germany. Internet work continued in building more implementations of TCP/IP for systems that weren't covered. While still at DARPA, I formed an Internet Configuration Control Board chaired by David Clark from MIT to assist DARPA in the planning and execution of the evolution of the TCP/IP protocol suite. This group included many of the leading researchers who contributed to the TCP/IP development and was later transformed by my successor at DARPA, Barry Leiner, into the Internet Activities Board (and is now the Internet Architecture Board of the Internet Society). In 1980, it was decided that TCP/IP would be the preferred military protocols.
In 1982 it was decided that all the systems on the ARPANET would convert over from NCP to TCP/IP. A clever enforcement mechanism was used to encourage this. We used a Link Level Protocol on the ARPANET; NCP packets used one set of one channel numbers and TCP/IP packets used another set. So it was possible to have the ARPANET turn off NCP by rejecting packets sent on those specific channel numbers. This was used to convince people that we were serious in moving from NCP to TCP/IP. In the middle of 1982, we turned off the ability of the network to transmit NCP for one day. This caused a lot of hubbub unless you happened to be running TCP/IP. It wasn't completely convincing that we were serious, so toward the middle of fall we turned off NCP for two days; then on January 1, 1983, it was turned off permanently. The guy who handled a good deal of the logistics for this was Dan Lynch; he was computer center director of USC ISI at the time. He undertook the onerous task of scheduling, planning, and testing to get people up and running on TCP/IP. As many people know, Lynch went on to found INTEROP, which has become the premier trade show for presenting Internet technology.
In the same period there was also an intense effort to get implementations to work correctly. Jon Postel engaged in a series of Bake Offs, where implementers would shoot kamikaze packets at each other. Recently, FTP Software has reinstituted Bake Offs to ensure interoperability among modern vendor products.
This takes us up to 1983. 1983 to 1985 was a consolidation period. Internet protocols were being more widely implemented. In 1981, 3COM had come out with UNET, which was a UNIX TCP/IP product running on Ethernet. The significant growth in Internet products didn't come until 1985 or so, where we started seeing UNIX and local area networks joining up. DARPA had invested time and energy to get BBN to build a UNIX implementation of TCP/IP and wanted that ported into the Berkeley UNIX release in v4.2. Once that happened, vendors such as Sun started using BSD as the base of commercial products.
Up: How the Internet came to be
Previous node: How the Internet came to be: The birth of the ARPANET
Next node: How the Internet came to be: The Internet takes off | <urn:uuid:97e4e319-a87f-4a5f-820c-61c3e7b2010d> | CC-MAIN-2015-32 | http://everything2.com/title/How+the+Internet+came+to+be%253A+The+birth+of+the+Internet | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-32/segments/1438042987775.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20150728002307-00331-ip-10-236-191-2.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973401 | 2,182 | 2.59375 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 2.876979112625122,
"reasoning_level": 3,
"interpretation": "Strong reasoning"
} | Science & Tech. |
Despite common misconceptions perpetuated by television shows and movies, whiplash is a serious injury with a broad range of symptoms and potentially-serious complications. Whiplash will often be accompanied by other neck and back injuries as well; and, as a result, if you are experiencing symptoms of whiplash, it is important that you seek a medical diagnosis as soon as possible.
What is Whiplash?
Whiplash is a traumatic injury that occurs when the head moves forward and then snaps back suddenly with a whip-like motion. This movement causes damage to the soft tissue that hold together the cervical vertebrae at the top of the spine, and this can lead to a variety of different symptoms.
What are the Symptoms of Whiplash?
Whiplash has a long list of symptoms. This is due to the fact that the term “whiplash” is not used to describe a single injury, but rather a compilation of multiple injuries in close proximity in the neck and back. Some of the most-common symptoms of whiplash include:
- Cognitive impairments (such as memory loss and difficulty concentrating)
- Difficulty sleeping
- Difficulty swallowing
- Dizziness, drowsiness and fatigue
- Pain and stiffness in the neck, back and shoulders
- Ringing in the ears (tinnitus)
In some cases, accident victims diagnosed with whiplash will also experience a condition known as “whiplash associated disorder.” This can cause symptoms including:
- Depression and anxiety
- Mood changes
What are the Treatment Options for Whiplash?
While treatment for whiplash has traditionally emphasized rest and immobility, recent findings suggest that physical and occupational therapy may help prevent chronic symptoms. For individuals experiencing symptoms of whiplash associated disorder, psychological or cognitive therapy may be a necessary form of treatment as well.
What if I Can’t Afford the Costs of Treatment?
If you cannot afford the costs of treatment, you should speak with an attorney to find out if you are entitled to a financial recovery. At a minimum, if you were injured in a vehicle, bicycle or pedestrian accident, you may be entitled to payment under your personal injury protection (PIP) policy. If a negligent driver or other third party is responsible for your injury, you may be entitled to full compensation for your injury-related losses. This includes not only your current and future medical expenses, but your loss of income, pain and suffering, and other financial and non-financial losses as well. You may also be entitled to compensation if you suffered whiplash due to:
- A boating accident
- A golf cart accident
- A railroad or aviation accident
- A slip, trip or fall
- An accident involving a dangerous or defective product
Regardless of what happened, the most important thing you can do is to seek medical treatment promptly. If you have concerns about costs or are unsure of where to go for help, we encourage you to give us a call.
Find Out if You are Entitled to Financial Compensation for Whiplash in Florida
To learn more about seeking financial compensation for whiplash, please contact us to schedule a free, no-obligation consultation with one of our experienced personal injury attorneys. You can reach us 24/7, so call (800) 780-8607 or tell us how we can help online now. | <urn:uuid:39a08ed7-a51e-4275-bc7f-9bb9d7a71f6e> | CC-MAIN-2020-05 | https://www.searcylaw.com/could-your-symptoms-be-signs-of-whiplash/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579250607407.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20200122191620-20200122220620-00409.warc.gz | en | 0.942278 | 701 | 2.5625 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 1.9936734437942505,
"reasoning_level": 2,
"interpretation": "Moderate reasoning"
} | Health |
Scientists published a paper on methane levels across the globe last year—and their satellite images show the largest methane anomaly in the United States hovers over northwestern New Mexico. Now, some of the nation’s top scientists have come here to figure out where all that methane’s coming from.
The satellite image of the methane plume splashed across the national and international news last fall. And it’s easy to see why: the Four Corners shows up as an ugly welt of yellow, red and orange surrounded by cool greens and blues.
But Eric Kort, the lead author on the methane paper, said you have to be careful interpreting that image. “It's easy to look at that image and think that it means that the most emissions are coming from this region,” he said. “But it's not an image of emissions, it's an image of concentrations of the gas. It does not at all mean that it’s the highest emissions region. Those are different things.”
Kort was in Farmington last week to explain the findings to local citizens, governmental officials, land managers and activists.
“What we see over Four Corners is we see more methane than in the surrounding area,” he said, “and this is due to both the emissions in the region and the nature of the winds, so those emissions tend to stay concentrated there a little more.”
That’s an important point. It’s not just methane emissions. The landscape here and the wind patterns also affect the concentrations.
And this work isn’t just important for New Mexico or the Southwest.
Methane is a greenhouse gas. It contributes to climate change. And as greenhouse gases go, methane is about thirty times more potent than carbon dioxide.
The methane in the Four Corners comes from coal mines, coalbed methane wells, and tens of thousands of natural gas wells. In the past year, new oil wells have also been drilled. All of the industries include infrastructure.
Cows, landfills, and wastewater treatment plants also produce methane.
To try and understand where it’s all coming from—specifically—Owen Sherwood has been driving around the highways and back roads of the Four Corners. He’s with the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
His truck’s outfitted with special equipment and a long mast on top. The whole thing was engineered by the lab manager where Sherwood works. “For better or worse,” laughed Sherwood, lab manager Bruce Vaughn has “leant his truck to the services of doing science.”
Different sources of methane have different signatures, Sherwood said. If you study those, you can figure out whether the methane is from a feedlot, or oil and gas drilling. Or even from forest fires.
“They all have unique fingerprints,” he said. “And we can use that information to discern where the methane is coming from.”
While Sherwood and other federal scientists drive around, NASA is taking to the skies.
Christian Frankenberg is with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He worked with Kort on that methane anomaly paper. Studying methane from satellite images is one thing. Getting new data first hand—by flying through the plume—is quite another.
“This is exciting,” he said, “something that came from space and now we suddenly drive around with a van like our NOAA colleagues and we will fly our aircraft and have all the different levels that we can use, basically, to study this area.”
And New Mexicans are eager to know what’s going on, too. More than 200 people squeezed into a hall at San Juan College in Farmington last Friday to hear Kort, Frankenberg and others speak.
Tom Singer, with the Western Environmental Law Center, was there. He thinks public involvement is really important.
The energy industry reports its emissions and regulators track those inventories. But as the satellite images show, those numbers don’t match what’s actually out there.
“The industry is providing a lot of information to these studies about where equipment and infrastructure is,” he said, “and they need watchdogs. More than one person needs to be watching over their shoulder.”
As scientists collect more data – from vans and trucks and airplanes and satellites—it will take at least a year to analyze and review those results. And then, share them with policy makers and the public.
Funding for KUNM’s series Drilling Deep comes from the New Venture Fund. | <urn:uuid:dd76b37e-8542-4916-b27e-6f691d09fc2c> | CC-MAIN-2017-13 | http://kunm.org/post/hunt-source-four-corners-methane | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-13/segments/1490218189583.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20170322212949-00425-ip-10-233-31-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946884 | 979 | 3.25 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 2.8904097080230713,
"reasoning_level": 3,
"interpretation": "Strong reasoning"
} | Science & Tech. |
MIDDLESBORO, Ky. — Glacier Girl has roared back to life, nearly 60 years after being abandoned on a glacier in Greenland and entombed in hundreds of feet of snow and ice.
The P-38 Lightning, one of the fastest planes in the sky during World War II, was among six fighters and two bombers forced to crash-land during foul weather in Greenland on July 15, 1942.
The crews were rescued, but the warplanes were left behind and nearly forgotten.
As a boy in Middlesboro, Roy Shoffner had become enamored of the piston-engined, propeller-driven P-38s and imagined flying one of the planes, which could reach 405 mph at altitudes of up to 35,000 feet.
In the summer of 1992, he recovered one of the P-38s abandoned in Greenland, and this month he reached a milestone: The 1,275-horsepower engines were fired up at Middlesboro Airport, turning propellers for the first time since 1942.
Even before that, the plane named Glacier Girl for its years in the ice had become a hit in Middlesboro, drawing some 3,500 people a month to the Lost Squadron Museum to watch the restoration.
"People cannot believe we went down into the ice cap, disassembled the airplane, brought it up one piece at a time and now have put it back together," Shoffner said.
"It's bringing in thousands of visitors," said Judy Barton, director of the Bell County Tourism Commission. "If it ever flies, I don't believe we'll ever be able to handle the crowds of people who will come to see."
The United States built 10,113 of the planes. Just 24 survive, and only six still are flying.
The pilots of the lost planes had to land on the glacier because they were low on fuel and caught in thick clouds. It took rescuers on dog sleds 10 days to reach the 25 crew members; they got everyone back safely.
By the time Shoffner--a 73-year-old restaurateur, former banker and 1950s Air Force fighter pilot--got to the plane, the decades of snowstorms had buried it 268 feet deep.
"If you can't go through it, and you can't go around it, you just work up another solution to the problem," he said.
Crews used streams of hot water to melt a 4-foot-wide tunnel down to the plane and open a cavern around it.
Disassembling and retrieving the plane took about four months and cost some $638,000, said Bob Cardin, director of the restoration effort. Tooling parts to replace those destroyed by the weight of the ice has pushed the price tag to the $3-million range, Shoffner said.
They hope to taxi the plane at an air show in October and get Glacier Girl flying again sometime next year.
Shoffner wants to fly it to Europe.
"The insurance company would like to have someone who has experience flying a P-38 to be the pilot," Shoffner said. "But it's my airplane, and I'm going to fly it." | <urn:uuid:4a502f05-08a1-400c-8acd-b8b65cdf23f4> | CC-MAIN-2014-35 | http://articles.latimes.com/2001/sep/23/news/mn-48748 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-35/segments/1408500832738.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20140820021352-00223-ip-10-180-136-8.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978926 | 657 | 2.609375 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 2.6031289100646973,
"reasoning_level": 3,
"interpretation": "Strong reasoning"
} | Transportation |
Telephone Torah Study: Embracing the Gift of Grief
This week’s Torah portion, Chukat (Num. 19:1-21:1), records Miriam’s death in one pithy verse, Miriam died there and was buried there. Unlike the 30 day mourning period for her brother Aaron, who dies later in the Torah portion, neither her brothers nor the community formally observe Miriam’s death.
Even though the Torah declares Miriam a “prophet,” a designation never bestowed on Aaron. Instead the Torah quickly turns to a seemingly unrelated topic: the heated quarrel between Moses and the Israelites over the absence of water and its dramatic fallout, God banning Moses from entering the Promised Land.
Telephone Torah Study: Thursday June 26, 4-5pm. To join in on the conference call, please dial 702-851-4044, when prompted punch in 2, then our pass code 22252#.
Rabbi Lisa Edwards believes these seemingly unrelated events are linked. In her URJ commentary on Chukat, ‘The Gift of Grief,’ she argues that unaware grief and unresolved loss can lead to grave consequences as in this case.
In an almost imperceptible yet seismic shift, this week’s Parshat Chukat jumps us a few decades ahead in the wilderness journey of the Israelites. Maybe we need a movie screen caption that reads, “thirty-eight years later.”
Perhaps the time shift is difficult to notice because not much else has changed. Early in the portion, seemingly from out of nowhere, we read: “Miriam died there and was buried there,” (Numbers 20:1). Although she was the sister of Moses and Aaron, and a leader herself in the Israelite community, no more detail is given of what happened when Miriam died. No cause of death is given, no age at death, no description of mourning. We don’t even know who buried her. “Died and buried” is all Miriam gets for her long years of service.
Or is it? The very next verse tells us “the community was without water” (20:2). This juxtaposition is to teach us, writes Rashi (France, eleventh century), that the Israelites “had water for the whole forty years from [Miriam’s] well on account of the merit of Miriam.” Abraham ibn Ezra (Spain, twelfth century) disagrees, noting an absence of water long before Miriam died (Exodus 17:1, for example).
Whatever the reason, it seems to be their thirst, rather than Miriam’s death, that brings the Israelites to whine and argue with Moses and Aaron. “Why did you make us leave Egypt to bring us to this wretched place?” (Numbers 20:5). Poor Moses, Aaron, God, and us as well, we’ve heard all this before—almost forty years ago and from a different generation. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”
Torah Passage of the Week
The Israelites arrived in a body at the wilderness of Zin on the first new moon, and the people stayed at Kadesh. Miriam died there and was buried there. The community was without water, and they joined against Moses and Aaron. The people quarreled with Moses, saying, “If only we had perished when our brothers perished at the instance of Adonai! Why have you brought Adonai’s congregation into this wilderness for us and our beasts to die there? Why did you make us leave Egypt to bring us to this wretched place; a place with no grain or figs or vines or pomegranates? There is not even water to drink!” (Numbers 20:1-5). | <urn:uuid:6870f987-7e81-41e8-8be3-7f3ab0048d1c> | CC-MAIN-2018-05 | http://bcc-la.org/telephone-torah-study-embracing-the-gift-of-grief/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-05/segments/1516084891886.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20180123091931-20180123111931-00686.warc.gz | en | 0.950123 | 832 | 2.71875 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 2.951042652130127,
"reasoning_level": 3,
"interpretation": "Strong reasoning"
} | Religion |
List of XML and HTML character entity references - Wikipedia, the In SGML, HTML and XML documents, the logical constructs known as character
data and attribute values consist of sequences of characters, in which each ... Character reference overview - Standard public entity sets ...
Complete list of HTML entities - FreeFormatter.comComplete list of HTML entities with their numbers and names. Also included is a
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should consider using the htmlentities function to prevent them from running html
Character Entities in HTML & XHTML - The Web Standards ProjectCharacter Entities in HTML & XHTML. Single characters can be embedded into
documents using character entity references. These references have a numeric ...
Všechny použitelné HTML entity - Jak psát webRozšíření výkladu entit v přehledu HTML . Níže vypsané entity se všechny
zobrazují v Internet Exploreru 6 standardní instalace. Na jiných prohlížečích jich
20.3. html . entities — Definitions of HTML general entities — Python 20.3. html . entities — Definitions of HTML general entities¶. Source code: Lib/ html /
entities .py. This module defines four dictionaries, html5, name2codepoint, ...
dojox. html . entities .encode — The Dojo Toolkit - Reference GuideThis function will use the entity encodings for HTML and LATIN-1 as default
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HTML entities reference, encode and decode special characters Encode & decode HTML entities with this easy tool. Or see all HTML entities .
WhatsMyIP.org | HTML Entities & Special CharactersHTML Entity / Special Character Set Chart. A rather large chart of all of the
standard HTML characters, and lots of the special characters, including some
HTML Entities Examples - Mountaindragon.comIf the code result is the same as the code, the character/entity is not ... Entity
Name, ISO Code, Code Result, HTML Entity Code, Code Result, Entity Name,
HtmlEntities — Zend Framework 2 2.0.7 documentation - Zend HtmlEntities ¶. Returns the string $value, converting characters to their
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Information and Links for htmlentities .com - This domain may be for htmlentities .com. Find the best information and most relevant links on all topics
related to htmlentities .com. 2013 Copyright. All Rights Reserved.
HTML Character Entities - Intuitive SystemsHere's something you want to know: this table is directly based on the official
HTML 4.0 character entity information included in the HTML 4.01 specification.
HTML Character Entities Cheat Sheet - Web Development in I'm forever looking up character codes, so this cheat sheet was a no-brainer. This
contains a list of the assigned character codes in HTML , with an example of ...
decode_entities | unicode.inc | Drupal 7 | Drupal APIDecodes all HTML entities (including numerical ones) to regular UTF-8 bytes.
Double-escaped entities will only be decoded once ("<" becomes "<" ,
HTML entity character lookup - AppleThis lookup allows you to quickly find the entity based on how it looks, e.g. like an
... The lookup searches for html entity characters based on how your particular ... | <urn:uuid:139c5bbe-d728-44fc-94b1-f6ee44ce3c3e> | CC-MAIN-2016-40 | http://savedwebhistory.org/k/html-entities | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-40/segments/1474738661327.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20160924173741-00196-ip-10-143-35-109.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.680383 | 807 | 2.9375 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 1.9938726425170898,
"reasoning_level": 2,
"interpretation": "Moderate reasoning"
} | Software Dev. |
We all know that you should avoid writing the same code over and over: put it in a function and just call that function whenever you need it. But what if what you need is a class with a whole bunch of really similar methods, each with a different name, but almost identical behaviour (just differing by a constant, say)?
As a really dumb example:
class A: def function_a(self): return 'a' def function_b(self): return 'b' def function_c(self): return 'c' ...
[Obviously, you wouldn't really have methods quite this simple, but this is just a simplified version of any case where the method name provides a constant for some sort of calculation.]
In our example case, you should be able to call the methods as follows:
>> a = A() >> a.function_a() 'a' >> a.function_b() 'b' >> a.function_c() 'c' ...
It all works fine as defined above, but we could have potentially dozens of methods that all do basically the same thing. What we really want here is a way to say, "If we call a method named 'function_' followed by some character, return that character."
Luckily, we can do this by defining
__getattr__ for the class. The class method names are treats as attributes, like any other. And
__getattr__ will be called for any undefined attributes.
Naively, we might try something like this:
class A: def __getattr__(self, attr): if attr[0:9] == 'function_': return attr[9:]
But this doesn't quite do what we want. This would be fine if we wanted to have a bunch of class variables named
function_b, etc. But we actually wanted class methods. The difference is clear when we try to run it:
>> a = A() >> a.function_a 'a' >> a.function_a() TypeError: 'str' object is not callable
Rather than returning a value, we need a way to return a callable object (that will produce that value when called). Luckily, the
functools.partial can do this for us. It takes a function name, and some number of arguments, and returns a callable object with the provided arguments already included.
import functools class A: def __getattr__(self, attr): if attr[0:9] == 'function_': return functools.partial(self.function_char, attr[9:]) def function_char(self, char): return char
In this case, rather than returning the character from the method name directly, we bake it into another method, which can be called (without needing to supply any more arguments):
>> a = A() >> a.function_a() 'a' >> a.function_a <functools.partial object at [address]>
In this case, we're defining methods without arguments, but the same strategy could be used for arguments.
functools.partial can be used to bake-in only some of the arguments for a function, while the rest are still provided when it is called.
For example, suppose, rather than just printing the character, we want
function_b, etc. to take an integer argument of the number of times to print the character.
>> a.function_a(1) 'a' >> a.function_a(5) 'aaaaa'
We just have to change the definition of
function_char to take this extra variable:
def function_char(self, char, n): return n*char
And all our methods
function_b, etc. now take an integer argument, with no change to | <urn:uuid:a019773a-62b4-449d-a094-b0ffa23b5701> | CC-MAIN-2019-51 | http://www.cristinagreen.com/avoiding-repetitive-methods.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-51/segments/1575541318556.99/warc/CC-MAIN-20191216065654-20191216093654-00437.warc.gz | en | 0.851936 | 806 | 3.046875 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 2.2359297275543213,
"reasoning_level": 2,
"interpretation": "Moderate reasoning"
} | Software Dev. |
Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce, refers to transactions concluded using an electronic or computer network such as the internet. It involves the buying and selling of goods and services or the transfer of funds and data online. In South Africa, the primary laws impacting e-commerce are the following:
1) The Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 2002 (ECT Act)
The ECT Act recognises information generated, sent, received or stored by electronic or telephonic means as having legal validity. The ECT Act also provides for consent to an agreement which can be in the form of a website pop up window or dialogue box where the consumer selects ‘OK’, ‘I agree’ or ‘I accept’ or by way of an electronic signature. Whatever the form of electronic transaction, the information sent, received or stored must be accessible at a later point in time.
In creating a contract between parties, an agreement is concluded by law, at the time when and place where the acceptance of the offer was received. Hence all orders through a South African website for goods and services, placed by a consumer outside South Africa will be governed by South African law. This is because South Africa is the place where the offer to purchase such goods and services was accepted.
The ECT Act protects consumers that opt to purchase goods or services online and sets a number of obligations on vendors. Protection includes data privacy, contract terms as well as requiring a marketers’, advertisers’ or publishers’ payment system to be sufficiently secured and to meet acceptable technological standards at the time of the transaction. Moreover, a vendor must provide a customer an opportunity to review an order, correct any mistakes or cancel the order before it is finalized. If advertisers, marketers or publishers fail to do this, the consumer may cancel the order within 14 days of receiving the goods or services. In such cases, the consumer must return the products delivered and be refunded. Consumers also have a right have a right to cancel a purchase and any related credit facility within seven days after the date of receipt and after seven days after the conclusion of a service agreement. In such instances, an advertiser, marketer or publisher may only charge for the direct cost of returning the goods.
When sending out a marketing communication over email, there are a few legal implications. In marketing or advertising such products, consumers must be given an option to unsubscribe from commercial mailing lists. If requested, consumers must be informed on how their personal information was obtained. One should also be aware that contracts cannot be entered into without the consumer’s consent. The lack of a response to a commercial mail does not amount to a contract. If one does not comply with this, they will be liable to a fine or imprisonment for a period of not more than 12 months.
The ECT Act also provides for the Protection of Personal Information and outlines a number of voluntary principles that advertisers, marketers and publishers may subscribe to, by recording such in an agreement with a consumer or client. The provisions to protect personal information will be reinforced by the Protection of Personal Information Act of 2013 (the POPIA), but will be mandatory.
2) Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (the POPIA)
The POPIA protects personal information and the use of such personal information obtained by natural and juristic persons through all transactions. Processing of personal information under the POPIA is broad and includes activities such as collecting, retaining, storing, using or destroying personal consumer or client information.
The POPIA reinforces the provisions of the ECT Act and introduce 8 conditions of lawfully processing personal information which should be adhered to by a responsible party, failing which certain penalties are applicable. The 8 conditions of lawfully processing personal information are:
Further processing limitation
Data Subject participation
In terms of the POPIA, a data subject’s right to privacy protected in line with the manner in which information is processed and retained in the digital age. The POPIA also regulates transnational sharing of personal information.
3) The Consumer Protection Act, 2008 (CPA)
The CPA applies to all commercial transactions, including electronic commercial transactions. The CPA and the ECT Act provide protection to consumers in commercial transactions. CPA and ECT Act must be read concurrently and where there is conflict, the CPA provides that the Act which affords a consumer the most protection will prevail. The Act provides 8 fundamental consumer rights, as well as, prohibits certain obligations and prohibits certain actions.
4) Copyright Act, 1978
The Copyright Act lists a number of works that are eligible for copyright protection. These works may only be protected if the work is original. If one used his or her skill and labour, the work shall be deemed as original, irrespective of whether an identical work already exists. In an online environment, protection will be afforded to items such as e-books, online compilations, digital music, software, podcasts, etc. Online copyright issues may arise in the following instances in the context of electronic commerce:
Ownership of Databases
Contact databases and contact mailing lists may be used to promote products to consumers. These databases are largely compiled internally by data capturers (employees) or may be commissioned from a third party in terms of lead generation. In both instances the data will be have copyright protection as they would be original and owned by the respective copyright holder.
Advertising or marketing content.
When content such as the advertising copy is developed for the business by employees, the content is owned by the business and the business will have copyright protection. Content or marketing or advertising copy developed for clients will be owned by the client unless a different arrangement is agreed upon. This will include the text used in campaign tag lines, pop up adverts, campaign emails, etc.
The text or copy used on websites will be copyright protected. Copyright belongs to the advertiser in term of adverts and the author, writer or publisher in terms of books, music and films. Other multimedia products such as graphics, drawings, cartoons, sound, computer programs and video clips found on a website are also copyright protected. Copyright may be infringed through unauthorised reproduction, publication, public performance, unauthorised dealing as well as making an adaption of protected work. | <urn:uuid:f44b0191-9ba7-497e-916c-bf5ece67b99d> | CC-MAIN-2020-29 | https://www.endcode.org/post/guide-to-digital-commerce-law-in-south-africa | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-29/segments/1593655892516.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20200707111607-20200707141607-00156.warc.gz | en | 0.940968 | 1,277 | 2.734375 | 3 | {
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"interpretation": "Strong reasoning"
} | Crime & Law |
On August 21, 1939, five young black men -- William Evans, Otto L. Tucker,
Edward Gaddis, Morris Murray, Clarence Strange -- staged a "sit-down strike"
at the whites-only Alexandria Library at 717 Queen Street. One by one
they entered the building and asked to register for a library card. As
each well dressed visitor was refused, he took a seat and began to read
a book. Librarian Katharine H. Scoggin called the police who arrested
the men for disorderly conduct. The lookout, Clarence's brother Robert,
ran to the office of attorney Samuel W. Tucker with the news. When Tucker
convinced the police that no law had been broken, the five young men were
charged with disorderly conduct.
Samuel W. Tucker, at age 26, had planned and coordinated the demonstration
in order to test the legality of excluding African-Americans from a
public facility. He recruited the men (including his younger brother)
and drilled them in preparation for what might happen.
Interestingly, the Alexandria Gazette published their home addresses in news articles about the event. (Members of four of the five families were registered to vote -- see Voter Registration in Alexandria, Virginia, African-Americans, 1902-1954).
City Attorney Armistead L. Boothe, vice president of the Library Board,
stalled for time. Instead of integrating the library, the city moved
quickly to build a "colored library" in the Parker-Gray neighborhood.
The library, named for Reverend Robert H. Robinson, opened April 23,
1940. It is now the location of the Alexandria
Black History Resource Center.
Tucker's letter stated that he would "refuse to accept a card to be used at the library to be constructed and operated at Alfred and Wythe Streets in lieu of card to be used at the existing library on Queen Street."
Samuel Wilbert Tucker was born in Alexandria on June 18, 1913. After receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree from Howard University in 1933, he read for the law under Alexandria attorney Thomas M. Watson and was admitted to the Virginia Bar in July 1934 at age 20. Tucker's career included groundbreaking civil rights cases across the state. He served as the lead lawyer for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in Virginia and was a founding partner in the prominent Richmond law firm Hill, Tucker and Marsh. Tucker died on October 19, 1990.
Ten years later, a new elementary school in Alexandria was officially dedicated the Samuel W. Tucker Elementary School.
The sit-in is chronicled in a documentary called Out of Obscurity. Copies may be borrowed from Alexandria Library. | <urn:uuid:4252834b-6a24-4ff8-b788-787d12f69de2> | CC-MAIN-2014-52 | http://www.alexandria.lib.va.us/custom/web/lhsc/online_exhibits/doc/archived/2004/feb_2004/doc.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-52/segments/1418802768352.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20141217075248-00076-ip-10-231-17-201.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964971 | 561 | 3.4375 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 2.648355484008789,
"reasoning_level": 3,
"interpretation": "Strong reasoning"
} | History |
The Microbiome in Dermatology
Your skin is your largest organ, with a specific purpose of protecting your insides from the outside world. It is a barrier against bacteria, viruses, fungi, and other microscopic creatures, such as mites and archaea.
While all of these microbes would be dangerous inside your body, they actually serve a purpose on the outside of your skin, living in harmony with your body in a mutually beneficial relationship. This group of harmonious microbes and their genetic material is known as the microbiome.
What do we know about microbes today?
Although we have known about the microbiome since the late 17th century, it has only been in the past two decades that we have been able to study it in more depth. The advances in DNA and RNA sequencing have given scientists the ability to identify the microbes in ways that were unavailable before. Scientists have discovered microbes that are associated with the parts of the body that are dry or moist, that are associated with where people live, their age, and even their diets.1
What's the relationship between microbes and the skin?
This relationship benefits the microorganisms with a habitat as well as the bodies that they live on. These microbes benefit the immune system, protect the skin against other bacteria, and may help the body to reduce inflammation as a result of their byproducts. Changes or imbalances in the microbiome may lead to dermatological disorders.
When do microbes start inhabiting the skin?
Your microbiome starts with your birth and is different if you are born naturally than if you are born via C-section. As you age, your microbiome changes with you, such as during puberty when skin changes and tends to get oilier. The microbiome of damp areas, such as the groin and armpit tends to be more stable than dry areas such as the arms and legs, which can vary regularly.1
Atopic dermatitis and the microbiome
Researchers have found a link between atopic dermatitis (AD) and the microbiome. Researchers have proposed that a reduced contact with bacteria, due to frequent bathing and antibacterial soaps, may be reducing immune tolerance. This may lead to immune conditions such as AD.
AD is also associated with colonization of Staphylococcus aureus, a bacteria that is more commonly held in check by a healthy microbiome. Unlike psoriasis patients, AD progression is linked to microbiome changes, specifically the decrease in diversity.1
The future of microbiomes
As researchers learn more about the microbiome and how it interacts with dermatological diseases, there is an opportunity to better treat these conditions. Researchers are already using probiotics to see if changes in gut microbes affect skin microbes. Researchers have also used experimental bacteria therapy to treat AD.2
These studies pave the way for better treatments for dermatological conditions that are affected by the microbiome. While these studies are in beginning stages, they do hold promise for safer, more effective treatments for these chronic skin conditions.
Which allergies do you live with? (Select all that apply) | <urn:uuid:73384dd6-edef-46a2-b04f-bd41affc028a> | CC-MAIN-2022-49 | https://atopicdermatitis.net/clinical/microbiome-dermatology | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-49/segments/1669446711126.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20221207021130-20221207051130-00706.warc.gz | en | 0.955738 | 621 | 3.3125 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 2.782644033432007,
"reasoning_level": 3,
"interpretation": "Strong reasoning"
} | Health |
Our oral health plays an extremely important part in keeping our body in working order. Without maintaining our teeth and gums, we are putting ourselves at risk of certain conditions. At the end of the day, we only get the one set of adult teeth, so it’s essential we take great care of them.
In this article, we are going to discuss five tips to help you take care of your oral health. Let’s get started!
One of the most critical steps in taking care of your oral health is to visit your dentist regularly. During your check-up, they will assess the condition of your teeth and gums, give everything a good cleaning, and then arrange any further treatment if need be. It’s recommended you do this every six months, however, more regularly if you commonly have issues such as teeth grinding. Check out this Cleveland Dentist – smilovitsdds.com to book your appointment today.
In order to remove built-up plaque and bacteria, everyone should be brushing their teeth at least twice a day. However, it’s vital that you do this properly. Every tooth needs to have attention, and the entire process should last around two minutes. Improper brushing can lead to a variety of dental problems, so it’s essential to take your time and remember about the back teeth. An electric toothbrush can be an excellent investment if you find your hand getting tired!
When food gets stuck in-between your teeth, brushing and rinsing aren’t always capable of getting everything out. Flossing helps dislodge this while also getting rid of any hidden plaque build-up. Make sure you get in-between each tooth but be careful of your gums. Moving to close can scratch or bruise the area, causing pain and discomfort. Check out how to floss your teeth correctly for more information.
Certain foods and drinks that are high in sugar and acid are what cause cavities. Consuming them on a regular basis can wear down tooth enamel to the point in which they need to be filled at the dentist. While you can still enjoy a treat here and there, you still want to be mindful of how much you are intaking. Alongside this, there are actually foods that help prevent cavities.
Lastly, it’s important to remember to protect your teeth, as they aren’t as sturdy as some of the other parts of your body. To prevent injuries, make sure to wear a guard or face helmet during contact sports. If you are grinding your teeth at night, talk with your doctor or dentist about a splint or mouth guard to avoid wearing down your teeth.
And that’s it! By following the five tips above, you can maintain your oral health and keep your teeth in great shape for as long as possible. When you break it down, it’s only a few minutes of your time each day to have a wonderful smile. | <urn:uuid:5c35ee48-271b-40a5-a75e-e367cbfd1d04> | CC-MAIN-2022-49 | https://www.findhealthtips.com/oral-health/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-49/segments/1669446711232.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20221208014204-20221208044204-00684.warc.gz | en | 0.957232 | 608 | 2.53125 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 0.8137403726577759,
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"interpretation": "Basic reasoning"
} | Health |
High tides topped dunes and spilled into the first floors of buildings, sending rivers of debris streaming down city streets.
Roofs shredded, chimneys severed and houses were unmoored from their foundations. Broken window glass sliced the air making it unsafe to walk outside and furious wind gusts scooped up ocean water and blew it dozens of miles inland.
One eyewitness said "limbs of trees were flying in every direction."
The hurricane wasn’t Sandy, but "The Great September Gale" of 1821, one of more than 50 extreme tropical storms or hurricanes either to graze or hit the Garden State in the past 270 years, according to the American Meteorological Society. But like Sandy, the 1821 hurricane was a rare event, widely considered by weather historians to be the last intense hurricane to make landfall in the Garden State in 350 years, and only the second in 700 years, according to the geological record.
On Sept. 3, 1821 there were no meteorologists and no weather forecasts beyond the annual Old Farmer’s Almanac. So when a violent storm moved from North Carolina’s Outer Banks and to Cape May in less than 10 hours, striking New Jersey as a Category 4 hurricane, fisherman, farmers and their families fled to the highest point they could find — the lighthouse -- according to newspaper accounts at the time.
Also known as the Norfolk and Long Island Hurricane for its track from Virginia to New York, the Great September Gale of 1821 roared up the Garden State and through the Pinelands, according to the book "Great Storms of the Jersey Shore." There it sheared away an entire forest of cedar trees, some of them 300 years old, and destroyed many freshwater lakes. The 200-mph gusts were felt as far away as Philadelphia, said historians who have chronicled the era, and by the time the hurricane’s eye passed over New York, a 13-foot tidal surge pushed the waters of the East and Hudson rivers together, submerging the southern tip of Manhattan as far north as Canal Street.
The similarities to Sandy have not gone unnoticed.
"The National Hurricane Center said this storm is likely the worst-case scenario," said Mike Tidwell, director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, "You can definitely compare that to 1821, which cut New York in two."
Before Sandy made landfall Monday evening, the eye of only one hurricane, the 1821 storm, has ever passed directly over the state, according to several weather historians. The observations of one eyewitness to that nineteenth century behemoth were recorded in New York’s Evening Post:
"One vessel was found bottom upwards. A hole was cut, a woman taken out … One chimney blew over against an adjoining store and when the wind shifted (it) blew back again and stood erect as usual … The force of the wind was so great that the spray of the salt water was carried 12 to 124 miles inland. Leaves of orchard trees on the side toward the ocean were turned brown and appeared as if scorched and dead, while on the other side the leaves were green and beautiful."
Another account said debris was lodged in treetops nine feet high and the Newark Sentinel of Freedom reported white-capped waves replaced orchards and cornfields.
A century and a half later, New Jersey researchers calculated the hurricane had likely ground its way northward at about 50 mph, and when the Garden State Parkway was being built in 1954 crews uncovered many of the trees knocked down that day that were then buried and preserved in the oxygen-free mud and marshland.
"The 1821 is the standard hurricane for the Jersey shore," said Rick Schwartz, author of "Hurricanes and the Middle Atlantic States" and a native of Passaic. "because it’s the only one. Of course, other individual storms have been worse."
One of them, Schwartz said, was the 1903 hurricane, although by the time it crashed into New Jersey it was more tropical storm than hurricane, with winds along the shore of about 70 mph — four short of hurricane status.
The storm was dubbed the "Vagabond Hurricane" for the media circus it engendered, with one New York newspaper offering to raise $200,000 to a survivor with a good tale to tell. The only damage, however, was mostly to boardwalk pavilions and the press went home decidedly underwhelmed — but with their reward money still in hand.
The Great Atlantic Hurricane of 1944 never made landfall in New Jersey, but as a Category 4 hurricane sitting just 25 to 50 miles off the Mid-Atlantic shore, it sent devastating waves rocketing over the sand dunes and boardwalk, causing damage up and down New Jersey’s 127-mile-long coastline.
