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Culturing hybridoma cell lines for monoclonal antibody production in EZ-Flask saves user time, incubator space and provides easy and economical protein expression.
Below you will find detailed descriptions of the major features of this simple yet powerful bioreactor.
Gas exchange technology
The issue with traditional T-Flask cell culture is the limited amount of media, and thus nutrients, available to the cells. Adding too much media would result in very poor gas diffusion and cells would quickly suffer from oxygen deprivation. However, this issue is non-existent with EZ-Flask and up to 1 litre of media can be added in the flask. This is because the base of EZ-Flask is a silicone gas exchange membrane.
EZ-Flask is a compact bioreactor that works with Wilson Wolf’s gas exchange technology. It has a semi-permeable silicone gas exchange membrane at its base to permit efficient and continuous oxygenation over a long period of incubation without the need for cell passaging. The base membrane surface area is 200cm2. This allows excellent oxygenation for culturing hybridoma cell lines for monoclonal antibody production. The gas exchange interface at the base of the culture flask means that cells can grow exponentially for long periods of time without any other user intervention.
Typically, experiments in EZ-Flask will run anywhere from 15 to 30 days.
Moreover, as with any static flask device the EZ-Flask can be considered as a tool for cell culture experimentation, protocol development and for routine batch production. However, with EZ-Flask no cell passaging is required.
The EZ-Flask bioreactor has a 1L media capacity. Following inoculation, suspension cells can grow exponentially over a period of days limited only by the type and amount of media used. Thus, the EZ-Flask bioreactor provides a very convenient means to generate large numbers of cells and to produce, for example, a significant small batch quantity of high titer monoclonal antibody. With a good clone, the 1 Litre EZ-Flask bioreactor might produce around 150mg of monoclonal antibody from hybridomas. User interventions can be limited to filling, inoculation and the final harvest.
Gentle device – No shear stress and cell damage
Roller bottles, see-saw bioreactors, T-Flasks, and other cell culture devices necessarily require regular user intervention and some form of motion in order to oxygenate the culture, greatly impacting the cells through shear stress. EZ-Flask does not induce shear stress on the cells since no user intervention is required for culturing the hybridomas for monoclonal antibody production. EZ-Flask is a gentle static culture device.
Avoids weekend work
Thanks to its simple design, the EZ-Flask is very easy to use. Additionally, it leverages powerful gas exchange technology to easily produce significant amounts of protein. EZ-Flask saves incubator space and will replace from 20 to 100x T175 Flasks. No passaging work is needed and no weekend work should be required. | <urn:uuid:48493a75-512e-416c-910b-994660ee773c> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://www.kdbio.com/ezflask-bioreactor/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947473735.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20240222061937-20240222091937-00410.warc.gz | en | 0.905701 | 658 | 2.578125 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 2.4779627323150635,
"reasoning_level": 2,
"interpretation": "Moderate reasoning"
} | Science & Tech. |
It is commonly observed that the brain in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) often contains fibrils of tau protein, which build up within the brain neurons to interrupt proper communication between them. However, it is far from clear what these deposits mean and how they form.
A recent study published in the journal Science Advances in March 2020 shows that the formation of tau fibrils in AD involves a helper protein or chaperone in an atypical role.
Tau is unique among proteins in that it lacks a definite structure. Described as being "intrinsically disordered," it is capable of adopting several shapes. Researcher Malte Drescher explains, "We can imagine it like a rope: it can be sometimes elongated, sometimes bent, sometimes looped." Yet tau likes to keep a structure that shows a typical recurving, rather like a conventional paperclip.
Pathological phosphorylation (yellow) of Tau proteins (red-orange) by kinases (violet) leads to disintegration of microtubuli in an axon and to aggregation of the tau proteins. Image Credit: Juan Gaertner
The tau protein is only about a billionth part of a meter and is therefore far smaller than can be visualized by a light microscope. Its intrinsic disorder makes it very difficult to elucidate its structure using otherwise routine and extremely useful studies such as X-ray analysis of molecular structure, due to the great flexibility such an attribute bestows.
The tau protein undergoes a structural change the moment it meets a molecule called Heat Shock Protein 90. The HSP-90 is a molecular chaperone. Typically, such molecules are necessary to bring nascent proteins into their prescribed structural form.
However, the scientists began to wonder how such molecular chaperones function and what they do, with proteins such as the tau protein, which is intrinsically disordered and therefore has no 'right' structural form.
This motivated the current study, where the researchers explored the unusual role played by HSP-90 in achieving the final form of the tau fibril.
The chaperone HSP-90 opens the characteristic paper clip conformation (top) of the tau protein. The central region of the molecule is thereby exposed (bottom). Illustration: University of Konstanz
The researchers discovered, using structural analysis tools that the HSP-90 induces a particular conformational change in the tau protein. The result is the opening up of the paperclip-like structure, with the parts representing the clip's brackets bent outwards. This single change allows the interior of the middle part of the paperclip structure to become accessible to other agents.
How is this important? Researcher Sabrina Weickert explains, "This area is known to be responsible for aggregation, i.e., for attachment of further tau proteins to the molecule." The laying bare of this area allows stackable attachment of multiple tau molecules to each other in a beautiful matching arrangement, called oligomerization.
The fact that HSP-90 induces oligomerization was unexpected because molecular chaperones are mostly responsible for doing the opposite. Drescher describes the role of a chaperone in this way, "It is supposed to bring a protein into a defined form and under no circumstances contribute to the formation of a 'protein pile.'
Friend or foe?
The next question the scientists asked is whether the presence of the HSP-90 triggers the formation of the tau fibrils. This would be a strange situation, indeed, where the chaperone itself leads to the development of AD, rather than the exact reverse. While this is being reserved for a future study, the team expects that they will find the opposite is true. Drescher explains, "I would argue exactly the other way round: It could even be a trick the body does to prevent Alzheimer's."
The basis of his belief is the curious fact that the oligomers of tau formed in association with HSP-90 are characterized by one crucial aspect. In essence, they do not continue to oligomerize to form the typical Alzheimer fibrils. As a result, argues Drescher, "The oligomerization by HSP-90 might be a defense mechanism in which the chaperone forces the tau proteins into the form of small oligomer layers."
While such oligomers are not beneficial to the neuron, they do, at least, forestall the formation of the more prolonged and more unmanageable tau fibrils that are typical of AD. This function is in keeping with the forecasted function of a molecular chaperone. It keeps tau from forming the unwanted and toxic Alzheimer's fibrils by acting pre-emptively to usher the protein into a relatively more benign stack of oligomerized tau.
To bypass the difficulties of structural determination using X-ray analysis, the investigators exploited the power of spin labeling. This very advanced technique, called electron paramagnetic resonance, is built around the use of tiny molecules called spin labels, which attach to essential positions of the tau protein, such as the outer brackets of the paperclip arrangement. These minute molecules are functioning as probes, reporting back on the distance between themselves due to their magnetic nature.
By measuring how far apart the probes are at any time, based on their magnetic interaction, the scientists were able to come up with a list of measurements that are used to generate a profile of the molecule's conformation and the changes its structure undergoes.
The experiments were carried out in laboratory test-tubes using purified tau and HSP-90 molecules. The next step, says, Drescher, will be to repeat the measurements within living cells. The aim is "to observe the biochemical mechanism under the real-world conditions inside a cell." The team expects to make significant strides in understanding the world of AD from the inside out, and then to evolve methods to prevent this disorder.
The mechanism of Hsp90-induced oligomerizaton of Tau, S. Weickert, M. Wawrzyniuk3,L. H. John, S. G. D. Rüdigerand M. Drescher, Science Advances 13 Mar 2020: Vol. 6, no. 11, eaax6999, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aax6999, https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/11/eaax6999 | <urn:uuid:c30e569d-73b6-4244-862c-60645d35e3c5> | CC-MAIN-2020-40 | https://www.news-medical.net/news/20200315/Alzheimers-and-its-helper-protein.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-40/segments/1600400279782.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20200927121105-20200927151105-00196.warc.gz | en | 0.933113 | 1,336 | 3.28125 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 2.981734037399292,
"reasoning_level": 3,
"interpretation": "Strong reasoning"
} | Science & Tech. |
centuries, Europeans have not found a satisfactory control method for zebra
mussels. In the Great Lakes, no technique has been developed that is both
feasible for widespread use and not harmful to other aquatic species. Lake-
or river-wide control of zebra mussels is simply not possible at this time.
|A number of
methods have been tried, however. Proactive treatments include the following:
Corps of Engineers has evaluated a variety of coatings, include some
containing copper or zinc products, which are toxic to zebra mussels;
silicone-based systems that provide a low-tension, nonadherent surface; and
thermal sprayed metallic coatings.