According to an eyewitness in Atlantic City, the waves "picked up the entire Boardwalk off its concrete supports as far as I could see in either direction, tossed it over backwards, and crushed it like you’d crush toothpicks."
Eighteen years later, the Ash Wednesday storm of March 6-8, 1962, again ripped away Atlantic City’s steel pier, destroyed nearly the entire boardwalk and shredded Long Beach Island. More than 4,000 buildings and homes were damaged and 14 people died.
"Ash Wednesday had similarities to this. It delivered hurricane-force gusts along the coast," said Schwartz. The pressure exploded off the coast. And the pressure now is deepening like crazy … While the 1821 hurricane was likely more destructive along the Jersey shore, this will likely be more destructive for the entire state."
When Hurricane Hazel powered up the East Coast in 1954 it killed 95 people, set rainfall records in the Carolinas and wind speed records in Washington, D.C. and New York City.
In September 1999 Hurricane Floyd, which stalled off Jersey’s coast, caused the first large-scale peacetime evacuation in U.S. history, involving more than 3 million people from Florida to North Carolina. New Jersey’s flood damage was mostly inland, along the Raritan and other rivers, and cost between $4.5 and $6 billion.
On June 1 this year, Schwartz posted a press release for his book on his website that carried the following headline:
"History Suggests That 2012 Will Bring ‘The Big One’ Hurricane to the Mid-Atlantic States."
Yesterday, Schwartz said he wasn’t surprised.
"The state has been way overdue, particularly along the Atlantic Coast," he said. "The most recent hurricane to affect the whole Mid-Atlantic was 1985 — Gloria. It’s usually once every 10 years and it’s been 27."
Still, Schwartz is astounded at the scope and power of Sandy, not to mention its timing.
"It’s extremely rare this far north this late, and the direction and strength may be unprecedented," he said. "My research went back 400 years … There have been individual storms that have been worse on the coast like Ash Wednesday, and with higher wind like Hazel and more rainfall like Floyd. But I really can’t think of a storm quite like this — inland flooding, coastal flooding, wind. This is the whole package."
Amy Ellis Nutt: (973) 392-1794 or [email protected] | <urn:uuid:75c3350d-9872-4b89-ade5-f4a65f8629d0> | CC-MAIN-2014-35 | http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/10/hurricane_sandy_reminds_weathe.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-35/segments/1408500834258.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20140820021354-00109-ip-10-180-136-8.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965341 | 1,511 | 3.390625 | 3 | {
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} | History |
For a lot of us, George Castanza included, the shower represents more than just a place to cleanse our body. It’s a one-stop-shop for our morning ablutions. Shampooing? Check. Shaving? No problem. Peeing? Why not.
According to a recent poll, over 80% of people pee in the shower. Should you join their yellowed ranks?
Myth 1: Pee is Sterile – FALSE
People have been passing this old chestnut around since the 1950s, but it just isn’t true. It all started when researchers set a numerical cutoff for the “normal” amount of bacteria in urine (100,000 colony-forming units). Over time, people started to think that being below that cutoff meant bacteria free!
Myth 2: Peeing in the Shower is Good for the Environment – TRUE
Even with a low flow toilet, every flush of water sends precious gallons of drinkable H2O down the drain. The EPA found the standard toilet uses 1.6 gallons, while older toilets can use up to 7 gallons per flush. Administrators at the University of East Angalia in England found that if all 15,000 students peed in the shower, the university would save about $230,000 a year on water, or enough to fill 26 Olympic swimming pools.
Myth 3: Peeing in the Shower Will Create a Pavlovian Response to Running Water – MAYBE?
We’re not sure where this myth came from, but we’ve definitely heard it before. Pee in the shower too often, and you won’t be able to stop yourself. It’s possible that this is true, for some, but the sound of running water already makes us want to let loose, so we’re ruling indecisively on this one.
It’s an even draw where the scoring is concerned, but we didn’t mention another major factor in your decision: it’s gross. Unless you hit those 10 recommended glasses of water a day, you’re probably going to be stinking up your shower for the next guy. Maybe it’s just us, but that’s not what we’re into. We’ll leave it up to you (and the people who share your bathroom) to decide whether that courtesy is worth $230,000 a year.
This article is part 1 of our series on Common Health Myths. You can view the rest of the series here. | <urn:uuid:830dbd42-f526-4408-9e24-99c5dd055c9d> | CC-MAIN-2018-43 | http://blog.fendrihan.com/2016/09/health-myths-peeing-in-the-shower/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-43/segments/1539583510853.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20181016155643-20181016181143-00105.warc.gz | en | 0.926235 | 530 | 2.5625 | 3 | {
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} | Health |
A childs hearing already starts development inside the mother’s womb and from the minute a child is born hearing and auditory structures develop until around the age of 20. Today’s science allows us to test infants as young as 3-4 days old for their hearing ability. To not further delay any auditory development and give your child the best start into live Hearing Aids should be fitted as early as possible. Technology today allows fitting Hearing Aids to children as young as a few months old only.
Because of the size of your childs ear and because of certain accessories and features which are very important for your childs development, so called BTE (Behind The Ear) Hearing aids are the most appropriate design for your child. Depending on hearing loss, once your child reaches her/his teens other designs like RIC (Receiver In Canal) or various forms of Custom Made ITE (Inside The Ear) models might be possible.
Hearing aids are not a cure for hearing loss, but similar to spectacles, who make one see well while worn, make your child hear well while using them. If your child’s hearing loss cannot be medically treated than he/she will have to wear hearing devices for the rest of his/her life (bases on current technological and medical advances).
Yes, for your child to develop as normal hearing and language as possible hearing aids need to be worn every waking hour. If possible and accepted by your child he/she might even wear the hearing aids during sleep or nap time. Always remember in order to develop normal speech and language your child needs to be exposed to all kind sounds (and even noises) as much as possible.
Your child likes to hear and very quickly will learn, that without the hearing aids the world is awfully quiet. Unless the hearing aids are not fitted properly, or cause discomfort he/she will be happy to wear them and even will be upset if the hearing aids don’t work. However if your child consistently removes them, go to your hearing healthcare provider and check if there is some infection or maybe a problem with the fitting. If ever your child removes the hearing aids because he/she “throws a fit” just wait a few minutes and calmly but firmly but them back into the ears.
There are several accessories which help you prevent loss. Hyper allergenic tape to secure the instruments to the skin behind the ear, so called “Huggies” which secure the with an elastic rubber band onto the ear and “Critter Clips” which secure them with a clip to your childs clothes.
If your child accidentally swallows a hearing aid battery, call the hospital or physician immediately. Bring a sample of the Battery with you so the medical staff knows what they are dealing with and can decide on the best course of action. You also might find information under this links helpful:
Most hearing aids offer a “child lock” this is a small mechanism which prevents your child from opening the hearing aids battery compartment and take out the battery. If your hearing aids are not fitted with such a mechanism, contact us today to fit one today.
The hearing aid needs very little cleaning. You might want to wipe them down every evening with a moist mild antiseptic tissue. PLEASE AVOID FOR THE HEARING AIDS TO GET TOO WET, AS THIS COULD DAMAGE THEM.
Despite all efforts of manufacturers, hearing aids are still susceptible to moisture and especially to sweat. The best way is to store hearing aids every evening in a “dry aid” (after removing the earmould and battery and leaving the battery compartment open).
To protect hearing aids from sweat you may use a product like “sweat band” during sport or other activities when you child my sweat excessively.
Infants and babies grow very fast, and so do their ears. To change earmoulds every couple of months might be necessary. As your child gets older and changes needn’t be so frequent anymore. Older children might need to change their earmoulds about once a year.
Earmoulds seal the sound into the ear and if they become lose you will hear a whistling sound, especially if your child moves the head, chews or touches the ear. To a certain extend this whistling cannot be avoided, but if it becomes too persistent it might be an indication that your child has outgrown the current set of earmoulds and you will need a new one.
Disconnect the earmold from the hearing aid (ask us if you have any questions on how to do this safely). You may now wash the earmold and tube with a mild detergent or using a special earmold cleaning kit. After washing, blow out any residual water from the tube with a blower and let it dry overnight.
Dry the hearing aid with some paper tissue and bring it ASAP to us for repair, telling us exactly what happened. We can open the hearing aid and make sure all the moisture is removed before it can cause corrosion.
Yes, once you see the colour of the tube changing and feel the tube harden it's time to come in and change it. A hard tubing might cause your child discomfort and also lead to feedback.
Do not use a hair dryer or put the hearing aids into a microwave or conventional oven.
Different makes/models provide different features and benefits. Let us discuss with you what is be best solution for your child based on degree and shape of hearing loss and your childs age and educational needs.
If you child has hearing loss in both ears he/she absolutely needs two hearing aids (one on each ear). Only if your child has hearing loss only in one ear will one hearing aid, on the side of the hearing loss, be used. Being able to hear from both sides is absolutely essential for a normal auditory development and for hearing in noise, over distance and other challenging listening environment. Using only one hearing aid will deprive your child of essential auditory cues and prevent him/her from hearing his/her best. Hearing from one side only, also will deprive the brain of vital stimulation, which it needs for normal development.
We call this whistling sound “Feedback” and it is caused if signals, which were already amplified by the hearing aid can “sneak” back to the microphone and are being amplified again. This is mostly caused by an ill-fitting earmould, a hard earmould tube or excessive earwax in the ear canal. Hugging, touching or putting the head with a hearing aid side onto a billow may cause it. Contact us if you have problems with frequent feedback.
Hearing aids today are small computers and can be “programed” or adjusted in unlimited ways to your childs hearing loss configurations. We can also reprogram your hearing aids unlimited times if it becomes necessary due to changes in your childs hearing or due to your childs growth.
Check the hearing aids every morning performing a listening check (if in doubt ask us how to do it). You also might keep a diary about battery consumption to make sure to change the battery in time, so your child is never without hearing.
Check the hearing aids and batteries regularly, Ensure, that your child is using the hearing aids every waking hour. Provide as much auditory stimulation for your child and ask us or your Habilitationists on how you can help your child to progress in hearing and language development. | <urn:uuid:9aa810a2-1036-493f-8c65-b29ca5258189> | CC-MAIN-2018-17 | https://sg.hearingsolutiongroup.com/kids/faqs | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-17/segments/1524125948950.83/warc/CC-MAIN-20180427021556-20180427041556-00639.warc.gz | en | 0.953221 | 1,545 | 3.25 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 2.105985403060913,
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} | Health |
The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) in Singapore receives about 350 reports a year of animal cruelty. This figure is huge when we consider the small population in this tiny island.
The rampant cruelty inflicted on voiceless animals in Singapore is outrageous and appalling. In recent times, people have witnessed a Pomeranian being slammed repeatedly, on its leash, against a wall to its death. It must have suffered a traumatic life and then an agonising death!
There was also an investigation into eight rabbits being confined indefinitely in a small cage by an owner to stop them from mating. They were squashed like sardines, with no room to move. Imagine living like this every single minute of every day!
These acts of cruelty go on everyday and many go unreported. Hence, these innocent, lovely creatures have the most unpleasant and painful experience living here on earth – with us. Like us, they just want to have a decent life, be loved, and be free to roam around without being subjected to all manner of abuse.
Animal abuse is worrying and is a terribly sad reflection of the level of civilisation within our society. In essence, animal abuse is the inappropriate use of one’s power to exploit a weaker being that cannot defend itself. It has parallels with child abusers and rapists inflicting their violence on those who are vulnerable. Their victims are powerless and the offenders consequently torture them for their own selfish, sadistic pleasures.
While they cannot speak in ways that humans can understand, animals definitely possess human attributes – the ability to love and the capacity to feel pain. Animals love and hurt, just like humans. Therefore they cannot be treated as mere toys that can be tossed around.
Animals’ inability to communicate their suffering in words therefore imposes on us humans a stronger moral obligation to discern their cries of pain, and seek redress on their behalf. In other words, we need to be their voice!
The sad plight of animals in our society provides Singaporeans with a ready platform to be that voice and take some serious action. We need to shake off this convenient apathy.
As Australian Professor Mirko Bagaric aptly puts it, “By humanising animals, we will go a long way towards civilising people.”
In Singapore, cruelty to animals is a crime under s 42 of the Animals and Birds Act and offenders can be subject to a fine of $10,000 and/or 12 month imprisonment.
Let’s not ignore acts of animal cruelty and say it is none of our business. In fact, it is our business because any act of animal cruelty is a crime perpetrated within our society. Our silence will encourage offenders to continue torturing animals.
Here are some simple things we can do when we see animals being tortured or neglected.
- Immediately report the incident to the police and/or SPCA (tel 6287-5355) for investigation. However it may be difficult to prove your case. Therefore, try the following steps.
- Evidence, evidence, evidence! By all means gather the appropriate photographic or video evidence. This can be done easily and readily with the camera/video features on mobile phones. Evidence is vitally important to support a case and it provides alternative and more effective courses of action.
- With the evidence, send it to the police and SPCA.
- If nothing happens and the offender gets away with it, publish the evidence on YouTube, and use the viral qualities of social media to name and shame the offender. This may consequently prompt the relevant authorities to act.
- Organise a petition among friends, colleagues and likeminded people to the relevant authorities, including your local Member for Parliament and the Minister for National Development, Khaw Boon Wan.
- Organise an international petition via Care2 petition site.
Over the longer term, probably the best way to go about minimising animal cruelty is via various school and public education programs. There is also scope to mandate all pet-owners to have licences so as to sift out those who are unlikely, or do not know how, to treat animals properly eg those with a history of violence.
Further details can be found in the blog of Daisy Chee at http://daisychee.wordpress.com
Please stand up for the welfare of these beautiful animals. Every little effort goes a long way. | <urn:uuid:52e74413-ab8b-4a35-92eb-900e8c03325a> | CC-MAIN-2018-09 | http://youforanimal.com/confronting-animal-cruelty-singapore/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-09/segments/1518891812913.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20180220070423-20180220090423-00160.warc.gz | en | 0.94158 | 891 | 2.703125 | 3 | {
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Nucleotidase is an enzyme, which is involved in the hydrolysis of a nucleotide to form a nucleoside and a phosphate. Due to this role, nucleotidase is known as a hydrolytic enzyme.
Nucleotidase plays a catalytic role in the hydrolysis process, and it converts a number of different nucleotide molecules. When nucleotidase is involved in catalysing the hydrolysis of a nucleotide, this creates a reaction as follows: a nucleotide + H2O forms a nucleoside and a phosphate. This formula can be applied to different reactions, for example converting adenosine monophosphate to adenosine and guanosine monophosphate to guanosine.
Within the body, nucleotidase plays an instrumental in the digestive system, facilitating digestion by breaking down nucleic acids.
Nucleotidase can be categorised into two groups depending on which end is hydrolyzed. These include 5’nucleotidase- also known as NT5C, NT5C1A, NT5C1B, NT5C2, NT5C3 and
3’nucleotidase- also known as NT3
5’nucleotidase is much more commonly spoken about than 3-nucleotidase. This enzyme is responsible for catalysing the phosphorolytic cleavage of 5-nucleotides. Studies suggest that this enzyme was first discovered in snake venom. However, it is found in bacteria and plant cells, as well as in vertebrates.
The primary function of 5’nucleotidase is to convert extracellular nucleotides to nucleosides. An example would be converting 5-AMP into adenosine. Once the reaction has taken place, the adenosine is able to enter almost every cell. In basic terms, nucleotidase plays an integral role in nucleotide metabolism.
The speed at which 5’nucleotidase functions is dependent on the substrate. Studies show that 5’nucleotidase hydrolyzes 5’nucleotides very quickly, with the rate slowing for ribose-5-phosphate and then decelerating even further for additional phosphate esters.
Nucleotidase Structure and mechanisms
Research suggests that the human form of 5’nucleotidase, which doesn’t have a GPI anchor, has a C-terminal, which holds the substrate-binding pouch. The purine motif of the substrate is piled between two residues of phenylalanine. This is the common structure for a soluble form. There are at least four different types of 5’nucleotidase, with 3 soluble forms and one membrane-bound structure. The membrane-bound enzyme is attached to the plasma membrane via a GPI located at the C-terminal. One of the soluble forms seems to be slightly different in that it is linked to a GPI anchor and it has an extracellular position. | <urn:uuid:13bf597b-f253-45d0-9d15-43da372d7c07> | CC-MAIN-2022-27 | https://www.prospecbio.com/nucleotidase | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-27/segments/1656103945490.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20220701185955-20220701215955-00179.warc.gz | en | 0.954256 | 658 | 3.796875 | 4 | {
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Air Conditioning Design Considerations For Light Aircraft
This document provides an overview of the issues involved in designing a successful air conditioning system for light aircraft.
The purpose of any air conditioning system is to move heat from one location to another to provide a more comfortable environment for the occupants of an enclosed space. In the case of light aircraft air conditioning, the goal is to move heat from the aircraft cockpit/cabin to the surrounding atmosphere. This is accomplished by utilizing the unique characteristics of compounds known as refrigerants. Through compression, condensation and rapid expansion of a refrigerant that passes through two heat exchangers (the condenser and the evaporator) heat can be moved from the cabin to the atmosphere.
3.0 DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
The designer of a modern vapor cycle air-conditioning system for light aircraft must resolve a number of conflicting design challenges to achieve the best possible performance. These challenges include; minimum installed weight, acceptable center of gravity location, integrity of structural modifications, minimal aerodynamic drag with maximum cooling capacity, efficiently delivering cooled air to aircraft occupants, minimizing compressor power requirements, minimizing electrical power requirements, ease of installation and ease of maintenance.
In the case of composite aircraft all of the above issues must be addressed with special attention given to the structural problems that may be created by incorporating airframe modifications that include large holes for delivering air to and from the heat exchangers. This is especially important when the air-conditioning system is designed for field installation.
Current Federal EPA regulations require that modern air-conditioning systems use the more environmentally friendly R134A refrigerant instead of the now costly and tightly controlled R12 refrigerant widely used in previous automotive and light aircraft systems. Greater care must be used in designing an R134A-based system because it often must have larger condenser cooling capacity than an R12 system to yield the same cabin temperatures.
4.0 COMPONENTS and LOCATIONS
The refrigerant compressor may be driven mechanically or electrically. Typical mechanically driven installations use a compressor connected by a belt to a pulley mounted to the propeller hub or a pulley attached to an accessory drive. The belt serves a fusible link that prevents damage to the engine should the compressor fail.
In rare cases an electrically driven compressor is used. Use of an electrically driven compressor always results in lower overall system efficiency because mechanical energy must be converted to electrical energy (at the alternator/generator) and then converted back to mechanical energy (at the compressor) with losses occurring at each energy conversion.
The amount of power required to drive the compressor is directly related to compressor capacity and the a/c system internal operating pressure. The higher the system pressure the greater the power required to drive the compressor. System pressure is directly related to the ability of the condenser heat exchanger to transfer the heat removed from the cabin to the atmosphere. Therefore, an efficient condenser installation is mandatory for an efficient use of available power, either mechanical or electrical.
Weight and balance must be considered for all components, especially when selecting a location for the compressor, as it is typically the single heaviest component of an air conditioning system and is often positioned at the nose of the aircraft.
The condenser must be positioned on or in the aircraft so that large amounts of outside air may be delivered to, and exited from, this heat exchanger with a minimum amount of mechanical complexity, power use and aerodynamic drag.
Condenser efficiency is the key component in air conditioning system performance. Insufficient air mass flow through the condenser is the most common cause of poor air conditioner performance. Locating the condenser inside the aircraft (usually in the tail cone) typically requires continuous use of a very large, heavy, high amperage draw fan to move sufficient air across the condenser for the a/c system to function properly using R134A refrigerant. An internal location for the condenser also requires that two large holes (often 6 inches or more in diameter) be cut in the fuselage to allow air to enter and exit the condenser. These holes would be large enough that the integrity of the fuselage shell, composite or aluminum, would be compromised and would require localized reinforcement. This is not desirable for field installations on composite aircraft.
Additionally, when locating the condenser air transfer inlet and exit on the bottom of the fuselage, close attention must be paid to the sealing of the ducts in this type of system to avoid admitting engine exhaust gases into the cockpit (Ref. Airworthiness Directive for the Mooney M20R).
Positioning the condenser outside the aircraft in a self contained aerodynamic fairing/plenum/scoop on the bottom of the fuselage offers several design advantages over internal locations and two possible disadvantages.
Among the advantages are lower installed weight, less cabin noise and vibration, greater C. G. flexibility, lower electrical power requirements, ease of installation and improved condenser performance. When the condenser is mounted in a correctly designed scoop on the bottom of the fuselage it takes advantage of the airflow created by the propeller. Once the aircraft is in flight there is no requirement for a condenser fan thus avoiding the high amperage draw (15-20 amps continuous) and noise associated with condensers and fans mounted inside the aircraft. Locating the condenser outside of the fuselage also avoids the risk of introducing exhaust gases into the cabin by eliminating the requirement for large holes in the belly of the aircraft.
Airflow Systems employs a new style of flexible, light weight small diameter reinforced rubber hose that has been used throughout our systems to provide protection against condensation in the airframe and also reduces the weight of the refrigerant lines and the number of connections required.
Twenty years of aircraft heat exchanger design and manufacturing experience allows Airflow Systems to offer the lightest weight, most efficient light aircraft air-conditioning systems available, with the added benefit of being the easiest to install and maintain. | <urn:uuid:6e24e594-5bd0-456a-a80f-4ade7f8f37f3> | CC-MAIN-2021-31 | https://www.airflow-systems.com/airconditioning/acdesignconsideration/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-31/segments/1627046153931.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20210730025356-20210730055356-00357.warc.gz | en | 0.915605 | 1,217 | 2.921875 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 2.708040714263916,
"reasoning_level": 3,
"interpretation": "Strong reasoning"
} | Science & Tech. |
Artwork and Egyptian Archaeology
The artwork collection in the Lucy Gura archive consists of 344 individual pieces of artwork, mostly watercolours and ink drawings. In large part, these served as documentation of paintings, reliefs, inscriptions and objects from various sites in Egypt. The most frequent sites featured are Deir el-Bahari (174) and Beni Hasan (117).
The most famous artist of the works in this collection, is Howard Carter, who drew 47 watercolours stored in the Lucy Gura Archive. Two of his watercolours are from Deir el-Bahari, while all others were made at Beni Hasan in 1895, mostly documenting decoration of tombs of Amenemhet (tomb 2) and Khnumhotep II (tomb 3).
Another well-known artist represented in the collection, is the founder of Egypt Exploration Fund, Amelia Edwards herself. Although a crucial character in the history of UK Egyptology, today only one of her watercolours, entitled Arab tombs near Siout, is held in the Society’s archive (many more can be found at Somerville College, Oxford and a collection of her artwork is also stored at the Griffith Institute, Oxford).
ART.212, Arab tombs near Siout, Amelia Edwards, 1877 (online record here)
A recent project to catalogue all of the EES artwork, initiated by John Wyatt and Lee Young in 2012, has now completed the full online provision of the collection thanks to the work of Urska Furlan an intern provided by the Erasmus scheme from Ljubljana in Slovenia during summer 2016. Thanks to this project, it is now possible to shed some light on a few lesser known artists in the archives.
The largest amount of drawings from the artwork collection was made by an A. Carthew whose name appears on 115 drawings and watercolours, mostly of scarabs and faience beads from Deir el-Bahari. Who A. Carthew was, remains a slight mystery as her full name is not provided anywhere in the EES artwork sub-archive. She could be Miss Alice Grace Elizabeth Carthew who might have seen and drawn the finds directly in the British Museum and have never actually gone to Egypt. But the scarabs from Deir el-Bahari that are in the British Museum today, could not be directly matched with the drawings from the archive during a recent research trip, so questions about A. Carthew remain unanswered for the moment.
Another contributor is Rosalind Frances Emily Paget who made watercolours, mostly of hieroglyphs, from sites at Deir el-Bahari, Abydos and El-Kab during 1896. Some of her facsimiles were used by Griffith for his publication of Hieroglyphs in 1898 and most of her legacy remains at the Griffith Institute in Oxford. 75 of her watercolours are however stored in the EES archive and are today some of the most beautiful pieces in the artwork collection.
ART.273, [Scene from expedition to Punt], Deir el-Bahari, Rosalind Paget (online record here)
71 drawings of wall paintings from Beni Hasan and El-Bersha were made by Marcus Worsley Blackden who visited the sites as the volunteer member of the Archaeological Survey under Newberry during seasons 1890-1 and 1891-2. Many of the drawings were reproduced in Beni Hasan I, III, IV and El Bersheh I.
Wall paintings from Beni Hasan were copied also by the director of the survey, Percy Edward Newberry. Today the EES archive holds only 5 of his watercolours and all of them are reproduced in Beni Hasan I and III.
Most of the artwork presered at the EES were never intended as purely ‘art’, but instead could be considered archaeological records – though of extraordinary beauty. However, some ‘art’ has made its way into the collection. Examples of such are two views of Abu Simbel made by American painter Henry Bacon.
The Egypt Exploration Society’s collection of artwork relating to archaeological sites in Egypt serves as a valuable resource for researchers wanting to learn more about the colours preserved on Egypt’s monuments when discovered, the themes represented in tombs and temples, or the history of epigraphy in Egyptology. It almost goes without say that, as well as useful to researchers, they’re also rather pleasant to the eye!
Urska Furlan photographing ART.229, Winged Sun-disk, Deir el-Bahari, Rosalind Paget (online record here)
Online access to the artwork sub-archive
Between 2012 and 2016 Lee Young and John Wyatt created a catalogue of the watercolours in the collection in order to ascertain which paintings the Society had and where these might have been published. John’s background as an ornithologist has been instrumental in identifying which animals are represented in many of the paintings. In summer 2016 the Society took on Urska Furlan as an intern to work on the uploading of these records into the online archive catalogue. As well as uploading the records, Urska also digitised the remaining paintings and made these available through the catalogue too.
These records are now available via the amendments (top left) on this record: Artwork sub-archive | <urn:uuid:b8ad0632-3ad2-45dc-8708-544f628170b8> | CC-MAIN-2017-13 | http://ees.ac.uk/archive/Artwork2.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-13/segments/1490218191396.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20170322212951-00283-ip-10-233-31-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965133 | 1,108 | 2.796875 | 3 | {
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On the morning of 24 September 1916, two vast, skeletal wrecks lay sprawled across the Essex countryside – the remains of two of the German naval air service’s newest and most potent weapons. The residents of Little Wigborough and Billericay woke to find the two gargantuan frameworks of zeppelins L33 and L32 broken and defeated in nearby fields. The night before had been one of the most disastrous for the German naval airship fleet, and as the news spread, the night became a turning point in the propaganda war against the ‘Zeppelin Menace’. It’s also a small but important part of my own family history.
In the First World War, naval aviation was a driving force in the development of strategic aerial bombing. In the British forces, the Royal Navy’s sponsorship of the giant Handley Page bombers sowed the seeds of Bomber Command campaign of WW2 (see review of Bloody Paralyser: The Giant Handley Page Bombers in WW1), but before that, the German Navy was able to send huge, lighter-than-air vessels over Britain to bomb towns and cities. The German army also operated zeppelins, and, surprisingly in view of later arguments about the ‘indivisibility of air power’, both services successfully collaborated on joint bombing raids. However, it was the Navy that really took up and ran with the Zeppelin as an offensive weapon, motived by the airship service’s head, Peter Strasser, who was an evangelical advocate of rigid airship warfare. Later in the war the Army passed its airships to the Navy while it concentrated on fixed-wing bombers. The Navy was probably able to use the craft more efficiently, as they were useful for reconnaissance over the North Sea as well as on offensive missions. (See also Naval Aviation in the Battle of Jutland).
The German Navy’s ability to bomb the British homeland virtually with impunity caused serious worry to the British authorities. Early in the war, a daring raid using seaplanes launched from ships in the North Sea attacked zeppelin sheds at Cuxhaven in an attempt to hamper their operations. (The results were modest, but the raid persuaded the German Navy to base its airships further in the rear in case of repeat raids). Defensive measures such as home defence squadrons of fighting aircraft and anti-aircraft artillery directed by large numbers of searchlights were also implemented. However, zeppelins were not easy to defend against. They could fly higher than most fixed-wing aircraft and could fly safely at night in a way high-performance fighters could not. Moreover, they were relatively immune to machine gun fire as their gas capacity was so huge (the ‘R Class’ contained nearly two million cubic feet of hydrogen) they could shrug off the damage a few drums of Lewis Gun ammunition could cause should an aircraft manage to intercept.
As countermeasures developed, so did the zeppelins. In 1915, the German Navy Ministry commissioned a new generation of airships so big they would not fit in the existing sheds, which had to be enlarged or replaced with bigger structures.
The first of the new, six-engined ‘R Class’ zeppelins was the naval airship L30, launched in May 1916. The giant craft quickly gained the soubriquet of ‘super zeppelin’ from the Allies. The new airship was a success in trials and further vessels in the class followed. L30 and her first sisters L31 and L32 took part in raids in August 1916 and early September along with older designs of zeppelin. During a raid on 2 September, the home defence services claimed their first ‘zeppelin’ – actually a plywood-framed Schütte-Lanz airship, shot down by Captain Leefe-Robinson, who was awarded the VC.
The best time for the zeppelins to attack was the period of the new moon, and the next opportunity for the force to make an attack on Britain was the night of the 23 September. By this time, a further ‘R Class’ zeppelin had arrived – L33.
L33 was commissioned on 2 September at Friedrichshafen under Kapitänleutnant der Reserve Aloys Böcker. Five short flights were made by way of trials, before the brand new airship was deemed ready for combat.
Strasser ordered twelve zeppelins to raid targets in England on 23 September. Böcker steered L33 across the North Sea, making landfall at Foulness before heading for London. At 11pm, the airship neared Brentwood and dropped a stick of bombs, some of which fell on a farm and others on an aerodrome, which had flares lit for night flying. L33 continued towards London, but by this time, the city’s defences were aware of the ship’s presence. In fact, defences were already on alert as the Royal Navy’s decoders in Room 40 had intercepted and read messages that revealed when the raid was to take place.
As L33 passed over Bromley-by-Bow and Stratford over the next 40 minutes, releasing 300kg, 100kg and 50kg high explosive bombs and large numbers of incendiaries, the zeppelin was subjected to heavy and accurate anti-aircraft fire. The bombing did serious damage, hitting a timber yard and an oil depot which began to burn so fiercely that other zeppelins miles away reported seeing them as they conducted their own raids. L33 had still not exhausted its bomb load, and dropped the remaining weapons over Bromley at around 00.40 on the morning of the 24th. Homes were damaged and a pub destroyed. Ten people were killed and more were injured, some of them badly.
But the searchlights had L33 pinned, and the airship was subjected to every gun in range. The shrapnel bursts tearing through the fragile gasbags began to take their toll, and one shell even passed right through the hull. Although it did not explode, the shell caused huge damage to the gasbags and duralumin framework. L33, heading East over Essex, was doomed, but miraculously, the zeppelin was still flying and the hydrogen had not ignited. To seal the airship’s fate, a BE2c flown by 2nd Lt Brandon of 39 (Home Defence) Squadron caught sight of the damaged craft and attacked, firing a drum of incendiary ammunition into the already riddled flanks before losing contact in the darkness. Still, L33 kept flying.
After 01.00, L33’s crew started to throw heavy equipment overboard and, when it was clear that the airship could not escape, began to tear up confidential documents and throw them away. At 01.20, the zeppelin was flying so low that when the tail suddenly dropped, it made contact with the ground. The wind blew the airship along for some distance before it finally came to rest by a farmhouse just outside Little Wigborough, not far from Colchester. The crew set fire to the zeppelin, which, remarkably, had still not burned despite everything thrown at it and even a small explosion in the gondola as it hit the ground. There were no casualties among L33’s personnel, and they all handed themselves over to a local policeman who arrived on the scene soon afterwards.
This is where my family history comes to it. My great-grandfather (on my father’s side) lived in Little Wigborough at the time, and, according to my grandmother, having seen the giant airship come down, ran to the site with many other people from the local area and took a small piece of aluminium from the framework. This he had made into a brooch in the shape of a zeppelin, inscribed ‘Zepp L33’, which remains in my family to this day. How accurate this is I’m not sure – a large crowd certainly did converge on the site, some of them there before sunrise. It’s hard to imagine how it must have felt to experience what greeted them – a framework 650 ft long and 80ft high, over 100 ft longer than Canterbury cathedral and as high as its nave, appearing outside their village.
A few locals did take souvenirs, even brass instruments and large sections of girder, but soon after L33 came down it was surrounded by a cordon of soldiers who prevented most people getting to the site. The authorities realised that a substantially complete zeppelin having fallen was a huge coup, and the last thing they needed was for the great skeleton and any remaining instruments and equipment to be stripped by souvenir hunters, so police and soldiers went round the area later that day demanding the return of anything taken from the wreck. There were even prosecutions of people who had taken anything and not returned it. When the Admiralty had had the chance to thoroughly inspect and record the details of the wreck, it was broken up, and small pieces of it were sold to raise money for the Red Cross. It was probably at this stage that my relative acquired his piece of L33.
The story of L33’s sister, L32, is much shorter for reasons that will become apparent. In the case of L33, we have the accounts of the crew of their voyage, crash and what happened to them afterwards. In the case of L32, we have none of this, as there were no survivors. What we do know is that the prior knowledge of the raid meant that the airship was located before it could get over London and bracketed by a great many searchlights. This enabled Captain Frederick Sowrey of 39 Squadron, flying a BE2c, to acquire the target and he attacked the airship, firing three drums of incendiary ammunition at it from close range. In contrast with Brandon’s attack on L33, Sowrey’s assault on L32 was devastatingly effective. The hydrogen caught fire and soon the whole reservoir was burning, a vast pyre in the night sky sinking slowly to earth. It landed at South Green Farm near Billericay. The structure of the airship was far more badly damaged than that of L33, but the crew had not even had time to destroy their confidential documents, and an intact code book was found in the gondola.
The destruction of not one but two airships had a huge effect on the population’s morale. The loss of SL11 could have been put down to a fluke, but for the home defence services to claim two of the giants in a single raid so soon after the first showed that the zeppelins were now genuinely vulnerable and could not expect to stage further raids without incurring heavy losses. The relative completeness of L33 was a huge boost to Britain’s naval airship designers, who had been struggling to match the German craft. The Admiralty commissioned several ships that were largely straight copies of L33 – R33 and R34 were built as such with a few slight improvements, while L36 was further modified when a more modern zeppelin was shot down and could be examined later in the war.
A few weeks later, L31 was shot down too. While ‘R Class’ zeppelins were built until the middle of 1918 – they were still extremely good maritime reconnaissance platforms – it was clear to all (except possibly Strasser) that they were too vulnerable for bombing missions. In Germany, the ‘height climber’ zeppelin was developed, sacrificing speed and structural strength for light weight that would enable it to fly above the ceiling of aeroplanes and the range of anti-aircraft guns. In Britain, a wave of publicity greeted the defeat of the zeppelin force, with postcards and special souvenir editions of newspapers marking the September 23-24 victories in joyful style. A baby born near L33’s final resting place on the night of the attack was even named ‘Zeppelina’.
The first and only raid of L33 has fascinated me ever since I first heard about it, and I have been lucky enough to acquire some pieces of memorabilia related to this and other zeppelins forced down in England. A century later, the vast German airships still have the power to captivate.
Ray Rimmell, Zeppelin: Vol.2, Windsock, 2008 (this volume contains a wealth of information about the life and demise of L33 as well as the other R-class zeppelins, and is highly recommended to anyone with an interest in rigid airships)
Douglas H. Robinson, Giants of the Sky: A History of the Rigid Airship, Foulis 1973
Len Deighton and Arnold Schwartzman, Airshipwreck, Henry Holt & Co 1979 | <urn:uuid:94639fd7-ebb2-4b48-8340-2824a12b723a> | CC-MAIN-2022-49 | https://navalairhistory.com/2016/09/23/the-night-the-zeppelin-fell-to-earth-ww1-centenary/?replytocom=3585 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-49/segments/1669446710933.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20221203143925-20221203173925-00053.warc.gz | en | 0.982545 | 2,657 | 3.25 | 3 | {
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Excessive TV viewing can have harmful effects for both children and adults. Watching hours of TV can create physical problems for viewers. Violent images can affect adults- but are particularly harmful to children.
The impact of TV viewing on children
Kidshealth.org comments on studies by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). The AAP recommends that children over the age of 2 years old watch no more than 2 hours of quality programming a day.
The studies categorize three problem areas for kids who watch too much TV:
· Physical issues: Watching hours of TV each day interferes with other healthy activities. Children watching too much TV are less physically active and may be overweight. This group also spends less time on reading, homework and interacting with family.
· Social development: According to WebMD, more than 2 hours of TV a day can impact the social development of children between 2 ½ and 5 ½ years old. A John Hopkins study found that children watching excessive amounts of TV had attention deficit issues. Children in the study who were older than 5 ½ years old had fewer social skills if they watched too much TV.
· Violence: Kids who watch hours of TV may be exposed to many types of violent images in TV programming. These children may express more aggressive behavior than kids who watch less TV.
· Risky Behavior: Watching TV may also expose children to characters who depict risky behavior. Kids may see characters smoking, drinking and reinforcing stereotypes. Children may decide that these types of risky behaviors are acceptable, based on what they see on TV.
Anti-drug messages on TV
Children are exposed to a variety of anti-drug messages, some of which they see on TV. Many of these messages play on people’s fears and are intended to scare the viewer into avoiding drug use.
As this surprising report on anti-drug campaigns points out, the federal government and other entities have been producing drug prevention campaigns on TV since the 1970s. The “Just Say No” campaign, among others, was heavily promoted.
The report explains that many of these campaigns were not well researched or properly executed. Other approaches have been more successful in preventing drug use. For example, community engagement and the use of mentors have generated results.
There may be other factors that have a bigger impact on decisions about drug use. Family history and parental involvement may influence a person’s decision about drug use, but determining a cause and effect relationship is difficult.
In spite of decades of anti-drug campaigns, the report states that overall drug use has doubled since 1992.
TV as a learning and development tool
Limited use of TV can be a learning tool for children. The first two years of a child’s life is critical to brain development. TV and other electronics encourage a child to explore and play.
Using technology can also allow a child to increase their interaction with other people. As kids grow, they may learn the alphabet or develop an interest in science through TV programs. Television is also a primary source of news and information for both kids and adults.
If TV use is limited, the technology can be an important tool for a child’s development. | <urn:uuid:45a3c904-c9ba-45ec-a564-0f845f3ce2d6> | CC-MAIN-2019-13 | https://blastmagazine.com/2014/07/01/limiting-tv-use-for-young-children/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-13/segments/1552912207618.95/warc/CC-MAIN-20190327020750-20190327042750-00232.warc.gz | en | 0.955629 | 650 | 3.421875 | 3 | {
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Baboons are not as lionized in the popular imagination as chimpanzees, primarily because baboons are not cute. (Nor are they endangered.) But they’re advanced primates, and by studying them we can learn a lot about how our own ancestors must have lived and behaved.
I’ve been reading a fascinating book called Baboon Metaphysics, by Dorothy Cheney and Robert Seyfarth. They have spent literally years studying a troop of baboons in the wild, in the baboons’ native habitat in Africa. The main purpose of this study has been to learn how baboons understand the world, and in particular how they see and relate to other baboons.
I’m not going to try to summarize the whole book here. The point that I’m pondering today is this: Unlike humans, baboons seem not to have a “theory of mind.” That is, their behavior seldom or never seems to take into account what other baboons may be seeing, thinking, or feeling.
Human social interactions, in contrast, are almost always based on our considerations of other people’s perceptions. Years ago, I read a comment — I don’t remember where — to the effect that all human conversation, every utterance we make in a social setting, is an attempt to influence the thinking, and thus the behavior, of others. But in order to even consider that influencing others would be useful, we need as a prerequisite to have a view of the world that incorporates the notion that others have thoughts and perceptions, and that their thoughts and perceptions may be quite different from our own.
You may think this view of social conversation is too extreme. (See, there I go — forming a theory about what you may think!) But as simple a question as, “How are you?” presupposes that the person you’re facing has an interior state that is not immediately observable. You’re asking for information about that state, and the reason you’re asking is because you feel a need to synchronize your thoughts and feelings with the other person’s in some manner.
How and why might this human ability have evolved? Clearly, it did evolve. At some point our remote ancestors, who were a lot like baboons, didn’t have it, and at a later point they did, so it must have conferred some selective advantage. I have no clear ideas about this; I’m going to have to think about it. Clearly, the ability is not necessary for survival in the wild in Africa, because the baboons are doing fine without it.
It seems to me that the ability to form a theory about another person’s mental state is closely linked to the use of language. Language is what gives us fine-grained access to others’ mental states, and also gives them access to ours. Language is not necessary for the basic perception of others’ states; you can judge a lot by facial expression and other cues. But in order to form a judgment, you need to have the idea that there’s something to judge, and language provides a much better means than simple observation for learning what’s going on in another person’s mind.
But did complex language evolve first and then a perception that others have interior mental states evolve as a result? Or was it the other way around — did language perhaps evolve as a tool with which to allow us to trade information about our mental states, when we had already developed the ability to know that those states existed?
I incline toward the latter view. I also suspect that the use of primitive stone tools is part of the equation. Many species, even parrots, can use tools opportunistically when the need arises and a tool is handy, and chimpanzees will make a tool out of raw materials if they need it, by stripping the twigs off of a stick, for instance. But while a young chimp may learn how to make a tool by watching her parent make one, it’s not likely that a chimp mother ever sets out to teach tool-making to a youngster.
That would require a theory of mind: It would require the perception, “I know something that my child doesn’t know.” Clearly, if you have such a perception and are moved to act on it, you’re increasing the likelihood that your child will survive long enough to have offspring. That’s one possible route by which a theory of mind might have evolved. Once you start knocking flakes off of rocks so as to form a sharp edge, teaching your children how to do it becomes an evolutionary highway that leads straight to cultivation of crops, gunpowder, the Internet, and lots of other cool stuff. | <urn:uuid:454c6fa0-4ac4-4542-9b80-2dffb29f76d9> | CC-MAIN-2016-18 | https://midiguru.wordpress.com/2013/01/02/what-about-you/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-18/segments/1461860116878.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20160428161516-00156-ip-10-239-7-51.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966748 | 986 | 3.015625 | 3 | {
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} | Science & Tech. |
Effective protection: selecting a respirator
What is the relationship between OSHA permissible exposure limits/maximum use concentrations and assigned protection factors?
Responding is Bruce Schorer, consultant, OHD LLLP, Hoover, AL.
OSHA’s Hazard Communication Standard (1910.1200, Appendix D) requires that Safety Data Sheets list not only the relevant OSHA permissible exposure limits, but also the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists threshold limit values and any other exposure limits used or recommended by the chemical manufacturer, importer or employer preparing a hazardous materials SDS.
Historically, most of the PELs contained in the Z-Tables of 29 CFR 1910.1000 were adopted from existing federal standards for general industry. These, in turn, were adopted from the 1968 TLVs of ACGIH.
NIOSH offers a pocket guide that lists its recommended exposure levels as well as the OSHA PELs.
Additionally, some respirator manufacturers provide selection guides that list occupational exposure limits, including but not limited to the OSHA PELs, ACGIH TLVs, NIOSH RELs, etc. Think of these manufacturers as “the NIOSH Approval-Holders.”
To ensure effective respiratory protection, zero in on all current edition OELs knowing a PEL may or may not exist for a specific compound. This is essential to calculating the maximum use concentration and the appropriate level of protection for the wearer.
Definitions: OSHA 29 CFR 1910.134
“Assigned Protection Factor” is the workplace level of respiratory protection that a respirator or class of respirators is expected to provide to employees when the employer implements a continuing, effective respiratory protection program as specified by this section.
“Maximum Use Concentration” is the maximum atmospheric concentration of a hazardous substance from which an employee can be expected to be protected when wearing a respirator, and is determined by the APF of the respirator or class of respirators and the exposure limit of the hazardous substance.
The MUC usually can be determined mathematically by multiplying the APF specified for a respirator by the PEL, short-term exposure limit, ceiling limit, peak limit or any other exposure limit used for the hazardous substance. The MUC for respirators is calculated by multiplying the APF for the respirator by the PEL. The MUC is the upper limit at which the class of respirator is expected to provide protection. Whenever the exposures approach the MUC, the employer should select the next higher class of respirators (higher APF) for workers. Beware that some publications may refer to calculating the “hazard ratio” vs. MUC.
“Employers must not apply MUCs to conditions that are immediately dangerous to life or health (IDLH); instead, they must use respirators listed for IDLH conditions,” states OSHA Ref: 29 CFR 1910.134 – MUC.
Additionally, in today’s changing world, the same respirator face piece may be assigned to an individual for multiple uses, including but not limited to toxic industrial materials and/or for response to an IDLH environment and/or use in chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive applications.
Once a respirator has been selected with an adequate APF, the program manager of the respiratory protection program must ensure effective training is executed, as well as fit testing, in accordance with OSHA 29 CFR 1910.134. Follow-up training and fit testing must be scheduled as well to maintain user confidence and protection. Finally, do not hesitate to solicit support from OSHA, NIOSH and the manufacturers of respirators and fit-testing apparatus. These sources are willing to contribute their knowledge to your respirator program to make it a successful one.
Editor's note: This article represents the independent views of the author and should not be construed as a National Safety Council endorsement. | <urn:uuid:fffdcf4d-be49-499c-8d57-7a5f3201003c> | CC-MAIN-2020-29 | https://www.safetyandhealthmagazine.com/articles/16148-effective-protection-selecting-a-respirator | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-29/segments/1593655924908.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20200711064158-20200711094158-00119.warc.gz | en | 0.903061 | 813 | 2.640625 | 3 | {
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In 1994, a 24-year-old programmer named Lou Montolli wrote a document describing how an internet browser could store data to remember that Wile E. Coyote had ordered a rocket launcher from the Acme Corporation. This was the first ever description of a “persistent client state object” – better known as a cookie.
Cookies are used to track consumers by seeing the web pages they’ve viewed and the links they’ve clicked on. But they’re slowly being removed from the fabric of the internet.
It’s why Apple blocked all third-party cookies from Safari in 2020, Firefox has blocked some since 2019, and Google announced that its Chrome browser will start blocking third-party cookies from 2023.
For businesses, the changes won’t be affecting any first-party data, and they can still see who’s using their website and where they came from. Instead, it’s the third-party data that’s still changing – the data tracked on other websites that aren’t our own. Think of it as the data that tells you what I searched for on Amazon, or the shoes I might buy for my upcoming holiday.
Google’s Chromium blog claims that “Users are demanding greater privacy – including transparency, choice and control over how their data is used – and it’s clear the web ecosystem needs to evolve to meet these increasing demands.”
But what do consumers really think about their online privacy?
1. Privacy attitudes have stayed stable over time but older generations are more conscious than others
In the past month, 45% of consumers say they’ve cleared their cookies or browser history, and a further 21% have disabled or turned off cookies in their settings.
Privacy is clearly very important to people, but concern about it isn’t something we’ve seen grow much in the past few years. Consumer attitudes are actually pretty stable.
And if we take a look even further back into our data from 2017, privacy concerns still remain steady. Things changed slightly in 2018 in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal – privacy concerns rose 11% after the news broke (at a time when GDPR was also front-page news), but then stabilized soon after.
So, privacy concerns may have been consistent in recent years, but they can flare up when it starts to get mainstream attention.
It’s not something people think about every day, but at certain times, can provoke a strong reaction from consumers under the right circumstances.
However, concerns can vary by generation, with older consumers being more privacy-conscious than their younger counterparts.
Baby boomers are more likely than younger generations to say they worry about how their personal data is being used and are less likely to feel in control of their personal data.
This explains why this generation stands out the most for wanting brands to be transparent about how they collect and use data, which ranks fourth in importance out of a list of 12 brand actions.
2. Consumers are turning to more privacy-minded alternatives
Consumers’ awareness of cookies and privacy has led to more privacy-focused internet browsers and services emerging. DuckDuckGo, for example, offers users a private searching experience with no ad-trackers and smarter encryption. And it’s clearly becoming popular, as use of it in the US has increased by 69% since Q2 2020.
Why such a growth, especially when attitudes haven’t changed? It appears that the majority of users of DuckDuckGo are individuals who are more likely to use ad-blockers, private browsing, VPNs, and delete their cookies at least occasionally. All told, very privacy-conscious people.
Attitudes to privacy may be stable across the general population, but consumers who are the most concerned about protecting their privacy are clearly in the market for services that protect their personal data.
3. Demographics can impact privacy behaviors
How much people care about their privacy online also depends on demographics – males and high earners are more likely to use private browsing and decline cookies.
Specific privacy behaviors like declining cookies on a website and clearing browsing history are fairly similar across generations.
Of those who do use an ad-blocker, baby boomers are more likely to use one because they don’t feel ads are relevant to them – which makes sense given they’re the least likely generation to say they feel represented in the advertising they see.
Younger generations, on the other hand, are more likely to use an ad-blocker to stop any inappropriate content being shown.
4. Opinions about cookie pop-ups are divided
Consumers react to cookie prompts in three different ways. In 9 markets, just over half say they always accept all cookies or the default settings they’re presented with when they visit a website.
Around a third say they change the settings for some or all cookie types, while 6% decline or leave the website altogether.
There’s clearly a conflict in consumers there, where some either care or don’t mind while the rest are confused.
Among the cookie decliners, their most distinctive feelings are that the pop-ups make their online experience less enjoyable – for these people the feeling of managing settings or trying to work out which ones to choose is upsetting the process of browsing too much.
The setting changers are the confused ones in the bunch. They’re most likely to feel that the relevant privacy information is hard to find, or that the information which is provided is unclear or full of jargon.
It seems that while cookie banners were designed to give more people control over their personal data, they’ve ended up being annoying, confusing, and doing little to protect privacy.
Banners are set up so that the fastest way to make them go away is just to accept all the cookies.
Finally, the cookie acceptors are most likely to not really have an opinion about them. This group feels either indifferent or empowered by cookie pop-ups, as they feel like they have more control over their data.
5. Transparency is key when it comes to data sharing
Tracking is one thing, but willingly sharing data is another.
When it comes to sharing data, around half want a clear understanding of how their data will be protected and used, as well as the assurance that their data won’t be shared with third parties.
While 61% would rather keep their data and pay for services, the remaining 39% could be swayed by free trials of services or free samples of products.
With 46% in the US wishing they knew more about how their data was being used, it’s possible that individuals may be more open to sharing their data if companies made this information more accessible – transparency is key.
When it comes to who consumers trust to protect their privacy and personal data, the public sector and government come out on top out of a list of 12 for over a third of consumers.
However, this does greatly depend on which country we’re looking at. Out of 9 markets, the US has the least trust in the government, with only 13% feeling this way. Consumers in the US are much more likely to trust healthcare and financial services.
However, consumers may be more trusting around data if companies are clearer about what they’re going to do with it.
- Consumer attitudes toward privacy are pretty stable over time. While there may be events that change attitudes a little, they’re pretty fickle. Those who are privacy-conscious are likely to always be, those who aren’t might be swayed, but only temporarily. Although attitudes are stable over time, there are generational differences, with baby boomers being more concerned about how companies are using their data.
- Demographics do matter – they show how likely someone is to be privacy-conscious, while generational behaviors around ad-blockers tell us how advertising is often missing the mark among older generations.
- Consumers still haven’t decided how they feel about cookie pop-ups – those who accept them don’t really have an opinion or think they make them feel more in control. Those who decline them all find they disturb their browsing experience. The individuals who change some of the settings appear to be the most confused, they feel the right information is hard to find or just full of jargon.
- Data sharing is a complex issue. But it appears that if consumers felt there was more transparency about how brands use their data, they might be more willing to share it. | <urn:uuid:228ef82c-2958-4ceb-80dd-77d0632219f3> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | https://blog.gwi.com/chart-of-the-week/5-online-privacy-trends/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233506480.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20230923094750-20230923124750-00845.warc.gz | en | 0.959805 | 1,772 | 2.59375 | 3 | {
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Al Gore has won the Nobel Peace Prize to the cheers of climate change campaigners around the world. However, the decision raises several questions about what the Nobel Committee is hoping to achieve and the direction in which they want to take the award.
An Inconvenient Truth is a brilliant piece of film-making. It has raised awareness of climate change issues around the world. But what has peace got to do with climate change? Well, many people believe that future wars will be fought as a result of climate change. If climate change accelerates at the rate which Gore's film claims, natural resources will be at even more of a premium than they are today. In fact, the Darfur conflict, which began in 2003, is now widely seen as the first climate change war, with herders and farmers clashing over shrinking fertile lands in the region.
The counter-argument is that limiting industrial production in developing countries to reduce greenhouse gases would also lead to poverty, a scramble for resources and possible conflict.
Conservatives are outraged by Gore's Laureate. Commentators point to the fact that, according to a ruling from a British judge last week, An Inconvenient Truth contains nine scientific errors and is guilty of "alarmism and exaggeration". It was, the judge said, "a political film". The American Right does not want to acknowledge climate change because of the repercussions for large-scale industry.
Such self-interest is not helpful in a critical debate. However, it is a valid criticism that the Nobel Committee is making a political statement by endorsing one side of a fierce global debate. It is a swipe at Bush ahead of the UN conference on climate change in December.
Whatever the benefits of An Inconvenient Truth to the climate change debate, Gore cannot be a serious Nobel choice because he has made one film — the success of which is largely down to Hollywood. It is a media choice.
Al Gore is a good man with a worthy message, but he has not dedicated his life to the pursuit of peace. His film transformed him from presidential candidate to global celebrity and darling of the Hollywood green brigade.
In 1895, Alfred Nobel created the prize to honour "the person who shall have done the most for fraternity between the nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses."
A glance at previous Peace Laureates — with the exception of the ludicrous selection of Yasser Arafat in 1994 — fit these criteria. In 2005, the award went to the International Atomic Energy Agency for their efforts over 50 years in preventing nuclear energy being used for military purposes. In 2000, Kim Dae Jung took the prize for a lifetime spent working for peace and reconciliation in North Korea. 1998 saw John Hume and David Trimble share the award. They are political rivals, but the Committee recognised that both had spent years striving for a peaceful solution to the Northern Ireland problem. In 1993, Nelson Mandela and FW de Klerk took the gong for ending apartheid.
Incidentally, Mahatma Gandhi was nominated five times. He was rejected on grounds that he was "neither a real politician nor a humanitarian relief worker," yet today the star of a film gets the nod.
One piece of work, no matter how worthy, should not qualify for the Nobel. Jimmy Carter, winner in 2002, spent decades producing research and publications campaigning for peace. The Carter Center has, for over twenty years, pursued peaceful solutions to global conflicts and his presidency was defined by securing peace between Israel and Egypt. No red carpets or sharing stages with Cameron Diaz here.
So, were there more worthy contenders this year? Certainly any other choice would not have generated so many headlines, but perhaps better qualify in the promotion of peace.
Irena Sendler is a 97-year-old Polish Catholic and was nominated for saving 2,500 Jews during the Holocaust. Ex-Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari is noted for his international peace work in former Yugoslavia. Shih Ming-The was nominated for his efforts to bring democracy to Taiwan after a life of persecution.
Gore's Laureate broadens the scope of what was originally created as a peace prize and narrows the dedication and long-term impact that used to be prerequisites for the prize. As for Gore himself, he has an Oscar and a Nobel Peace Prize. Could the White House now be within his grasp? I hope so — then maybe he can win the Laureate again in 20 years with a history of concrete achievement under his belt. | <urn:uuid:c050bff0-dd1f-477b-b0e9-73735e9d85f0> | CC-MAIN-2017-17 | http://www.hindustantimes.com/world/ozone-holes-in-gore-s-prize/story-UnMuuR40CoxsQYwdRPVN6N.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-17/segments/1492917120844.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20170423031200-00450-ip-10-145-167-34.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968041 | 924 | 2.5625 | 3 | {
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- Open Access
Estimation of conservation value of myrtle (Myrtus communis) using a contingent valuation method: a case study in a Dooreh forest area, Lorestan Province, Iran
Forest Ecosystems volume 2, Article number: 30 (2015)
Around 2000 plant species occur naturally in Lorestan Province of which 250 species are medicinal and myrtle is one of them. Myrtle is a shrub whose leaves and fruits have medicinal value and thus, if managed and harvested properly, could produce sustained economic benefits. In recent years, however, over half of the myrtle site areas was destroyed, due to inappropriate management and excessive harvesting practices. Thus, coming up with a practical harvesting approach along with identifying those factors damaging the sites, seems to be very crucial.
In our investigation, we calculated the conservation value per hectare of myrtle in the Dooreh forest area in Lorestan Province. Using the Contingent Valuation (CV) and Double Bounded Dichotomous Choice (DBDC) methods, we determined the willingness to pay (WTP) for myrtle conservation. The WTP was estimated with a logit model for which indices were obtained based on a maximum precision criterion.
The results showed that 86.67 per cent of people were willing to pay for the conservation of these myrtle sites. Average monthly WTP per family was calculated as $0.79. The annual conservation value in terms of WTP for the preservation of the myrtle sites in Dooreh was estimated as $102,525. Among the variables of the model presented, education had a positive impact, while the amount proposed for payment and family size had a negative impact on the WTP.
Our estimate of the value of myrtle conservation should provide justification for policy makers and decision making bodies of natural resources to implement policies in order to conserve the natural sites of this species more effectively.
Non-timber forest products are goods of biological origin other than timber, derived from forests, other wooded areas and trees outside forests (FAO Forestry 1999). In this context non-timber forest products include all kinds of animals, resin, tannin, medicinal and industrial plants and non-food products including materials or plant parts having medicinal properties, are edible and of industrial use (Noubissie et al. 2008). In recent years, issues related to non-timber forest products, particularly the conservation of their natural habitat as well as their production, has attracted considerable interest in the world. The main reasons are the role of these products in providing livelihood and food for rural communities in order to reduce poverty along with supporting various environmental goals such as conservation of biodiversity (FAO Forestry 1999). Non-timber forest products (NTFPs) are accepted as a veritable means of achieving poverty alleviation because of their role in sustaining this livelihood, for food security and environmental objectives such as biodiversity conservation (FAO Forestry 1999).
Valuation of NTFPs has received a great deal of attention (Lindal 1994). Many attempts have been made to value these non-marketed forest products to their full extent, especially the NTFPs. Extraction and increased trade of NTFPs has been advocated as an alternative to timber-focused utilization on the grounds that it could be pursued without causing tropical deforestation. Consequently, NTFPs are thought to be capable of playing a constructive role in forest conservation and development. This assumes that their harvest, even at a commercial level, would have little or no adverse ecological impact on a forest. This can be questioned, however, since the impact on the forest ecosystem of an increase in harvesting NTFPs is not fully known (Gunatilake et al. 2006; Peters 1994). Lescuyer (1996) argues that the establishment of a monetary value for each NTFPs leads to a change in the modes of use of the resource which, in turn, can cause or accelerate a process of restrictive appropriation of these resources. In many parts of the world, NTFPs provide off-farm employment to a large part of the rural population and accounts for a considerable share of household income. These resources are essential, especially for the rural poor and women, and may, in some cases, provide them with the only source of personal income (Rodda 1991; Falconer 1996). But economic problems may sometimes result in increasing the harvest of those NTFPs that have higher values, particularly those that can be sold on the international market. This is the kind of situation that may sometimes result in very high costs in terms of damage to forest ecosystems (Kengen 1997).
Conservation valuation seeks to create awareness about the need for decisions to optimize the economic management of resources and assists the development of a strategy for sustainable development in a region. Valuation of environmental services and functions is important for a number of reasons, such as: 1) recognizing and understanding of environmental and ecological interests by humans, 2) providing environmental issues to decision makers and country planning experts and 3) providing the link between economic policies and income derived from natural resources.
Economic valuation of natural and environmental resources includes two categories, i.e., use values and non-use values (Pearce and Pearce 2001; Molaei 2009). Use values are associated with the consumption of products, while non-use values are related to enhancement of their utility to people without direct consumption of the products. Non-use values which reflect the concept of conservation consist of existence values, bequest values and option values. Existence value refers to the intrinsic value of a resource, even if people have never seen or used the resource (Torras 2000). Bequest value or future generation value is the desirability resulting from knowledge in preserving natural resources for future generations (Pearce and Pearce 2001). Option value measures the preference of individuals to preserve natural resources for possible future use (Lee and Han 2002). Alternatively, existence value can be considered the willingness of a society to pay for the conservation of natural resources, bequest value may be understood as the willingness to pay (WTP) for conservation of resources for the benefit of future generations, while option value can be defined as the willingness of society to pay for the conservation of resources for possible future use (Lee and Han 2002).
Researchers have attempted to estimate forest conservation values using various approaches. For example, Echeverria et al. (1995) estimated the value of existence benefits in Costa Rica’s forests, based on a Contingent Valuation (CV) method and came up with a value of $238 per hectare of forest per year. Lehtonen et al. (2003) estimated the average conservation value of forests in southern Finland in terms of the willingness to pay at $23.80 per household per year, using CV in conjunction with Double Bounded Dichotomous questionnaires and a logit regression model. In another study, Leong et al. (2005) studied the conservation value of forests in mountainous areas of Malaysia and estimated conservation values ranging from 20 to 27 Ringgits per individual respondent. Gurluk (2006) used a Contingent Valuation approach to study the value of ecosystem services in a region in Turkey and estimated it at $76.94 per year per household. Tao et al. (2012), also using a CV method, estimated the annual household willingness to pay for conservation of Heshui forest ecosystems in China’s Jiangshi Province at 238 Yuan per year. Molaei in (2009) used a Contingent Valuation method to assess the conservation value of Arasbaran forest ecosystems and showed that 81.7 % of the people from this area were willing to pay some money for conservation of the forest ecosystem. They estimated the annual WTP for the conservation of these forest ecosystems at about $3.31 per household and $197.32Footnote 1 per hectare of forest land. Peron and Esmaeili (2010) used the Contingent Valuation approach to estimate the conservation value of mangrove forests in Hormozgan province in Iran and found that 92 % of the respondents were willing to pay some money to conserve these mangrove forests. They estimated the average conservation value per individual at $12.65 and at $76.94 per hectare of forest.
Although many investigations have been carried out to estimate the conservation value of forest resources, studies on the conservation valuation of forest resources for non-timber forest products, similar to ours, are very limited. For example, Chukwuone and Okorji (2008) used CV method to estimate annual willingness to pay per person for systematic management of forest communities in Nigeria and concluded that people were willing to pay $55.40 for conservation of their forest for non-timber forest products. Khosravi and Sabouhi (2011), used the same method to estimate the annual conservation value for all tamarisk trees in the Fahliyan riparian area in province of Fars in Iran at $4588. In the same study they estimated the monthly conservation value of each tamarisk tree at $0.163. Molaei and Kavousi Kelashmi (2011) using the same technique, but with a One-Half Bound format, estimated the conservation value of the chandelier lily at $0.192 based on a linear model and $0.285 with a logarithmic model.
Our investigation dealt with myrtle (Myrtus communis L.) forest sites in Dooreh, a city in Lorestan Province, Iran. Myrtle, as a non-timber forest product, is an evergreen medicinal plant. It belongs to the family Myrtaceae and is found naturally in many parts of the province. This valuable shrub forms dense populations at low elevations at some of its natural habitats. Given its ability to grow and develop in some unfavorable circumstances, such as warm climates, myrtle is one of those plants that plays a significant role in the conservation of its environmental habitat. This plant contains two important volatile oil substances, i.e., Myrtenol and Depantyn, which are very valuable to the pharmaceutical industry and thus, potentially myrtle can play an important role in the local economy (Makkizadeh Tafti et al. 2006). As well, this species, is of importance in maintaining environmental sustainability in semiarid regions. Because of its evergreen features it helps to make the landscape more attractive and aids the restoration of natural ecosystems (Salehnia 2008).
Unfortunately, due to excessive harvesting, dense natural stands of myrtle are nonexistent. However, reforestation and afforestation of this plant have been proposed as feasible options. These are effective strategies to increase employment, support the regional pharmaceutical industry and increase family incomes in the community (Mirabad et al. 2011). The Khorraman Pharmaceutical Company is operating as a monopoly for it is the only pharmaceutical industry in the province that uses myrtle oil extracts to produce herbal medicines such as Belfarol, Myrtol, Rectol and Aphtoplex. Each year, an average of nearly 120 t of myrtle is harvested by rural people in the region and sold to this company, resulting in a significant increase in the income of rural households, accounting for 63.38 per cent of their total monthly income during the harvest months (Amiri 2013). Frequent and excessive harvesting of myrtle shrubs by villagers, without training and knowledge of the species and its proper harvesting operation, inflict a great deal of damage on the habitat of this species (Amiri, 2013). This is consistent with the earlier findings by Karimi (2012), who reported that nearly half of the myrtle habitat was destroyed or converted into agricultural lands and the remaining half showed a dramatic decline in productivity. Overall, observations on the distribution of myrtle in Dooreh and interviews conducted with local people, have shown that the most important factors contributing to the destruction of the myrtle forest sites in order of importance are: 1) a lack of sound management practices and/or management incompetence, 2) excessive harvesting practices by the Khorraman Pharmaceutical Company to produce herbal medicines, 3) excessive harvesting practices and management by villagers for personal consumption and burning of myrtle habitats for the purpose of changing myrtle sites into agricultural land, 4) improper harvest operations by unskilled individuals, 5) lack of expertise in conservation of myrtle forests and their management, 6) weather condition in recent years and 7) excessive harvesting of myrtle branches for feeding livestock (Amiri 2013) (Fig. 1).
The purpose of our study was to estimate the conservation value of the myrtle habitat in Dooreh in order to provide the means and justification for forest policy makers and managers to support conservation of the habitat of this species and to stop its current horrifying destruction. Clearly, due to its various benefits, more attention need to be devoted and resources allocated to restore these damaged and destroyed myrtle habitats.
The study area
Our investigation was conducted in a single stand of myrtle located in Dooreh, Lorestan province. The city is located in the western part of the province, 36 km from the provincial capital, Khorramabad, at longitude 48°02’17” and latitude 33°39’56”, at an elevation of 1118 m (Fig. 2).
Contingent valuation method
We used a Contingent Valuation method (CVM) to estimate the conservation value of myrtle forests in the Dooreh area. In this method a hypothetical market is assumed in which contingent questionnaires are distributed among respondents and completed in their presence or delivered by mail. The respondents are asked about their Willingness to Pay (WTP) for the quality and level of improvement of environmental products, or about their Willingness to Accept (WTA) a loss from inflicting damage to their resources (Bohm 1972; Dahlberg 1974; Hanemann 1991; Bateman & Willis 1999).
Double- bounded questionnaires are used to measure WTP. This method was first proposed in 1979 by Bishop and Heberlin (Venkatachalam 2003). In their approach, respondents were faced with a choice of either “Yes” or “No” with respect to a proposed price in a hypothetical market (Venkatachalam 2003). Hahnemann (1985) modified and adjusted the Double- bounded Choice and proposed a Double- bounded Dichotomous Choice (DDC) method. This method requires determining one higher price proposed for the respondents in addition to the initially lower price proposal. Proposing the higher price depends on the initial responses or to their feedback on the initially proposed lower price (Venkatachalam 2003).
The first section of the questionnaire contained questions regarding socio-economic aspects of individual respondents, such as age, gender, occupation, education, place of residence, family size, income and membership in environmental organizations. The main questions, relating the WTP on the part of the respondents for conservation of myrtle in Dooreh, i.e., those related to the acceptance or rejection of the bids for willingness to pay, were introduced in a Double- bounded Dichotomous Choice format. Forty questionnaires were initially completed in which open questions, without any proposed prices for willingness to pay, were asked. Thus, according to the preliminary information obtained from these questionnaires, the proposed prices were determined as 20,000 Rials for the main bid, 10,000 Rials for the lower and 30,000 Rials for the upper bid.
In order to derive the model for estimating WTP, it was assumed that the individual respondent either accepted the proposed price for conservation value to maximize his utility as described below (Eq. 1) or, alternatively, rejected it (Hanemann 1984).
Where U is respondent, Y his/her income, A the proposed price, S the socio-economic features affected by his/her taste and ∈ 1, ∈ 0 are independent random variables with a zero mean. The utility difference (ΔU) due to using an environmental resource, is described as follows (Eq. 2):
ΔU > 0 implies the respondent maximizes his or her utility by saying “yes” and would agree to pay the amount for conservation of the myrtle (Park and Loomis 1996). The format of the double bounded questionnaire in CVM has a dependent variable with dual choice, which requires a qualitative choice model. In general, for studying regression models with a dual choice dependent variable, linear probability models, logit, probit and Tobit models are used (Nakhaei 1389). To investigate the effect of descriptive variables, such as economic and social factors, on the WTP, we used a logit regression model. The probability (P i ) that the individual accepts an offer (A) based on the logit model, can be expressed as follows (Lee and Han 2002):
Where F n (ΔU) is the cumulative distribution function with one standard logistic difference including some of the socio-economic factors. The coefficients θ, γ, β are estimates where θ and γ > 0 and β ≤ 0. (Lee and Han 2002). The expected WTP was calculated using logit models by actually integer numbers between 0 and the highest proposed value (Lehtonen et al., 2003). We opted for this method because it maintained the stability and compatibility of theoretical constraints, statistical efficiency and congregate ability (White and Lovett 1999).
The logit model utilizes maximum likelihood specifications and is the most common technique for estimating expected WTP (Piri et al., 2009). This was calculated by integer numbers between 0 and the highest proposed value: (Eq. 4).
Where E (WTP) is the expected amount of WTP and α * (see Eq. 5) the interception adjustment value, added to the main interception (α) value, estimated after socio-economic variables were inserted in the logit model.
Logit models may be developed as either linear or semi-logarithmic functions in order to estimate both use and conservation values. In the former model, the probability of accepting the proposed price is merely a function of the proposed price itself. However, in the latter model, the probability is a function of the proposed relative price over income for simplicity and convenience in computation, we used a linear logit model to compute the mean WTP (Molaei and Kavousi Kelashmi 2011).
To estimate the conservation value of the myrtle habitat, selected households from both urban and rural communities of Dooreh were asked to participate as part of our sample population. The required sample size for simple random sampling was calculated (Cochran 1977) for the 95 % confidence interval with an allowed error of 4 % (Eq. 6). This resulted in a sample size of 270. However, to enhance accuracy, the number of household sampled in the area and participated in our study was increased to 300 (Eq. 6).
where n is the number of samples; t is Student’s t value for 95 % confidence interval, s 2 is the sample variance and d is the allowed sampling error. Our interviews were focused on individuals who were independent in terms of income and when faced with the proposed amount, were able to make a decision easily. For the purpose of statistical analysis and mathematical calculations the parameters required for the logit model, we used SHAZAM and Excel.
Socio-economic status of respondents
Descriptive statistics of the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents are presented in Table 1. Of the total number of respondents, 208 (69.33 %) were male and 92 (30.67 %) were female. As this table shows the average age was 35 years, the number of years of education was 13, the average size of the household consisted of 4 people with a monthly household income of 15,000 Rials ($.44), the proposed bid was 17,630 Rials ($.52) and the environmental opinion was around 4.
Conservation value of Myrtle
Out of 300 respondents, 260 (86.67 %) were willing to pay something for the conservation of Myrtle habitats of Dooreh, while the other 40 (13.33 %) were not interested to pay anything (Table 2).
Of the 107 persons who did not accept the first offer of 20,000 Rials, 67 people were not willing to pay more than 10,000 Rials ($0.29) and the remaining 40 individuals were not willing to pay anything.
Of the 193 people who had accepted the first offer of 20,000 Rials ($0.59), 120 rejected the 30,000 Rials ($0.88) bid and the rest agreed to pay 30,000 Rials ($0.88).
Out of 73 persons who had accepted the first offer of 30,000 Rials ($0.88), 19 were willing to pay up to 50,000 Rials ($1.47), 15 people agreed to pay the maximum bid of 100,000 Rials ($2.94), 14 persons were willing to pay a maximum amount of 150,000 Rials ($4.41) and only four respondents showed a willingness to pay up to 200,000 Rials ($5.88). The remaining 21 individuals did not want to exceed 30,000 Rials.
Forty of the respondents were not willing to pay for myrtle habitat conservation. When asked for their lack of interest, 60 per cent believed that it should be the responsibility of the government, not of individuals (Table 3).
The logit regression method provided the following model for the conservation value of the Dooreh myrtle forest:
where WTPi is the willingness of respondent i to pay, x 1 represents education (0 for illiterate, 10 for below diploma, 12 for diploma, 14 for post diploma degree, 16 for bachelor degree, 18 for master degree and above) ; x 2 is household size, x 3 household income in thousand Rials 5,000 ($0.15), 7,500 ($0.22), 12,500 ($0.37), 17,500 ($0.51), 22,500 ($0.67), 25,000 ($0.73)) and x 4 represents the bids in Rials (0, 10,000 ($0.29), 20,000 ($0.59), 30,000 ($0.88)).
Table 4 shows the estimated coefficients, levels of statistical significance and the effect of descriptive variables of the logit model on the dependent variable (based on maximum likelihood estimation). In arriving at the final logit model those variables, not statistically significant but with coefficients of the expected sign, were eliminated in order to obtain a more accurate model (Table 4). In the end, we obtained the following model:
In this equation E is education, HS is Household Size, I is Income and SD is Suggested Donation.
The results also show that variables such as price, income and household size were effective in accepting the bids at less than the 10% statistical level. As well, it should be noted that the variables price and family size had a negative effect, while income and education had a positive effect on the WTP on the part of the respondents.
Moreover, the variables bid and income were statistically significant at the one per cent level of significance and were the most important factors in the WTP to conserve the myrtle forest. As the amount of the bid increased, the willingness to pay of people reduced substantially. This means that their elasticity to pay is inversely related with the price of perceived services provided, since their low income levels have a negative effect on their support to conserve natural myrtle forest sites.
In terms of ranking the estimated coefficients, the second most important factor for accepting the bid for myrtle conservation was the income of the respondents. The higher their income, the higher their willingness to pay. This represents an indication of the status of well-being of the community, important from a development point of view. In other words, as income increased, the awareness on the part of people towards the environment became more positive and responsive who did not view the environment only from an economic stand point, but rather considered other aspects of it as well. At lower income levels, all resources were primarily seen as economic and revenue generators.
Another variable significantly related with the WTP was the size of the household. As this increased, the willingness to pay decreased considerably. The probability of rejecting the bids by large households was higher than that of household of smaller size, for households with more family members were less capable financially and thus had a relatively lower willingness to pay for myrtle conservation.
Education of the respondents had also an important effect on their willingness to pay. The proportion of respondents with university education was the highest at 33.49 % of all participants. The level of education was directly related with household income, i.e., people with a high level of education had a more positive attitude toward the environment and the benefits that can be derived from it and, as a result, had a higher willingness to pay for the conservation of myrtle habitats.
In order to determine changes in the probability of the WTP in estimating the conservation value due to a one unit change in one of the independent variables, it was necessary to calculate their marginal effect. We also calculated elasticity to show the relative importance of the descriptive variables of the model in response to changes in the willingness to pay for the conservation of this myrtle forest ecosystem.
The proposed bid was the most important descriptive variable for determining the probability of willingness to pay for the conservation of myrtle forest resources in Dooreh. It showed that a one unit change in the amount of proposed bid changed the probability of accepting the bid by 1.8 %. Furthermore, due to the marginal effect of this variable, a one unit change in the amount of the proposed bid changed the probability of a positive response to the WTP by 0.0004534 in favor of the conservation of myrtle forest sites.