Chemical treatment involves use of oxidizing chemicals, nonoxidizing
chemicals and molluscides. When used, chlorination involves injecting
chlorine through a facility and then dechlorination before the water is
returned to the waterbody. The EPA requires that the discharge be analyzed
and monitored to demonstrate that the system works properly and meets EPA
Temperatures above 95-100°F for several hours are lethal to zebra mussels, so
its possible to prevent zebra mussels from colonizing structures by
injecting steam or hot water and circulating them through a facility
line filters with extremely small mesh sizes can be used to filter the
troublesome veligers, but backwashing can be a problem at high flow rates.
treatments include a few other possibilities:
high-pressure water Mechanical cutting devices and high-pressure water
treatments typically involve manual labor and hand tools. These can be used
to dislodge zebra mussels from large surface areas, such as those found in
blasting Blasting can also be an effective mechanical means of removing
Freezing during the winter or desiccation at high summer temperatures can
be effective in killing a large portion of the zebra mussel population. Where
feasible, the population can be exposed by lowering water levels, since the
mussels are usually restricted to shallow areas above the thermocline.
|Radiation -- UV
light (wavelengths between 40° and 4,000°) is a prospective zebra mussel
control method. Researchers found that not only are zebra mussel veligers
sensitive to UV-B radiation (2800° - 3200°), but also adult zebra mussels
were sensitive, provided that the radiation was applied constantly. Veliger
mortality was 42-percent after 1 hr, 85-percent after 2 hr, and 100-percent
after 4 hr exposure to UV-B radiation. | <urn:uuid:ed5cb4f2-ab46-4a4f-b477-3d82fdac2e01> | CC-MAIN-2016-40 | https://www.fws.gov/columbiariver/mwg/musselwsppt/Kightlinger_files/slide0102.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-40/segments/1474738659512.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20160924173739-00047-ip-10-143-35-109.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917318 | 555 | 3.390625 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 2.7932369709014893,
"reasoning_level": 3,
"interpretation": "Strong reasoning"
} | Science & Tech. |
The differences between 2G, 3G and 4G and what to expect with 5G
As with everything, mobile telecommunications standards have generations in the form of ‘G’. While 3G and 4G are current standards 5G is looming just around the corner. This blog hopes to answer your questions regarding the differences between the mobile generations. The chart below outlines the offerings for each generation.
|Basic voice service||Designed for voice||Designed for voice
with text and internet
|Analog-based protocols||Improved coverage||First mobile broadband||IP-based protocols|
|First digital standards
|True mobile broadband|
Another key differentiator between the mobile generations is the ever-increasing need for speed as illustrated in the chart below. To learn more go to: http://www.phonearena.com/news/1G-2G-3G-4G-The-evolution-of-wireless-generations_id46952
1G: 2.4 kbps
2G: 64 kbps
3G: 2,000 kbps
4G: 100,000 kbps
CDMA and GSM are the two cellular standards in place. They function in different regions and allow for global communication between people but they convert incoming and outgoing data into radio waves differently. Neither standard should be a huge factor in buying a cell phone, but CDMA is notorious for keeping you locked into your carrier.
CDMA vs. GSM the Wireless Signal Carriers for 3G and 4G
CDMA networks allow for a greater number of users due to its wider reach to more phones with fewer mobile towers. This is important in rural areas where there are less mobile towers.
On the other hand, GSM phones can be transferred to other networks. Since GSM phones don’t require access to a specific carrier’s bands they work in other countries with GSM networks.
5G is Coming. Will you be ready?
While 5G networks aren’t expected to roll out until at least 2020, the hype is already here. At the Mobile World Congress tech show there were promises of 5G powered drones, 5G toy racing cars, as well as the proliferation of devices that will require a mobile internet connection such as:
Gartner predicts that 20.8 billion devices will be connected to the Internet by 2020 (http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3165317).
One thing is for certain, in the future with billions of devices connected, blazing fast Internet will be a necessity – welcome 5G. | <urn:uuid:d1223623-31aa-4ddb-b54e-7513c2c21f7d> | CC-MAIN-2018-51 | https://blog.surecall.com/mobile-generations-understanding-what-powers-your-cellular-signal/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-51/segments/1544376829568.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20181218184418-20181218210418-00527.warc.gz | en | 0.913868 | 539 | 2.53125 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 2.3211936950683594,
"reasoning_level": 2,
"interpretation": "Moderate reasoning"
} | Science & Tech. |
Get the facts about Alzheimer’s Disease, including the symptoms and stages.
- Type 2 Diabetes Basic facts about type 2 diabetes & risk factors to be aware of.
- Alzheimer's Disease Facts about Alzheimer’s Disease, including the symptoms and stages.
- Asthma More than 22 million Americans suffer from asthma. Get the facts.
- Autism Spectrum Disorder Get the facts about Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
- Childhood Asthma Childhood asthma facts, including causes, symptoms & complications.
- Chronic Pain Facts about chronic pain, including body parts most commonly affected.
- Clinical Depression Clinical depression facts; symptoms & other depressive disorders.
- Depression Facts about depression, including the symptoms of the condition.
- Diabetic Neuropathy Facts about diabetic neuropathy, including the symptoms and doctors.
- Epilepsy Facts about epilepsy, including different types, symptoms and causes.
- View All Care Guides Prepare for your next visit with our extensive library of Care Guides
About Dr. Harley Kornblum
Dr. Harley Kornblum, MD, PHD is a Doctor primarily located in Los Angeles, CA. He has 27 years of experience. His specialties include Pediatrics and Child Neurology. Dr. Kornblum is affiliated with Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica - UCLA Medical Center and Mattel Chldns Hosp. At Ucla. He speaks English.
Dr. Harley Kornblum has the following 2 specialties
A pediatrician is a doctor who specializes in the regular care of children, as well as the diagnosis and treatment of illness in children. Young patients are often more complicated to treat because they are still growing and developing.
While pediatricians may sub-specialize in specific therapy areas like oncology, surgery, ophthalmology, and anesthesiology, in general, pediatricians provide services like vaccinations, health exams, and treatment of common ailments and injuries. In addition, pediatricians are trained to handle the complex emotional and behavioral issues faced by children, especially during puberty.
Pediatricians normally see their patients from birth until the age of 18, although some may agree to treat patients into their early 20s, if requested.
- Child Neurology
Pediatric neurologists diagnose neurological conditions in children as young as newborn, all the way up to adolescence. They can recommend treatment for sleep disorders, head injuries and headaches, but they also specialize in issues such as epilepsy, seizures and brain tumors.
Their expertise in childhood development and the nervous system make them an excellent resource for parents of children with autism, cerebral palsy, mental development issues or learning disabilities. You can consult with a pediatric neurologist before, during and after diagnosis depending on your child's specific condition and needs.
- Brain Cancer
- Pediatric Diabetes
- Seizure Disorders
- Temporal Lobe Epilepsy
Showing 2 of 2
Dr. Kornblum is affiliated (can practice and admit patients) with the following hospital(s).
Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center
Santa Monica - UCLA Medical Center
Mattel Chldns Hosp. At Ucla
27 Years Experience
University Of California Irvine School Of Medicine
Graduated in 1989
Ucla Medical Center
Dr. Harley Kornblum accepts the following insurance providers.
- View by Location
Locations & DirectionsRonald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, 757 Westwood Plz, Los Angeles, CA
Take a minute to learn about Dr. Harley Kornblum in this video.
Dr. Harley Kornblum is similar to the following 3 Doctors near Los Angeles, CA. | <urn:uuid:00b6c5bc-966a-4b97-bdfd-3c10234b9678> | CC-MAIN-2018-05 | https://www.vitals.com/doctors/Dr_Harley_Kornblum.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-05/segments/1516084890947.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20180122014544-20180122034544-00167.warc.gz | en | 0.900991 | 746 | 2.5625 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 1.4729886054992676,
"reasoning_level": 1,
"interpretation": "Basic reasoning"
} | Health |
Annually voted the most scenic football structure in the nation. Nestled high above Union Bay in Lake Washington it has several characteristics that make it unique among other stadiums.