The estimated coefficient for the income variable was significant at the 1 % statistical level. With its positive sign, as expected, it meant that a one per cent change in income, the probability of accepting the amount of the proposed bid would be changed by 1.732 %. Also, in terms of the marginal effect of this variable, a one unit change in the income of the respondent, the probability of accepting the proposed bid to conserve the myrtle forest resources of Dooreh, changed by 0.665 × 10−3.
The estimated coefficient of household size was also significant at the 1 % level and implied that a one unit change in the size of a household, the proposed bid for myrtle forest conservation changed by 1.26 %. In terms of marginal effect, a one unit change in household size changed the likelihood of a positive response on the part of the respondent in the WTP for myrtle forest conservation by 0.144.
The estimated coefficient of education was significant at the 5 % level. Therefore, one additional year spent on education, increased the probability of accepting the bid for conservation of myrtle forest by 0.284 % unit. The marginal effect of this variable suggests that one additional year spent on formal education, increased the probability of reacting positively to the willingness to pay for myrtle forest conservation by 0.012.
In addition, we calculated the McFadden coefficient of determination as 0.234, suggesting that the explanatory variables of the model explained the dependent variable very well. Another useful criterion for goodness of fit of the model was the classification of the respondents in two groups, i.e., those who accepted the bid for myrtle forest conservation and those who rejected it. The proportion of correct predictions of the model was 76 per cent, implying that 76 % of the respondents indeed correctly answered “Yes” or “No” when asked about their willingness to pay.
The expected average WTP according to the logit model, using maximum likelihood was calculated by numerical integration in the range of zero to the maximum amount of the proposed bid as follows:
Based on Eq. (9), the expected willingness to pay per household for the conservation of myrtle stands in Dooreh, was estimated to be 26,820 Rials ($0.79) per month which meant that each family was willing to pay an equivalent amount of 321,840 Rials ($9.47) per year to conserve the habitat of this species.
The overall conservation value of the myrtle forests in Dooreh (VMFD) was calculated using the following relationship:
In this equation, AAWH is the annual average of WTP per households and NHD is the number of households in Dooreh.
Given the 10,831 households currently living in Dooreh (Office of Lorestan provincial governor, 2013), we obtained ultimately the following conservation value:
Thus we estimate that the entire town of Dooreh is willing to pay 3.5 billion Rials (about $102,525) annually for the conservation of their myrtle forest resources. Given that the remaining area of myrtle sites consist of only a little more than 8 ha, our final estimate of the conservation value of myrtle resources per hectare in Dooreh is:
Hence, the annual conservation value per hectare of the myrtle forest resources in Dooreh was estimated as 424,198,240 Rials ($12,476).
Considering the exchange rate of 34,000 Rials per U.S. dollar, these calculations imply that each household is prepared to spend an equivalent amount of $9.47 out of their total annual income for the conservation of myrtle forest resources, valued at around $12,476.
Discussion and conclusions
Based on the results of our study, we come to the conclusion that the WTP per year per household and the conservation value per hectare in Dooreh were higher than those reported by Molaei and Kavousi Kelashmi (2011) and Khosravi and Sabouhi (2011). We suggest two reasons for this discrepancy: 1) traditional knowledge on the part of this rural community about value and potential of this species, as well as their awareness of the extent of the damage inflicted on the natural habitat of this species; 2) the increased benefits derived from the exploitation of myrtle in terms of additional seasonal income earned by the community from harvesting and selling this species and an appreciation for other environmental values of this rapidly vanishing plant. The local knowledge in the community about the medicinal value of myrtle is based on its traditional belief in and experience from the consumption of this species, as well as on the positive impact of employment and financial rewards in the manufacture of several medicinal products by the local pharmaceutical company. A fundamental problem in harvesting this species, however, is lack of proper skills in people involved in harvesting operation of this species, which has eventually led to the degradation of over half of its natural habitat.
In general, the local community now has a better understanding of how valuable myrtle is to them. Such an understanding has gradually been developed as the local people began to realize the extent of myrtle forest damage in their area and hence, the need for its conservation. In short, the main reason why local people are willing to pay something for conservation of their myrtle forest resources is entirely economical, since 86 % of them are willing to pay some money for its conservation. The remaining 14 % who were not willing to pay anything were apparently doing so for financial reasons, given their low level of income. Interestingly, for the same obvious reason, this latter group did not have a favorable response for the conservation of any other species either. This is the type of situation where the need to educate local people is felt the most, in order to enhance their understanding of environmental issues and the conservation of flora and fauna in their own community. Unfortunately, due to poor management, no effective policy has been proposed or implemented, despite its neglect over the years.
In this study, it was found that the annual WTP per household and the conservation value per hectare was lower from those reported by Lehtonen et al. (2003), Leong et al. (2005), Gurluk (2006) and Tao et al. (2012). Apparently this was because in our study several other economically valuable aspects of valuation, other than the medicinal value of myrtle, such as timber production, habitat, regulatory and information functions, were not taken into consideration. A relatively stronger currency, higher levels of average income and education could also have been mentioned as additional reasons for the higher WTP reported in their research. It is also worth mentioning that Leong et al. (2005) and Peron and Esmaeili (2010)) estimated the forest value based on per hectare per person in a given household, instead of household as a whole, which raises the estimated WTP per household per year.
In contrast, the estimated WTP per household per year and the conservation value per hectare estimated by us were higher than those mentioned by Echeverria et al. (1995) and Molaei (2009), apparently because these studies were more recent than those mentioned earlier. Clearly, this 20 year span together with inflation had a significant impact on lowering the nominal value in the local currency. In the present study, the respondents were primarily local people, whereas in earlier investigations, the respondents were not necessarily from the study area and as a result had a very low or even zero WTP.
In this study, the annual WTP per household and the conservation value per hectare were also lower from those reported by Chukwone and Okorji (2008). We cite as possible reasons the following issues: 1) the lower average income and education level of the respondents in the current study had both a significant and positive (impact on their willingness to pay; 2) valuation was based on only one NTFP, i.e., myrtle, instead of all the available NTFPs in the forest; each of which could have a further positive impact on the WTP on the part of the respondents due to their effect on the level of family income. This was consistent with the findings of Chukwone and Okorji (2008), except for the fact that in their study women had a higher WTP, primarily because they were more engaged with harvesting NTFPs than men and perhaps their higher WTP reflected a level of acknowledgment for the value of NTFPs on their part.
According to the explanatory variables of our model, as the respondents became better educated, their understanding of myrtle forests and the value of conservation of these resources became more profound, their WTP was higher. Therefore, it is expected that educating people about the importance and economic value of myrtle would increase their willingness to pay. In general, the higher their education, the higher their WTP and the more their tendency to preserve the environment. Similar results were found by Echeverria et al. (1995), Lehtonen et al. (2003), Leong et al. (2005), Tao et al. (2012), Chukwone and Okorji (2008), Peron and Esmeili (2010), Molaei (2009), and Khosravi and Sabouhi (2011).
Among the explanatory variables of the model, income levels had the highest impact on the elasticity of the willingness to pay. In other words, as incomes rise, the tendency to pay more for the conservation of the habitat of this species increased and as well, their opinion about environmental issues became more positive. This would probably indicate that implementation of appropriate financial incentives and policies with regard to rural economic development in the Dooreh forest areas and surrounding villages could lead to an improvement of economic conditions and employment in this rural community, which would then lead to an increase in their income and thus WTP to protect the myrtle forest area from further degradation. Education and income are two important factors with a significant impact on the opinion of rural people on environmental issues. With increasing income, the elasticity for the WTP to preserve their environment increased. In contrast, people with low incomes were rather more concerned to give priority to satisfy their basic needs. This results was consistent with what many investigators such as Echeverria et al. (1995), Lehtonen et al. (2003), Leong et al. (2005), Tao et al. (2012), Chukwone and Okorji (2008), Peron and Esmeili (2010), Molaei (2009), and Khosravi and Sabouhi (2011) had reported earlier.
Furthermore, smaller households with their relatively lower daily expenditures were willing to pay more for myrtle habitat conservation compared to larger households. All the same, if larger households had a higher level of income, they were also willing to pay more despite their relatively larger family size. Such a result is consistent with the findings by Tao et al. (2012), Molaei (2009) Peron and Esmeili (2010).
In general, economic hardship in the rural community living in or adjacent to the myrtle forest areas of Dooreh, induces people to rely on excessive harvesting of myrtle for additional income which eventually led to the degradation of nearly 50 % of the natural myrtle forest resource (Karimi, 2012).
The rural households in the study region have traditionally been harvesting myrtle in publicly-owned forests for their own consumption as well as for earning additional income. The problems of poverty, unemployment and a difficult economic situation dominating the rural forest communities in the region are considered to be the major causes for illegal harvesting of myrtle and the rapid degradation of its habitat. As well, the gradual but illegal encroachment of agriculture in this forest area by local farmers has had a significant impact on the process of myrtle habitat reduction and destruction.
The fact of the matter is that only a small portion of the myrtle habitat is privately owned by local farmers, with the Iranian government owning most of it. Rural owners harvest myrtle inappropriately and without the necessary skills. Also, these people tend to trespass on government owned sites for illegal harvest of myrtle. For both reasons, severe destruction of the myrtle habitat is the consequence. As mentioned earlier, the root of the problem is socio-economic and deserves special attention by the local as well as regional forest manager Estimating the value of conservation of this myrtle habitat could provide strong incentive and justification for the authorities in the Iranian Forest and Range Organization to allocate sufficient resource to restore and/or conserve the habitat of this species. Unfortunately, so far forest management approaches and policy making and implementation by the government authorities have not been effective in solving the problem of illegal harvesting and or helping conservation and restoration of this myrtle habitat. Thus, the outlook for this species appears to be rather dim, unless prompt, strong and effective action is taken by the authorities and sufficient resources allocated to support such an action.
The results of this study emphasize the need and importance of formulating and implementing appropriate policies for myrtle forest conservation and restoration by the Iranian executive authorities and policy makers managing the natural resources of our country.
Although estimating the conservation value of myrtle forest highlights the importance of lowering degradation and deforestation of these resources, by itself this is not a sufficient for very obvious reasons. When the basic needs of rural people are not met and they suffer from insufficient income and poverty, they tend to put more pressure on natural resources and, in this case, damage the myrtle by excessive harvesting. This could eventually lead to a permanent loss of the few remaining myrtle sites and their conversion to agricultural land. In such a situation, the rural community would, by no means, be willing to spend money to maintain myrtle habitat, but would be more engaged in damaging it by excess harvesting and ultimately by converting it to agricultural land. Therefore, we believe it would be equally important to educate the local population about proper harvesting methods and management of this species by trained and knowledgeable individuals.
Although the current status of the myrtle habitat represents a serious threat to its continued existence, in the end we believe and conclude that with proper management and policies, such as restoration of the myrtle forest resources, together with necessary financial and administrative support, the present situation can be turned around into an opportunity for the provincial economy and an increase in employment.
The exchange rate between Rial and US dollar at the time of publication of this article was 34,000 Rials per US dollar.
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We would like to express our profound appreciation to the people of Dooreh for their hospitality and for being so receptive and cooperative during our entire field work. Our special thanks also go to the authorities and foresters in the Lorestan branch of the Office of Natural Resources for all the help and assistance provided during the entire process of gathering field data and completing the required questionnaires.
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Research leading to this paper supported by the Sari Agricultural and Natural Resource University, and financed primarily by the university division of Higher Education. Also the branch Office of Lorestan Province of Natural Resources provided significant help and assistance during the entire process of gathering field data and completing the required questionnaires. Shortcomings and mistakes, if any, are the responsibility of the authors.
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Cite this article
Amiri, N., Emadian, S.F., Fallah, A. et al. Estimation of conservation value of myrtle (Myrtus communis) using a contingent valuation method: a case study in a Dooreh forest area, Lorestan Province, Iran. For. Ecosyst. 2, 30 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40663-015-0051-6
- Conservation value
- Contingent valuation method
- Double Bounded Dichotomous method
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November 23, 2021 4 min read
As technology escalates and modern families gravitate toward screen-based entertainment, simple activities such as colouring in pictures are cast aside for more stimulating options. But there are so many benefits in colouring and drawing for children (and adults!), which is why Little Change Creators has developed a range of colour-in products to inspire and delight both kids and parents.
Little Change Creators’ wipe-clean colouring mats encourage and reward even the most reluctant little artists because they are fail-proof and adapt to all skill-levels. Kids who are insecure about drawing on a blank canvas can simply colour in Little Change Creators’ unique designs. However, children who are confident with their artistic ability can use the reverse side of the drawing mats to create their own imaginative masterpieces. There is no end to what can be achieved with Little Change Creators’ colouring sets because they are fully erasable and reusable so all ‘mistakes’ can be wiped clean, again and again.
Providing opportunities for children to engage in colour-in activities has many learning benefits. Here are just a few;
Colouring is a calming activity that rewards patience and self-control. It also allows kids to slow down, relax and appreciate a moment. The act of creating with your hands releases Dopamine, a natural anti-depressant that calms the brain and body. So colouring activities are almost like meditation for active, young minds! Helping your child maintain a more relaxed state allows for a fresh mind that’s ready to learn.
The motions involved in colouring helps to strengthen the fine motor muscles in kid’s hands, fingers and wrists. This enables kids to develop their finger grip which improves their ability to write, use scissors and manipulate small objects.
As kids learn to colour within a defined area, their hand and eye co-ordination improves. In the beginning, kids may find colouring within the lines difficult. But, as their capability to co-ordinate watching and doing advances, their skill-levels increase and they’ll feel great pride when they achieve their goal of colouring within the lines.
Colour-in activities challenge creative thinking and promote independence as kids decide how to colour objects and choose which colours they’ll use. As a child’s confidence grows, they’ll begin to experiment with colours, patterns, and lines until they have the courage to create their own drawings. Little Change Creators’ double-sided colouring mats suit the most vivid imaginations with one fully-illustrated side for colouring in and plenty of drawing space on the reverse side. The drawing side is ideal for exercising creative flair through doodling, word games or handwriting practice.
Colouring activities such as Little Change Creators’ colouring sets cultivate colour awareness in a hands-on, engaging way. With a variety of pen colours available, kids have an opportunity to learn through colour and to experiment with colour combinations. Little Change Creators’ innovative and reusable colouring kits also allow kids to change the appearance of their pictures by erasing and re-colouring for extended creativity and repeat-play value.
Colouring requires good concentration and, when focusing on one task, a child’s ability to concentrate (and their length of concentration) increases. You’ll notice as your child’s focus develops, their colouring and drawing skills will improve. Focus is an important skill for children to learn, not only for their academic careers but for their professional careers as well. Focus is what helps us see through tasks from start to finish.
Whenever you sit with a child who’s colouring in, you may notice how quickly they become chatter boxes! They love to tell you all about what they’re doing, which is great for their language development and social skills. Simple conversations can help improve their vocabulary and Little Change Creators’ colouring sets equip you with the perfect tools to practice object recognition, descriptive adjectives and colour names. Learning these skills from a young age helps your child to feel more confident in social settings and when conversing with others.
Kids need opportunities to gain self-confidence and a sense of self-worth. When they create something that’s visually-pleasing, they are rewarded with a sense of pride and accomplishment. This benefits their self-esteem and personality which has a positive impact on their overall mental health.
Colouring has an important place in child development and can easily be incorporated into family time. Aside from the practical skills children gain through colouring activities, kids also acquire a sense of achievement and pride. This is great for building their confidence and when Mum or Dad joins in or takes a photo, they have an avenue to share and express this pride too.
Little Change Creators creates opportunities for children and parents to connect through colour. Let your family enjoy the many life-long benefits from simple, mindful colouring in and reap the rewards today.
Make the most of every moment!
Keen to colour? Check out our range of Re-FUN-able Colouring Sets.
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The Representation of Men and Women in The Great Gatsby
Men have been overpowering women for many years now. The power that men have over women is shown throughout many different works of literature. Many readers believe that women have less power than men do in the book, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald. This statement is accurate, due to the date that this book was written; the year 1925, seeing that women during that time period were treated more as objects rather than being treated as people. In The Great Gatsby Ivan Štrba said “The men constitute ‘the world’” and the women are merely ‘it’s mistress’” (42). In addition to what Ivan Štrba said, there have been many feminist scholars that have been known to criticize The Great Gatsby for their way women are portrayed. I agree, along with many others, with the statement that Ivan Štrba said in response to the novel and will be proving this statement even further. Women and men may be equal in how men are supposed to respond when they are spoken to, but Fitzgerald shows that women are overpowered by men through the way their physical appearance and personality are described. As well as how it is looked down on women when they have an affair but it is more accepted by society for a male to have an affair.
The way that Fitzgerald describes females physical appearance is clearly represented in very different ways than males are throughout the course of the novel. The way Tom Buchanan is described by Fitzgerald in the novel is in a way that he’s not describing him as if he is an attractive man or not. The way he is described makes it seem like Fitzgerald does not have an interest in the way a male is described:
A sturdy, straw haired man of thirty with a rather hard mouth and a supercilious manner. Two shining, arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face and gave him the appearance of always leaning aggressively forward. Not even the effeminate swank of his riding clothes could hide the enormous power of that body—he seemed to fill those glistening boots until he strained the top lacing and you could see a great pack of muscle shifting when his shoulder moved under his thin coat. It was a body capable of enormous leverage—a cruel body (Fitzgerald 9).
When Fitzgerald described Tom Buchanan’s eyes having dominance over his face as well as being arrogant, then proceeding to say that even his clothes cannot hide the power his body has, gives an even stronger suggestion that men have more power over women. It gives a strong and clear dominance that Tom has and also gives the reader a clear feeling that he is a lot stronger and or more dominant than the other characters in the novel. The way that the women are described in this novel is much different. As a reader, it seemed like Fitzgerald had a larger interest in trying to capture the beauty of women by describing what they are wearing:
Enormous couch on which two young women were buoyed up as though upon an anchored balloon. They were both in white and their dresses were rippling and fluttering as if they had just been blown back in after a short flight around the house (Fitzgerald 10)
He had a larger interest in women, this is prominent because when he described the men he did not include near as much detail in the what the men were wearing nor in their physical appearance. “Her face was sad and lovely with bright things in it, bright eyes and a bright passionate mouth—but there was an excitement in her voice that men who had cared for her found difficult to forget” (Fitzgerald 12), the author decided to talk about what the women were wearing before he had described their physical appearance. “Jordan Baker is introduced with an impression that defines her: ‘…chin raised a little, as if she were balancing something on it which was quite likely to fall.’ Throughout the story she is preoccupied with maintaining her precarious image of herself” (Hollister). In his writing, Fitzgerald had made an assumption that the way a women looks is more important as well as the assumption that women are always trying to work on their physical appearances. Michael Hollister, a university student has written an article on the novel, The Great Gatsby, has also made a statement that in this novel, women are more occupied with making sure the way they look is where they way them to be as well as being acceptable by society, but when he spoke about men he talked about both their physical appearance as well as their physical appearance. The way he did this shows that he had been more concerned about women’s bodies instead of the personality of the women, since men tend to not care as much about their looks it makes them “Constitute the world” (Štrba).
In the novel, The Great Gatsby, it is not acceptable for a woman to have an affair but it is acceptable for a male to have an affair. Daisy’s husband, Tom, was having an affair on her with a woman named Myrtle Wilson. Once the story went further on, Daisy and Jay Gatsby had reunited, while this occurred he expressed his love to her and she expressed it back to him as well. The moment Tom found out about this he got very mad at her, but when Daisy found out about Tom’s affair it was not acceptable by society for her to get made or upset about it. This had been a surprise to Daisy’s cousin once removed, Nick, when he had found out about this affair he was not upset or mad about it. Nick and Jordan Baker had been talking together and then the phone rang, it was Tom’s mistress ‘“Why-’ she said hesitantly, ‘Tom’s got some women in New York.’ ‘Got some women?’ [she] repeated blankly. Miss Baker nodded. ‘She might have the decency not to telephone him at dinner time. Don’t you think?’” (Fitzgerald 18). It was normal for males to have affairs on their wives but the women did not believe it was okay. The females in the novel were shocked that Tom was on the phone with his mistress in front of them, which shows a level of power that men have over women. Tom had not respected that his wife was sitting right there while he was speaking with his mistress and he had expected Daisy to be okay with it. “What a low, vulgar girl!” (Fitzgerald 124) Jordan Baker had said to Daisy. When this was said to Daisy she did not care because she was in love with Gatsby and she wanted people to know about their love. This text said that it was okay for a man to have an affair but if a woman had one she would be considered and called a unsophisticated and ‘showy’ person. According to Gatsby she never loved Tom, which was not true because she did lover her husband but the moment she saw Gatsby again, she knew that she still loved him. “Tom bought Daisy a pearl necklace before their marriage and implies that he is continuing to buy her off, probably because he is continuing to have affairs” (Hollister). ‘Buying her off” is an implication and another example of how women had been seen more as objects than people. Most men had affairs on their wives during the time period that this novel was written but it was very uncommon for females to have an affair. It was expected that women were to stay loyal as well as truthful to their husbands.
In conclusion, I agree with Štrba’s statement on how “men constitute ‘the world’ and women are ‘merely its mistress” (Štrba). Men are supposed to respond to females when they are spoken to, all of the other evidence goes towards what Štrba had stated. Men have more rights as well as more freedom in the novel and they were allowed to participate in activities that women were not allowed to. It was also made clear that Fitzgerald thinks women only want to keep their focus on their appearance, instead of their personality. Looking at how the portrayal of men and women in The Great Gatsby is, it was made clear that men are more important than women through Fitzgerald’s eyes.
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The extinction of the dinosaurs caused fruit to grow massive
When species die, you can count on plants to move in on their turf.
We know that our ability to genetically engineer living organisms has not yet reached the point where we could resurrect dinosaurs — we can barely resurrect animals which went extinct in living memory — but even if we could, it’s incredibly likely they wouldn’t be able to live in the world as it exists today.
Any successful Jurassic Park or Jurassic World would require that park engineers recreate the habitats of those extinct species as closely as possible, including characteristics like temperature, climate, atmospheric composition, and vegetation, all of which have changed significantly over the intervening tens of millions of years.
As soon as the dinosaurs exited the building, their prior home began changing around their still fossilizing bones. A new paper published in Proceedings of the Royal Society, authored by Renske Onstein from the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research, and colleagues, used genetic reconstructions to peer back in time, and found that plant species changed dramatically in the wake of the K-Pg extinction.
“We used genetic data to reconstruct past relationships. Based on that information, we saw splitting and speciation happening,” Onstein told SYFY WIRE.
The common wisdom is that species thrive and evolutionary booms happen in the wake of extinction events, as old niches open up to new biological tenants. Strangely, perhaps, that’s not what researchers found. Instead, speciation — the process by which existing species branch off into new ones — slowed down, on average. At present, it’s unclear why that happened.
“That’s the next question. Why did speciation slow down? I’m not sure, to be honest. We saw some groups where speciation actually increased, because other species went extinct and there was less competition, so they could really flourish. Other groups went down in speciation. We still need to get our heads around that,” Onstein said.
Those plant species which persisted through the 25-million-years following the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs underwent significant changes in their morphology, losing some of their defense mechanisms and growing much larger fruit.
Scientists broke ancient fruiting plants into two groups, based on the size of their fruit. The first group produced fruit four centimeters in diameter and smaller. The second group was everything larger than four centimeters, ranging up to 45 centimeters in length. Looking back through the evolutionary record of these plants, Onstein and the team found that fruit sizes increased in the 25-million-years after the dinosaurs vanished. That finding goes against previously held notions that large fruiting plants are dependent on megafauna for the dispersal of seeds.
“These large fruits probably still depended on large animals, but maybe not as large as these megaherbivores which were over 1,000 kilograms. The fruits could probably also be dispersed by animals comparable to tapirs, 100 or 200 kilograms. Those kinds of animals were evolving during that time,” Onstein said.
Sustained by smaller seed dispersers but lacking the megaherbivores, these species spread over larger regions of the globe, and they had a little help from a shifting climate. Around the same time that the dinosaurs were wiped out, the Earth’s climate underwent a shift, with temperatures becoming much warmer. As a result, tropical forests which were previously isolated to equatorial regions were stretching into higher latitudes. While the forests were getting larger in terms of overall surface area, they were also growing denser.
“In part, that could be related to the lack of herbivores. They create open systems by browsing and walking around, like elephants trampling things. Forests have less of a chance of developing when they’re around,” Onstein said.
Those spreading tropical forests were a veritable plant paradise for fruiting flora. In the wake of a vertebrate tragedy 66-million-years ago, everything was coming up fruit plant. The climate was shifting in their favor and the animals who usually snacked on them were dead. The only thing left to do was to get comfortable and let their guard down, and that’s exactly what they did. The prevalence of defensive features like spines declined as the adaptive cost of keeping them outweighed their benefit.
“Some species evolve spines to help them climb in dense forests. The forest was expanding so you’d think those spines would evolve more to facilitate climbing into the trees, but we saw they were lost. That’s strong evidence that they were related to defense from animals trying to feed on them,” Onstein said.
In essence, the death of the dinosaurs was a sort of vacation for large fruiting plants and they took full advantage of it, allowing themselves to get fat and vulnerable. Then we showed up and started using their fruits for our toast and to make alternative milks. You can have a stegosaurus, or you can you have oat milk, but you can’t have both. | <urn:uuid:76ed63a4-4a81-4272-9083-6f9169e9cfc9> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/when-the-dinosaurs-died-fruit-spread-and-grew-larger | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224646937.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20230531150014-20230531180014-00625.warc.gz | en | 0.972911 | 1,075 | 3.96875 | 4 | {
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Nonverbal communication Space
Processing nonverbal communication is a skill, one that needs to be developed. This skill can be very hard to improve, given the fact that so much of the meaning typically is not transferred from the unconscious to the conscious.
What is Nonverbal Communication?
There are many definitions of nonverbal communication. Nonverbal communication is essentially pulling meaning from objects, or a person’s body language. It is one of the six skills interpersonal communication skills. So rather than saying something verbally, a person can understand based on other elements of the communication process such as gestures or facial expressions. For many, however, the source of input is typically overlooked. And so, we miss a tremendous upon amount of the meaning that we could process.
Its importance lies in the fact that it is represents a entirely different channel of information available for you to access. For example, let’s say that you are talking to another person. In English, meaning is attached to the sounds of the words and emotions cues attached to the tones. This is not the case in Chinese languages, where tone determines meaning.
Besides emotion, you can also pick up other kinds of nonverbal cues. A few of the more important ones include whether a person understands or whether they are confused. Whether they are telling the truth or lying. And whether they secretly agree or disagree with what you’re saying.
The significance of nonverbal communication is that this data largely stays within the unconscious and does not we reach conscious awareness. As studies of the mind have shown, only a small part of the sensory data process actually reach conscious Wrangell-Saint of it is processed unconsciously. There are many instances of this but let me just give you one example.
You meet someone new, you carry on a conversation for a period of 5 minutes, and walk away thinking, “You know, I really like this guy.” Thinking further, you begin to wonder what it was that the other person did, what they said that caused you to like them so much. But paradoxically, you really can’t say what those factors are.
Examples of Nonverbal Communication
There are many examples of the importance of this type of communication. Three examples of nonverbal communication include:
Most likely, you pay very little attention to the nonverbal elements of the handshake. And if it’s done right, there’s no reason to do so. However, when the other person doesn’t understand exactly how this ritual needs to be completed, it interferes with the process of forming a positive first impression.
The example from the American culture, is the amount of pressure one exerts during on the other person’s hand. One puts a certain amount pressure into the handshake, and it should be neither too much nor too little. Another aspect of this is that when grasping of the hand, the web of your hand intersects the web of their hand. And of course, many of us have encountered the perspiring hand. All of these factors, makes is made us a bit uncomfortable, and why don’t know why.
In some cultures, it is considered impolite and disrespectful to look into another person’s eyes. In other cultures, conveys trust. So eye contact is a very important nonverbal communication in terms of whether one extends trust and even acts friendly towards the other person.
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Clear PP box Full-time Job2022-05-20 06:14 Engineering Darzāb 75 views
Stationery box, a box that students use to store pens, pencils, rulers, erasers and other stationery. There are many types of textures, generally wood, iron, plastic and other products, with different shapes, mostly cuboid.
Iron stationery boxes generally do not have too fancy patterns on them. Compared with wooden and plastic stationery boxes, iron ones are not easy to be deformed or damaged. They are very practical and suitable for primary school students. The plastic stationery box has bright colors and rich patterns, but it is not as resistant to falling and deformation as the iron stationery box. It is very popular with elementary and middle school students in the mass market, and even college students sometimes use it. Wooden stationery boxes are very rare, with all kinds of graphics engraved on them, but primary and secondary school students often do not use it, because its color is too monotonous, so wooden stationery boxes gradually become rare.
In 2000, there was also a stationery box made of cloth, the real name was "pen bag", which was the "new favorite of the stationery box" for primary and middle school students. It is easy to carry and practical, and it is very suitable for our children to use. There is also an automatic stationery box, which is characterized in that: it is composed of an outer box body and an inner box body, and the inner box body is movably inserted into the empty surface of one long side of the outer box body, and the upper edge of the other long side of the outer box body connects the box with a hinge. Lid, a box lid is a box lid connected by two narrow lid hinges. There are spring sheets on the outside of the short side of the outer box, the spring sheets pass through the outer box cover to the short side of the inner box, and there are a plurality of grooves on the short side of the inner box which are matched with the ends of the spring sheets. The effect of the invention is that the automatic pencil case and the body can be enlarged or reduced in size, and can be adjusted according to the amount of stationery put in. Convenient and practical.
Cosmetics are almost used by everyone nowadays, and cosmetic boxes are a good tool for perfectly storing messy cosmetics. 1. The most basic protection function: After using the cosmetic box, it can reduce the collision, pressure, shock and other problems that the cosmetic is subjected to during transportation and handling. As long as the material of the cosmetic box is highly adaptable, it can still be used. To moisture-proof, waterproof and other functions, this is the most basic protection; 2. Production is more economical: After the rationalization of the production process of cosmetic boxes, the processing technology becomes no longer cumbersome, and the utilization rate of paper materials will be improved. As long as the cutting is reasonable, materials will not be wasted, thereby reducing costs; 3. Beautiful appearance and function: the use of cosmetic boxes shows the performance of the goods, and can also play an artistic effect, improve the grade of cosmetics, and thus have a stronger appeal to customers; 4. Convenience function: Because the packaging structure of the cosmetic box is simple, a reasonably designed cosmetic box is not only convenient for folding, opening and closing, and storage, but also makes the cosmetic box more durable, and is also conducive to centralized display in transportation.
In the current era we live in, food boxes have brought great convenience to families, not only in use, but also in safety. Food is easily in contact with oxygen and bacteria in the air, which in turn affects the taste and quality of food. Therefore, whether it is storing or selling food, a sealed food box is very important. 1. Transportation protection: In the process of food transportation, physical phenomena such as collision, extrusion, and vibration that are not conducive to food transportation cannot be avoided. The food box can protect the food well and avoid damage to the food caused by adverse factors. Food is well protected during transport; 2. Shell protection: The food box shell can separate the food from oxygen, water vapor, stains, etc., and anti-leakage is also a necessary factor in packaging design. Some packages include desiccants or deoxidizers to extend shelf life. Vacuum packaging or evacuating air from packaging bags is also the main method of food packaging, keeping food clean and fresh during the shelf life; 3. Save volume and facilitate classification: It is a good way to save volume by stuffing small objects of the same type into one package. Powders and granular objects need to be encapsulated.
Clear PP box is a plastic container made of food-grade PP raw materials for the convenience of food preservation, packaging and heating. It is a household plastic product that is ubiquitous in our daily life and an indispensable plastic container in household food storage. Different shapes store different things and are more convenient to use. In addition to the common squares, rectangles, and circles, there are also suits designed for picnics, which make life easier and more convenient. Square PP plastic fresh-keeping box: excellent sealing performance, suitable for storing food, can prevent peculiar smell in the refrigerator, suitable for storing various seasonings, leftovers, leftover cans, fruits, vegetables. Easy to use in refrigerators, freezers, microwave ovens, and other uses; Rectangular PP plastic crisper: suitable for storing bacon and meat food. Due to the water catch plate, it is easy to store food with moisture. The large-capacity rectangular PP plastic crisper is suitable for preserving fruits, vegetables and seafood; Round PP plastic fresh-keeping box: suitable for long-term storage of various condiments, canned fruits, grains, nuts, tea and other foods, easy to use in refrigerators, freezers, and microwave ovens. The oval design is suitable for storing beverages, children's milk and various grains, nuts and teas, etc. when traveling in the wild; High-cylinder PP plastic fresh-keeping box: suitable for storing long-shaped food such as noodles and cucumbers, because the height dimension of the high-cylinder PP plastic fresh-keeping box is higher than that of the general PP plastic fresh-keeping box, the processing technology requires high mold size and mold removal. Therefore, there are not many manufacturers that can produce high-cylinder PP plastic fresh-keeping boxes on the market, and there are relatively few products. In addition to this, there are also clear PET box, clear PVC box, etc.
Clothing box is an indispensable part of clothing products, which can protect clothing. It is also necessary to pay attention to the management of the clothes box, and to play the due effect of the packaging box. Clothes boxes are divided into inner packaging and outer packaging according to different packaging uses, such as socks packaging, underwear packaging, T-shirt packaging, shirt packaging, suit packaging, etc. Management of inner packaging. The inner packaging is to keep the clothing clean, easy to count, and easy to store and transport. Usually, transparent plastic bags with moisture-proof effect are used, such as transparent plastics of OPP and CPP. The printing is relatively simple or there is no printing directly. The requirements are complete, clean, suitable size, and good transparency; Management of outer packaging. The outer packaging of clothing is generally made of plastic woven bags, wooden boxes, and corrugated boxes, which are convenient for storage and transportation, and also have moisture-proof measures. Most of the clothing is transported by land and sea, and some fast fashion clothing will also be transported by air. The outer packaging of clothing should be kept clean, dry and firm, suitable for long-distance transportation. | <urn:uuid:cdcd12b7-d245-4932-9710-bcf71b0faea9> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://afghancareer.com/clear-pp-box/239 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571950.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813111851-20220813141851-00610.warc.gz | en | 0.946945 | 1,619 | 2.609375 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 1.7690576314926147,
"reasoning_level": 2,
"interpretation": "Moderate reasoning"
} | Industrial |
As New Europe reported last Sunday, a new friendship treaty between France and Germany was signed by French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, on January 22. The treaty was signed in the presence of European Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker, and European Council President, Donald Tusk, in the town hall of Aachen.
The Franco-German Treaty which is presented as a follow-up pact to the Élysée Treaty signed in Paris on January 22, 1963, gives a clear indication of who will be in the driver’s seat, and how Europe will be run, post-Brexit.
Europe has its fail-safes in place so that its governance is not dominated by any one country (or even two). Whether decisions are taken by simple or qualified majorities, or unanimity, no two countries – no matter how big – can run the show without compromise.
Germany and France, however, in the history of the Union, have certainly set the pace and course of the European Union and have often not left much room for external input.
As all international treaties, sources suggest that there may be a number of non-disclosed (secret) clauses attached to the Treaty of Aachen; it is doubtful whether any such clauses have been shared with the European Union’s leadership (both the EU and member state level). Such clauses would typically provide among other things, the common stance of Germany and France on major issues, which for the most part, will undoubtedly end up becoming the EU’s stance.
But in this era of extreme polarisation, it is important now more than ever that Germany and France help lead the way, and not enslave the rest of the EU’s 25 in a political map they have drawn out alone. If not, Europe’s fate will be sealed, and the EU’s dismemberment will be quick and painful for all.
What is even more critical to realise is that power centres that run national politics are not absolute. They change with governments, and as such, no matter how long the reign of the current leading power centres of France and Germany is, the future of Europe must be designed in such an inclusive way as to protect from shifts in power amounting to radical shifts in the Union’s course and direction.
For the common good, the hope is, that the old adage ‘to divide and conquer’ will be replaced by a new, more European approach of ‘unite and dominate’. | <urn:uuid:7a7fc84d-ab11-4b55-a1b7-817633de8db2> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.neweurope.eu/article/was-the-future-of-the-eu-sealed-in-aix-la-chapelle/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195526153.35/warc/CC-MAIN-20190719074137-20190719100137-00215.warc.gz | en | 0.96189 | 517 | 2.796875 | 3 | {
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} | Politics |
Robots and Society
Moral Machines: Teaching Robots Right From Wrong
By Wendell Wallach and Colin Allen (2009)
Digital People: From Bionic Humans to Androids
Robo Sapiens: Evolution of a New Species
Robots and Society examines the role and impact of robotics, distributed sensing and actuation, ubiquitous computing and related technology in society. Robots and Society is an alternative to Computers in Society (CS 4001), and satisfies the required course on ethics for Computing majors. Like 4001, it is not a typical computer science course. Here we are less interested in the technical content of computing and robots, and focus instead on the effects of such technology on individuals, organizations, and society, paying close attention to what your responsibilities are as a computing professional.
There will not be any programming in this class, but you will do a lot of reading, a lot of analyzing, and a lot of communicating (both orally and in writing). Although there are some lectures, this is not a lecture course. Getting the most out of this course (including the best grade) will require your active participation throughout the semester. On any given issue, you may be asked to critique reading assignments from a variety of readings or to summarize group discussions or positions... but don't worry, it should still be fun.
There are several outcomes for the course. By its end, you should be able to:
· Communicate and argue coherently with others about technology and its impacts both in writing and orally
· Engage in the global debate on the ethical issues that arise from robotic technology, identifying the salient issues and evaluating the reasoning behind them
· Achieve and demonstrate a more than adequate writing ability
· Understand and explain the consequences of your profession on individuals, organizations, and society.
· Understand and explain the importance of all these issues
You will be challenged to broaden your understanding by learning something of the history of robotics, the similarities and differences in public attitudes and policies concerning robotics in the U.S. and in other countries. Some of these issues are unique to robotics; others arise in the context of computing in general as well as in other technologies; still others are new manifestations of more general ethical, political and constitutional law issues.
You will have ample opportunity to analyze critically various situations and descriptions in papers, books, on the web, and from your own observations.
You will be able to practice your ability to communicate by writing coherent and well-structured critiques of situations and papers, researching and organizing a longer paper, and leading and participating in class discussions and debates.
A detailed topical outline is given below. The actual schedule is available as well.
Teaching this Course
The primary purpose of this course is to help you develop into a responsible and effective professional, and that means having a basic understanding of and sensitivity to the ethical issues and principles of our field.
This is not going to happen with a professor lecturing at you about Kant (although this will happen as it turns out). As is the case in most courses, this is less about teaching and more about learning. Our role is to assist you in this process, and to provide enough structure so that a class of forty students can do this effectively.
If we think in terms of data structures, the fundamental one here is the thoughtful dialogue. We will make extensive use classroom discussions and writing assignments. You will be given many opportunities to express your positions on a variety of situations where robotics is having or may one day have an impact. Equally, you will be expected to read and listen critically to the arguments of others, and to demonstrate that you have done so.
This is not a debate course. The goal is not to persuade others with your rhetorical skill--though you will develop the skills to do so--nor is it to "win" the argument. The goal is to gain a better appreciation and understanding of how robotics is changing society and what your responsibilities should be as an effective professional.
In line with this, you are entitled to your opinions on these topics, whatever they happen to be. You will not be penalized for your positions even when we might think said position is insane; however, you must be able to support your arguments effectively. This means showing that you have actually given a position some thought and can discuss the various trade-offs and implications of the position you have chosen. This also means that you should be able take any side of an issue and explain it and argue for it sympathetically, even though your personal views may be different.
We reserve the right to modify any of these plans as need be during the course of the class; however, we will not do anything capriciously, anything that is changed will not be too drastic, and you will be informed as far in advance as possible. | <urn:uuid:7c20a98f-ea0e-45f3-9b9f-51e47c0351c5> | CC-MAIN-2015-35 | http://www.cc.gatech.edu/classes/AY2010/cs4002_spring/home.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-35/segments/1440646312602.99/warc/CC-MAIN-20150827033152-00065-ip-10-171-96-226.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940448 | 980 | 2.625 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 2.9282066822052,
"reasoning_level": 3,
"interpretation": "Strong reasoning"
} | Education & Jobs |
Rheumatoid (say: "roo-mah-toyd") arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease that causes inflammation and pain in your joints. It can also affect other parts of your body, such as the lining of your heart and lungs.
Symptoms of RA may include one or more of the following:
The hands, wrists, feet and knees are usually the first joints affected. RA usually affects several joints at the same time, on both sides of your body. For example, both of your wrists may be painful and stiff. Over time, it may also affect larger joints, such as your jaw, shoulders and hips.
Your doctor will ask you about your symptoms and may give you a physical exam. He or she may also order blood tests, a joint fluid analysis (which tests the fluid in your joints for other possible causes of your pain) and X-rays to help make a diagnosis.
Medicines you can buy without a prescription that reduce inflammation, such as aspirin, ibuprofen (one brand name: Motrin), ketoprofen (brand name: Orudis) or naproxen (brand name: Aleve), or relieve pain, such as acetaminophen (one brand name: Tylenol), can help you feel better. Your doctor can also prescribe medicine for you, such as prescription pain relievers or prescription nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). These medicines reduce pain and swelling, but they do not slow the damage to your joints. These medicines should be used wisely. You only need the amount that makes you feel well enough to keep moving. Using too much medicine may increase the risk of side effects.
Medicines that manage your immune system (called immunosuppressants) can also be used to fight RA. When you have RA, your immune system is out of control. These drugs bring it back to normal. However, these medicines can lower your immune system's response to infections.
If you have only a few sore joints, your doctor may prescribe steroids (such as prednisone). Steroids reduce pain and swelling and slow the damage to your joints, but they can only be used for a little while. The longer steroids are used (many months or years), the less effective they become. They can also cause side effects, such as easy bruising, bone thinning, cataracts and diabetes.
Antirheumatic (say: "anti-roo-mat-ick") medicines can help fight RA. If these medicines are started early enough, they can slow the damage to your joints. These medicines work slowly, and it can take a few weeks to start feeling better. Your doctor may do a blood test to make sure these medicines are safe for you. Some of these medicines should not be taken if you are pregnant. Your doctor may talk to you about birth control before you use any antirheumatic medicines.
Surgery may be an option for cases of RA that are not effectively treated with medicine. Surgery can help you regain joint movement, ease pain and correct deformities caused by RA. Ask your doctor about the benefits and risks of surgery.
Talk to your doctor about all the treatment options for RA.
RA is a lifelong disease. Sometimes, if it's treated, it will go away for a little while, but it usually comes back. It is important to see your doctor as soon as you begin to experience symptoms.
Regular, gentle exercise can strengthen the muscles around your joints and relieve fatigue. Mild water aerobics or walking are good exercises to start with. Stop if you feel pain in a new joint while exercising. If the pain does not get better, you should call your doctor.
Losing weight if you are overweight and eating a healthy diet can also help RA.
In order to lessen the stress on affected joints, you can use devices to help you do everyday activities. Grabbing tools can help you pick items up. Canes can make walking easier. Ask your doctor about the tools that are available to make your daily life easier.
To ease pain, you can also apply heat or cold to your painful joints. Heat relaxes tense muscle and cold can numb pain. An easy way to apply heat is to take a 15-minute hot shower or bath. Cold packs or soaking joints in cold water are effective ways to apply cold treatment. However, you should not use these methods if you have poor circulation.
RA can cause other health problems. Your hands may become bent or twisted (deformed). Lung and heart problems may also occur. Talk to your doctor if you notice any new symptoms or problems.
Written by familydoctor.org editorial staff | <urn:uuid:ef6be9d1-70d1-4525-8590-3609a786d1dc> | CC-MAIN-2015-35 | http://familydoctor.org/familydoctor/en/diseases-conditions/rheumatoid-arthritis/other-organizations.printerview.all.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-35/segments/1440644065241.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20150827025425-00131-ip-10-171-96-226.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945636 | 956 | 2.96875 | 3 | {
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} | Health |
"It's a waiting game, but just observing while you're there is critical," says Carrier. "We do things such as water chemistry analysis and try to figure out from that standpoint what might be attracting the animals."
Once the sharks begin to arrive, the crew springs into action. The female sharks arrive first, entering the lagoon at a languid pace, and then wandering off alone into the shallows. The researchers carefully note where the females rest, and what they do in the cove.
The male sharks enter the cove with considerably more speed, driven by their single-minded drive to mate.
The male's first mating move is to bite and grab the female's pectoral fin, providing a cue to the research team that it's time for action. The researchers jump into their kayaks and race over to the site for an up-close and personal look at shark mating. The sharks aren't shy, and don't seem to mind the audience.
The exertions of mating leave both sharks listless and exhausted, providing the researchers their best opportunity for capturing their quarry.
Grabbing a Handful of Shark
Capturing live sharks is not easy under any circumstances. Doing so without bait and hooks is even more difficult. The strategy Pratt and Carrier employ is both simple and daunting. They go into the water and net the animals by hand. Pratt developed the hoop netsthink glorified butterfly netbased on a model he saw used at SeaWorld.
Even in their satiated state, the large sharks can put up a pretty good fight. It takes a team effort to entice the larger specimens into a hoop net.
"We back each other up," Carrier explained. "The bottom line is that we're studying sharks, so with an eight- or nine-foot [2.5-meter] animal, you want to have someone watching your back."
Even then, sometimes there are complications. Occasionally sharks will bite a kayak and not let go; they could just as easily latch onto a researcher.
"One of the things we've learned from the sharks is that turnabout is fair play," said Carrier, "and sometimes you get bit."
Shark Out of Water
Once a shark has been netted, the data collection process begins.
Nurse sharks are hardy animals and the smaller ones can be safely kept out of the water for about 15 minutes, as long as someone occasionally irrigates their gills with water and helps to support their body weight.
Still, the team moves deliberately. First, they check to see whether the shark already has an identification tag. The 12-year study has been so successful that most of the sharks have been captured at least once before. Many are captured nearly every year. The ability to collect annual data on the sharks is especially important to the study.
Next, some sharks are outfitted with a "pinger," a transponder that emits a signal once a minute. Data-retrieving monitors placed around the lagoon record the signals, allowing the researchers to track the sharks and see who is going where, and with whom. The pingers transmit signals year-round, allowing the scientists to collect data even after they have returned home.
If a shark doesn't already have a "PIT" taga pet identification tag that is often used on dogs and catsit will soon receive one. The tags are about the size of a grain of rice, and are placed under the skin with a hypodermic needle. The information contained in the PIT tag can be read using a device much like the bar code scanner at your local grocery store.
After a quick mouth-check for fishing hooks and parasites, the sharks are measured. They range in size from 1.5 feet (0.5 meters) to up to nearly 10 feet (3 meters) long. The researchers weigh each shark by hoisting it in a net. The growth data collected from these measurements, often gathered from the same sharks year after year, is one of the uniquely valuable results of the long-term study.
Ed Heist then collects a small piece of the dorsal fin. Back in the lab, he analyzes the sharks' DNA to determine patterns of shark paternity and population genetics.
A few sharks are fitted with a Crittercam, a video recording device that allows the researchers to watch the sharks in their natural environment. Mike Heithaus can attach the camera to the animal's dorsal fin in about 20 seconds. It's designed to release at a designated time, and can be retrieved using radio transmitter tracking.
Finally, the sharks are released, unharmed, to roam the tropical waters of the Keys until their next annual appointment with the researchers.
The tremendous amount of data Pratt and Carrier gather each year is of vital importance to furthering our understanding of sharks, and by extension, the vast ocean ecosystems they inhabit. But while Carrier is tireless in his pursuit of information, there is one line he's unwilling to crosskilling a shark for research purposes.
"I'm a physiologist, so I study the processes that keep animals alive and healthy," he explained. "While I know there are data to be gained from sacrificing animals, these animals in our study site area are part of the family. Once they are sacrificed for a study, we'll never see them again.
"Anyway," he added, "There is enough killing of sharks."
That is something of an understatement. Peter Benchley, in his new book Shark Trouble, noted one of the grimmer shark statistics: For every human being killed by a shark, roughly ten million sharks are killed by humans.
Follow the progress of this National Geographic expedition to the Florida Keys:
Expedition Report One: Scientists Study Nurse Shark Mating Habits
Expedition Report Three: Crittercams Provide Insights into Nurse Shark Behavior
National Geographic Shark Resources
Jaws Author Peter Benchley Talks Sharks
Do Hammerheads Follow Magnetic Highways in Migration?
Shark Nursery Yields Secrets of Breeding
South Africa Rethinks Use of Shark Nets
Sharks Falling Prey to Humans' Appetites
Satellites Clear Up White Shark Mysteries
Are People Eating Sharks Out of Existence?
Shark Sites on Nationalgeographic.com:
Related Lesson Plans:
Use this National Geographic News article in your classroom with these Xpeditions lesson plans:
Lesson Plan: A Trip to the Beach
Lesson Plan: Are Sharks As Dangerous As We Think They Are?
Lesson Plan: Does the Hammer Help?
Lesson Plan: SharksSetting the Record Straight
Lesson Plan: SharksShould They Be Afraid of Us?
Lesson Plan: What's the Hammer For?
Join the National Geographic Society
Join the world's largest nonprofit scientific and educational organization, and help further our mission to increase and diffuse knowledge of the world and all that is in it. Membership dues are used to fund exploration and educational projects and members also receive 12 annual issues of the Society's official journal, National Geographic. Click here for details of our latest subscription offer: Go>>
SOURCES AND RELATED WEB SITES | <urn:uuid:3abe2dbc-9fe9-4fa7-87d7-ed28c68a7f7b> | CC-MAIN-2015-40 | http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/06/0627_020627_sharkexp2_2.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-40/segments/1443737882743.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20151001221802-00045-ip-10-137-6-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945768 | 1,470 | 3.1875 | 3 | {
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} | Science & Tech. |
Two-column note-taking encourages students to identify important information in a lecture, film or reading and to respond to this material. These notes prepare students to participate in a discussion or begin a writing activity. They can also be used to recognize students’ misconceptions and questions, and to evaluate students’ understanding of material.
Step one: Preparation
Make sure that students have a journal, notebook or graphic organizer upon which to record their notes. The page they record notes on should be divided in half with a line or fold. The left side should be labeled “key ideas” and the right side should be labeled “response.”
- “Key ideas” often refers to the main points of the text, but can also include supporting details. Inform students about the depth and breadth of note-taking you expect. Prompts you can use for the left column include: What ideas are most important to remember? What new terms or concepts have been introduced?
- “Response” refers to questions, interpretations, and connections. Prompts you can use for the right column include: What questions does this information raise for you? What other ideas, events or texts does this information remind you of? Why do you think this information is important and/or relevant to your unit of study? How does this information connect to your own lives? What do you think of these ideas?
If this is the first time students have engaged in this kind of note-taking, you should discuss what is meant by “key ideas” and “response” and then model this technique with them
Step two: Taking notes
While listening to a lecture, watching a film or reading a text, have students record information in both the left and right columns of their charts. It may be difficult for some students to record information in both columns at the same time, especially during a lecture or film. You might recommend that students first record information on the left column. Then, once they have finished hearing, reading or watching the text, they record their responses in the right column. When possible, encourage students to review a text to check the accuracy of the information they recorded and to pick up ideas they may have missed.
Step three: Sharing
Sharing notes with a partner or small group can help students retain information, give them feedback on their note-taking skills, and provide them with an opportunity to add to their notes with information they may have missed.
Step four: Reflection and self-assessment
Many teachers assume students know how to take notes. But, often, students are never explicitly taught how to take thorough notes in an efficient way. To help students recognize their strengths and needs as note-takers, give them the opportunity to reflect on how this process is working and not working for them. What is easy about note-taking? What is difficult? Then, you might have a class discussion where students present their own note-taking strategies and questions. You can include tips such as:
- Underline new vocabulary.
- Skip lines between new ideas.
- Draw lines between ideas or facts that connect to each other.
- Take notes using symbols and drawings, not just words.
- Don’t worry about spelling as you take notes. You can check for proper spelling later.
- Use bullet points to list sub-points.
- Place a star by main ideas.
- Place a question-mark by anything you do not understand.
Anything can be used as headings for the two-columns. Other heading titles include:
- Important quotations / meaning of that quotation
- Pro argument / Con argument
- Facts / opinions
- Argument / supporting evidence
Click here for an example of a graphic organizer for two-column note taking. | <urn:uuid:fda6716d-6b9f-44b5-83af-bf765c7ae5d9> | CC-MAIN-2015-40 | https://www.facinghistory.org/for-educators/educator-resources/teaching-strategy/two-column-note-taking | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-40/segments/1443737893676.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20151001221813-00036-ip-10-137-6-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934432 | 778 | 3.8125 | 4 | {
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"reasoning_level": 2,
"interpretation": "Moderate reasoning"
} | Education & Jobs |
The human bodies possess the capacity to heal itself, in a way it is constantly monitoring and adjusting its own process. Each part of the body has its own way of being alive, intelligent and fundamentally independent. It’s important to note that human body has its own way of renewing itself, discard the old cells and regenerate the new ones. We just have to be a little kind to it, in terms of how we treat it, by following a lifestyle, the body is able to understand and sustain.
What is apoptosis?
- Apoptosis is the death of a cell and this process is also termed as cell suicide. This process is triggered when the cell stops receiving hormones and proteins needed for its survival, when it is deemed nonfunctional or sustains enough damage to stop functioning properly.
- So, apoptosis basically is programmed cell death, is a process that occurs naturally in our body, it comprises of steps in which cells signal self-termination.
- Apoptosis works to keep the body’s natural cell division process of mitosis in check.
- Cells which get damaged or undergo some kind of infection, in order to prevent the healthy cells from getting damaged, the process of apoptosis, does the needful of pushing out the infected cell.
- This programmed cellular death aids in fighting cancer, by thwarting and controlling the cells from growing uncontrollably.
- Apoptosis is a complex process, which involves many pathways; however some types of cancers persist as a result of cells inability to undergo apoptosis. Certain viruses initiate the production of proteins that stops apoptosis from occurring.
- For this the apoptosis has to be induced externally, either medicinally by the way of chemotherapy or in many cases using herbs, which have been produced in the purest of ways. Of course a medical examination and word of caution from the doctor must be exercised.
Have you heard of Oncomin?
Oncomin is a thoroughly studied and especially crafted product from Bagdara Farms, to reassure you, that Mother Nature never fails you, when it comes to looking after your health. The prodigious and high amount of curcumin present in Oncomin, acts on the immanent apoptotic pathway and thus does the needful in the most natural way, without causing side effects.
How does Oncomin work to treat apoptosis?
- The first and foremost prime reason is, Oncomin is free of deleterious side effects, it’s safe, simple to use, easily available and of course economical.
- The rich curcumin found in Oncomin, inserts deep into the cellular membrane, thus has a direct effect on apoptosis by increasing the permeabilizing activity of the apoptotic protein Bid.
- Oncomin, by the virtue of being abundant in curcumin, has shown signs of suppressing multiple signaling pathways and significantly inhibits cell proliferation, invasion, metastasis and angiogenesis.
- Oncomin with all the power of the magical curcumin, directly or indirectly regulates various genes convoluted in cell death pathways that promotes the process of apoptosis.
- Oncomin is instrumental at modulating growth of tumor cells, through regulation of multiple cell signaling pathways including cell proliferation pathway, cell survival pathway, tumor suppressor pathway, death receptor pathway etc. It’s amazing to know, that curcumin present in this excellent product selectively kills tumor cells and not the normal cells, hence ensuring our good health naturally.
- The anti-carcinogenic, plethora of anti-inflammatory and anti-proliferative properties of Oncomin, all target the dead cells from inducing any harmful effects on the rest of the body which is untouched and healthy. All these properties inhibit the tumor initiation and tumor promotion.
- The multiple pharmacological properties present in Oncomin, due to its innate nature being the golden herb turmeric’s phytochemcial curcmin, is the best adjuvant therapy for invoking apoptosis.
- Oncomin down regulates expression of stat3 and phospho-Stat3 proteins, as well as genes that encode anti-apoptotic signals; in simple words it alleviates cellular signals that under ordinary circumstances prevent malignant cells from going in the state of apoptosis.
Is there more reasons, a lay man would want to know as to why you should include Oncomin as a part of your integral routine? I guess, the simple facts above are enough to motivate us to make this unembellished chemically, otherwise highly puissant product member of our lives, to ensure good health naturally.
Click here for more details : https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29301415 | <urn:uuid:4618e670-cec5-45e2-a6d5-044de0d1266f> | CC-MAIN-2018-43 | https://bagdarafarms.com/treatment-of-apoptosis/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-43/segments/1539583510754.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20181016134654-20181016160154-00251.warc.gz | en | 0.928708 | 976 | 3.265625 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 2.6416451930999756,
"reasoning_level": 3,
"interpretation": "Strong reasoning"
} | Health |
Consider card sorting when testing your IA
Card sorting is a method used to help design or evaluate the IA of a website. It’s a quick and easy technique for exploring how users group information so that a site structure can be developed with them in mind.
It involves asking users to organise information into logical groups then label those groups with terminology that makes sense to them. The results help us to understand how users would expect to see content grouped on a website and how they might see these groups labelled.
While card sorting might not provide us with a final IA, it helps to identify trends and how many potential categories there could be on the new IA.
To conduct a card sort, you can use actual cards, pieces of paper, or one of several online card-sorting software tools.
Remote vs moderated
Remote, online card sorting is when users work independently in their own environment, using their own devices.
Benefits of remote card sorting
- Online tools are quick and easy to set up and provide you with a number of ways to analyse the results
- You get quantitative data quickly
- It involves less resource time in terms of set-up and analysis
- There is no limit to the number participants to involve
On the other hand, moderated card sorting is done in person with an observer present. When conducting the card sort, users are asked to talk through their thoughts and decisions and the observer (you) has the opportunity to ask questions to gain a better understanding to the reasons why users have arranged the cards in a certain way.
Benefits of moderated card sorting
- It allows you to gather insights into how people feel about what they're doing or saying in the study
- It’s great for gathering qualitative results
- Online tools can also be used, as well as physical cards
- It’s a great task to use in focus groups
Types of card sorting
Open card sorting is when users create and label their own groups. Participants are given a number of cards that represent pages, information, content and assets of the website. They are then asked to group these cards in a way that makes sense to them and then label their cards.
Closed card sorting is when users are given predefined groups, often the primary and/or secondary navigation structure. Similar to open card sorting, participants are given a number of cards, but instead of creating their own groups, they are asked to place these cards under the categories you have given them.
Hybrid card sorting is when participants sort cards into categories you give them, but they can also create and label their own groups too.
Treejack testing is reversed card sorting, where an IA is proposed and the exercise is used to evaluate the findability of topics/pages on your site. You create a simplified version of the site structure and set the users tasks to find information.
Top tips when card sorting
- Limit the number of cards. 30 or 40 is ideal, especially for an open sort
- Randomise the order of your cards so that you don’t give them any ideas
- Let them know how long the card sort is likely to take
- Consider an open sort as part 1, a closed sort as part 2 and a tree jack as part 3 of your process. One allows you to learn what goes together, 2 allows you to really test out your labels to see if they are intuitive to your participants and 3 allows you verify if users can find what they're looking for.
If you found this blog interesting, read our next blog that covers the importance of developing personas and journeys.
Take a look at our discovery and UX services to see where we can help. | <urn:uuid:89e817d1-e215-4f25-aa7c-d41b53db1e5a> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://www.civicuk.com/blog-item/consider-card-sorting-when-testing-your-ia | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474617.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20240225135334-20240225165334-00108.warc.gz | en | 0.940908 | 755 | 2.515625 | 3 | {
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What is dirty electricity?
Dirty electricity (DE) are high-frequency voltage spikes (transients) caused by plugging electrical devices into the mains supply. Dirty electricity is a by-product of modern electronic equipment and appliances, such as computers, refrigerators, plasma TVs, WiFi routers, Sky boxes, DVD players, video recorders, set top boxes, compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs), solar panels and dimmer switches – all of which corrupt the electricity they use. DE can also enter home and offices through wiring from nearby sources, including your neighbours’ WiFi, TV antennas or nearby mobile phone base stations (transmitters) connected to the power grid.
What effect does it have?
Research shows that dirty electricity is a chronic stressor and is responsible for many diseases and conditions including amongst others – cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, insomnia, headaches, neurological disorders, arrhythmia, autism and even suicide. (Milham & Stetzer, 2013)
A school in Minnesota where dirty electricity meters went completely off the scale had a cancer incidence in teachers nearly three times higher than average. There were also three former students who developed thyroid cancer in their 20s. (Milham & Morgan, 2008).
However when dirty electricity was reduced by more than 90% in other schools, the health of teachers improved significantly, as did student behaviour in both middle and elementary schools. (Havas & Olstad, 2008)
In another school the number of students needing inhalers for asthma was reduced and blood sugar levels for some diabetics responded positively to the removal of dirty electricity in their environment. (Havas, 2008)
An additional study into individuals with multiple sclerosis, after reducing dirty electricity levels showed their balance improved and they experienced fewer tremors. (Havas, 2006)
How can I remove dirty electricity from my home or office?
Fortunately, the solution to removing dirty electricity is now very simple! Once the DE levels in your environment have been measured, the correct number of dirty electricity meters can then be installed to neutralise the effects.
Contact me if you want the electromagnetic fields checked in your home or office: 07970 521 787
Havas M & A Olstad (2008) Power quality affects teacher wellbeing and student behavior in three Minnesota Schools Sci Total Environ 402(2-3):157-62 PMID: 18556048
Havas M (2008) Dirty electricity elevates blood sugar among electrically sensitive diabetics and may explain brittle diabetes Electromagn Biol Med 27(2):135-46 PMID: 18568931
Havas M (2006) Electromagnetic hypersensitivity: biological effects of dirty electricity with emphasis on diabetes and multiple sclerosis Electromagn Biol Med 25(4):259-68 PMID: 17178585
Milham S & D Stetzer (2013) Dirty electricity, chronic stress, neurotransmitters and disease Electromagn Biol Med Jan 16 [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 23323864
Milham S & LL Morgan (2008) A new electromagnetic exposure metric: high frequency voltage transients associated with increased cancer incidence in teachers in a California school Am J Ind Med 51(8):579-86 PMID: 18512243 | <urn:uuid:f7898a91-c5f6-4132-ab27-3d7f7dba7d9b> | CC-MAIN-2019-09 | http://www.soothingspaces.co.uk/electro-smog | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-09/segments/1550249495888.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20190223082039-20190223104039-00072.warc.gz | en | 0.907658 | 675 | 3.0625 | 3 | {
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Over the last year-and-a-half, the Grijalva river in Chiapas has been suffering from a drought, causing the Nezahualcoyotl reservoir’s water level to decrease. The drop was rather drastic, totaling up to 25 meters (82 feet). So what happens as a consequence of that, you ask? A 16th-century Mexican church resurfaces from its watery grave and allows people a rare glimpse into its stunning architecture and bloody history.
The church, which is actually called the Temple of Santiago, has an interesting past.
It is said to have been built by a monk fraternity led by Friar Bartolome de la Casas, who arrived in Chiapas around 1564 with Spanish settlers. These monks belonged to The Dominican Order, also known as the Order of Preachers, founded by the Spanish priest Saint Dominic de Guzman in 13th-century France. This is where it gets darker. When a devastating plague gripped the area from 1773 to 1776, the church was completely abandoned.
Carlos Navarete, who worked on a structural report of the church, explains that epidemics were extremely common in late 15 century. Due to the massive influx of traders, explorers and settlers, a whole catalogue of bacteria and viruses were brought into the New World. Malaria, measles, and devastating smallpox breakouts caused deaths in unspeakable numbers. The Temple of Santiago bore witness to this tragic period of time in history, and to be able to look at this magnificent structure is to hold a memorial for those that are long dead and gone.
Speaking to the AP, Mr. Navarete says,
“It was a church built thinking that this could be a great population center, but it never achieved that. It probably never even had a dedicated priest, only receiving visits from those from Tecpatan.”
Tecpatan was a nearby monastery, also founded by The Dominican Order, in 1564. This Roman Catholic Order’s aim was to spread Christianity to south-east Mexico.
Mr. Navarrete has reason to believe that the Santiago and Tecpatan were the work of the same builder. Architectural similarities and the proximity of the time period they were built in were all the clues that were needed. Adding to its importance was the temple’s location: it was on the King’s Highway, a road designed by Spanish conquistadors which was in use until the 20th century.
“At that time we still found the wood from the chorus loft and the roof beams,” he said. “Also a large ossuary of the victims of the plague that depopulated the area.”
But how did this sacred temple drown in the first place? Because of the Benito Juarez Dam. When it was completed in 1996, the church flooded with water and remained that way for decades thereafter, unnoticed. In 2002, however, a severe drought struck this area and caused the Santiago to re-emerge. In fact, people were able to walk around the church because the water levels were so low.
Recalling this incident, local fisherman Leonel Mendoza says in an interview with Associated Press,
“The people celebrated. They came to eat, to hang out, to do business. I sold them fried fish. They did processions around the church.”
This time, the 183-feet-long and 42-feet-wide structure hasn’t risen enough to make walking on the ground level possible, although explorers have been able to climb the church’s walls. Recently, this event has brought boaters and fishermen to the site, who have been giving people trips to let them explore the ruins while the Santiago remains exposed.
The church is also called the Temple of Temple of Quechula, and is submerged under nearly 100 feet of water when the reservoir is not experiencing drought.
Its walls reach a staggering 32 feet, with the bell tower rising to 48 feet above the ground, according to a report from The Associated Press. On a sadder note, local guides opine that the building is deteriorating due to its age and being immersed in the water for so long. | <urn:uuid:c8ae1602-f89d-45df-97f3-d33a719fc292> | CC-MAIN-2019-22 | https://www.unbelievable-facts.com/2016/06/16th-century-mexican-church-resurfaces.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-22/segments/1558232254889.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20190519141556-20190519163556-00313.warc.gz | en | 0.982159 | 874 | 3.359375 | 3 | {
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Posted By Claire on January 24, 2017
On this day in history, 24th January 1536, at a joust at Greenwich Palace, King Henry VIII and his horse “both fell so heavily that every one thought it a miracle he was not killed”.
It is not known exactly what happened or how serious the accident was, but it put an end to Henry’s jousting days, a blow for the once athletic king and enthusiastic jouster.
There are three main contemporary accounts of the king’s 1536 jousting accident. The first, which is often used to back up the idea that the accident was a serious one and may have caused a frontal lobe injury, is from an account of the accident written by Pedro Ortiz, or Dr Ortiz, to the Empress on 6th March 1536:
“Has received a letter from the ambassador in France, dated 15 Feb., stating that he hears from England that the King intends to marry the Princess to an English knight. The French king said that the king of England had fallen from his horse, and been for two hours without speaking. “La Ana” was so upset that she miscarried of a son.”
The problem with this account of the king being “without speaking” for two hours, which suggests that he was unconscious, is that it is hearsay and very much third-hand hearsay. Ortiz was in Rome and it appears that he heard the news from the French ambassador who heard it from Francis I, who himself wasn’t present at the joust and must have heard it from one of his ambassadors in England. Two accounts written by people who were in England, at the English court, at the time, make no mention of the king being unconscious. Eustace Chapuys, the imperial ambassador in England, wrote:
“On the eve of the Conversion of St. Paul, the King being mounted on a great horse to run at the lists, both fell so heavily that every one thought it a miracle he was not killed, but he sustained no injury.”
And chronicler Charles Wriothesley, in writing of Queen Anne Boleyn’s miscarriage on 29th January, recorded:
“[…] it was said she [Anne] tooke a fright, for the King ranne that tyme at the ring and had a fall from his horse, but he had no hurt; and she tooke such a fright with all that it caused her to fall in travaile, and so was delivered afore her full tyme, which was a great discompfort to all this realme.”
Whether or not it caused any type if brain injury, it was enough to stop the king from jousting again, it may have reminded the king of his mortality and the need for a son and heir, and the queen said that the shock of hearing news of the king’s accident caused her to miscarry. The accident had an impact.
Notes and Sources
Picture: Henry VIII by Joos van Cleve and a photo of jousting at Hever Castle by Peter Trimming, Geograph.org.uk.
- Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 10, 427, Dr Ortiz to the Empress
- Ibid., 200, Chapuys to Granvelle
- Wriothesley, Charles (1875) A chronicle of England during the reigns of the Tudors, from A.D. 1485 to 1559, p. 33 | <urn:uuid:ba754864-082a-4b62-8a1b-460e7d49f68f> | CC-MAIN-2020-40 | https://www.theanneboleynfiles.com/24-january-1536-henry-viii-horse-fall-heavily/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-40/segments/1600400202418.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20200929154729-20200929184729-00750.warc.gz | en | 0.981795 | 736 | 2.9375 | 3 | {
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Cusco is an extremely mystical city; is known for having been the capital of the Inca empire, but its story begins much earlier. Nowadays it is still the center of the universe for many, since for some reason Cusco is considered to be the "navel" of the world.In this small blog you will know the 4 most popular and famous legends about the great empire of the Incas
The Ayar brothers
- According to this myth, in very remote times four brothers appeared with their respective sisters who were their wives at the same time: Ayar Manco, Ayar Cachi, Ayar Ucho and Ayar Auca, all of whom came from caves or pacarinas located in the Tamputocco hill that qued to the place called Pacaritambo, near Paruro, south of Cusco. Pacarina means, precisely, place of origin; and they, in search of a fertile land to reside, emigrated north, towards Cusco. This pilgrimage lasted several years, during which prodigious events took place, such as the transformation of Ayar Cachi in a sparrowhawk, and the transformation of Ayar Ucho into an idol of stones that later became known as huaca of huanacauri. Meanwhile, Ayar Auca, converted into a bird, took possession of the site where the temple of the sun was later erected; after which he also transformed himself into an idol or a stone huaca.Fnally Ayar Manco , founded Qosqo, the navel of the world.
Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo
- This legend expresses that in very ancient times the sun god "Inti" felt sorry for the savagery and barbarism in which the people lived, for that reason he decided to send two of his sons to start a teaching and learning campaign until they became real human beings. Those children of his, called Manco Cápac and Mama Ocllo, were fired at Lake Titicaca, where they left to travel the Andean land. He gave them a golden rod to be buried in all the places where they arrived, and they stayed settled in the place where it sank. They emigrated to the north, arrived at Tamputocco, from which they passed to Huanacauri and finally arrive in the Sacred Valley of Cusco, where the rod sank in the ground. There they stayed and fulfilling the mandate of the sun god, they took root to form a small manor. Manco Cápac, then, devoted himself to teaching all the crafts, techniques and other works necessary to get the Andean men out of their primitivism; Mama Ocllo, on the other hand, towards the same thing about women. So says the legend, is how the Peruvians learned the techniques of agriculture, ceramic farming, textile, culinary art, etc.
The God Huiracocha
- In ancient Peru it was narrated about the origin of man, that the god Huiracocha, at a time when there was no sun, no moon, no stars in the sky, came to the Andean land (which already existed before Huiracocha) and created a first generation of men and women, but of very high stature; It turned out, however, that this first generation behaved badly, even forgot its creator, for which Huiracocha considered them arrogant and punished them by turning them into stone, which are what can be seen now in Tiahuanaco. Then came a great flood, terribly huge. But after Huiracocha visited the island of Titicaca, where he created the sun, the moon and the stars to illuminate the earth. From there he went to Tiahuanaco and decided to create the definitive human generation, although this time in his image and likeness and of low stature only. Then, in pairs, he submerged them in Lake Titicaca; and these people, diving, went deeper into the waters until they found openings or caverns in the walls and floors of the lake. Through them they penetrated until they left by other openings and mouths that were located in hills, puquios and trees of diverse provinces. It was then that, as couples began to populate the Andean world. These people created and sent by Huiracocha knew how to speak, dressed and had a series of knowledge taught by the same god Huiracocha. The openings through which they emerged ashore were called "pacarinas" (caves where the sun rises or rises). After Huiracocha created the animals; and in this work he had as assistants two very intelligent and powerful men. As can be seen, in the ancient myth of Huiracocha, when he arrived at the island of Titicaca, to the earth he found it created, he only gave birth to men, animals and plants.
- Ollantay was a powerful general of the Inca Empire who enjoyed the admiration of Emperor Pachacutec, but had a secret relationship with his daughter Cusi Coyllur. It was a forbidden love because Ollantay was of plebeian origin. At the beginning of the work, the servant Piqui Chaqui and the priest Willac Umu ask Ollantay to forget Cusi Coyllur, but the young warrior decides to go before Pachacútec and confess his desire to marry the princess. As expected, the emperor despised him and his daughter locked her in the Acllahuasi. Ollantay was enraged and revolted against Pachacútec. He won a battle and entrenched himself in the Ollantaytambo fortress, where he remained a rebel for several years. Meanwhile, during his confinement Cusi Coyllur had a daughter of Ollantay called Ima Súmaq. She grew up separated from her mother, but when she turned 10 she discovered the truth thanks to her wet nurse Pitu Salla. Pachacútec died in those days and was replaced by his son Tupac Yupanqui. He sent General Rumiñahui to capture Ollantay with a trick: he pretended that the Inca had punished him and that he wanted to go over to his side. Ollantay took pity and let him enter Ollantaytambo. Shortly afterwards, during a party, Rumiñahui opened the doors of the fortress for his troops to enter. Ollantay was captured and brought before Tupac Yupanqui. Everyone thought that Ollantay would be executed, but the Sapa Inca forgave him and freed him. He even named him as his lieutenant. At that moment the little Ima Súmaq appeared asking for the release of her mother Cusi Coyllur from Acllahuasi. Tupac Yupanqui learned everything, freed his sister and allowed him to marry Ollantay. | <urn:uuid:556d4886-ba39-48f5-9959-78a6e40d871b> | CC-MAIN-2020-24 | https://www.salkantaytrekmachu.com/en/travel-blog/mystical-city-of-cusco | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-24/segments/1590347392057.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20200527013445-20200527043445-00303.warc.gz | en | 0.981546 | 1,454 | 2.703125 | 3 | {
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In a new research study published in the British Journal of Cancer, researchers found that excess weight in early adulthood, followed by additional weight gain over time, is associated with significant increase in the risk of esophageal and gastric cardia cancers. The results of two studies with over 400,000 participants found that those with a BMI of more than 25 at age 20 who then progressed to a BMI of 30 or greater at age 50 had a 300% higher risk of esophageal cancer than individuals with a BMI of 25 or less. Also, the risk of gastric cancer was 400% higher. Both cancers have a very low 5-year survival rate.
According to the researchers, “These results indicate that weight gain during adulthood should be avoided to reduce the risk of esophageal adenocarcinoma and gastric cardia adenocarcinoma, and underscores the potential of weight control programs for reducing the incidence of these highly lethal cancers.”
Symptoms of esophageal cancer
According to the Mayo Clinic, there are several signs and symptoms associated with esophageal cancer:
- Difficulty swallowing
- Unplanned weight loss
- Chest pain, pressure or burning
- Worsening indigestion and heartburn
- Coughing or hoarseness
Unfortunately, as pointed out by Mayo experts, there are very few or no symptoms of esophageal cancer in its early stages. However, Barrett’s esophagus, a precursor to cancer and a complication due to the progression of GERD, is a possible first diagnosis for many. Unfortunately, Barrett’s esophagus has a higher risk of progressing to esophageal cancer.
Things you can do if you are concerned about esophageal cancer
First, RefluxMD encourages anyone with GERD symptoms of 10 years or more to partner with a GERD expert and establish a regular surveillance plan to monitor the condition of your esophagus. This examination will typically require an endoscopy examination and can include biopsies of the esophagus. With that partnership in place, design a comprehensive approach to reduce your risk by focusing on these key changes:
- Maintain a BMI of 24 or less. As we have documented in our article about excess weight and GERD, achieving and maintaining a healthy BMI will often eliminate or significantly reduce GERD symptoms. By reducing pressure on the lower esophageal sphincter (LES) and the diaphragm, the LES may provide its barrier function. Both Sandy Mason and MJ realized this benefit with weight loss via Scale Down with Relief program.