A seating capacity of 72,500 allows Husky Stadium to rank as the nation’s 15th
largest on-campus facility. It is the largest stadium, college or professional
in the Pacific Northwest.
With nearly 70 percent of the seats located between the endzones, Husky Stadium can be one of
the loudest stadiums in the nation.
The north upper deck offers sweeping views of Mt. Ranier, the Olympic Mountain Range and downtown
Built in 1920at a
cost of $600,000, the stadium’s initial capacity was listed at 30,000. The
stadium was opened in the dedication game, November 27, 1920, when Dartmouth
defeated Washington, 28-7. A student fund drive, in which students and
businessmen sold plaques at $50 and $100 levels, provided the capital necessary
to get the project off the ground.
Two members of the
stadium committee were dispatched east to study an existing report on stadiums.
Their determination called for a seating capacity of 60,000 and be constructed
in two units. One of the key factors in the layout of the stadium was “the
establishment of the longitudinal axis.” The goal was to “avoid as far as
possible the glare of the sun in the stadium for the benefit of the players.”
To accomplish this
goal, the astronomical department figured the angle of the rays of the sun at 4
p.m., November 24, 1920. Based on those measurements, the axis of the stadium
was approximately set at right angles to the rays, which established the axis at
71 degrees 50 minutes west of north. The final components in figuring the
stadium locations were figuring the best views of the lake and mountains from
the interior and working with the existing confines of the land.
Puget Sound Bridge
and Dredging Company was contracted to build the structure. The original
contract to begin construction was signed May 7, 1920 and called for work to be
complete by November 27 for the Dartmouth game-a timetable of six months and 20
days. A unique method of excavation known as sluicing--in which earth is
displaced by high-pressured water-was used to clear the area. In all, 230,000
cubic yards of earth was moved using 587,000,000 gallons of water. The original
crown on the playing field reached a height of 18 inches.
Plans for the stadium
called for a four-lane track (including 220-yard straightaway) and the
structural drawings called for stands that would allow patrons to “view the
entire running track without rising or having his view obstructed by the person
sitting adjacent to him.” The study resulted in an elliptical form being
A “sunken passage” was built to separate the fans from the field which also providing drainage for the field and facility. Drainage was a major concern of construction since it
was calculated that one inch of rainfall on the structural portion of the
stadium would accumulate 36,000 gallons of water.
The aisles and seating patterns were planned so that the original capacity crowd of 30,000 could exit the stadium in seven minutes.
The stadium was
completed on time despite 46 days of rain during the construction period. Final
work was finished 12 hours before kickoff of the inaugural game.
experienced further growth in 1936 when 10,000 above-grade seats were added
around the rim of the structure, upping the capacity to 40,000.
In 1950, Husky
Stadium was again expanded when roof-covered stands were added to the south
side. Approximately 15,000 additional seats, at a cost of $1.7 million, offered
excellent viewing between the goal posts.
A steel roof
partially covered all seats in the upper deck and approximately 6,000 seats in
the lower stands. In the rear of the structure, two silo-shaped ramps provided
access to the upper deck concourses.
The two-level press
box and camera deck areas were also installed as part of the 1950 project. The
view available for approximately 75 members of the press is 185 feet above the
stadium floor. The south side elevator was also part of the 1950 construction
jumped from 55,000 to more than 59,000 in 1968 when 3,000 seats were added to
the north rim and portable bleachers were installed beyond the east endzone.
AstroTurf replaced the old grass field in 1968, the same year and all-weather
track was installed around the football playing field. Washington was the first
major college to install an AstroTurf field. At the time, the Houston Astrodome
was the only other facility to use the playing surface. Because of the lack of
similar fields, the huskies stocked over 200 pairs of shoes for opponents to use
during games. The original artificial turf was replaced in 1972, 1977, 1987 and,
most recently, in the summer of 1995.
In 1987, Husky
Stadium expanded once again, adding 13,000 new seats. The $13 million project,
performed by Lydig Construction of Spokane, brought the capacity to 72,500. The
hallmark facet of the construction was a glass-enclosed reception area with a
field view from goal line to goal line. Besides serving as an entertainment
center on game days, the Don James Center has the capabilities to host major
banquets or social events.
During the summer of
1990, the wooden bleachers in the north upper deck were replaced with new
aluminum seating. The same process was repeated for the south upper deck in the
summer of 1992.
The north deck seats are accessible by ramp or elevator. Husky Stadium possesses 49,580 sideline seats, or 68 percent of total capacity.
In 1989, all major construction in Husky Stadium was concluded with the replacement of the west stands. The $3.7 million facelift gives Husky fans better seating, more concession stands and restrooms, a new first aid room, police security area and photo deck.
In preparation for
the 1990 Goodwill Games, Husky Stadium became the beneficiary of a brand new
eight-lane synthetic surface track in the summer of ’89. The $1.5 million gift
from the Seattle Organizing Committee provides athletes with a world-class
facility. Husky Stadium hosted the track and field competition and the opening
and closing ceremonies of the 1990 Goodwill Games.
It's not just that the Huskies have had good teams. The stadium itself is a factor. With the always-packed stands so close to the field, the voices of visiting quarterbacks can vanish in the din.
"We do enjoy the benefit of 72,000 fans in the sold-out stadium," said former Washington coach Jim Lambright. "You appreciate the noise and loyalty of your fans. It makes it fun for a coach and provides an emotional lift for the players."
From I-5 Going North or South:
1. Follow the signs to Seattle
2. Take Hwy 520 exit toward Bellevue-Kirkland.
3. Travel 1/4 mile and take the Montlake Boulevard exit.
4. At the end of the off ramp there is a stop light at Montlake Boulevard. Turn left.
5. Travel across the Montlake bridge. You will see Husky Stadium on the right.
6. To access the E-10 or E-11 parking lots, turn right into the main stadium lot.
7. To access the C-21 parking lot (underground garage), turn left onto Pacific and make your first right. The garage is on your left.
8. To access the N-24 parking lot, continue on Montlake past Husky Stadium. Go 1/2 mile to the visitor's entrance on your left. Follow the directional sign.
From Highway 405 Going North or South:
1. From Hwy 405 take the Freeway 520 exit toward Seattle. This leads you onto the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge heading West.
2. Once across the bridge, take the Montlake Boulevard Exit. Turn Right.
3. Travel across the Montlake bridge. You will see Husky Stadium on the right.
4. To access the E-10 or E-11 parking lots, turn right into the main stadium lot.
5. To access the C-21 parking lot (underground garage), turn left onto Pacific and make your first right. The garage is on your left.
6. To access the N-24 parking lot, continue on Montlake past Husky Stadium. Go 1/2 mile to the visitor's entrance on your left. Follow the directional sign.
Parking and Transportation
Gates for all lots open at 7:00 A.M.
Parking is on a first come, first serve basis. Parking in nearby neighborhoods is prohibited. UW faculty and staff with parking permits park free on campus. A stack (bumper to bumper) method of parking is used in the stadium area. There is plenty of regular parking in the West and North campus parking lots.
Motor homes may park in Montlake lot E-1.
General Football Parking Information - (206) 685-1543
Football Disability Permit Parking - (206) 685-7167
Tyee Permit Parking - (206) 543-2234
For information about game-day commuting, contact the UW Transportation Office: (206) 685-1565, 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. weekdays or visit their Web site at www.washington.edu/upass/
The UW offers all ticket holders free bus rides to and from the games when they present their game ticket. Simply show your game ticket to ride on regular Metro service, Metro Husky Football Park and Ride service and Metro Husky Special Football Bus Service. If you don't have your game ticket and plan to take a regular Metro bus or a Metro Husky Special Football bus, you will be required to pay each way.
On the return trip, passengers on regular Metro service or Metro Husky Special Football bus service show their game ticket stub. Metro Husky Football Park & Ride passengers do not have to show their game ticket stub-just board the bus and you're on your way!
Metro Husky Park and Ride Locations
Park your car for free and ride Metro buses directly to Husky Stadium from one of eight Park & Ride lots. (If you don't have your game ticket when boarding, be prepared to pay the two-way fare). Buses will begin boarding at Park & Ride lots two hours prior to kickoff, and will leave every 20 minutes or when they are full. Call 206/543-TIME to verify kickoff time.