- Adopt a GERD-friendly diet. What you eat, when you eat, how much you eat, and how frequently you eat can have an impact on GERD symptoms. Our article that discusses the five steps to an acid reflux diet offers several options to consider. In RefluxMD’s Recipe for Relief, a more detailed GERD-friendly meal plan and diet program are presented with over 90 healthy recipes and a 21-day meal program.
- Use less powerful medications. PPIs are the most powerful medication available today, and unfortunately, readily available at pharmacies, grocery stores, and warehouse stores. These medications do not cure GERD; they only mask the symptoms associated with GERD. Regurgitation can continue and the disease can progress to Barrett’s esophagus or esophageal cancer. Also, daily long-term PPI use is associated with many health risks that must be weighed against symptom relief.
- Make the necessary lifestyle changes. There are many lifestyle changes that can reduce symptoms such as:
- Eliminate or curtail the consumption of alcohol
- Stop smoking
- Eat smaller portions, and consider 5 or 6 smaller meals during the day
- Never eat within 3 hours of going to bed
- Raise the headboard of your bed by 7 inches
- Consider experimenting with natural home remedies, like apple cider vinegar
- Drink alkaline water
Getting started on your path to relief and good health
Maintaining a healthy body mass index (BMI) is the single most important element to optimal health and long-term relief. The risks of esophageal cancer associated with weight gain later in life can be offset by weight loss. Also, many adults that achieve and maintain a healthy BMI find symptom relief. A research article by Hashem El-Serag MD MPH titled The Association Between Obesity and GERD: A Review of the Epidemiological Evidence, the connection between excessive weight and GERD was clear and convincing: “This meta-analysis indicated that obesity was associated with a significant 1.5- to 2-fold increase in the risk of GERD symptoms and erosive esophagitis, and a 2- to 2.5-fold increase in the risk of esophageal adenocarcinoma as compared to individuals with normal BMI.”
Get started today. Your health is your wealth, and your health next year can be much better with some hard effort this year. YOU CAN DO THIS! | <urn:uuid:7527c634-765e-4463-90c5-4b09610184c1> | CC-MAIN-2017-17 | http://www.refluxmd.com/weight_gain_and_esophageal_cancer/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-17/segments/1492917118963.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20170423031158-00279-ip-10-145-167-34.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939702 | 1,051 | 2.703125 | 3 | {
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What have hedgerows ever done for us?
Hedgerows provide a wide range of benefits to farmers and land managers. Here are some of the ways that hedgerows can work for us.
We are interested in hedgerows because they are home to animals and provide habitat connection corridors meaning that wildlife can move around the landscape.
However, they also deliver a number of additional benefits to farmland, beyond that of a field boundary.
Here’s a list of some of the amazing things hedgerows do for us:
Hedgerows provide shelter for livestock
- Livestock on farms without shelter have a higher mortality and require more food
- Shelter can increase lamb survival rates by reducing the effect of wind chill and thus hypothermia
- In the summer months, heat stress can reduce milk yield in dairy herds
Hedgerows regulate water supply for crops by:
- reducing water loss through evaporation by decreasing wind speed over the ground surface
- helping to store water for later use – a 50m hedgerow at the bottom of a 1ha field can store between 150 and 375 cubic metres of water during rainy periods for slow release down slopes during dry periods
- reducing flooding by increasing the rate of water infiltration and slowing flows of water. Their deep roots help them remove water faster from the soil than crops during periods of excessive rainfall.
Animal health can be improved
- Reductions in damp conditions in fields may reduce incidence rates of lameness.
Shelter creates warmer soils, extending the growing season
Hedgerows reduce soil erosion
- by reducing surface wind speeds; and
- acting as a barrier to water-borne run-off
Hedgerows can reduce the need for pesticide use
- They increase populations of predator species; and natural enemies of pests can improve the potential for biological control, so reducing the need for farmer input or pesticide use.
- Biological control is a service provided by species of farmland birds and predatory invertebrates, such as spiders and predatory beetles, as these groups feed on, and therefore limit the populations of, pest species.
- Rich flora in a hedge base will attract a host of predatory and parasitic species able to tackle crop pests
Hedgerows help sustain pollinator communities which support productive farming
- Pollination services are valued at £430 – £603 million annually
- Managed honey bees are an essential part of pollination, but populations are currently vulnerable to disease and pesticide usage, making populations of wild pollinators increasingly important.
- Bees and other pollinators depend on forage throughout the year including when crops are not in flower
A sustainable source of wood fuel
- Hedges and hedgerow trees can provide sustainable wood fuel if managed correctly. Pollarding is a traditional management of trees that can provide both wood fuel and animal fodder.
Wildlife-friendly farms have reduced risk of bTB in cattle herds
- Hedgerows appear to be a key factor for improved biosecurity. ‘Hedge-poor’ farms, those with few hedgerows and large field sizes, were found to have greater risk of bTB outbreaks than ‘hedge-rich’ farms.
- Hedgerow availability, width and continuity has also shown to be to be more important than badger abundance in affecting bTB incidence.
Hedgerows can have a role in reducing the rate of climate change through carbon storage
- A new hedgerow may store 600 – 800 kg of carbon per year per 1000m, for up to 20 years
Hedgerows reduce pollution
- by reducing the amount of fertilisers, pesticides and sediment that reach watercourses.
- They do this by acting as a physical barrier, increasing infiltration into the ground, and through nutrients being recycled by the trees, shrubs and other plants. | <urn:uuid:a8fe93da-f5e6-42ae-b7bd-8e99ac53a752> | CC-MAIN-2020-29 | https://ptes.org/hedgerow/what-have-hedgerows-ever-done-for-us/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-29/segments/1593657181335.85/warc/CC-MAIN-20200716021527-20200716051527-00235.warc.gz | en | 0.935501 | 792 | 3.6875 | 4 | {
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I am a big fan of Renaissance Faires and Festivals – I have a sizeable collection of pirate hats, doublets and billowy shirts and even a pair of thigh-length boots that would make Blackbeard envious. But whenever I go to a Renn Faire at this time of year and see the clientele dressed up in full Tudor formal dress, I worry about their immediate expiration from massive heat stroke.
The daily temperatures during Renaissance Faires (and similar outdoor events) at this time of year in my region (mid-Atlantic U.S.) often go above 30° C (and when you add in the high humidity, the “heat index” can go well over 35° C). You see patrons, however, wearing full Renaissance court costumes from the 16th century, outfits that were (a) worn at a much higher, cooler latitude (b) in the winter, and (c) in a period known as “the Little Ice Age”.
Tree ring data suggest that during the reign of Elizabeth I there was an especially cold period in northern Europe. Famously, throughout the reigns of Henry VIII and his children (Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I), the river Thames froze in winters (it most certainly no longer does so!). In fact, the ice was so thick that it allowed the populace of London to skate, play games, and have winter fairs on the ice. At the height of the Little Ice Age, the temperatures were estimated to be approximately 2° C colder than present, with winter temperatures probably averaging about 5° C during January.
In short, you see patrons at Renaissance Faires wearing costumes in temperatures of 25-35° C that would have been worn when temperatures were 5-10° C.
Now those that are dressed as Vikings (although technically unless they are specifically raiding and pillaging – not recommended at any Renn Faires, even those that allow you to carry weapons – they are not actually “Vikings;” “Norse” or “Dark Age” or “early medieval” would be more correct) might fare a little better, as their costumes are from a time known as the “Medieval Warm Period.” Yet even so, this period, although slightly warmer than the 16th Century, was still cooler than today’s temperatures globally and might be more comparable to modern temperatures in parts of northern Europe. The temperature in July in present-day Oslo averages 18°C, which is a far cry from the hot and humid heat of Washington, DC in mid-summer.
(FYI the norse did not wear horns on their helmets but drinking vast quanties of alcohol …well that is historically correct)
So, if you want to wear a costume at a Renn Faire and, well, not die from heat stroke, wear a costume from a region (and period) that would have had temperatures closer to, and clothing more appropriate for, contemporary temperatures. For example, period costumes from sunny tropical and sub-tropical areas where it was appropriate to wear a lose billowy linen shirt whilst carousing and quaffing vast quantities of alcohol. In short, go pirate! Arrr! | <urn:uuid:5edcbc2c-8152-4508-a7ce-160f52892655> | CC-MAIN-2017-13 | http://www.southernfriedscience.com/death-by-renaissance-faire/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-13/segments/1490218186774.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20170322212946-00123-ip-10-233-31-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966555 | 667 | 2.625 | 3 | {
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An enormous U.N. report on the scientific data behind global warming was made available Monday, yet it offers little concrete explanation for an earthly oddity: the planet’s climate has hit the pause button.
Since 1998, there has been no significant increase in global average surface temperature, and some areas -- notably the Northern Hemisphere -- have actually cooled. The 2,200-page new Technical Report attributes that to a combination of several factors, including natural variability, reduced heating from the sun and the ocean acting like a “heat sink” to suck up extra warmth in the atmosphere.
One problem with that conclusion, according to some climate scientists, is that the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has limited the hiatus to 10-15 years. Anastasios Tsonis, distinguished professor at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, believes the pause will last much longer than that. He points to repeated periods of warming and cooling in the 20th century.
'I know that the models are not adequate ... they don’t agree with reality.'
- Anastasios Tsonis, distinguished professor at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee
“Each one of those regimes lasts about 30 years … I would assume something like another 15 years of leveling off or cooling,” he told Fox News.
That goes well beyond the window the IPCC has acknowledged, which Tsonis and other scientists believe will significantly change the predictions for temperature rise over the next century.
Farmers' Almanac predicts colder-than-normal winter for most of US
Leaked draft of climate report struggles with drop in warming
Arctic sea ice up 60 percent in 2013
Climate models wildly overestimated global warming, study finds
Climategate II: leaked emails show struggle to deal with warming lull
Models of misinformation -- climate reports melt under scrutiny
UN climate change report dismisses slowdown in global warming
Climate change warnings -- science or "scientific-sounding"?
“I know that the models are not adequate,” Tsonis told Fox News. “There are a lot of climate models out there. They don’t agree with each other – and they don’t agree with reality.”
In fact, the IPCC's massive, complex new report acknowledges that none of the models predicted the hiatus. The authors write that it could be due to climate models over-predicting the response to increasing greenhouse gases, or a failure to account for water vapor in the upper atmosphere.
The bottom line – no one saw it coming.
“Almost all historical simulations do not reproduce the observed recent warming hiatus,” the report states.
Tsonis was pleased that the IPCC acknowledged that natural variability may have played a part in the stall in upward temperature trends. But he said the report’s authors totally ignored groundbreaking research he presented six and four years ago that fully explained such “pauses." He attributes them to an intricate interaction of oceanic and atmospheric modes which either warm or cool the planet on a time scale of decades.
Judith Curry, chair of the School of Earth And Atmospheric Sciences at Georgia Tech, says the IPCC is taking a huge credibility hit over the hiatus – and its pronouncement that it is 95 percent certain that human activity is responsible for most global warming.
“I’m not happy with the IPCC,” she told Fox News. “I think it has torqued the science in an unfortunate direction.”
That torquing, she suggests, is because the money in climate science (the funding, that is) is tied to embellishing the IPCC narrative, especially the impacts of global warming. She is critical of the IPCC’s leadership as well, in particular its chairman, Rajendra Pachauri.
“They have explicit policy agendas,” Curry told Fox News. “Their proclamations are very alarmist and very imperative as to what we should be doing. And this does not inspire confidence in the final product.”
Other scientists argue passionately against such talk.
Penn State’s Michael Mann – who authored the famous “hockey stick” graph showing a stunning rise in temperatures in the late 20th century – believes this latest IPCC report only confirms what he has been arguing for years. That the Earth is warming, and humans are to blame.
“We cannot explain the warming through natural causes,” he told Fox News. “It can only be explained by the increased greenhouse gas concentrations from human fossil fuel burning.”
Mann goes so far as to say that if you remove the "noise" from the recent pause in temperature rise, human activity is to blame for 100 percent of the global warming.
Tsonis strongly disagrees. He acknowledges that human activity is likely having an impact on climate, but adds “Nobody has ever proven for 100 percent that the long-term warming is man-made. In my educated guess I will think something like less than 30 percent.”
Judith Curry believes the approach the IPCC takes to climate change is fundamentally flawed. Consensus-seeking, she says, introduces bias into the science.
“They don’t challenge it and say, well, how might this be wrong?” she told Fox News. “What are all the different reasons or ways this could be wrong? And once you start looking at it that way, you come up with a lot of different answers.”
John Roberts joined Fox News Channel (FNC) in January 2011 as a senior national correspondent and is based in the Atlanta bureau. | <urn:uuid:8e0636ef-97d3-4bde-891b-6c0c919276d5> | CC-MAIN-2016-07 | http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/09/30/un-climate-change-models-warming.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-07/segments/1454701162808.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20160205193922-00259-ip-10-236-182-209.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940683 | 1,169 | 3.015625 | 3 | {
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If it seems like food allergies are everywhere these days, well, it’s because they are. From 1997 to 2011, food allergies among children have increased by 50 percent, with many children having more than one allergy.
An estimated 15 million Americans have food allergies, with nearly 6 million of those being younger than 18 years old. That breaks down to one in every 13 children having a diagnosable allergy to one or more foods. (1)
Why Are Food Allergies Increasing?
With the rapid increase of allergens, especially in children, it definitely makes one wonder what’s causing the epidemic of allergic food reactions. Has food changed? Have our genetics started to break down? What causes food allergies anyway?
A true food allergy is an immune response to a specific food or additive. (2) While more than 90 percent of reactions come from eight different allergens, one in particular – sesame – is on the rise, and of increasing concern. These top nine allergens are:
- Tree Nuts
Food allergy reactions don’t always have to be life-threatening, but anaphylaxis is certainly a major concern. Less severe reactions can include tingling in the mouth, itching, headache, hives, wheezing, or digestive issues.
Unfortunately, there is no solid answer as to how or why certain people become allergic to specific foods. It is more common in children, and barring anaphylactic allergies, many children have the potential to outgrow some allergens by the time they reach the age of 18. [tweet_quote]Today, the average child is allergic to approximately four foods, compared to the one or two of years past.[/tweet_quote]
While there isn’t solid data, most scientists agree that not only are the number of people with food allergies increasing, but also the average number of foods to which a single person is allergic to. Today, the average child is allergic to approximately four foods, compared to the one or two of years past. (3)
While researchers can’t agree on one solid reason as to why food allergies are dramatically increasing, theories center around several key ideas which will undoubtedly be the point of more research in the future:
- Microbiome and gut health
- Hygiene factors, such as exposure to allergens topically through broken skin or eczema
- Genetics, i.e. once a person develops an allergy for any reason, they are genetically likely to pass that on to children, even if no previous family history existed
- Environmental factors, like genetically modified foods
- Cell and genetic alterations in response to vaccinations
Bottom line: Food allergies are rising rapidly, but research can’t clearly indicate a definitive cause. As such, food allergies are a major public health concern, especially considering that children seem to be predominantly affected.
The Top 9 Food Allergens
While there are more than 170 documented food allergens, most reactions are due to nine specific foods. (4)
The most talked about allergy, peanuts, have gained their reputation for typically producing severe anaphylactic reactions in those who have true IgE allergies to these common legumes. Most people who have a peanut allergy will carry an epinephrine auto-injector, which can provide life-saving treatment in case of exposure.
How to Address a Peanut Allergy
For most with these allergies, strict avoidance of peanuts and any products containing peanut ingredients is essential. Severe reactions can occur even with mild cross contamination, such as eating a food produced in a facility that also handles peanuts or touching someone who has eaten a peanut food.
Most peanut allergies are lifelong, and children or adults who develop them don’t typically outgrow them, although 20 percent of children with peanut allergies might outgrow them or downgrade the severity of their reaction to exposures. (5)
Recent research indicates that as many as 40 percent of those who have peanut allergies will also have tree nut allergies. (6)
2. Tree Nuts
Tree nuts can be as severe as peanut allergies, and like peanut allergies, they tend to be lifelong, although a recent study showed that about nine percent of children with tree nut allergies will outgrow them by the time they reach adulthood. (7)
The most common tree nut allergens include: (8)
- Brazil nuts
How to Address a Tree Nut Allergy
Individuals with tree nut allergies must avoid topical sources of these as well, including body oils, lotions, hair care products, and soaps. It’s important to note that coconut, nutmeg, water chestnuts, and butternut squash are not tree nuts, and do not need to be avoided by those with tree nut allergies, although coconuts can also cause their own allergic reactions.
Coconut allergies aren’t nearly as common as peanuts or tree nuts, but those who do have them can experience a wide range of allergic reactions, including rare cases of anaphylaxis. (9)
While coconuts are not tree nuts or legumes, they are members of the palm family. In some cases, people with a coconut allergy will also be allergic to tree nuts or peanuts, or both.
How to Address a Coconut Allergy
People with coconut allergies need to avoid all coconut products, including oils and topical products that contain coconut oil. They should also take care to avoid peanuts and/or tree nuts if an allergy for either of those is present.
Coconut products are becoming increasingly popular in both foods and personal care products, so it’s important to thoroughly read labels.
Shellfish allergens are one of the few food allergies that are more common in adults than in children, and they can worsen over time.
Fish that are included in shellfish reactions are:
How to Address a Shellfish Allergy
As with most true allergies, the best way to avoid reactions is to avoid all contact and cross contamination. (10) This can mean that highly allergic individuals must avoid restaurants that prepare any form of shellfish, since cross contamination can present serious reactions.
While the shellfish listed above can all be reactive, people with shellfish allergies aren’t necessarily allergic to all fish, such as salmon or tuna. Those types of fish are entirely different in composition and are not top allergens.
Soybeans are legumes, and while they’re in the same family as peanuts, the two allergies aren’t always linked. Soy allergies are most common in babies and children, but most will outgrow them by age ten. (11) Anaphylaxis reactions to soy are rare.
How to Address a Soy Allergy
Soy is often found in infant formulas, whether in the form of protein or preservative (as soy lecithin), which might explain the frequency of infant and childhood soy allergies. Soy lecithin, soybean oil, and soy flour are found in most commercially produced food products, even natural and organic ones.
Truly allergic individuals need to vigilantly read labels and avoid any type of soy product. This can lead to essentially ridding the diet of most processed and packaged foods. Individuals with soy allergies tend to thrive well on a Paleo diet, which eliminates soy and processed foods anyway.
Wheat is a common childhood allergy, and in some cases, can be outgrown before reaching adulthood. (12) Wheat allergy is rarely anaphylactic, but in some cases it can be.
Wheat allergy and celiac disease are different reactions entirely. A wheat allergy is an immune response to the protein found in the grain, whereas celiac disease is a small intestinal reaction to gluten that causes severe damage to the digestive tract. Both involve the immune system, but in celiac disease, most of the reactive damage takes place in the digestive system only, whereas a wheat allergy can immediately have a whole body reaction.
How to Address a Wheat Allergy
Wheat products are found in many processed foods, and cross-reactive wheat products include barley, rye, and many other grains that have contact with wheat during the manufacturing process.
Thankfully, in today’s gluten-free friendly society, it’s easy to swap wheat products for safe ones. Paleo flours, such as cassava and almond, replace wheat flour in recipes one-for-one. If a nut allergy is also present, almond should be avoided, but cassava is type of root vegetable that doesn’t contain any top allergens and is safe for most allergic individuals.
Many sauces contain hidden sources of wheat, so when a wheat allergy is present, it’s best to make most things at home from scratch. Tapioca and arrowroot powders work perfectly to thicken sauces, and are both gluten-free and Paleo.
7. Cow’s Milk
Cow’s milk allergy is one of the most common allergies in infants and young children. (13) A cow’s milk allergy is different from lactose intolerance. Lactose intolerance involves difficulty digesting lactose and usually results in digestive upset and less severe symptoms, whereas a true dairy allergy can result in hives, skin problems, severe constipation, and in rare cases, anaphylaxis.
Cow’s milk allergies can be measured by antibodies in the blood. Even those with measurable antibodies can outgrow an allergy at some point, as individual sensitivity varies person to person. (14)
How to Address a Cow’s Milk Allergy
Strict avoidance of cow’s milk and all related products is important – including yogurt, kefir, and butter. Ghee is typically an exception, even for those allergic to cow’s milk, since it contains no lactose or milk protein, but just milk fat. Still, it may produce reactions in allergic individuals so this is a very case-by-case decision.
Milk can be replaced with alternative versions like almond milk, cashew milk, or coconut milk. If tree nut and coconut allergens are an issue, hemp milk is an allergy-friendly alternative that is gaining popularity.
Butter and ghee can be swapped with avocado oil, lard, tallow, or olive oil.
It’s not as difficult these days to live a dairy-free life, and there are even viable cheese replacements with cashew cheese.
Eggs are one of the most common childhood allergens and can cause a wide range of symptoms and reactions. (15) While allergens are typically in response to the white of the egg, most dealing with allergies will need to avoid yolks, too. (16) Typical allergic reactions to eggs can range from hives to skin issues, to rarer cases of anaphylaxis.
In rare cases, children with egg allergies can be susceptible to cross contact and reactions from non-food sources, like certain vaccines that contain egg protein, although not all egg-allergic children will have these types of reactions. Some children can tolerate eggs in baked goods, where others will need to strictly avoid eggs entirely.
How to Address an Egg Allergy
Living an egg-free life doesn’t have to be restrictive, as there are a number of egg replacers for baking that are just as effective. While using an egg substitute for something like a frittata won’t work, egg-free breakfast options are abundant. In the Paleo world, breakfast can be just as rich and savory without eggs, especially with dishes like Hemp Seed Oatmeal or No-Bake Sweet Potato Donuts.
While seed allergies are not as common as those in the top eight, sesame allergies are on the rise and an increasing concern. Sesame seeds have the potential for severe reactions, including anaphylaxis. Research indicates that in some cases, the first sign of a sesame allergy can be immediate anaphylaxis, making it potentially more dangerous than several other allergens. (17)
One of the biggest rising concerns over sesame is that it appears to have high cross-reactivity with both peanut and tree nut allergies. (18) In children with peanut allergies, sesame allergies occur 13 percent of the time; in tree nut allergic children, sesame occurs nearly 15 percent of the time; and in children with both peanut and tree nut allergies, sesame allergies can occur as much as 50 percent of the time. (19)
How to Address a Sesame Allergy
Sesame is often found in gluten-free granola or grain blends, in Asian foods (even gluten-free ones), in hummus, and in many other processed foods. When eating at restaurants with sesame allergic individuals, it’s typically best to avoid restaurants that use sesame broadly in their dishes.
Bottom line: Food allergies are serious immune responses to foods. While more than a hundred food allergens exist, most severe reactions come from these nine foods. Learning to live with one or more food allergies can feel overwhelming, especially for parents who find out that their small children have life-threatening allergies. Awareness and education are the greatest tools to ensure food safety around allergic individuals.
Should Small Children Avoid or Get Early Introduction to Avoid Severe Allergies?
While there have been mixed viewpoints from experts, the most recently accepted theory is that early introduction of top allergens by ingesting small amounts could help to prevent the development of allergy. What could be problematic, however, is topical exposure to allergenic foods, especially through broken skin (like cuts or eczema). (20)
Children who have food allergies are as much as four times more likely to have other conditions related with allergies (like asthma, skin conditions, and seasonal allergies), than children who have no food allergies. (21) [tweet_quote]The most important way to determine how to introduce allergenic foods to your child is to speak to their pediatrician.[/tweet_quote]
The most important way to determine how to introduce allergenic foods to your child is to speak to their pediatrician. Recommendations could change based on family history (i.e. whether you or someone else in your family has an IgE food allergy), the health of the child (presence of eczema, colic, or other similar issues that could be linked to allergic reactions), and their exposures to gut-altering things like antibiotics and NSAIDs, which can alter the way that the immune system responds.
Bottom line: Introducing food allergens to children for the first time can be scary, especially given that food allergies are increasing rapidly. Speak to your child’s doctor for a customized approach as there is currently no “one size fits all” method.
(Read This Next: Gut Health and Food Allergies (Plus: 14 Easy Paleo Foods Swaps for Kids)) | <urn:uuid:9b7e9071-8c2c-4c61-ac9b-ebb74d4d4d60> | CC-MAIN-2021-17 | https://blog.paleohacks.com/food-allergies/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-17/segments/1618038119532.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20210417102129-20210417132129-00557.warc.gz | en | 0.949209 | 3,070 | 3.03125 | 3 | {
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The Atlantis Remixed (ARX) Project (former Quest Atlantis) is an international learning and teaching project that uses 3D multi-user environments to immerse children, ages 9-16, in educational tasks. Emerging from a decade of research with Quest Atlantis, the ARX Project now combines strategies used in commercial games with lessons from educational research on learning and motivation. The Atlantis Remixed Project allows students to travel to virtual places to play educational adventures, talk with other users and mentors, build virtual personae, and eventually create their own games. This project is intended to engage children ages 9–16 in a form of transformational play comprising of both online and off-line learning activities, with a storyline inspiring a disposition towards social action. The Atlantis Remixed Project and Quest Atlantis provide students entire worlds in which they are central, important participants; places where their actions have significant impact on the world, and places in which what one knows is directly related to what they are able to do and, ultimately, who they can become. Explore our site and learn more about this exciting project. (from http://atlantisremixed.org/#44)
I read about the the game first in a paper of . In the paper, the researcher described the design rationale and the basic functions of the game. It has almost everything I could have wanted for my project: a first person RPG game, a 3D gaming environment, an educational purpose, and a choice based game mechanism. The purpose of the game is different, though. As shown in the video below, it is being used to teach students how to construct elements (thesis, supporting arguments, evidences) into an argumentation paper. It could be a good future reference for my own design.
The game can be found here. While the game is not free, one can ask for permission to play it under the name of educational research. Click here for more information.
Fable III is the third video game in the Fable series of action role-playing open world video games. The game was published by Microsoft Game Studios and developed by Lionhead Studios for the Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows. The story focuses on the player character's struggle to overthrow the King of Albion by forming alliances and building support for a revolution. After a successful revolt, the player becomes the monarch and is tasked with attempting to defend Albion from a great evil. The game includes voice acting by Ben Kingsley, Stephen Fry, Simon Pegg, Naomie Harris, Michael Fassbender, Zoë Wanamaker, Bernard Hill, Nicholas Hoult and John Cleese.The game was released on 29 October 2010. (from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fable_III)
While this game is not about education, it does base its game mechanism on choices on almost any issue the character, the consequence of witch will be gradually reflected on the character's popularity and appearance. Furthermore, it is also one of the most popular role playing game ever publish on Xbox. It's first person view combined with unlimited choices really provided its players something to be addicted to. | <urn:uuid:15d8fde3-506b-4cae-ab8e-a7eb90d2f8e2> | CC-MAIN-2020-05 | http://www.huhaixiao.info/thesis/landscape-audit | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579250601615.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20200121044233-20200121073233-00115.warc.gz | en | 0.949873 | 631 | 2.609375 | 3 | {
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By GEOFF MIERS
Citrus trees are among the most productive fruit bearing trees that thrive in Central Australia. While with regular care they generally are easy to manage you do have to recognise problems and appropriately manage them.
Fertilising and irrigating to meet citrus tree needs are essential to produce quality and consistent fruit. Pruning is the third key to having highly productive trees.
Managing the growth of citrus trees by regular pruning will result in healthy trees capable of producing quality fruit and now is the time to tackle citrus pruning.
Citrus trees are a perennial crop that are capable of producing fruit annually for well over 30 TO 50 years (and longer) provided they are managed correctly. Low yields and poor quality fruit can largely be attributed to inadequate watering and a failure to provide sufficient nutrients.
Mostly these are the two reasons while citrus fail to produce good crops and fail to crop every year.
However inadequate management of the trees growth through a lack of pruning is the third major reason trees can produce reduced yields.
Pruning of citrus has essentially three main objectives that focus on improving fruit quality and annual yield consistency, improving plant health, maintaining tree size and shape improving management and harvesting efficiency and lastly assisting with the management and control of pests and diseases.
In the first instance all dead wood should be removed from the tree, followed by any unwanted sucker growth from the main trunk.
Most importantly any growth from below the graft should be removed as this will produce timber that will outgrow the rest of the tree, timber that will only produce wild or rough lemons that are generally useless. This growth will overtake the rest of the tree and in time will become the dominant tree.
While not a difficult art to master pruning of citrus trees should be undertaken with care as sloppy pruning and careless management can cause considerable damage to the tree.
When undertaking any pruning as a general rule you should prune back minor branches back to an outward facing bud or leaf so the new regrowth will grow outwards on an angle as against growing into the tree and being forced to grow upwards generally putting the fruit out of easy reach.
With minor branches pruning should be a simple task, a one action activity with a pair of secateurs, pruning on an angle with the highest point on the same side as the bud approximately 3-4mms above the top of the bud. The lowest point of the prune should be 1-2mms just above the bud.
The most common mistake is people prune half way between the buds of leaves. The wood left will never produce new growth and will in time slowly dieback, sometimes dying back well below the bud or leaf resulting in continues die-back of the branch.
When pruning a larger branch its best to do this in at least two stages. Saw off the branch well above where you finally want the branch trimmed back to. Often when pruning a larger branch in one action the weight will crack and tear off simply due to the weight the branch is carrying.
Once having decided where you will make your first incision cut into the lower or underpart section of the limb approximately 30% to 40% in and then commence cutting above this incision and the branch should break freely from the tree without tearing of cracking the limb.
Wound healing over.
Once the major part of the limb has been removed you then repeat the exercise this time without a large weight being carried on the section you are removing.
When cutting off a larger limb completely you need with your final cut, cut back to flush with the collar. The collar is generally visible at the base of the branch.
By pruning off flush with the collar without damaging the collar this collar in time will completely grow over the wound sealing off the cut completely and thus limiting the entry of pests and disease into the tree through the wound.
Fungal diseases can be a common problem experienced with trees in Alice Springs. The fungal spores can drift through the air and settle on different parts of the tree, can attach and multiply and before you know it you have a major problem that is capable of eventually killing the tree.
Addressing fungal systemic diseases can require several treatments and its best to seek expert advice and seek out the correct solutions. Sometimes trimming back lifting bark and treating with a copper spray is sufficient while in other instances a systemic fungicide is the solution.
Photo one: Prune closer to the leaf node and prune with the highest point on
the same side as the bud or leaf node. Left as it is the prune will commence
Photo two: Pruning a larger branch should be at least a twofold process. In
this photo the pruner has attempted to prune in one go and the weight of the
branch has torn off doing considerable damage the branch that was to be
left. First you should prune way up above where you want to prune, cut
underneath first then on top. Once the heavy part has been removed then
prune back to where you wish to prune without damaging the branch. | <urn:uuid:2a391e3e-0d86-4c00-b0ae-946868fcdf69> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://alicespringsnews.com.au/2021/09/23/pruning-key-to-productive-citrus-trees/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947473360.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20240221002544-20240221032544-00034.warc.gz | en | 0.948234 | 1,047 | 2.984375 | 3 | {
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} | Home & Hobbies |
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Powerful microscope reveals chemical structure of fossils
09 February 2011
Royal Holloway, University of London
Surprising new research shows that, contrary to conventional belief, remains of chitin-protein complex—structural materials containing protein and polysaccharide—are present in abundance in fossils of arthropods from the Palaeozoic era.
Previously the oldest molecular signature of chitin-protein complex was discovered in 25 million year old Cenozoic fossils and remnants of structural protein have also been discovered in 80 million-year-old Mesozoic fossils. Professor George Cody of the Carnegie Institution for Science and an international team of scientists including Professor Andrew C Scott from the Department of Earth Sciences at Royal Holloway, University of London discovered relicts of protein-chitin complex in fossils of arthropods from the Palaeozoic era. Their findings, published online by Geology today, could have major implications for our understanding of the organic fossil record.
Among other common features, arthropods have exoskeletons, or cuticles. The outer portions of these cuticles are made up of a composite of chitin fibers, which are embedded in a matrix of protein. It is well known that chitin and structural protein are easily degraded by microorganisms and it has long been believed that chitin and structural proteins would not be present in fossils of moderate age, let alone in fossils dating back to the early Palaeozoic.
The scientists studied fossil remains of a 310-million-year-old scorpion cuticle from northern Illinois and a 417-million-year-old eurypterid—an extinct scorpion-like arthropod, possibly related to horseshoe crabs—from Ontario, Canada. Using sophisticated analytical instrument at the Advanced Light Source facility in the USA, the research team measured the absorption spectra of low-energy X-rays by carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen in the fossils. These measurements were taken at a resolution on the order of 25 nanometers. The researchers showed that the majority of carbon, nitrogen and oxygen found in these fossils from the Palaeozoic era were derived from a protein-chitin complex. Not surprisingly, the protein-chitin material was somewhat degraded, either by chemical processes or partial bacterial degradation.
Professor Scott adds “ this research will aid our understanding of the fossilization process and this new technique allows us to reveal the chemical nature of the fossil without total destruction”. Professor Cody further speculates that the vestigial protein-chitin complex may play a critical role in organic fossil preservation by providing a substrate protected from total degradation by a coating waxy substances that protect the arthropods from desiccation. | <urn:uuid:1d170b62-0660-4b6d-88e4-ac66e2de60f6> | CC-MAIN-2015-48 | http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=95648&CultureCode=en | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-48/segments/1448398474527.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20151124205434-00227-ip-10-71-132-137.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933666 | 563 | 3.359375 | 3 | {
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Writing for any organisation means working with a style guide. There are the classics, such as AP Stylebook that lay out standards for writing and are put in place to create consistency across a publication. Against this lies the progression of language and the rate at which English is prone to change.
So now that so many of us conduct portions of our lives online, should we still be captalising the word Internet? (I ask this with full acknowledgement that I am referring more to countries with a larger rate of Internet penetration and use of the English language, so you don’t have to email me about that)
Over on the AP Style site, there has been change to the English language when it comes to our online references and acitivities:
AP style is email (changed from e-mail), but other e- words are hyphenated: e-commerce and e-book. Our amended style is website (one word, lowercase w), along with other compounds: webcam, webcast, webmaster. The Web is capped as a short form of World Wide Web, as are Web page, Web feed.
As for the word in question, AP Style says:
Internet: A decentralized, worldwide network of computers that can communicate with each other. In later references,the Net is acceptable.
The way the word Internet is written has been under debate for years. Historically internet standards communities have called for the Internet to be addressed as a noun proper with ‘internetworking’ and ‘internets’ being rare examples where lower case may be used.
The alternative debate highlight other words that signify unique but distributed use such as, ‘telephone network’.
It’s still a surprisingly hot debate with individual websites set up to declare the case for capitalisation.
More often we take our written style from mainstream media outlets, assuming what we read there is the correct way to write. A check around the web will show you that the BBC often drops the caps, as does The Times (paywall) though the latter has been known to use both, The Times of India prefers the capital letter as does The New York Times. That’s a fairly mixed set of rules.
In a highly unscientific straw poll, I threw the question out to readers and followers online. The majority of people who responded wanted to drop the upper case spelling. The main reason appeared to be ubiquity in their location.
Here are some’ some of that reasoning:
Mecca Ibrahim, “It’s so ubiquitous & widely available it would be like saying I turned on my Electric Light this morning”
Elisabeth Varley, “I think because it’s become a utility & so much part of everyday life for so many.”
JC Hutchins, “No compelling need to maintain its status as a proper noun … but I gotta say, it just feels wrong writing it with a lowercase i.”
J.Nathan Matias, ” I tend to use Internet. AP changed Website to website in 2010, so it’s probably high time we use the lowercase i. that said, I think there are some uses which would be more awkward without the capital. For example: The Internet believes kittens are more important than sriracha. Tragedy!”
Jess McCabe, “No to capitalisation. It’s like capitalising Books or Newspapers or Telephone. Plus it’s just about as archaic as e-mail or ‘phone. And the rule of thumb is, if in doubt, don’t capitalise.”
Benjamin Ellis, “As one of its (many) architects & builders I say capital ‘I’ – it’s power was in creating a singularity.”
As the English language changes with common usage, does this mean we might finally see the word Internet demoted to a common noun? The web has already introduced new words to the Oxford English Dictionary such as ‘woot‘ and ‘retweet‘, so why stop there?
I am willing to think that over time this will be the case, but for now the rules of grammar apply to the technical side of the argument. I encourage you to chip in and share your reasons in the comments, you might just end up changing a language. | <urn:uuid:f995997e-a96c-4798-a450-50bb44062b7f> | CC-MAIN-2022-49 | https://thenextweb.com/news/should-we-still-write-internet-with-a-capital-i | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-49/segments/1669446710931.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20221203111902-20221203141902-00277.warc.gz | en | 0.942357 | 915 | 2.65625 | 3 | {
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Rare STrange Diseases
There are those rare diseases that affect a limited number of individuals with regard to the general population, less than one in 2,000. However, there are even rarer diseases are even less common, affecting one in 100,000 people. It is estimated that today there are between 5,000 and 8,000 different rare diseases, affecting between 6% and 8% of the total population. I selected nine of them
Fragile X Syndrome
Fragile X syndrome is a rare genetic disorder caused by an inherited defect on the X chromosome. It is the most common known cause of inherited mental retardation and the second most occurring after Down syndrome . It is estimated that the frequency in Spain, for example, is 1 for every 4,000 males in the general population, a carrier for 800 and a carrier for every 5,000 live births. Clinically presented with variable degrees of mental retardation, usually mild with learning difficulties, inattention, hyperactivity, anxiety and mood swings or autistic behaviors.
Moebius syndrome is a rare disease development. Two major cranial nerves, 6 and 7, are not fully developed in these patients. These nerves control both flickering and lateral movement of the eyes, and the many expressions of the face, causing facial paralysis and lack of movement in the eyes. Lack of facial expression can be accompanied by drooling, slurred speech and pronunciation problems.