The last bus will leave the lot about 45 minutes before kickoff and arrive at the stadium about five minutes before game time. (Exception: Last buses from the South Renton and Federal Way Park & Ride will leave 60 minutes prior to kickoff.)
* Shoreline Park & Ride-Aurora Ave. N/N. 192nd St. Located south of Aurora Village on Aurora Ave N (SR-99) at N. 192nd St.
* Kenmore Park & Ride-NE Bothell Way/73rd Ave. NE. Located on the north side of NE Bothell Way at 73rd Ave. NE in Kenmore.
* Northgate Park & Ride-5th Ave. NE/NE 112th St. Located one block north of Northgate Mall on 5th Ave. NE and NE 112th St.
* Houghton Park & Ride-116th Ave. NE/NE 70th St. Located east of I-405 (exit #17) on 116th Ave NE, south of NE 70th St.
* South Kirkland Park & Ride108th Ave. NE/NE 38th Place. Located north of SR-520. Take the SR-908/Kirkland exit.
* Eastgate Park & Ride-SE Eastgate Way/136th Ave. SE. Located north of I-90 on SE Eastgate Way between the I-405 and 148th Ave. SE interchanges.
* South Renton Park & Ride-S. Grady Way/Shattuck Ave S. Located east of SR-167 off of S. Grady Way and S. 7th St.
* Federal Way Park & Ride-S 320th St./I-5. Located west of I-% on S. 32oth St. Take exit #143 off I-5 to S. 320th.
Please walk to the following bus stop locations to board special "Husky Stadium" buses:
Northbound-1st Ave & Marion St.
Eastbound-4th Ave & Pike St.
Busses will leave these locations one hour and 10 minutes before kickoff. The last Husky Stadium bus will leave about 30 minutes before kickoff.
October 16, 2008
UW votes to advance stadium work
Not fully funded; money to be spent
By AMY ROLPH
The nation's slumping economy and the state's budget woes won't stop the University of Washington from pressing forward with plans to overhaul crumbling and badly outdated Husky Stadium.
University regents voted Thursday to authorize negotiations with a contractor for the stadium, moving a giant and potentially expensive step toward the project's design phase. But regents acknowledged that it could be a risky move for the university, since funding for half of the project has yet to be obtained.
The UW wants to finance half of the $300 million project through private funding and the rest through public tourist tax revenue -- the same revenue that funded Qwest and Safeco fields. But the Legislature shut the tourism-tax idea down earlier this year, and it's not yet clear if lawmakers will be more receptive to the proposal in 2009 when they'll be staring at a projected $3.2 billion spending shortfall.
UW President Mark Emmert acknowledged the university risks a false start by plowing ahead with the pre-development phase of the project, for which the university has budgeted $3 million from the athletic department's funds.
"We're getting the cart ahead of the horse in that one sense," Emmert told regents Thursday.
"The funding is not fully in place for this," he said. "We're moving this process along so as not to lose time."
The university's plan is to start construction on the project at the end of next year. In order to keep on track, a development contract would be awarded in June.
Regent Sally Jewel pointed out that current economic conditions -- including the failing stock market and the state's projected multibillion-dollar deficit -- might make lawmakers unreceptive to extending the tax measure that would partially fund the project.
But newly appointed Athletic Director Scott Woodward said he is meeting regularly with legislators and other elected officials and feels good about his chances with the Legislature this year.
"It is a tough sell, but the Legislature is pretty liberal, and I'm preaching Keynesian economics now," Woodward said, referring to the theory that the state can stimulate economic growth by means of -- among a long list of other things -- government spending.
Woodward said Husky football draws thousands of visitors to the area, a boon for the local economy. And he thinks the project could mean 750 stable, construction-related jobs.
And Emmert argued that a time of economic downturn could mean a slump in other construction projects, meaning the cost could actually be lower for the university.
The UW plans to negotiate a contract with Hines, the international real estate firm that designed Petco Park in San Diego and the Toyota Center in Houston. If negotiations aren't successful, they will move to talks with the Seattle-based firm Nitze-Stagen.
Husky Stadium was built in 1920 and is one of the oldest college football facilities in the country.
Certain sections show obvious signs of decay and wear, such as cracks in the concrete and exposed wires.
WASHINGTON SEEKS STADIUM FUNDS AT RISK
January 15, 2009
Copyright 2009 MediaVentures
Seattle, Wash. - The University of Washington is trying to reallocate King County tourism taxes
to help pay for a proposed $300 million renovation of Husky Stadium.
For the second year in a row, the University of Washington will ask Olympia to repurpose
existing King County tourism taxes to pay for half of its proposed $300 million renovation of Husky Stadium. But, saddled with concerns over a $5.7 billion deficit, state lawmakers once again appear unlikely to put publicly-funded sports stadiums high on their agendas.
Rep. Ross Hunter, who co-chairs a joint task force commissioned to give the Legislature a
recommendation on the proposal and others like it in King County, said the renovation is not his
"It's very difficult right now because the national economy has gone to hell in a hand basket,"
Hunter explained that cutting 13 percent from the UW's academic program while at the same
time allotting $150 million for a new football stadium isn't very realistic.
The UW wants access to revenue from taxes already levied on King County hotels, motels, car
rental facilities and restaurants to pay for the other half, which would cover safety and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) issues. The taxes are currently used to pay off the Kingdome, Qwest Field and Safeco Field.
Most agree that the stadium is dilapidated and needs some kind of refurbishment. Its
crumbling lower bowl dates back to 1920, and the stadium itself needs work to meet seismic codes
and the conditions of ADA.
The UW is hoping to break ground sometime this year in order to keep pace with Sound
Transit, which will begin construction on an underground station very near Husky Stadium shortly.
(The Daily of the University of Washington)
WASHINGTON GOVERNOR NOT HOPEFUL ABOUT STADIUM FUNDING
March 12, 2009
Copyright 2009 MediaVentures
Seattle, Wash. - Gov. Chris Gregoire said Husky fans shouldn't keep their hopes up for an
immediate fix to Husky Stadium, but Husky Athletic Director Scott Woodward believes he has a
50-50 shot, thanks in part to a senate bill filed by Ed Murray. If passed in current form it could allow King County to use existing taxes on mega projects like the stadium, or Seattle's KeyArena.
"We are hoping the Legislature gives King County Council the opportunity to pick these
projects to do what we want," Woodward said. "It is a tough time. What a better time to have 7,000 jobs."
But Gregoire says Husky fans may want to temper their enthusiasm for the stadium plan.
"I can't imagine this is the time to ask the people to invest in that, though it means jobs," she
Gregoire says the state's $8 billion deficit hurts any entity - like UW - looking for major money.
"We are in one of the worst economic times in the history of the state, so I don't know this
legislative session is going be the answer to what Husky Stadium wants," she said.
State Sen. Ed Murray, who co-sponsored the bill, says Senate Bill 6116 would also help the arts
community and with low income housing in King County if approved in its current form.
It now goes before the Senate Ways and Means Committee, chaired by Margarita Prentice of
Renton, who already declared a Husky Stadium or KeyArena bill close to dead on arrival if it got to Olympia. (KING)
WASHINGTON LEGISLATURE GETS BILL FOR STADIUM UPGRADE
January 21, 2010
Copyright 2010 MediaVentures
Olympia, Wash. - A bill has been filed in the Washington House of Representatives that would
help fund upgrades to Husky Stadium at the University of Washington, but most believe that the bill has little chance of approval in the current economic climate.
The bill would allow King County to extend the same tourism tax that was used to fund Safeco Field and Qwest Field for other projects, such as a renovation of Husky Stadium. If the bill is approved, UW will then make a proposal to the county for a specific amount of funding.
"We just want them to have the authority to kick it to King County and then have the county make the decision, same approach as last year," said UW athletic director Scott Woodward. The price of renovating Husky Stadium has previously been set at $300 million and the Huskies had been seeking to get half of that from the Legislature/County. Woodward said that it's likely the price tag will come down by the time it would make a proposal to the County if this bill gets passed.
"Once we go to the County, if it gets to the County, then we will hopefully have value engineered the thing and gotten the costs savings down to where it's not $300 million but be $250 million or less," he said. "We haven't priced it specifically yet."
Woodward said the project is ready to go once the school gets funding and he's optimistic that if this bill is passed, that the County could then approve projects in time for UW to start its renovation after the 2010 season. If that happens, UW will play in Qwest Field in 2011.
Should this effort fail, Woodward said the Huskies will embark on a "Plan B," though he's not ready yet to say specifically what that will entail. It's no secret, however, that a major part of either effort will be hitting up large donors for money - either to complete the funding if public money comes, or kick start the effort if the public money doesn't come. And that effort has been ongoing for some time.
February 18, 2010
Copyright 2010 MediaVentures
The University of Washington was excluded from legislation that could help fund upgrades to Husky Stadium. The bill, which allocates money from various tourist taxes, says the money can't be used to fund the stadium work. The legislation is now headed to the Senate.
March 11, 2010
Copyright 2010 MediaVentures
A bill in the Washington legislature that could have provided funding for an expansion of Husky Stadium at the University of Washington is dead. It's the sixth year in a row that a bill to use funds that have gone for other venues has been put aside. The money is in its final years of retiring bonds needed for Safeco Field and Qwest Field. Once the bonds are paid, the $50 million in annual revenue will be available for other uses.
WASHINGTON MAY FUND STADIUM PROJECT ON ITS OWN
May 20, 2010
Copyright 2010 MediaVentures
Seattle, Wash. - The University of Washington athletic department may try to undertake a $300
million renovation of Husky Stadium without legislative support.
The new plan is likely to be significantly cheaper - closer to $200 million. That's because the UW may delay constructing a new building for locker rooms and weight-training facilities.
It will also save money because bond rates and construction costs are lower due to the economic downturn, said former Gov. Dan Evans, who chairs the Husky Stadium advisory committee.
"We want it to be as cheap as possible," said UW athletic director Scott Woodward. "We are going to be as creative as we can to make that happen."
Under the new plan, the UW would also have to generate more money. That likely means more premium seating and all sorts of other entrepreneurial ideas - everything from new vendors to the possibility of selling naming rights.
Evans said he doesn't much like the idea of a new corporate name, but he has to be open to the possibility.
"There's strong opinions about whether or not you put somebody's name on the field, but that may be part of the whole package," said UW President Mark Emmert at a meeting of the Board of Regents.
The UW is giving developers just six weeks - until July 1 - to come back with their ideas. That's because ideally the university wants to start construction immediately after the 2010 season and complete the renovations in time for the 2012 season. The plan is to have the team play at Qwest Field in 2011.
"This time we aren't just asking for the lowest bid," Evans said. "We may end up taking one that's higher priced but has more revenue-raising possibilities."
Evans said the basic elements of the remodel remain: replacing the lower seating bowl, removing and relocating the athletic track to allow seating closer to the playing field, lowering the field about seven feet, and renovating the stands.
The request for proposals the UW will send out will still include a new football operations building, Evans said, although that part of the project may be pushed back.
Evans said the UW hopes to raise about $50 million in gifts to help pay for the project - a number of donors have already been "softened up" he said - and would issue bonds to cover the rest of the cost. The new facility would have to generate enough income to pay back the bonds.
The downside for many fans is that more premium seating likely will mean less seating at regular prices.
Husky Stadium has a capacity of 72,500, making it the largest stadium in the Pacific Northwest.
Built in 1920, the stadium has been expanded several times over the years. But lately it has been in need of a seismic and cosmetic upgrades. In recent years, pieces of the stadium have crumbled, including a section of steps that collapsed and fell about six feet.
WASHINGTON PICKS TEAM FOR STADIUM WORK
August 12, 2010
Copyright 2010 MediaVentures
Seattle, Wash. - The University of Washington announced it has selected Wright Runstad &
Company of Seattle as the developer for the renovation of Husky Stadium, with a projected cost of $250 million, according to the Seattle Times.
Construction is tentatively scheduled to begin after the 2011 season, the school said.
Wright Runstad & Company of Seattle was chosen over two other companies that had also bid. The school said the company's bid was nearly $30 million less than the No. 2 proposal.
The school announced that the selection, made by the Husky Stadium Advisory Committee, will go before UW president Mark Emmert for final approval before the university begins the process of ratifying an official predevelopment agreement with the development team.
If all goes as planned, Washington would finish the 2011 season at Husky Stadium, play at Qwest Field in 2012 and return to a renovated Husky Stadium in 2013, it was reported.
Washington has been attempting to renovate Husky Stadium, originally built in 1920, for more than a decade. It has not had any significant work done since a North upper deck added 13,000 seats in 1987.
A news release said plans include the complete demolition and reconstruction of the lower bowl and south upper stands. The track will be removed, and the field lowered four feet to bring seating closer to the playing surface and improve sightlines.
The statement also said a state-of-the-art football-operations facility - including team meeting rooms, recruiting facilities and coaches offices - will be incorporated into the west end of the stadium. Premium seating opportunities, including 25 luxury suites, 25 loge boxes and more than 2,500 club seats, will be built into the facility. Overall seating capacity is expected to remain similar to the current capacity of 72,500.
"After careful analysis and evaluation of all the submissions, the RFP Selection Committee has unanimously decided that Wright Runstad's proposal provides the best overall value for the project," UW athletic director Scott Woodward said in a statement.
The release said that the committee's decision was based on several factors, including project cost, potential for future revenue and the experience of the development team. Cost was the biggest factor.
The school said that the development team features Wright Runstad & Company as the lead developer, 360 Architecture for design, Turner Construction Company for building and MKA for structural and civil needs. MKA worked on Qwest Field, among several other local projects.
October 7, 2010
Copyright 2010 MediaVentures
The University of Washington announced it will play the 2012 football season at Qwest Field in Seattle while Husky Stadium is renovated.
REGENTS APPROVE HUSKY STADIUM PLAN
December 2, 2010
Copyright 2010 MediaVentures
Seattle, Wash. - The University of Washington Board of Regents cleared the way for a $250
million renovation of Husky Stadium, voting to approve a plan that would pay for the work with private donations and increases in ticket prices, the Seattle Times reported.
Although the money is being privately raised, the project will draw on a $210 million loan from the school's internal lending program, which also is used to finance other building projects on campus, the Times said.
Athletic department officials described the stadium renovation as a conservative plan that would still work even if the university couldn't raise any more than the $14.5 million in private donations that has already been pledged.
Students, meanwhile, say they're disappointed that the planned renovation moves them out of their premium seats at the 50-yard line and into the west end zone.
Stadium construction is scheduled to begin Nov. 7, 2011, with the Huskies playing the 2011 Apple Cup and all 2012 games in Qwest Field downtown before returning to Husky Stadium in 2013. Earlier this year, the development contract was awarded to Wright Runstad of Seattle.
The stadium will have 25 luxury suites, 25 loge boxes and more than 2,500 club seats, which Athletic Director Scott Woodward called "key to the project."
No prices have been announced yet, but the UW says it will charge significantly more for the premium seats, which will amount to about 5 percent of the total seating of about 72,000. The total number of seats will be similar to the overall capacity of the current stadium.
The Times said the university is hoping to raise $50 million in private money over the next five years, but much of the money to repay the loan over the next 30 years would come from higher ticket prices, especially from the sale of premium seats.
The athletic department will also try to raise money by selling naming rights for various parts of the stadium - $50 million to name the field, for example, or $500,000 to $1 million for each of the four plaza areas.
There are no plans to sell the name of the stadium itself - it will always be Husky Stadium, Woodward said.
WASHINGTON RENOVATION WILL ADD PREMIUM SEATS
February 24, 2011
Copyright 2011 MediaVentures
Seattle, Wash. - The renovation of Husky Stadium will result in many new premium seating
options, the revenue from which will be needed to pay for the $250 million project, according to the Seattle Times.
Options include approximately 25 luxury suites, 25 loge boxes and 2,500 premium covered seats on the south side of the stadium. Premium seats likely will come with a season price of about $3,000, and holders of those tickets may be allowed to purchase alcohol for the first time in Husky Stadium.
These options will allow the university to nearly double the amount of revenue it receives from ticket sales Š from $23 million in 2010 to a projected $41 million in 2013.
Athletic-department officials say they have not settled on prices for the 2013 season. They do not plan to announce pricing for those tickets, and for the games that will be played in Qwest Field in 2012, until this fall.