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease that causes progressive deterioration in the motor neurons. The prevalence of the disease is 5 to 9 per 100,000 individuals. The age of onset of the disease varies widely, but the peak incidence is between 40 and 60 years. In approximately two-thirds of patients with ALS is weakness begins and asymmetric limb muscle deterioration. The disease is relentlessly progressive with disabilities and disability on the rise, often leading to death from respiratory failure within 3-5 years or so.
Schönlein Purpura (HSP) is a disease characterized by inflammation of the capillaries, IE small blood vessels. Usually affects the capillaries of the skin, intestine and kidneys. Blood can escape from blood vessels inflamed skin, causing a rash of dark red or purple called purple. It may be the same in the intestine or kidneys, so blood can be eliminated in the feces or urine (hematuria).
The Progeria Hutchinson-Gilford syndrome is an extremely rare premature aging characterized by postnatal home. The main clinical and radiological features include alopecia, thin skin, absence of subcutaneous fat, joint stiffness and osteolysis. Intelligence is not affected. Premature death is caused by arteriosclerosis or cerebrovascular disease.
Marfan syndrome is a rare inherited disorder of connective tissue that primarily affects the skeleton, lungs, eyes, heart and blood vessels. Clinically it is characterized by above-average height, wingspan that exceeds the height and bone malformations including arachnodactyly (long, thin fingers disproportionately), pectus carinatum (chest out) or pectus excavatum (sternum shifted inward). It is accompanied by hyperextensible joints, knees and legs backward curved, flat feet, kyphoscoliosis (combination of kyphosis, abnormal curvature in the front to back of the spine and scoliosis, abnormal sideways curvature) and little subcutaneous fat. May be accompanied by acute myopia and usually affects the arteries and heart.
Congenital Insensitivity to Pain
Congenital insensitivity to pain (CIP) is a genetic disorder that affects the autonomic nervous system, which is the one that controls blood pressure, heart rate, sweating, sensory nervous system and the ability to feel pain and temperature. Patients who suffer from abnormally interpret painful stimuli. As a result, risk of injury (trauma, fractures, dislocations, burns ...) and die younger. They must be under supervision at an early age to avoid unintentionally self-injury, for example: biting his tongue.
The syndrome of Gilles de la Tourette , also called "tics disease", is a rare disease of the nervous system. It is characterized by rapid movement consisting tics, repetitive and involuntary muscles of a group of functionally related skeletal, lacking purpose and motor act, or in a production involuntary noises (grunts, aspiration of air through the nose, cough) and words . | <urn:uuid:5c23e56b-6c6d-43b3-8bcd-241afb2ffbc6> | CC-MAIN-2018-05 | https://hubpages.com/health/Rare-STrange-Diseases | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-05/segments/1516084886815.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20180117043259-20180117063259-00285.warc.gz | en | 0.92385 | 921 | 3.4375 | 3 | {
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Brushing and flossing as recommended and visiting your dentist regularly are important tasks for a healthy smile. Unfortunately, your teeth may discolor and stain over time even when following your dentist's recommendations. While not a life-threatening problem, stained teeth can negatively affect your self-esteem, leading to issues in your personal and professional life. You most likely already know that coffee and soda can discolor your teeth, but a few surprising foods and beverages that you may consume everyday can also decrease your smile's appeal. To improve your smile, avoid these surprising foods.
You probably do not consume large amounts of soy sauce each day, but many of your favorite foods could contain this tooth-staining liquid. Hibachi establishments, sushi restaurants, and Chinese eateries all consider soy sauce a staple in their dishes.
The sauce contains dark pigments, which can quickly discolor your teeth. However, most brands of soy sauce contain soy proteins with hydrochloric acid. These acids weaken the surface enamel, increasing the risk of staining. Of course, the weakened enamel also puts your teeth at risk of cavities, decay, and even gum disease.
Most people understand how the dark red pigments in red wine stain your teeth. Due to the risk of tooth discoloration, you may choose to drink white wine only. Unfortunately, this switch will not save your smile from tooth staining.
White wine contains high acidic properties, which can quickly erode your tooth enamel. Without a sufficient protective layer, your teeth will be more susceptible to sensitivity, cavities, infections, decay, and stains.
Drinking white wine is a safer option when compared to red wine, but you should use precaution to reduce stains. Consider drinking water to rinse away acids after each sip of your wine. Also, brush your teeth thoroughly after a few glass of red OR white wine.
Fruit is an imperative part of a well-balanced diet, but consuming too many berries can alter your color's smile.
The natural deep hues in strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries can quickly discolor your teeth. Worrying about the color of berries is not nearly enough, since these fruits contain an enormous amount of natural sugars that can stick to your teeth and erode your surface enamel.
If you just cannot give up these small, juicy fruits, make sure to drink water and brush your teeth after eating a handful. Also, use floss to remove small seeds from in between your teeth.
Cutting back coffee, tea, and soda are obvious ways to reduce the risk of tooth discoloration, but reducing your intake of these surprising foods is also important. To learn more about keeping your teeth white, contact a cosmetic dentistry expert! | <urn:uuid:18a0c2bb-f289-420b-823e-b137306ed362> | CC-MAIN-2019-39 | http://admin-utopia.com/2017/07/19/3-surprising-foods-that-can-stain-your-teeth/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-39/segments/1568514576345.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20190923084859-20190923110859-00022.warc.gz | en | 0.941646 | 563 | 2.734375 | 3 | {
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Let’s demystify the whole end mills thing a bit, shall we?
If you think of a drill bit, you can picture that it cuts down into or through a material. A CNC machine end mill is different: it is designed to cut horizontally across a surface in any direction.
There is a huge variety of styles designed for different effects. What different bits do and how they work will help you choose the right bit for your project.
Before we go any further, we need to mention that end mills come in different materials too, varying in cost and quality. You need to choose the appropriate bit for your budget, don’t go mad and buy the most expensive you can find to begin with, get your techniques right first then increase your quality.
The most common materials you'll come across in CNC milling tools include: Carbon Steel, High-Speed Steel and Solid Carbide.
The cheapest material of the bunch and includes a small amount of carbon with small amounts of manganese and silicon.
This material has improved hardness, toughness, and wear resistance over carbon steel. HSS tools are generally more expensive than others, but they’re built to last.
This is more hardwearing than HSS but may chip rather than wear out over time. Normally carbide tools are made by mixing carbide with another metal, like tungsten or titanium.
Some end mills even come with a coating to increase hardness, improve longevity, and allow for faster cutting speeds.
So, here are the basic parts for any end mill:
And we’re not talking musical instruments now. Cutting edges are machined into the side of a tool to provide a path for ejected chips of material to travel along as it moves through a block of material, these are known as flutes.
You can go from single up to 8 or more flutes, depending on what material you are trying to cut. If your material produces large chips, a cutter with too many flutes will clog and heat up and can cause your material to start to melt if you’re using something like acrylic as it will stop the chips clearing effectively.
A good rule of thumb – the harder the material, the more flutes you’ll want to use.
The cutting diameter is the overall cut diameter that the bit will make in a material. When choosing a bit for your project, you want the biggest possible cutting diameter for the job, remembering that fine details will be lost if the bit is larger than the cut required. Easel software will recommend that you use a smaller bit if your job has detailed elements that cannot be cut by your selected bit.
Shank diameter is the diameter of the non-cutting part of the bit, this is the bit inserted into the spindle collet. You can get different sized collets to accommodate different shank diameters for use with different bits for different materials, but we can discuss that in next installment.
Measuring your End Mill from one end to the other will yield the overall the shank or overall length of the bit. Remember that the longer your bit is, the more deflection it will have compared to a shorter bit. You may need to slow your machine down, or generally be less aggressive with your machining if using a longer bit.
End mills tend to be described by their tip shape; 3 basic tips are as follows.
These CNC cutting tools are general purpose tools that can make quality edges. The overall shape is cylindrical, and the cutting end is flat. The flat end of the cutter makes it easy to cut surfaces that are horizontal with the bottom of the tool.
Ball nose mills have rounded ends that produce great curved surfaces and are used for 3D.
These tools make are V-shaped cuts in the material. The angle of the V-bit can vary depending on the angle required. These are often used to engrave signs on materials, but they’re also ideal for projects that need sharp edges and small sizes are perfect for fine engraving work on any type of material.
You can also get a pack of the essential ones as a great start to your collection – you will have one whether you think that now or not.
Join over 3,000 creators who receive premium content, exclusive discounts, and all the must-know info on a weekly basis. | <urn:uuid:ffc9526c-9885-45fc-96d7-2472f1541f3f> | CC-MAIN-2022-21 | https://yorahome.com/blogs/news/end-mill | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-21/segments/1652662517245.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20220517095022-20220517125022-00068.warc.gz | en | 0.946438 | 901 | 3.25 | 3 | {
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} | Industrial |
News on TSPN, Amador County's local television station.
News on KVGC, the Hometown Radio station for Amador and Calaveras County.
Rabies Awareness: Rabies in wildlife continues to pose risk to pets, people
Rabies in wildlife continues to pose risk to pets, people
Sutter Creek, CA – Amador County Public Health and Animal Control Departments remind residents that rabies in wildlife continues to pose a risk to pets and people. In April 2017, a dog tested positive for rabies after contact with a skunk. The dog did not have current vaccination to provide protection from the rabies virus. Due to contact with this animal, multiple people are being treated with post-exposure prophylaxis as a preventative measure. These individuals have NOT tested positive for rabies.
“Rabies vaccinations and awareness are the best defense,” states Kelly Reason, Amador County Animal Control Director. “Owners need to remember the importance of having their pets vaccinated and to follow-up with required boosters as recommended by their veterinarian to keep their pets and families safe.” Indoor animals should also receive this vaccine as bats can be discovered by pets in the home.
In addition to vaccination, there are several things Amador residents can do to protect themselves and their pets:
- Avoid contact with wildlife and animals you do not know. If you or your pets have contact with wildlife, contact Animal Control.
- If you are bitten:
- Wash the bite thoroughly with soap and water.
- Seek medical attention.
- Contact Amador County Animal Control, so the wildlife can be tested.
- Contact Animal Control and your veterinarian if your pet was exposed to a skunk, bat, raccoon or other wildlife.
- If a bat is inside your home, do NOT let it out. Close off the room to confine it and contact Animal Control for testing.
The next Amador County rabies clinic will be held on May 18, 2017 at Pine Grove Market from 6 pm to 7 pm. Two additional clinics will be held: May 25, 2017 at the Fair Grounds in Plymouth from 6 pm to 7 pm and June 8, 2017 at Howard Park in Ione from 6 pm to 7pm.
Rabies is a deadly disease that kills both animals and humans. The rabies virus is almost always fatal. The only treatment is prevention. In California, bats, skunks, raccoons and foxes are the most frequent carriers of rabies. For more information on rabies and pet vaccination, contact your veterinarian or Amador County Animal Control at (209) 223-6378.
Press Release: CLICK HERE | <urn:uuid:6388dd23-2fe6-4273-a4b5-4bf3d38684c3> | CC-MAIN-2018-05 | http://www.amadorgov.org/Home/Components/News/News/620/16?backlist=%2F | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-05/segments/1516084890928.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20180121234728-20180122014728-00786.warc.gz | en | 0.937618 | 553 | 2.75 | 3 | {
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} | Health |
Where is Everybody?
Professor John D. Barrow
Our title today is a question. It is a rather famous one for everyone working in astronomy, and it?s one that really as yet has no very definite answer, but I hope by the end of today?s talk, you will see something new and something more about the whole issue of life in the universe than perhaps you have thought about before.
This question was first posed by a famous physicist called Enrico Fermi. He was an Italian. He was probably the last all-round physicist there has been, someone who is a world leader in theoretical physics ? he discovered the first theory of the weak interaction and much of what we know about nuclear physics. He was one of the people behind the Manhattan Project in the Second World War, so he was a skilled experimentalist as well as a theorist.
In 1950, he asked this question while at a meeting where people were thinking about the possibility of life on other worlds and even communicating or listening to signals from other worlds. He recognised that really there is a very embarrassing silence in the universe, that we did not receive any signals, and it seemed to him very easy to imagine how signals could be sent to us and very easy to imagine how life could evolve and spread through the universe.
In 1951, you have to remember that there is something of a fantastic context to these deliberations. They did not just come out of nowhere. The first flying saucer was seen in June 1947 by a Mr Kenneth Arnold, who was an American businessman flying his private plane between Oregon and Idaho and, en route, he had this strange experience where he saw what he described as a saucer-like pattern of light flashing through the sky. He followed it for a little time, and then when he landed, and talked to the press, he kept describing it as ?like a flying saucer?. That is where this term came from. Ever after, anything in the sky that was mysterious or unidentified was a flying saucer. The whole concept of a flying saucer and pictures of flying saucers then came to dominate the whole image of extraterrestrials and life in the universe.
Also, at about the same time, something else happened in New York which just added to the whole momentum of the idea. In New York, a rather strange problem had arisen. It seemed that what Americans call garbage cans, what we call dustbins, were disappearing from the City, so everybody was finding that their garbage can was missing. In the end, this turned out to be some people from Idaho and Nebraska who were simply driving them off in trucks and selling them there!
But a famous cartoon in the New Yorker brought together the two ideas, with these gentlemen gradually loading the garbage cans into their flying saucer and taking them off to the other side of the universe for reasons best known only to themselves!
Later, in the 1950s, we begin to see fantastic science fiction comics, the great era of science fiction. Everything is dominated by flying saucers, by extraterrestrials arriving. Even the military get involved.
This climate provoked some astronomers, notably the radio astronomer Frank Drake, to try to think more seriously, systematically, about the likelihood of extraterrestrial life and the possibility of detecting evidence for it. Drake came up with a famous formula that became known as the Drake Equation. It is rather fanciful but it is interesting as a guide to one?s thinking. It was an attempt to estimate how many civilisations there might be willing and able to get in contact with us, and so he was thinking about civilisations in our galaxy. He thinks of lots of different factors that could influence this. He assumes they are independent, which they undoubtedly aren?t, but if you assume they are independent, then you can multiply the probabilities together to get the overall probability, and you multiply by a lifetime the number of civilisations who might contact you. So what does he pick? It depends on the rate of forming stars in our galaxy ? obviously more stars, more potential sites. It depends on the fraction of stars that have planets around them. At this time, people had no idea whether there were any planets around other stars at all, so that factor could have been zero, or it could have been one, if every star has a planet round it. And then the number of those planets which are life-supporting, so which have atmospheres, which have a good enough gravitational strength, or perhaps have water on them; and then the fraction where life actually happens to evolve. Next, having got life, what fraction of those do you actually get intelligence evolving as well? And of those, how many are willing and able to engage in interstellar signalling? And finally, how long are they on the air for, so what is the lifetime of sending signals?
So you can see how this formula, that Tommy Gold once called the Nonsense Formula when I asked him about it came about. Almost every factor was hugely uncertain and you could get answer from zero to 100 billion. So it really was not very useful as a predicted object, but it focused people?s attention on what really were the uncertain links in the chain. Drake became a key individual in this whole business, eventually being instrumental in creating the SETI, the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence.
If we move on to more specific aspects of the factors in that equation, a key concept is what astronomers call the ?habitable zone?. So if you have a star then there is a comfortable, temperate region around the star where a planet is able to be life-supporting. So there are three zones shown here around the central star.
If you are too close to the centre, you will be in what we might call a hot zone, and we will end up like Venus, with surface temperatures of 700 or 800 degrees, runaway greenhouse effect, so hot all the carbon dioxide has been released and all the new radiated heat is trapped. This is an inferno; it is not a place to first evolve any interesting form of life.
If you are too far away, for example you are out in the cool zone, somewhere like Mars, you are very far away from the central Sun. You are not really receiving significant amounts of heat from the central Sun. In the case of Mars, you actually don?t have a magnetic field and so the wind of particles that have blown out from the surface of the Sun gradually strip off the atmosphere that you once had. Mars has no atmosphere any more.
In the case of the Earth, it sits in this sort of Goldilocks region, where things are not too hot and not too cold. It is possible for water to be liquid over most of the surface. The complex atmospheric behaviour, plate tectonics, and the is a magnetic field whereby that wind of charged particles blown out from the Sun gets steered around the Earth by the magnetic field, play a role in ensuring that the atmosphere does not get stripped away.
I said back in the early days of the Drake Equation, people had no idea whether the formation of planets was a fluke that was triggered around the Sun by some vast supernova explosion and therefore unpredictable or whether it was something generic and systematic in the universe. We now know the answer to that question. Modern technology enables us to see planets around other stars, and almost every few days, you can hope to discover a new one. So even while I was preparing this slide, things changed. So there are 212 planets discovered around other stars, and 21 systems of planets, so where there is more than one planet around a single star. So there is really no doubt that planet formation is something that is part and parcel of the formation of particular types of star.
What happens in effect is when the star forms, there is lots of debris left around ? the sort of thing that you see in the lanes of dust around the rings of Saturn ? and that debris gradually accumulates and sweeps up everything on its orbit, getting bigger and bigger and bigger until eventually, it is all swept up and you have got a planet then sitting on that orbit. The material going round in a different orbit will accumulate and make a different sized planet.
These planets that are now so commonly found are unusual in some respects because, so far, we can only see rather big ones. The way they are detected is by looking at the effects of the planet?s motion on the position and motion of the central star, so a little perturbation, a little wobble, is created by the planet moving around it. So this means that we can only really see the effects of big planets, with just one or two exceptions.
So here is a picture of the range of masses of these planets that have been found, the number along here, and they are units of the mass of Jupiter. So Jupiter is about 1,000 times more massive than the Earth. It is a great ball of liquid and gaseous hydrogen. It is not solid. So are most of the planets around that size. Some are much bigger, up to ten times bigger. Going down here, you are getting ones that are maybe just about 200 times the mass of the Earth. One has been inferred to be present with a mass of only seven or eight times the mass of the Earth in a well-studied system. So these are solid planets. In a few years? time, gradually there will be the capability to see and detect Earth-sized planets, and also to analyse what is present in their atmosphere.
So at first it sounds as though these are all potential sites for life, but all of these planets, except perhaps just one that has been seen in this programme, are very unusual in one other respect: that is, they don?t orbit around their star in almost circular orbits, like the objects in the Solar System do. So the Earth sits in its habitable zone, and because it goes round in a circle, it stays in the habitable zone. If it were to have a highly eccentric orbit, it would freeze for half the year and then fry for the other half, and it might precess around, gathering up more and more material as it went, becoming bigger and bigger and bigger. But all these planets that are found by these extra-solar planet searches have orbits which are extremely elliptical and eccentric. So these planetary systems are different to our Solar System in one crucial respect, and it could well be that in order to give life a good chance of beginning to evolve, to give those stable early conditions, we do need an almost circular orbit.
Well, why haven?t we heard from anyone if there are people on other planets in our galaxy? There is a whole range of responses to this question. One type of response you might say is that they have already called but we were not listening. So, before 1961, people were trying desperately to contact us, but they did not even get an answering machine message, and so they just gave up and moved elsewhere. Some people, rather fancifully, proposed in Fermi?s day that in fact extraterrestrials were already here and that they were in disguise ? that they were Hungarians! This was meant as a compliment because some of Fermi?s colleagues where Hungarian ? the rather remarkable John von Neumann for example, for all intents and purposes, appeared to be from another world, such were his mathematical and computational abilities.
But a more serious possibility, as we will see in a moment, is that they are not perhaps quite as big, energetic and obvious as we might have imagined. We have seen the way modern technology is moving on Earth ? things are becoming smaller and smaller, more nanotechnological ? and it could well be that an extremely advanced technological civilisation would have moved very much in that direction and become imperceptibly small. Space probes may be the size of pinheads rather than the size of the probes that we launch.
But if extraterrestrials were parking their spacecraft in the neighbourhood of the Earth, however small they might be, where would they do it? There is an interesting answer to this. If you consider the Earth and the Moon system, then the two gravitational pulls of these objects in the gravitational field of the Sun means that there are four special places, called Lagrange points, where the net gravitational force cancels out. Therefore, if you want to park a spacecraft, as we do with our satellites and astronomical observatories, these are the places you should do so because they will be least susceptible to tidal forces and wobble and thus they will be more stable.
Not all Lagrange points are the same. Some will be unstable, in that if you are just displaced very slightly from them, you will move steadily away. In contrast, others will have a range in their vicinity which is stable. This means that if you perturb yourself around them, you will only oscillate and return to that point. So if you are looking for extraterrestrials, these are the places to look. These are the types of places where they would be parking, and a sort of congestion charge would be appropriate in these regions.
I mentioned von Neumann just now. There are all sorts of mad stories about von Neumann but I will resist the urge to tell any of them. Von Neumann was one of the people responsible for the formalisation of quantum mechanics and the invention of computers as we know them. But he also, as a result of that work on computers, had the idea of self-reproducing machines, whereby you could write a programme which would create a replica of the object that was reading the programme. By gathering raw materials from its environment, it makes a copy of itself, and pastes on it a copy of the programme to make yet another copy of itself. It is the sort of thing that we do in a biological way, but he showed how this could be done by computing machines. We see it also in the mineral world ? things like crystals are very good at making replicas of each other. So if you have one copper sulphate crystal and you dissolve it in water, you make many replicas of that crystal. Von Neumann had this idea of creating machines which would make replicas of themselves.
Back in the1980s people began to think about this as a possible gloss on Fermi?s argument. Once a civilisation has the ability to make such machines, it can very easily seed the galaxy with self-reproducing probes. All the raw materials are around in the galaxy, in dust, gas, rocks and so forth, and such machines can be programmed to keep making copies of themselves and explore. Since we do not see these machines everywhere, they could be imperceptibly small. But one imagines that perhaps they are not there at all, so perhaps there is some deep reason this has not been done. An extremely wise civilisation might have foreseen a future disaster of having begun such a process, that these start to behave like a new living organism and are perhaps ultimately uncontrollable. Alternatively, there may be simply operational problems, as the airlines say, that it may be that the failure rate for probes is really very high and the chance of a critical number of them surviving a long time is rather low.
A lot of people used to think, and many people still do, that the way to detect the visible forms of intelligence in the universe was to try and categorise civilisations by the amount of mass, garbage and waste energy that they are going to produce. A famous classification from the 1950s, late 1950s, envisaged just four types of civilisation. The first would be a civilisation which has a technology which is sufficient to manipulate their planet. So we are in this position ? we can reclaim the sea, we can inadvertently or advertently change the atmosphere, we can bring about melting of ice caps ? so we can do something to our planet. The amount of energy you need to expend to manipulate your planet determines the amount of signal or the amount of raised heat and light that your civilisation will be emitting. A good deal of the information that our civilisations boom into space are television signals. The first ones began in the 1930s, and so if you are far away and that light front of television signals is racing out through the universe, then the first ones to be received would be Hitler?s broadcast from the mid-1930s.
The second level of civilisation is more sophisticated and energetically capable. You would be able to manipulate the solar system. Going up further, you might have a civilisation that is able to manipulate stars. It might live in a situation where there are two binary stars and it might be able to manipulate the behaviour of the stars by changing their mass in some way. More fancifully, you could imagine civilisations that are able in some way to manipulate the structure of their galaxy, and ultimately, to do something that affects the dynamics of the universe. So you can see, as you move up the scale, from type one to type four, to the end of the scale, you have civilisations that apparently leave more and more trace of their activities. Thus it has been argued that the more advanced a civilisation, the more waste heat and energy it leaves.
But others felt that it was much more likely that civilisations that become highly advanced would actually become more and more capable of engineering and manipulating things that are much smaller than before. You could imagine a type one civilisation ? this is rather like Neolithic man. He can manipulate and engineer things that are about his own size, so he can build houses, files, change the landscape, catch animals, and so forth. If we move up the scale, we are in a situation where you can start engineering yourself, so you can do transplant surgery, carry out various types of genetic engineering and replace non-working organs.
If you further along scale beyond the genetic, you then reach the stage of being able to manipulate molecules and atomic bonds ? design materials, design medicines, design chemistry for your own use. If you go smaller still, from molecules to single atoms, you start to reach the scale of nanotechnology and other forms of artificial life. We are just on the edge of that technology, so a way of engineering machines, motors, devices that do things, down on the scale of single or small numbers of atoms. Imagine a small machine that swims through your bloodstream, and if it detects the presence of blockages in arteries or veins, then it just excavates the material out to keeps things clear and running smoothly.
Extrapolating further, down to type five, you would have a civilisation that is able to do engineering with nuclei of atoms. To some extent, we can do that ? nuclear energy, nuclear bonding, explosions and so forth. The next step that we have not been able to do is to make complex structures from elementary particles. We only make elementary particles and we watch them colliding, but we do not really have an engineering that is based upon elementary particles. Ultimately, the acetate for this type of civilisation is to be able to manipulate the structure of space and the passage of time in a way that is advantageous to their existence. What is curious about this advance from type one to type omega is that such civilisations, as they become more sophisticated leave less trace. They use less energy and less raw materials.
Going back to the more psychological aspects of things, we might ask, supposing that there are these advanced civilisations, why don?t they signal? One answer is that we may be too boring, that there are hundreds of thousands of civilisations approximately developing and evolving along the lines of our own on Earth, and for an extraterrestrial civilisation that has advanced to discover us it is a bit like discovering yet another species of beetle in the Amazon jungle ? we are in the catalogue, number 697143/A. Perhaps some graduate student will eventually do a PhD thesis on it in a thousand years time, but there is not a matter of great urgency to study us, let alone get in contact with us. So we may, unfortunately, just be too boring, that we are entirely typical, we are following a sequence of events that is perhaps going to lead to obvious disaster in a relatively short timescale, and it is not really cost effective to invest in studying yet another example.
On the other hand, you may be pleased to know, it could be that we are too interesting. We are so interesting that there is a policy of non-interference, that we are watched by extraterrestrials rather like birdwatchers in a perfect hide. They want to see and learn what is happening; they do not want to interfere; they do not want to effect what is happening, so we are a sort of laboratory for the study of what can happen over very long periods of time.
On the other hand, we may be so primitive that either we are not in a position to actually receive or access the type of signals and information that is being sent. That may be a type of self-selection process, whereby there might be a sort of club, call it a Galactic Club, in the galaxy and these are very advanced, relatively sophisticated societies who talk to one another, but they do not want any old people to join the club, so you will be pleased to know that this psychology has transferred on the galactic scale. The reason is because we might turn out to be irresponsible in some way, we have not sort of paid our dues, we have not shown that we would be responsible members of the club, and so the self-selection process for the club is that we have to reach a certain stage of development, a type of very high technological stage of development, that shows that we can pass through various predictable crises without disaster. Those crises, you could well imagine, things like having the ability to create nuclear weapons but not destroying most of your planet with them, having the ability to change the climate in a catastrophic way but not actually doing it. If you pass these tests, you will necessarily have a particular, very high level of technological capability, and so the club members ensure that you can only hear other members of the club by using a technology that has that level of sophistication. You must have passed the tests of Hercules, as it were, in order to participate in the conversation.
What is the conversation likely to be like? Well, there is always an interesting speculation that if there are people with some knowledge of physics ? and if you do not know any physics, you are not going to be sending or receiving any signals ? then there is a prime candidate for both signalling and listening, and it is the 21 centimetre wavelength line of hydrogen, so this is at about 1420 megahertz. This is the wavelength of radio wave radiation that is given off by electron and hydrogen when it changes its spin orientation, so it is sometimes called the spin-flip transition. It is a very slow transition which is not seen in a laboratory. It was predicted by Ort and colleagues in Holland during the Second World War, that this should be seen astronomically. The probability of a transition occurring is incredibly low but in an astronomical situation, there are so many hydrogen atoms together that a very large number of them would undergo this transition. Therefore, if you know anything about astronomy, you know about 21 centimetre radiation, as it is called.
21 centimetre radiation is very interesting. There are various sorts of lines and distortion from the Earth?s atmosphere, background radiation from the universe, noise from other sources of radiation in our galaxy, and detector noise cut out a lot of regions as being not very good ones to listen in. However, regions exist where hydrogen and the hydroxyl combination give tantalising radiation signals. This is a region that astronomers came to call the Water Hole, because this is the place where H and OH emit. If you are an extraterrestrial wanting to signal or listen, this is the prime place where you would listen in the radio spectrum.
Remarkably, in 1977, a famous event took place. At Ohio State University in America a search had been set up. People were scanning for signals from anywhere in the universe that showed evidence of some type of intelligent origin. On the 15th of August in 1977, Jerry Ehman running the faculty there made a famous detection, which became known as the ?WOW! Event?, or the ?WOW! Signal?. This is a rather faint trace of data that he was looking at, and next to which he wrote ?WOW!?. Well, what he saw was a linear reading of the intensity of radiation that was being detected by the radio telescope. It was a rather primitive data recorder in those days ? the lowest signal level was one, and then it goes 2, 3, 4, all the way up to 9, and once you reach level 9, you then swap to letters, A, and up to the very highest of all, which would be U. The detections were all low numbers, with just background noise, and all of a sudden, there was this fantastically high signal ? there were some Us in there and otherwise all letters. This is the strongest signal ever detected by this telescope. It was at 1420 megahertz, give or take a few decimal places, almost right on the 21 centimetre line. It lasts for 72 seconds which is crucial because 72 seconds was the maximum time which a signal could be received by this beam. Because of the rotation of the Earth, you rotate away from the source after 72 seconds and you cannot see the same source any longer.
Unfortunately, when the second beam came round 3 minutes later, this was not seen again. A massive search was carried out with many telescopes, both immediately afterwards and long afterwards, to try to find the source of this signal and see it again. There were 50 or more attempts, and it was never seen again. It is unexplained as nobody knows what it was. Perhaps there was some scintillation of signals in the atmosphere that produced this high burst. The only place you hear about it now I think is in things like the X Files. In one of their stories, Little Green Men, the story revolves around this particular signal. But this is the only really interesting signal that was ever seen.
We do not only listen, we also send things. Pioneer 10 and 11 were space missions that were launched in 1972 and 1973. Their mission was to observe the outer planets of Jupiter and Saturn, but when they finished that mission, they were programmed to go off towards the nearest stars. 10 is now heading towards Taurus ? it will get there in about 2 million years ? and 11 is heading towards Aquila, quite close to Sagittarius, and it will get there in 4 million years, unless it is intercepted by debris and hits something on the way. At the last minute, Carl Sagan and Frank Drake thought that it would be a good idea to put a message on these space probes, and so in a space of two weeks, they conceived the idea of this plaque, which was designed by Linda Sagan. This is put on the side on some nice unscratchable, high quality, metallic material.
The message had various things on it. There were two human figures ? there was a great deal of controversy about this in United States at the time about the rightness of showing these naked figures on a spacecraft. The poses are not just incidental. The man was displaying his limb movement, and he was also showing his opposed thumb. In the background was an image of the spacecraft itself, so that you can get an idea of the size of the people relative to the size of the spacecraft. Down the bottom, there was a little child-like drawing of the Solar System and the trajectory of the spacecraft. The distances are in a sort of binary arithmetic, in units of one-tenth of the distance from the Sun to Mercury, so it was a scale picture. From the Sun came lines emanating out pointing towards various pulsars. These are 14 pulsars and the length of the line that went to the pulsar gives you a measure of the period of the pulsar, so that it uniquely identified them. The direction told you the direction in space. The length of the line told you the period. There is a little block on the end of each line which was a measure of how far above the galactic plane these pulsars are located. Knowing just three of these pulsars would be enough to triangulate and locate the Earth, but you cannot assume that people know all of these pulsars, or even that all of them will still be around when the message is read, so 14 was a big redundancy factor to give many candidates to locate where it comes from. There was also a line that runs all the way across to show the distance and the direction to the centre of our galaxy on the same scale. Finally there was the 21 centimetre spin-flip line and a measure of its frequency.
Again, sending messages like this is very controversial. There are people who object that there should be two people, Drake and Sagan, and NASA, who should choose to speak for the whole of the Earth. The next mission that was sent by NASA sent a huge compilation of human music, culture, language, picture, so it was like a vast long-playing record with instructions as to how to play it and so forth.
Another type of message was sent in 1974 by the Arecibo Radio Telescope. This was to mark the refurbishment and reopening, of the Telescope. What was given was 1679 bits. 1679 is the product of two primes, so you can express it as 73 times 23 or 23 times 73. You could arrange it to have 73 rows or you could have 32 rows. If you arranged it with 32 rows the message is designed just to be gibberish, with no interesting structure. If you have it with 73 rows, then it appears structured which is a hint. What you had at the top, first of all, were the numbers 1 to 10, in binary, so the last light block is always just a full stop. So the first one was, dark-dark-light, which is ?001?, that is the number one; then ?10?, which is two; ?011?; ?100?; ?101?; ?110? and so on. We work up in binary from one up to ten. After having done that, you have got some particular numbers you can compare to the binary number code and work out to be six, seven, eight and 15. These are the atomic numbers of the elements that form DNA, which are hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and phosphorus.
Then there was a set of green images were the chemical formulae, in effect, of the nucleotides of DNA made out of these elements. Then there was a message that gives you a DNA double helix, and there was a numerical estimate of the number of nucleotides in the human genome. Unfortunately, this was badly wrong; wrong by about a billion. Down here, you will recognise yourself, there in the middle. Using the binary from the beginning, there was an indication of typical human height and an estimate of the human population.
There was a map of our Solar System, starting with the Sun and, moving out, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and so forth, giving a measure of the sizes. Next was the Arecibo Telescope, and, finally, an indication of the size of the telescope and other things in units of 126 nanometres.
So this is the challenge that our extraterrestrial friends have here of trying to eventually decode that type of information. Maybe that is why they keep quiet! Perhaps they are not really into Sudokus and all this sort of stuff, and they think that we are a sort of planet of puzzlers.
On another another, more morbid, tack, let us begin to look at perhaps more realistic reasons. It could be that we do not hear because they only listen, they do not send, and there might be a serious reason for that. We know from our own experience on Earth what tends to happen historically when advanced civilisations encounter primitive ones ? primitive ones tend to get wiped out, either for hostile reasons or maybe through germs and disease which they have no resistance to. There is certainly a body of opinion amongst astronomers that says that we should not be signalling, we should not be revealing our presence, because it is pure fantasy to think that high intelligence and high levels of technological sophistication go hand in hand with high ethical principles. We have seen a lot of movies in recent years that really brought out that type of picture of the hostile extraterrestrial rather than the sweet little ET-like figure. So there may also be people who are too scared to broadcast, because they really do not want to reveal their presence, and do not want to reveal what they have.
It could be that they are simply not extroverts, but they may also not be curious. You would imagine that they were curious in order to develop a certain high level of technology, but certain things die, and maybe that curiosity is lost.
Maybe they just do not do astronomy. That is easy to understand if you live on a planet in a star system where visibility is poor. It is like living in Manchester all the time ? you just cannot see the sky. You are not going to do a lot of astronomy. You will do a lot of meteorology and gain a lot of understanding of murk and ?cloudy with scattered showers? sort of things, but you do not do any astronomy ? at first. Eventually, when you have the capability to build radio telescopes, you can do radio astronomy, and that is why they do radio astronomy at Jodrell Bank in Manchester! So if you live in an environment where the cloud cover in the local environment does not allow you to see very easily, you will not take much of an interest in astronomy.
It could also be that you are in a dusty environment in the plane of the galaxy, and it is difficult to see any great distance. So there can be perfectly good reasons why your science being highly developed but very much focused on other things. Your planet may be extremely magnetic, rather radioactive in places, and you have a very high level of understanding of radioactivity, electricity and magnetism very early on. There may be an awful lot of water on your planet and you may have highly advanced understanding of hydrodynamics and weather systems.
They may also, as we can appreciate, have much bigger problems to worry about. If you are a much more advanced civilisation than us, you could imagine that the sort of problems that we foresee, with our environment, with health, with stability and so forth, might have become much more acute and much more magnified. Thus, thinking about sending signals to people 25,000 light years away will not be a pressing electoral issue to the politicians of the day. It requires massive amounts of forward planning, far more so even than climatic action today, and it is quite easy to understand why it is never regarded as a pressing problem. As resources become scarcer and more greatly under pressure, medical, health, environmental problems become far more important and everything is focused in a completely different direction. So we may find that we on Earth are actually living in a period where we have the luxury of thinking about and investing money in these sorts of activities, but our descendents may not have.
The other and perhaps more sinister possibility to explain the great silence is really that technological civilisations do not survive very long. Therefore, that period of signalling in Drake?s Equation, that air that is such a dominant factor in getting the large answer if you want one in the Equation, is not as long as people imagined. Again, we can appreciate how that might come about; that it is so easy to destroy yourselves from within. We have already appreciated how things like pollution, nuclear war, nuclear accidents, diseases out of control, the pressures of overpopulation, food, exhaustion of natural resources, technological disasters ? any of these things, let alone some large combination of them, could very easily, if not eradicate life on Earth, certainly set it back by a huge period of time. There might well be a very significant internal barrier to technologically advanced civilisations living and developing for a very long time. The Industrial Revolution in the 19th Century is really not very long ago. The ability to create nuclear devises only appeared in the last Century. We have not been very long in a highly technological environment, and already we are creating and appreciating very serious consequences and problems.
However, I think the most serious problem of all if you want to survive, be advanced and send signals everywhere, is that the universe itself conspires against you. Even if you avoid destroying yourself from within, the chances of being destroyed from outside are really overwhelmingly large. We have begun to appreciate in the last 50 years or so the frequency and impact that objects like asteroids and comets can have on the direction and scope of evolution on Earth. We now appreciate that one great phase of evolution on Earth that featured the dinosaurs was brought to a catastrophic end by a major impact in the Yucatan long ago. We also know that in 1905 there was a pretty large impact in Siberia, and in the 1920s, another one in South America. There are no doubt others that we see no evidence of because so much of our planet is covered with water. But the impact of comets and asteroids set the clock of evolution back quite catastrophically. It is very difficult to keep evolution moving steadily in the face of these dramatic external perturbations. It is not only impacts by comets and asteroids than can trouble you. Supernovae, gamma ray bursts, other sources of radiation nearby, can be equally devastating to simple early forms of life. To survive these sorts of catastrophes you have to be sufficiently developed to be able to deflect incoming objects and you have to be able to shield yourself from rapid outbursts of solar radiation such as giant solar flares, and supernovae, gamma ray bursts, and so forth.