But planning documents suggest premium seats initially could go for between $2,000 and $3,000 per seat, a price that includes both a Tyee Club donation and the cost of a season ticket. Tyee Club members could pay $1,000 or more Š including both a donation and the cost of a ticket Š for seats near the 50-yard line. Regular-season ticket prices could increase approximately $20 per game.
About 6 percent of the new stadium's seating will be made up of premium seats, a percentage that's lower than the 10 percent figure at most other schools, Jennifer Cohen the school's senior associate athletic director for development, told the Times. But those premium seats will account for $6 million annually in new revenue Š in effect, paying for a significant chunk of the $15 million the school must raise each year to pay off the stadium bonds that will be sold to finance the project.
Still, the average ticket price in 2013 would be lower than at most Pacific-10 Conference schools, UW officials estimate.
A suite, which would seat as many as 25 people, would be the most expensive option, costing
between $35,000 and $75,000 per year and requiring a five- to 10-year commitment.
$50 MILLION BUYS NAMING RIGHTS AT HUSKY STADIUM
June 30, 2011
Copyright 2011 MediaVentures
Seattle, Wash. - The University of Washington has priced naming rights for the field at Husky
Stadium at $50 million, according to the Seattle Times.
For $50 million, an individual, family or foundation would have its name on the field at Husky Stadium "in perpetuity," the school says.
If no one bites, the school will turn to corporations for possible shorter-term naming-rights deals for the field at a price to be determined. The school says it will not sell the name of the stadium itself.
Jennifer Cohen, UW's senior associate athletic director for development, told the Times the price of the naming opportunity for the field, the stadium's central feature, was in line with a university policy that applies to libraries or any other building on campus Š roughly 50 percent of the cost of the structure. Putting names of donors on buildings is a common means for universities to fund capital projects, in athletics or otherwise.
The school is also offering naming opportunities for many other aspects of the renovation, such as the Football Operations Building, which is the next priciest at $10 million.
Cohen said the school has raised about $10 million in various naming opportunities. That includes $2 million from former Huskies lineman Joe Ryan, a Wenatchee native who lettered in 1962-63, for the field tunnel, and about 30 stadium-tunnel entrances at $100,000 each.
WASHINGTON LAUNCHES STADIUM CAMPAIGN
August 11, 2011
Copyright 2011 MediaVentures
Seattle, Wash. - While the construction won't begin until the first week in November, the
Olympian said the University of Washington is already thinking about the new Husky Stadium it plans to open before the 2013 season.
The school announced its "Drive for Husky Stadium" campaign complete with the launching of a new website, www.huskystadium.com.
The new stadium will still seat about 70,000 fans with 21,000 premium seats for donors.
The rebuilt stadium will have luxury suites - 25 of them renting for $60,000 per year. There will also be 30 outdoor patio suites along with Club Husky - a 2,500-person club with a lounge area with upgraded concessions and two bars.
The track around the field will be removed, bringing fans closer to the field. The first row at the 50-yard line will be 44 feet from the sideline. The distance currently is 72 feet because of the track. | <urn:uuid:cce3d85e-2c4f-4fa4-8108-691c493c3bc7> | CC-MAIN-2017-09 | http://football.ballparks.com/NCAA/Washington/index.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-09/segments/1487501172447.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20170219104612-00330-ip-10-171-10-108.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955599 | 7,442 | 2.703125 | 3 | {
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- Young adults who said they frequently binge drink were more likely to have certain risk factors for cardiovascular disease than non-binge drinkers.
- Young men who reported that they repeatedly binge drink had higher systolic blood pressure and total cholesterol while young women who repeatedly binge drink had higher blood sugar levels compared to non-binge drinkers.
Embargoed until 4 a.m. CT / 5 a.m. ET Wednesday, June 27, 2018
(NewMediaWire) - June 27, 2018 - DALLAS - Young adults who frequently binge drink were more likely to have certain risk factors for cardiovascular disease than non-binge drinkers, according to new research in Journal of the American Heart Association, the Open Access Journal of the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association.
“Compared to previous generations, the pervasiveness, intensity (number of drinks) and regularity (several times per week) of binge drinking may place today’s young adult at greater risk for more profound rates of alcohol-attributable harm,” said Mariann Piano, Ph.D., R.N., study lead author and Nancy and Hilliard Travis Chair in Nursing and Senior Associate Dean for Research at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing in Nashville, Tennessee. “Young adults need to be aware that the consequences of repeated binge drinking may harm their hearts. The risk extends beyond poor school performance and increased risk for accidental injury.”
Previous studies have found that binge drinking – often defined as consuming five drinks or more in a row for men (4 four or more drinks for women) per occasion within the past 30 days – increases cardiovascular risk among middle-aged and older adults. But among younger adults age 18 to 45 specifically, the relationship between binge drinking, blood pressure and metabolic factors remained unclear.
This study examined cardiovascular risks, including high blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar, among 4,710 adults 18- to 45-years-old who responded to the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) in 2011-2012 and 2013-2014. Participants reported non-binge drinking, binge drinking (1-12 times yearly), or frequent binge drinking (more than12 times yearly). Then researchers compared blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels among the three groups.
- High frequency binge drinking (more than 12 times a year) was reported by 25.1 percent of men and 11.8 percent of women. Binge drinking 12 times a year or less was reported by 29.0 percent of men and 25.1 percent of women.
- Young men who reported repeated binge drinking had higher systolic blood pressure (the force on blood vessels when the heart beats) and higher blood total cholesterol than non-binge drinkers and binge drinking young women.
- Young women who said they binge drink had higher levels of blood sugar than non-binge drinking women.
- All results persisted even after considering diet and physical activity.
“Implementing lifestyle interventions to reduce blood pressure in early adulthood may be an important strategy to prevent cardiovascular disease later in life,” Piano said. “Young adults should be screened and counseled about alcohol misuse, including binge drinking, and advised on how binge drinking may affect their cardiovascular health.”
This study showed only an association, not a cause and effect relationship, between binge drinking and cardiovascular risk factors.
The American Heart Association suggests moderate alcohol consumption for adults who choose to drink. The Association defines moderate alcohol consumption as an average of one to two drinks per day for men, and one drink per day for women. A drink is 12 ounces of beer, four ounces of wine, or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof spirits. Excessive alcohol consumption increases the risk for alcohol dependency, cardiovascular risk factors including high blood pressure and obesity, stroke, certain types of cancer, suicide and accidents.
In the United States, cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death. It causes about one out of every three deaths, or an estimated 2,300 deaths, each day, according to the American Heart Association. Some risk factors, such as family history and age, are uncontrollable. Many others, however, are controllable through lifestyle changes such as controlling high blood pressure, controlling high blood cholesterol, controlling high blood sugar, being physically active, eating a healthy diet, losing excess weight and stopping smoking.
Co-authors are Larisa Burke, M.P.H.; Minkyung Kang, Ph.D., R.N. and Shane A. Phillips, Ph.D., M.P.T. The authors reported no conflicts of interest.
The National Institutes of Health funded the study.
- Available multimedia is on the right column of the release link - https://newsroom.heart.org/news/young-binge-drinkers-may-have-higher-heart-risks?preview=6f45e9c3abcd2254efc132fbe6713667
- After June 27, view the manuscript, meta-analysis and editorial online.
- Limiting Alcohol to Manage High Blood Pressure
- Long-term heavy drinking may age arteries over time
- Drinking alcohol daily may enlarge heart chamber; lead to atrial fibrillation
- Follow AHA/ASA news on Twitter @HeartNews
- For updates and new science from JAHA, follow @JAHA_AHA
Statements and conclusions of study authors published in American Heart Association scientific journals are solely those of the study authors and do not necessarily reflect the association’s policy or position. The association makes no representation or guarantee as to their accuracy or reliability. The association receives funding primarily from individuals; foundations and corporations (including pharmaceutical, device manufacturers and other companies) also make donations and fund specific association programs and events. The association has strict policies to prevent these relationships from influencing the science content. Revenues from pharmaceutical and device corporations and health insurance providers are available at www.heart.org/corporatefunding.
About the American Heart Association
The American Heart Association is devoted to saving people from heart disease and stroke – the two leading causes of death in the world. We team with millions of volunteers to fund innovative research, fight for stronger public health policies and provide lifesaving tools and information to prevent and treat these diseases. The Dallas-based association is the nation’s oldest and largest voluntary organization dedicated to fighting heart disease and stroke. To learn more or to get involved, call 1-800-AHA-USA1, visit heart.org or call any of our offices around the country. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
For Media Inquiries and AHA/ASA Spokesperson Perspective: 214-706-1173 | <urn:uuid:d9dc0f25-c91e-4207-aa07-73b5d0bbef2e> | CC-MAIN-2019-09 | http://www.newmediawire.com/news/young-binge-drinkers-may-have-higher-heart-risks-4822712 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-09/segments/1550247479101.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20190215183319-20190215205319-00530.warc.gz | en | 0.926625 | 1,386 | 2.578125 | 3 | {
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The rural areas of Ecuador’s Chimborazo province, where the Indigenous population is concentrated, are particularly underserved by public services, including health, education, and water and sanitation. The poverty, malnutrition and illiteracy rates there are among the highest in the country.
In response to this situation, Development and Peace has been working for almost 25 years with its local partner, the Centro de Desarrollo, Difusión e Investigación Social (Center for Development, Dissemination and Social Research – CEDIS) to improve the living conditions of the Kichwa communities by focusing on food sovereignty, citizen participation and gender equality. CEDIS is a key player in supporting organizational processes and building the capacity of local and regional organizations.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Kichwa communities faced additional challenges. In particular, the lockdown measures undermined informal employment, and the subsequent drop in household income further compromised their food security. Development and Peace’s support for CEDIS in 2020–21, through our COVID-19 Solidarity Fund, made it possible to quickly distribute seeds to ensure gardening activities continued, thus reducing food shortages for families in lockdown.
Thanks to CEDIS, I received all kinds of seedlings for my family garden, such as spinach, lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, onions, carrots and beets. Because the harvest coincided with the start of the pandemic, we could continue feeding ourselves without having to go shopping in town. — María Pucha, member of the community of La Pradera, Ecuador
Continuing in 2021–22 thanks to the financial support of the Roncalli International Foundation, the now-completed project Strengthening the Resilience of Rural Kichwa Communities during COVID-19 has accomplished the following major outcomes in its three areas of intervention:
- The food security and immune systems of the inhabitants of the Indigenous communities have been strengthened: Thanks to the provision of vegetable seeds and seedlings and the organization of local farmers’ markets, the 860 families participating in the project now have a permanent supply of healthy vegetables, produced without chemicals using agroecological practices. They also benefited from workshops aimed at raising their awareness of the negative impact of junk food and carbohydrates (sugary drinks, sweets, etc.) on their health and to learn recipes for healthy, nutritious and balanced meals. Special emphasis was placed on child and youth nutrition.
- Vaccination against COVID-19 is generalized among people 65 and older, and there are stronger preventive measures in the communities: Thanks to a sustained awareness-raising campaign (driving tours, community meetings, distribution of flyers, and WhatsApp and Facebook messages), communities suspended their meetings and mass events during periods when there was an increase in cases. The use of masks and social distancing also improved, and data collected from people 65 and older was provided to Ministry of Health medical centers, which conducted targeted vaccination campaigns in the communities.
- Housing conditions and access to water have improved: Under a technical partnership with the Department of Civil Engineering at the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador (PUCE), the housing conditions of five communities were diagnosed, revealing serious problems. The communities were thus able to present the government with a prototype for the construction of new housing suitable for areas above 3,400 metres. In addition, as a result of the proposals presented by the communities to the decentralized autonomous governments, some of them benefited from improvements to their drinking water systems. Lastly, as part of the project, 80 washbasins (63 family sinks and 17 community washbasins) have been installed to reinforce good hygiene practices.
Development and Peace is proud of this project, which has improved the food security, living conditions and access to health services of Indigenous communities in Chimborazo, Ecuador. Through projects such as this one, Development and Peace is strengthening the long-term food security of Indigenous and other vulnerable communities in the Global South, while fostering inclusive resource management and upholding their economic, social and environmental rights. | <urn:uuid:08ff24eb-22c1-4e52-a4ba-6869c0c77234> | CC-MAIN-2023-50 | https://devp.org/en/strengthening-the-resilience-of-kichwa-communities-in-ecuador/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100525.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20231204052342-20231204082342-00143.warc.gz | en | 0.952663 | 822 | 2.5625 | 3 | {
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On this day in 1783, the Treaty of Paris, defining the legal conclusion of the American Revolutionary War, is signed in France. In attendance were representatives of King George III for Great Britain, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and John Jay for the United States, and emissaries of France, Spain and the Dutch Republic. The treaty principally set the boundaries between the British Empire in North America and the United States, on lines “exceedingly generous” to our infant nation.
As with nearly all negotiations, the parties initially jockeyed for positions advantageous to their desires; to wit French Foreign Minister Vergennes proposed a solution strongly opposed by his American ally. Largely exhausted, all but Spain desired peace, as the Spaniards wished hostilities to continue until Gibraltar could be wrested from the Brits, and Vergennes sought to exploit this weariness.
To said end Vergennes offered a plan wherein the U.S. would gain its independence but be confined to the area east of the Appalachian Mountains, and Britain would take the area north of the Ohio River. In the area south of that, an independent Indian state under Spanish control would be established, acting as an barrier state.
The Americans quickly realized they could get a better deal straight from London. John Jay promptly told the Brits he was willing to negotiate directly with them, cutting out France and Spain; Prime Minister Lord Shelburne agreed. Fully in charge of the British negotiations, Shelburne now saw a chance to split the United States away from France and make the new country a valuable economic partner.
The western terms were such that the U.S. would gain all of the area east of the Mississippi River, north of Florida, and south of Canada; the northern boundary would remain largely the same as today. The States would gain fishing rights off Canadian coasts, and agreed to allow British merchants and loyalists methods for recovery of their property. It was a highly favorable treaty for the States, and deliberately so from the British point of view, with the PM Shelburne foreseeing profitable two-way trade between Britain and the rapidly growing U.S., as indeed came to pass.
Within the confines of the Treaty, Britain also signed separate agreements with France, Spain, and the Netherlands. In the treaty with Spain, the territories of East and West Florida were ceded to Spain without a clear northern boundary, resulting in a territorial dispute resolved by the Treaty of Madrid in 1795. Spain also received the island of Menorca; in turn, the Bahama Islands, Grenada, and Montserrat, captured by the French and Spanish, were returned to Britain.
The treaty with France was mostly about exchanges of captured territory, with France’s only net gains summing to the island of Tobago, and Senegal in Africa. However, France reinforced earlier treaties, guaranteeing fishing rights off Newfoundland. Dutch possessions in the East Indies, captured in 1781, were returned by Britain to the Netherlands in exchange for trading privileges in the region.
The Treaty was fully ratified by all parties by May of 1784, and shortly thereafter, as typically happens, the space between what a treaty says and what it does became painfully obvious. With no clearly defined northern border, the West Florida Controversy erupted, and Spain used its new control of Florida to block American access to the Mississippi. Meanwhile in the north and west, Great Britain violated the treaty stipulation that they should relinquish control of forts in United States territory “with all convenient speed.”
British troops remained stationed at six forts in the Great Lakes region, plus two at the north end of Lake Champlain. The British also built an additional fort in present-day Ohio in 1794, during the Northwest Indian War. Indeed, such British-First Nation conflicts with the U.S., the Barbary Wars with France, and the eventual do-over called the War of 1812 demonstrate yet again that as Yogi Berra and Lenny Kravitz like to say, “it ain’t over ’till it’s over.” | <urn:uuid:f0bcba7d-57af-43b5-88e7-be573d938e7d> | CC-MAIN-2020-16 | http://theblueroute.org/the-revolutionary-war-and-the-treaty-of-paris/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-16/segments/1585370492125.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20200328164156-20200328194156-00039.warc.gz | en | 0.972034 | 841 | 4.1875 | 4 | {
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Researchers have finally done it. Engineered a goat to save lives. On Friday, the FDA approved a genetically engineered goat that is able to produce in its milk (not for feta cheese making, mind you) a drug that will save the lives of patients born with a rare hereditary deficiency of antithrombin in their blood. A reported in the New York Times, these transgenic animals were approved to be bred with a human gene that allows them to create the human anticlotting protein, antithrombin.