Wit hthese types of things, we need to remember that the energy that is released by such projectiles hitting the earth is huge because kinetic energy depends on the square of the incoming velocity. The rather small objects, just a few metres across, we do not have to worry about too much because they burn up in the atmosphere. They do not reach the surface and they do not yield a crater.
But objects 50 metres or so across, leave a one kilometre crater, but the effects are not confined to one kilometre. The energy release and the amount of dust and shockwaves that are produced by that impact are sufficient to devastate the climate and behaviour of an entire continent. Craters of just about 10 kilometres in size, coming from an object one kilometre in size ? a small asteroid ? is sufficient to kill off all living things, all agriculture on Earth. This would be the size of the object that wiped out the dinosaurs and pretty much everything else above the surface of the Earth long ago. If you get to the real extreme of something far bigger it would in effect wipe out everything.
We are rather fortunate in that our Solar System is set up in such a way that we are shielded from receiving as many hits from these objects as we should. In the outer Solar System, we have a giant protective planet, Jupiter, which is so big that its gravitational field captures many objects that enter the Solar System heading towards us. Just a few years ago, we were able to watch a comet captured by Jupiter as it entered the Solar System. Had Jupiter not been there, it would have entered the inner Solar System, and encountered ourselves, maybe many times, as it also went around the Sun. If an object gets past Jupiter, it still has to get past the Moon. The Moon is really rather large compared to the Earth, and no other planet in the Solar System has got a moon that is, relatively speaking, so large. You can see, long ago, from the surface of the Moon, how many things have hit the Moon that would have hit the Earth. Thus the Moon acts as a shield by its gravitational field and its simple physical face protecting us from another type of close encounter for objects that get into the inner Solar System.
Perhaps for a civilisation without these peculiarities, the sheer frequency of impacts from outer space on planetary surfaces can set back and wipe out life long before it ever reaches a sophistication that can deflect these objects. In most cases, I suspect, this is the most suggestive reason for the lack of highly sophisticated signalling forms of life around our galaxy. The galaxy is simply a rather dangerous place.
Lastly, another idea you can apply to the spread of life and communication in the galaxy is percolation. Imagine that you have got an orchard, you plant all the trees fairly close together, and a disease breaks out on one tree, then that disease spreads and blights the entire orchard. What could determine that? If you have spaced the trees rather closely together, it is easy for the infection to jump from one tree to another. Also, it depends upon the number of neighbours that each tree has ? you would think that the more neighbours there were, the bigger the chance of the disease spreading. This is a percolation problem. It is rather like the spread of a disease. If you have a cold, you will spread it to other people, with some probability, and that will be determined by how close you get to them and so forth. This type of reasoning applies to the spread of all sorts of thing, and it might, indeed, apply to the spread of life within our galaxy. Percolation problems have a special property, that this probability of spreading something to your neighbour has a critical structure, that there is always a particular probability of spread to your neighbour such that when they are below that value, when you spread it, it does not spread everywhere. It remains patchy or it dies out. But once the chance of spreading to a neighbour crosses some threshold, the blight spreads everywhere very quickly, and everything becomes blighted.
If the probability of spread of the disease, or life through the galaxy is below that critical threshold what happens is that you get only patches of it in different places but it is not blighted everywhere.
But when you have twice the probability of spreading, you are then in a situation where you can link up everywhere, going horizontally or vertically, through the structure, and that is said to be percolated or critical. It could be that the spread of life within our galaxy is not like this; we may not have a spread taking place that quite reaches the condition for criticality. So life remains rather patchy; in some places. If the probability had been higher, as Fermi imagined perhaps, it would go critical and spread almost everywhere, and it would be easy to find evidence for it.
It is easy to assume that the things that we prize very much, like consciousness and free will and so forth, are somehow intimately linked with intelligence and higher forms of evolution. It could be that consciousness and hence this sort of desire to signal is just a passing phase in evolution, it plays an important role, but super-advanced forms of life may not be conscious at all. At first that sounds very odd ? how can this be? Many of the most complicated things that we do, we do not do consciously. So if I throw this into the audience and it comes towards you, you will automatically just pick out your hand from your pocket and catch it. When you cross the road, you do not do many detailed calculations of mechanics in order to avoid oncoming cars and judge just the right moment to step off the kerb. If a rock suddenly falls from a cliff while you are looking up at it, you automatically jump out of the way. These are all reactions: they are highly complex calculations, but they are programmed, in effect, into an automatic pilot part of your brain. They are not things that you consciously process. One might imagine a super-advanced civilisation containing beings whose minds do all sorts of fantastically complex things, scientifically speaking, in the same, subconscious way. We would perhaps have a subconscious intuition ultimately for quantum mechanical construction on nanotechnological devices, so you could do the sorts of things that all of human science requires great focus and concentration to do just like that.
This might be another reason why many of our expectations about who we might see or hear from in the universe, what they might tell us, might really be rather fanciful: that maybe consciousness, just like these lectures and all sorts of other good things, really must come to an end.
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Although the number of people in prisons and jails in America has slightly declined, numbers released on Thursday, April 25, by the Bureau of Justice Statistics still show that nearly 1.5 million individuals were in prison by the end of 2017.
The statistics also note that the U.S. continues to lock up more people than any other nation. And despite a narrowing disparity between incarcerated Black and White women, females have emerged as the new face of mass incarceration.
“I don’t think this should be much of a surprise as two of the main for-profit prison companies were founded around the same time,” said Ron Stefanski, whose website , works to hold prisons accountable for the treatment of current, former and future inmates.
“When these for-profit companies were created, they found a way to generate revenue off of inmates, and this led to a huge influx of prisoners, both male and female,” Stefanski said.
In 2000, Black women were incarcerated at six times the rate of White women, but in 2017, Black women were imprisoned at less than double the rate of White women, according to the latest information.
The number of White women in prison has increased by more than 40% since 2000 while the number of Black women incarcerated has fallen by nearly 50%.
The most recent report from the Prison Policy Initiative revealed that, looking at the big picture shows that a staggering number of women who are incarcerated are not even convicted with one quarter of the women behind bars having not yet gone to trial.
Sixty-percent of women under the control of local authorities have not been convicted of a crime and adding to the picture of women in local jails, aside from women under local jurisdictions, state and federal agencies pay local jails to house an additional 13,000 women, according to the Prison Policy Initiative.
For example, ICE and the U.S. Marshals, which have fewer dedicated facilities for their detainees, contract with local jails to hold roughly 5,000 women. So the number of women physically held in jails is even higher.
According to the Prison Policy Initiative, avoiding pre-trial incarceration is uniquely challenging for women.
The number of un-convicted women stuck in jail is surely not because courts are considering women, who are generally the primary caregivers of children, to be a flight risk, according to the Prison Policy Initiative report.
The far more likely answer is that incarcerated women, who have lower incomes than incarcerated men, have an even harder time affording cash bail.
When the typical bail amounts to a full year’s income for women, it’s no wonder that women are stuck in jail awaiting trial, the report’s author said.
Even once convicted, the system funnels women into jails: About a quarter of convicted incarcerated women are held in jails, compared to about 10% of all people incarcerated with a conviction.
Also, while stays in jail are generally shorter than in stays in prison, jails make it harder to stay in touch with family than prisons do.
Phone calls are more expensive, up to $1.50 per minute, and other forms of communication are more restricted. Some jails don’t even allow real letters, limiting mail to postcards.
This is especially troubling given that 80% of women in jails are mothers, and most of them are primary caretakers of their children.
Thus children are particularly susceptible to the domino effect of burdens placed on incarcerated women, the report’s author said.
Black and American Indian women are markedly overrepresented in prisons and jails, according to the report.
Incarcerated women are 53% White, 29% Black, 14% Hispanic, 2.5% American Indian and Alaskan Native, 0.9% Asian, and 0.4% Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander.
“While we are a long way away from having data on intersectional impacts of sexuality and race or ethnicity on women’s likelihood of incarceration, it is clear that Black and lesbian or bisexual women are disproportionately subject to incarceration,” Prison Policy Initiative author Aleks Kajstura said.
Three out of four women under control of any U.S. correctional system are on probation, according to Kajstura.
Probation is often billed as an alternative to incarceration, but instead it is frequently set with unrealistic conditions that undermine its goal of keeping people from being locked up, she wrote for the Prison Policy Initiative.
For example, probation often comes with steep fees, which, like bail, women are in the worst position to afford.
Failing to pay these probation fees is often a violation of probation.
Childcare duties further complicate probation requirements that often include meetings with probation officers, especially for women with no extra money to spend on babysitters or reliable transportation across town.
“All of these issues make women particularly vulnerable to being incarcerated not because they commit crimes, but because they run afoul of one of the burdensome obligations of their probation supervision,” Kajstura said.
Still, she noted in the report that the picture of women’s incarceration is far from complete, and many questions remain about mass incarceration’s unique impact on women.
“Based on our analysis in this report, we know that a quarter of incarcerated women are un-convicted,” she wrote in the report.
“But is that number growing? And how do the harms of that unnecessary incarceration intersect with women’s disproportionate care giving to impact families?
“Beyond these big picture questions, there are a plethora of detailed data points that are not reported for women by any government agencies, such as the simple number of women incarcerated in U.S. Territories or involuntarily committed to state psychiatric hospitals because of justice system involvement.” | <urn:uuid:9bff7889-a324-4bbc-9e85-dd443c7d08af> | CC-MAIN-2020-40 | https://www.pridepublishinggroup.com/pride/2019/05/12/mass-incarceration-of-women-minorities-a-new-crisis/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-40/segments/1600402118004.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20200930044533-20200930074533-00261.warc.gz | en | 0.964769 | 1,198 | 2.578125 | 3 | {
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What we do know so far about COVID-19 is that the disease can spread through droplets that are released from the nose or mouth when someone coughs, sneezes or exhales. But what about consuming food that might be contaminated by the virus? We asked experts:
“Can coronavirus spread through food?“
Prof Dr Liong Min Tze, Microbiologist & Associate Professor at the School of Industrial Technology, Universiti Sains Malaysia, said:
“As per my video (Part-1: What is a Virus?), we know that viruses are not alive. Thus, it cannot be “killed”, but “deactivated” instead. Virus primarily contains its genetic materials inside its core. Imagine a football with some knitting threads inside. Once inside our body, the virus will “pump” the genetic material or “knitting threads” inside our cells and our cells will then start to make more of the virus’s “knitting threads”, like a factory. Once done, this factory will be destroyed. So, the virus does not “deliver a baby” but instead uses our body as a production factory. Thus, a virus doesn’t need to be alive.
Due to this, a virus can remain in the environment in a dormant state for a long time if the condition is favourable, or until something destroys its outer layer, exposes its inner “knitting threads” and thus the virus cannot enter our body. Thus, yes virus can spread through food or as a matter of fact, any medium unless it is deactivated. Heat, acid, UV, chemicals are some strategies to deactivate the virus. For example, cooking food for a prolonged time and at high temperatures can deactivate some viruses. We need to remember too that viruses as different, just like humans, we are all different. Some are stronger than the others. Thus, some viruses can be deactivated easier than some others.
Also, as per my video (Finale: Cure for COVID-19?), we can see that coronaviruses are a group of viruses, not just one single virus. SARS-CoV-2 is a type of coronavirus that causes COVID-19 as we are experiencing now. We also know that coronaviruses have been present around us for many years and found in various types of animals ranging from exotic ones such as bat, alpaca, peafowl and whale, to those close to us such as cat, dog, chicken, cow, pig and birds. From this list, we can see that many serve as food to humans. Thus again, yes, coronaviruses can spread through food and remain active in certain foods that are not cooked sufficiently.”
Professor Dr Lee Yeong Yeh, Gastroenterologist at the School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, said:
“At the moment, evidence points to human-to-human transmission, largely through respiratory droplets or aerosols. Spreading through food is completely baseless.”
Michael W. Smith, Chief Medical Director at WebMD, said:
“There is no evidence that the COVID-19 virus can spread through food. The virus is spread from person-to-person through close contact (within 6 feet) and through respiratory droplets when coughing or sneezing. The other way it commonly spreads is through surfaces contaminated with respiratory droplets containing the virus. Someone touches that surface and can transmit the virus to themselves by touching their mouth, nose, or eyes or by transmitting it to someone else by touching them. Even if the virus were to land on food that you ate, there’s no evidence that swallowing the virus leads to infection. It needs to be transmitted to the respiratory system – into the nose, sinuses or lungs.”
Centers for Control Disease and Prevention (CDC), said:
“Coronaviruses are generally thought to be spread from person-to-person through respiratory droplets. Currently there is no evidence to support transmission of COVID-19 associated with food. Before preparing or eating food, it is important to always wash your hands with soap and water for 20 seconds for general food safety. Throughout the day, wash your hands after blowing your nose, coughing or sneezing, or going to the bathroom.
It may be possible that a person can get COVID-19 by touching a surface or object that has the virus on it and then touching their own mouth, nose, or possibly their eyes, but this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads.
In general, because of poor survivability of these coronaviruses on surfaces, there is likely very low risk of spread from food products or packaging that are shipped over a period of days or weeks at ambient, refrigerated, or frozen temperatures. You should always handle and prepare food safely, including keeping raw meat separate from other foods, refrigerating perishable foods, and cooking meat to the right temperature to kill harmful germs.”
|Disclaimer: These comments were complied to provide journalists with a range of expert perspectives on the subject. The views expressed here are the personal opinions of the experts. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the Science Media Centre or any other organisation unless specifically stated.|
Bionotes of experts
Prof Dr Liong Min Tze obtained her PhD in Food Microbiology and Safety from Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia in 2006 before joining Universiti Sains Malaysia. Her research emphasizes on probiotics, prebiotics, nutraceuticals and the utilization of agricultural wastes for the production of by-products. Dr Liong has published over 80 papers in international peer-reviewed journals and she is also on the Editorial Board of several international journals and has reviewed over 100 journal manuscripts for reputable international journals. She has also delivered keynote and plenary lectures both nationally and internationally. Dr Liong was named one of the three top young women scientists in Malaysia (2007) by FWIS L’Oreal-UNESCO. She was also awarded the IAP Young Scientist, to represent Malaysia at the World Science Forum in Budapest to pitch for changes in science policies in the Hungarian Parliament (2015). In 2016, Dr Liong was named as one of the Top Research Scientist Malaysia, awarded by Academy of Sciences Malaysia (ASM).
Professor Dr Lee Yeong Yeh is a clinician who specializes in internal medicine and gastroenterology and also a scientist with research interests in the function and diseases of the gut. He is also the editor for BMC Gastroenterology, Journal of Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, PeerJ and Malaysian Journal of Medical Sciences.
**All previous posts about COVID-19 here: https://sciencemediacentremalaysia.com/tag/covid-19/ | <urn:uuid:3b022547-632b-45de-89a6-118e8a7b9da3> | CC-MAIN-2021-43 | https://sciencemediacentremalaysia.com/expert-reaction/2020/04/expert-reaction-can-coronavirus-spread-through-food/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-43/segments/1634323585186.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20211018000838-20211018030838-00330.warc.gz | en | 0.950286 | 1,420 | 3.390625 | 3 | {
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Animal Species:Killer Whale
The Killer Whale, Orcinus orca, is the largest member of the dolphin family.
The Killer Whale is a strikingly marked animal characterised by a body pattern of dramatically contrasting areas of intense black and white. The rounded head, indistinct beak, large pointed teeth and prominent upright dorsal fin complete what is considered one of the oceans most impressive mammals.
9 m, 5 tonnes
The Killer Whale is found in all oceans and seas of the world usually in family groups. They occur in most habitat types from coastal areas to the deep ocean waters, from the tropics to polar regions.
Feeding and Diet
These animals are serious meat eaters and one of the most efficient large predators of the ocean. A cooperative hunter, they often work in packs, and will take a broad range of vertebrates including whales, seals, penguins, fish, sea otters, and turtles. Killer Whales have marked territorial behaviour and home ranges. Their prey is determined by what is available in their home ange but they also seek out areas of seasonal abundance such as seal pupping sites.
Killer Whales are a highly social species whose group size and composition is based on the dominance of a female line. The gestation period is thought to be about 15 months after which a single young is born. Group cooperation extends to care of the young, which will continue to suckle from the mother for an extended period of up to two years. The breeding season is variable, as is the interval between births. This latter period can be as little as three years or as long as eight.
The Killer Whale has never been the target of serious commercial hunting so the species worldwide is secure. There is some concern about depletion of individual populations and disruption to social structure from captures for the oceanarium trade and limited hunting in some parts of Asia, Northern Europe and the West Indies.
- Baker, A. N. 1999. Whales and Dolphins of Australia and New Zealand: an identification guide. Allen & Unwin, St Leonards, Australia.
- Bryden, M., Marsh, H. and Shaughnessy, P. 1998. Dugongs, Whales, Dolphins and Seals. A guide to the sea mammals of Australasia. Allen & Unwin, St Leonards, Australia.
- Menkhorst, P. 2001. A Field Guide to Mammals of Australia. Oxford University Press, Melbourne, Australia.
- Reeves, R. R., Stewart, B. S., Clapham, P. J. and Powell, J. A. 2002. National Audubon Society Guide to Marine Mammals of the World. Chanticleer Press, Inc New York, USA. | <urn:uuid:46006884-e19b-4dde-8c2a-bb4259f27557> | CC-MAIN-2013-48 | http://australianmuseum.net.au/Killer-Whale | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-48/segments/1386163048688/warc/CC-MAIN-20131204131728-00000-ip-10-33-133-15.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.89074 | 558 | 3.453125 | 3 | {
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One of the highlights of summer is enjoying the bounty of luscious Ohio berries. July is the peak month for blackberries and raspberries. Blueberries are in season from mid-July through mid-September.
- A dull appearance or soft, juicy berries means the fruit is old. The berries should be sweet and full-flavored. Sweetness varies by variety.
- Look for stains on containers, which indicate crushed or bruised fruit. The berries should be free of dirt, mold, or decay.
- Blueberries should be plump and firm with a dark blue color and waxy, silvery "bloom."
- Raspberries may be red, black, yellow, or purple. The red raspberry is the first to ripen, followed by black and then purple and yellow. Some varieties produce two crops a year and are called everbearing or fallbearing.
- Ripe raspberries should be large, bright, shiny, uniform in color and ripeness, attractive, firm, and of good quality. Taste varies from tart to sweet depending on the variety and maturity.
- Upon ripening, blackberries become dull-black in color and are just beginning to soften and get sweet. Fruit is medium to large sized. The small depression in each drupelet should be well filled. They should be solid and have plump, juicy fruitlets.
- Handle fruit gently to avoid bruising. Bruising shortens the life of fruit and contributes to low quality.
- Sort carefully and place berries loosely in a shallow container to allow air circulation and to prevent the berries on top from crushing those underneath.
- Berries are highly perishable. Store immediately in the refrigerator.
- Do not wash berries before refrigerating.
- Store covered containers of berries in a cool, moist area of the refrigerator, such as in the hydrator (vegetable keeper), to help extend the usable life of the fruit. Blackberries and raspberries can be stored one to two days in the refrigerator; blueberries can be stored three to five days in the refrigerator.
- To prepare, rinse berries gently in cold water. Lift out of water and drain.
- Never soak berries in water.
- Remove berries that are too soft or decayed.
- Serve fresh or in your favorite berry recipe.
All three types of berries are good sources of vitamin C and also contain fiber, folate, and vitamin K.
One of the most important health benefits of berries stems from their high level of phytochemicals, which are non-nutrient components that scientists believe may help reduce the risk of chronic disease. Berries are rich in phenolic compounds and flavonoids, which have antioxidant properties and help fight cancer.
|Per 1 cup of unsweetened berries|
(54% daily need)
(50% daily need)
(24% daily need)
|Fiber||8 grams||8 grams||4 grams|
- One pint of berries will provide four to five servings of fresh uncooked fruit.
- Puree raspberries, sieve out seeds, and use as a melba sauce over peaches, ice cream, or frozen yogurt.
- Add fresh berries and a few nuts to hot or cold cereals.
- Top fresh berries with plain nonfat yogurt and granola for a delicious breakfast, snack, or dessert.
- Bake berries into muffins or cobblers.
- To reduce fat in the diet, choose one-crust berry pie recipes over those with two crusts.
- Combine raspberries into a fresh lettuce salad. Top with a vinaigrette dressing.
- A few berries go a long way when combined with other fruits in a salad or compote.
Blueberry Oat Scones
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly grease one baking sheet. Mix oat bran, flour, brown sugar, and baking soda. Cut in margarine or butter. Beat eggs and beat in honey in a separate bowl. Add buttermilk and extracts to egg mixture. Pour into oat bran mixture and stir only until moistened. Stir in blueberries. Drop by tablespoon onto baking sheet. Bake in 400 degrees F oven 25 to 30 minutes. Serve hot.
Makes 16 scones.
For more information on preserving berries, contact your local OSU Extension office for the following fact sheets:
- Drying Fruits and Vegetables, HYG-5347
- Preserving Pie Fillings, HYG-5355
- Basics for Canning Fruit, HYG-5343
- Freezing Fruits, HYG-5349
- Jams, Jellies, and Other Fruit Spreads, HYG-5350
- Safe Handling of Fruits and Vegetables, HYG-5353
- Growing Blueberries in the Home Garden, HYG-1422
- Raspberries for the Backyard Fruit Planting, HYG-1421
Contact your local OSU Extension office for recommendations on varieties.
Originally reviewed by Lydia C. Medeiros, Specialist, Food and Nutrition; and Richard C. Funt, Specialist, Horticulture. | <urn:uuid:526b175f-860b-4bc7-b195-26f377df6db3> | CC-MAIN-2019-18 | https://ohioline.osu.edu/factsheet/HYG-5511 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-18/segments/1555578517639.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20190418121317-20190418143317-00500.warc.gz | en | 0.886372 | 1,077 | 2.984375 | 3 | {
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- An asteroid that looks a like a human skull, commonly known as the Halloween Asteroid — or 2015 TB145 — could pass close to Earth in early November 2018.
- It's most recent visit was on October 31, 2015.
- This year, it will be much further away — about 105 times the distance between Earth and the Moon.
You're probably not going to see it, but in 2018, a small Solar System object is going to pay us a second visit since its discovery in 2015. It's called 2015 TB145, also known as the Halloween Asteroid — and for good reason.
It's just perfect. It looks a little like a human skull in certain conditions; it's as dark as coal; its closest approach to Earth on its previous visit was on 31 October, 2015; and it's probably a dead comet.
You can't get a better concatenation of thematically related circumstances.
There are going to be a few differences with next year's visit though. The Halloween asteroid's first known flyby was really close — it buzzed by Earth just outside the Moon's orbit, at 486,000 kilometres (302,000 miles).
But it has a large orbital inclination, or highly tilted orbit, so when it swings by Earth, its distance from us varies. The 2015 flyby was the closest the asteroid will be to us for another 500 years.
It doesn't always visit on Halloween, either. Its orbital period is 1,112 days, or just over three years. So every time it visits, it's just a little later in our year than the last time.
The 2018 flyby is going to take place in early November, and the asteroid is going to be much farther away — around 105 times the distance between Earth and the Moon.
Meanwhile the object's orbital eccentricity and tilt suggest that the asteroid was once a comet that has since lost all its volatile compounds after numerous orbits around the Sun, and is now dead rock flying through space.
When the Halloween Asteroid returns this year, even though it will be much farther away, researchers are going to be taking the opportunity to learn even more about it — and, hopefully, by extension, other objects of similar mass that approach our planet.
The Halloween asteroid is still around 3.7 times the distance between the Sun and Earth away, so you have plenty of time to bone up.
If you want to know more, Santos-Sanz, Müller and their team published a paper about the asteroid earlier this year in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.
It'd better still look like a skull when it comes around. | <urn:uuid:70307222-b3b8-4886-9a27-f674b55ce2fa> | CC-MAIN-2018-17 | http://www.businessinsider.com/a-skull-shaped-asteroid-will-make-its-way-to-earth-around-halloween-2017-12?platform=bi-androidapp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-17/segments/1524125946688.88/warc/CC-MAIN-20180424115900-20180424135900-00135.warc.gz | en | 0.976171 | 542 | 3.296875 | 3 | {
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This post was made possible by the generosity of Kanetix Ltd. Go online to Kanetix Canada to compare travel insurance quotes from the best travel insurance companies in Canada. Save time and money with Kanetix.
Bacon has held a bad reputation for health for several years. The claims that bacon is high in fat, causes high cholesterol and ultimately leads to serious health conditions are not entirely true. Bacon does have some surprising health benefits that make it a great addition to a diet plan when it is eaten in proper serving sizes.
Healthy Nutrients In Bacon
The concern that bacon will ruin good health is a myth. According to Heesa Phadie, bacon has healthy nutrients that make it a useful part of a healthy diet. Bacon contains thiamin, vitamin B12, zinc and selenium, which are all vital nutrients the body does not naturally produce.
The B vitamins are a necessary part of fighting anemia and maintaining high energy levels throughout the day. Since bacon contains natural B vitamins, it is healthy for the body. The vitamins are needed to move nutrients around the body through the circulatory system and a deficiency can lead to serious complications.
Zinc and selenium are vital antioxidants that are necessary for immune health. When the body does not receive enough nutrients and antioxidants, cells can start breaking down at a faster rate and the health is compromised. Bacon is useful in fighting health problems because it contains healthy antioxidants.
Fat in Bacon
Bacon does contain fat, which resulted in the concerns to personal health. While bacon has some fat, it does not contain the most harmful form of fat. According to the website FillYourPlate.org, bacon does not have any trans fats. The most harmful form of fat is trans fats, which are created fats designed for preservation.
Bacon does contain fat, but the amount is exaggerated. A single serving of bacon has less fat than many consumers assume. According to Boss Hog on the website BaconToday.com, bacon has less fat and cholesterol than many popular cuts of beef and chicken.
The low fat content when compared to the amount of nutritional value is surprising. Boss Hog explains that bacon has the highest protein to fat content of any meat, which makes it a great option when following a high protein diet or after exercise.
The meat is surprisingly nutritious and good for mental health. Bacon is a natural mood enhancer that helps encourage positive mental states. According to Visual.ly, the umami in bacon is an addictive substance that has a neurological impact on the brain.
Boss Hog on Bacon Today states that the meat causes a happy and blissful effect after eating it. The effect causes improved mood, satisfaction and lowers stress levels.
Since stress is a serious complication to physical and mental health, it is important to take measures to control the harmful emotional state. While several other options are available to reduce stress, many solutions take time. When time is short, grabbing a piece of bacon can help enhance mood and reduce stress levels within a short period of time.
Protection To The Heart
A surprising fact about bacon is that it is actually healthy for the heart. Bacon contains omega-3 fatty acids, which are the same nutrients found in fish. The healthy benefits of omega fatty acids are the reduced cholesterol and improved overall health in the heart.
Despite the myth that bacon causes heart disease, it actually has a positive benefit on the heart and body. High cholesterol is a problem for many individuals, but a serving of bacon can help reduce the bad numbers while raising the good numbers over time.
According to Boss Hog, choline is another material that helps protect the heart from damage and disease. Bacon can help heal the heart and other organs in the body due to the choline that is found in the meat. Choline is suggested for healing abnormalities and is a good element to add to a pregnant woman’s diet due to the impact on fetal brain development. Choline improves fetal brain development when it is eaten regularly during pregnancy.
Reduced Rates Of Brain-Related Illnesses
The health of the brain is vital for the entire body. The brain is the organ that controls the body and ensures everything functions appropriately. When problems develop in the brain, it leads to odd behaviors, memory loss and ultimately death when it is not properly managed.
According to Boss Hog, the choline in bacon is not only useful for the heart. Choline is a necessary component for the health of the brain.
A diet that contains choline on a regular basis will show reduced rates of memory loss over time. It is used in treatment for mental impairments, including Alzheimer’s Disease and similar dementia diseases. Studies have shown that choline improves memory, intelligence testing and reduces the speed of damage to the brain from dementia.
The impact on the brain is useful at any age. Since it improves memory, bacon is a great addition to breakfast during the school years.
Bacon is not bad for the body or health. Since the meat contains a high level of nutrients, it is a useful addition to any diet. The key to eating bacon and gaining health benefits is keeping the portions to reasonable sizes. When eaten in proper portion sizes, the amount of salt and fat is a negligible concern and the health benefits will outweigh the possible downsides associated with the meat.
Bacon Today http://bacontoday.com/top-10-reasons-bacon-is-actually-healthy-for-you/
I Can Has Internets http://www.icanhasinternets.com/2010/05/20-awesome-bacon-facts-graphic/
Fill Your Plate http://fillyourplate.org/blog/fun-facts-about-bacon/ | <urn:uuid:df478e93-2e91-41e0-9725-124bdc35e901> | CC-MAIN-2014-23 | http://www.baconismagic.ca/guest-posts/bacon-is-healthy/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-23/segments/1406510267729.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20140728011747-00045-ip-10-146-231-18.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937345 | 1,176 | 2.671875 | 3 | {
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Almost everyone has fallen in love at one time or another, perhaps several times. So for most people “love” is that exciting and sublimely agitating urge for intimacy with another, felt vaguely in the area of the solar plexus. Discussions on love almost always include something about what is called erotic love, romantic love or amour, eros to the Greeks, kāma, lokassādare or rati in Buddhism. This is the love that makes the world go around, as the saying goes. It is the love that has inspired some of civilisation’s greatest literature, art and music. It is the love everyone longs to experience and hopes will last forever.
Falling in love as we understand the experience today was not very common during the Buddha’s time, any more than it was in other ancient cultures. The prelude to and purpose of marriage was not love. People married to preserve property and produce legitimate progeny, and therefore most marriages were arranged by parents. Young people were paired off soon after they reached sexual maturity so they had very little opportunity to fall in love. If love grew, it did so after the marriage. Despite this, sometimes young people did manage to fall in love with each other or sometimes those already married fell in love with someone other than their spouses. Illicit romantic and sexual relationships happened despite the lack of opportunities and strong social disapproval.
Today romantic love commonly blossoms quite suddenly. One person sees another, is immediately attracted and then falls in love with them. He or she then attempts to make contact with the person they desire in the hope of attracting their attention and getting to know them better. If things go as hoped and their interest is reciprocated, a romance will result. If shyness, insurmountable social differences or other barriers make close contact with the loved person impossible, they may secretly worship them from afar, pining for them and dreaming or fantasising about a relationship with them.
Of course, not all love start by suddenly “falling” into it; sometimes it grows slowly. The scriptures identify at least four stages in this gradual awakening. It begins with seeing (dassana), seeing leads to association (samsagga), association leads to intimacy (visāsa), and intimacy leads to amorousness (otāra, A.III,67). Romantic love can last for weeks or months, although if requited it will last much longer. But sooner or later, it either fades, sours into dislike, or becomes more settled and evolves into conjugal love.
Romantic love has all the defining characteristics of other types, although in a much more exaggerated and unruly form. Couples in love are intensely interested in each other; much of their time together is spent talking to each other about the minute details of their lives. They care about each other too, about each other’s happiness and well-being and particularly that the love they share continues and grows stronger. They empathise with each other, and in romance this is usually described as “two hearts beating as one”. Desire for intimacy is heightened. During the first flush of love, the couple involved can hardly bear to be out of each other’s sight and the desire for sexual intimacy often has a desperate, urgent quality to it. In fact, so closely is romantic love associated with sex that the physical act of sex is commonly called “making love”. In no other type of love is positive feeling so dominant, sometimes overwhelmingly so, although it is commonly punctuated by episodes of despair and distress, anxious longing and shattered hopes. Arguments followed by reconciliations, or separations ending in reunions, seem only to intensify the partners’ attachment to and longing for each other’s company. Sometimes couples will even create such situations so that they can savour the reconciliation. The scriptures say: “When a couple or a husband and wife frolic in private with romantic love they chide each other ‘Dear One, you don’t really love me; your heart is elsewhere’. They chide each other like this falsely so that they can then love each other more passionately” (Ja.VI,378).
The bliss of new love can be strong enough to affect a person’s appearance and behaviour. It can give them a smiling, dreamy, faraway look or a twinkle in their eyes. It can make them appear preoccupied and uninterested in normal activities or give them a spring in their steps, at least when their relationships are proceeding smoothly.
Apart from possessing the defining characteristics that all loves share, romantic love has its own unique features. It is initially triggered by visual contact. “Love goes to one who is seen, there is no attraction to one who is not seen” (Rāmāyaṇa V,26;39). Its primary focus is the body; for males the face, breasts and hips, and for females the face, shoulders and chest. Certain body shapes evoke more desire than others, depending on cultural norms, and some of these can be very peculiar. In China until the beginning of the 20th century, males found abnormally small female feet intensely erotic. Now most people would be revolted by such deformities. Only a hundred years ago in the West, a pale and pudgy was in, now tanned and slim is the fashion. In ancient India both men and woman were erotically aroused by what was called the tanuromaraji, the line of hair going from the pubis to the navel. Just how particularly romantic love can be about physical features is suggested by this description of female beauty from the scriptures. To be alluring to a man, a woman had to be “fifteen or sixteen, not too tall and not too short, not too thin and not too fat, not too dark and not too fair”. (M.I,88) The presence or absence of even small and otherwise insignificant features or details can make the difference between arousal and disinterest. The pathways of eroticism and romance are not always easy to fathom.
Another important feature of romantic love is its tendency to distort perception. Buddhist scriptures refer to being blinded (kāmandha), befuddled (kāmamatta) or intoxicated (kāmāsava) by love. A person in love sees everything about their beloved as exceptional. A young man might say of his beloved: “her hair is like silk”, “her teeth are like pearls”, or “her eyes sparkle like stars.” But when we observe her various body parts they do not seem to be significantly different from anybody else’s. People in love do not say things like this in flights of ecstasy; they really believe what they say. Love makes their eyes see things in a different if unrealistic light, which can lead to problems. When the wild passion fades as it inevitably must, and the loved one is seen with a more critical eye, disappointment can set in. What before was a cute or delightful quirk may become an annoyance. When one person is besotted by another who does not love them with equal passion or perhaps not at all, they can be open to being exploited by them. They might be asked for and gladly give expensive gifts, money and favours. The besotted person’s family and friends can see what is happening, that the love-struck is being taken advantage of, but they themself cannot see it. Romantic love can be, as they say, blind.
Most of all, romantic love seems to operate outside the will. The term “falling in love” is a very appropriate and descriptive one. As in actually tripping or being pushed and falling, you cannot stop until you hit the ground. A person does not choose or decide to fall in love; a surge of dopamine, oxytocin and other hormones in the system decides for them. The pull of romantic love and sexual delight, the promises they whisper in the ear, can be very hard to resist. Occasionally one of the Buddha’s monks would appear to be progressing well, developing calm and detachment, experiencing the joy of simplicity and silence. Then suddenly “he hears that in a particular village or town there are women or maidens fair to look upon, lovely, with the wondrous beauty of a lotus. When he hears this he loses heart, falters, cannot keep strong, and is unable to continue the training. Then he acknowledges his weakness, gives up the training and returns to the lay life”(A.III,90).
Abandoning the life of a celibate monk or nun for romance is one thing, but people sometimes take extraordinary risks or act with unbelievable irresponsibility because they are under the spell of sexual desire or romantic love. It is romantic love’s unruly, distorting and distracting qualities that made the Buddha very cautious of it, and of course he was by no means the only one. The Jains, Hindus, Stoics, Gnostics, and the early Christians all saw romantic entanglements as pulling one’s energy and attention away from more spiritual aspirations. Saint Paul said: “I desire to have you to be free from cares. He who is unmarried is concerned for the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord; but he who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how he may please his wife” (1 Corinthians 7,1-35). Except for the reference to pleasing the Lord, the Buddha could have addressed these same words to his monks and nuns.
However the Buddha had a deep enough understanding of the human heart to know that despite the many tribulations romantic love could bring, it was also a source of great happiness and a real benediction. He often spoke of what he called “the satisfaction and the dangers (assādañ ca ādīnava) in sensual pleasure” (M.I,85), of which romance and sex were the most significant. And there is satisfaction in romantic love – the wonderful feeling of being cherished and having someone to cherish, the companionship, the fun, the exhilaration of sex and the delight of sharing things. It can also nourish virtues such as loyalty, giving, unselfishness and patience.
The Buddha was also realistic enough to understand that whatever he said most people would fall in love and probably wish to marry. Therefore he encouraged his lay disciples to be responsible in their intimate relationships. The third of the Five Precepts, the rules of behaviour that all Buddhists undertake to live by, is the vow “I take the Precept to avoid sexual misconduct”. Although this precept is primarily about sexual behaviour it overlaps with romantic love because the two are so closely connected. Wrong sexual behaviour was, the Buddha said, intercourse with those under the guardianship of their parents, i.e. under-aged; those protected by Dhamma, i.e. monastics or those who had taken a vow of celibacy; those already married; those undergoing punishment, i.e. prisoners; or those bedecked in garlands, i.e. already engaged to be married (A.V,264). This does not mean that one already married will never fall in love with such people but it would be wrong from the Buddhist perspective to encourage and pursue such feelings. Romantic love should not be confused with dalliance (nandi or kāmarāga). There can be sex without love just as there can be love without sex. Some people have a strong appetite for sexual gratification and little or no interest in emotional involvement or long-term commitment. They may pretend to be emotionally attached to someone but only as a strategy to get more sex. The Buddha called this sort of thing “sport” (dava), perhaps similar to the Greek ludus, and is what we are talking about when we say that a particular person “sees love as a game.” | <urn:uuid:dfc25c34-9d9e-4e79-acd4-817dc7ee68e6> | CC-MAIN-2015-48 | http://sdhammika.blogspot.com/2014/02/romantic-love.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-48/segments/1448398457697.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20151124205417-00133-ip-10-71-132-137.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966377 | 2,502 | 2.59375 | 3 | {
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Subsets and Splits