The advantage: according to the company, GTC Biotherapeutics, a single doe can produce as much antithrombin in a single year as 90,000 blood donations. That’s a lot of goats milk.
I wonder though: is that true because these goats are milked continuously all day long? Will these goats get to walk around in grassy fields or be treated like so many other commercial livestock and be locked down only to see sunlight an hour a day? What kinds of conditions are these animals kept in?
One might assume they would be treated like royalty, but also given that they are drug pumps for a pharma company, it’s just as likely that once old “Betsy” stops being a steady of milk producer, she’s just as likely to be treated similar to how female dogs are treated in puppy mills. Sorry “Betsy”, time to go to the big green pasture in the sky.
I say this only because the NYT quote from GTC’s spokesman speaks for itself: “If you need more, you breed more.”
Concerns about whether goats in particular will enter the food supply are pretty far-fetched at this early stage, but there are legitimate concerns about the abuse of these animals. But with the success of using goats for antithrombin, the use of other animals for “pharming” other pharmaceuticals, other companies are certain to follow suit with other milk and meat-producing animals.
Eventually, though, as the practice becomes more widespread, “pharms” should be kept completely distinct from conventional farms to ensure that milk and meat meant for standard consumption are not mixed with those meant for medical consumption. Labeling and signage will have to be devised by the USDA and FDA in conjunction to indicate that this is a “pharm” meaning that transgenic goats or cows or sheep are being raised here.
That time has come and we need to be ready.
Summer Johnson, PhD | <urn:uuid:315d5b4e-aa5a-4735-bcc9-d5933d736081> | CC-MAIN-2014-52 | http://www.bioethics.net/2009/02/goats-not-just-for-making-feta-cheese-and-for-pett/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-52/segments/1418802776556.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20141217075256-00154-ip-10-231-17-201.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96787 | 525 | 2.84375 | 3 | {
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Resuming New-Zealand Charting After World War II - 01/01/2008
By an Old Hydrographer
After World War II, ship owners pressured the New Zealand Government to resume charting of coastal waters by the Royal Navy. Ships were now larger and most charts were a hundred years old. The Government approached Britain, which declined but kindly offered assistance to set up a new hydrographic service. The New Zealand Government and the Navy Board agreed that surveys must be resumed and that the Navy should undertake them. Here there were competent officers to train as hydrographic surveyors, a disciplined organisation and a large enough crew to be able to handle the ship, six boats and two 72ft Survey Motor Launches.
In spite of having two cruisers and six frigates, the navy could not find a suitable ship locally. Fortunately, the Australian Navy had a survey ship decommissioned in Fremantle. She was a River Class frigate, HMAS Lachlan, built in early 1945. The Australians offered to loan Lachlan to the RNZN for three years, while a purpose-built ship could be constructed. And better still, they could lend three surveying officers to accompany her.
The Royal Navy supplied as Commanding Officer, Cdr.J.M. Sharpey-Schafer, who had served in the Endeavour in 1939 in NZ, and as his 1st Lieutenant, Lt.Cdr. G.P.D. Hall who was later to be the Hydrographer of the Royal Navy. With them were the ratings, CPO ‘Dodger’ Long, as Chief Survey Recorder, and several Able Seamen SRs.
Lachlan arrived in Auckland on 2nd November 1949. Sharpey-Schafer was already here and had briefed the Devonport Dockyard of his conversion requirements. The most evident of these were the removal of the 4" gun and gundeck from the fo’csle, and all things gunnery, and the building of a massive Survey Chart Room on the after end of the upper deck. Sharpey-Schafer had enormous energy, so what on arrival was an empty ship sailed for surveys a fortnight later, and so began the new Hydrographic Service.
With the ship was a team of artisans to finish the conversions, and particularly to fit out the new chart room. The Captain’s cabin was built in the ‘Squid’ handling room and a few creature comforts found their way into the wardroom and the ratings’ living spaces. The complement was five Surveying Officers, two prospective surveyors, an Engineer, a Supply Officer and one or perhaps two, Wavy Navy or Merchant Service Officers for watch-keeping purposes. The 120 ratings had mess-decks and hammock accommodation.
Lachlan had a length of 301ft, breadth 36ft, draught 16ft and twin screws, giving a top speed of 19 knots. The bow had a very fine entry. She was not ‘pretty’ but instilled affection with the passing of time.
Our task was to re-survey the coastal waters and harbours, in priorities assessed by the NZ Hydrographic Committee chaired by the C.N.S. - the Navy’s operating authority for survey ships. This committee was made up of government, navy, maritime, land and scientific authorities. The length of the coastline concerned is 3,050nm, which is similar to that of the British Isles. To support the work the country had a population of 2 million people (which has recently been doubled). It was thought that the task might take 25 years but the weather factor and other requirements decided otherwise.
The first survey was to examine a part of Cook Strait and, incidentally, to show off the ship in the Capital, in addition to settling down and getting used to the wind. After a few weeks the ship moved south to start the Foveaux Strait survey, probably with some dismay at the sight of the macrocarpa trees growing at 70 degrees from the vertical. It would probably have been the most difficult survey of all. Sharpey-Schafer commented in a report, that the area was as bad as South Georgia, when the ship dragged 9 miles with both anchors and all cable out, one night in Toetoe Bay.
When the strait was unworkable the ship was anchored right in the middle of Bluff Harbour, mainly to indicate that there would be no leave whatsoever and the working hours would be as if we were at sea. Three boats would survey during all the daylight hours, then spend the evening ‘inking in’ the results. The remaining surveyors, including the 1st Lt., would spend similar hours at the calculating desks fighting logarithms or drawing fair-sheets. Sharpey Schafer was always present.
The Department of Lands & Survey had just completed a geodetic survey throughout the country, so the new ‘Trig Stations’ were of invaluable assistance and the ship and the ‘L&S’ formed a happy liaison.
For chart production from the surveys, Sharpey-Schafer brought out two experienced cartographers from Taunton, the ‘factory’ of all Admiralty charts. We were well served by the excellence of the published charts. They started off in accommodation within Lands & Survey, which served well for three years, but in 1953 moved to Navy Office in Wellington to establish the Hydrographic Office. As the number of charts increased, more staff was required for maintenance of the published charts. Over the years, nine cartographers were sought, mainly from Taunton.
During Sharpey-Schafer’s two and a half years he had firmly established the RNZN Survey Service and published an extraordinary number and charts. His infamous 1951 Christmas Card, which had a large open-out section, showed one of Captain Cook’s charts, followed by a diagram of our areas surveyed and reductions of some of the seven coastal and four harbour charts, along with the names of those assisting. Quite historic, but he had sold a service to marine interests and they loved him for it.
In mid-1952 Cdr. C.C.Lowry RN took over, changing some of the practises, including the scales for the surveys. We still worked at a frantic pace but Lowry would sometimes come to the wardroom to entertain us with his musical saw!
Then in 1955 came Cdr. G.S. Ritchie DSC, RN. later to become President of the International Hydrographic Bureaux. He realised that a frantic pace of surveying was not the best for man or the survey, and he throttled back a fraction to where we could live again. Ritchie, as we all know, loved life to the full. The result throughout the ship was that every one worked harder than ever so as not to let the man down. They were good days.
In 1957 Cdr. F.W.Hunt MBE, the last of the RN officers to take the ship, took over just as we were about to enter the electronic age. Up until now all work had been done by sextants, beacons, tautwire, primitive radar and wet paper echosounders. We managed to get one of the first Tellurometers Systems, for measuring distances ashore, up to 40 miles. At the same time Lachlan was fitted with Two Range Decca (2RD), which gave us the ability to measure ranges up to 150 miles from our two slave stations ashore, and what is more could be used 24 hours a day, at 171/2 knots. No more anchoring for the night!
It was in Hunt’s time that New Zealand became a full member of the International Hydrographic Bureau, the seal of approval on our work, which was pleasing.
Then in February 1960 our first NZ officer, Cdr. W.J.L.Smith DSO took command. Nothing fell apart; the 2RD churned on, night and day. By this time the work of surveying had settled down, the ship ran dutifully with little interference from the rest of the navy and we had the equipment we needed. Over the years there was an exchange of survey officers, usually for two years at a time, between British, Australian and New Zealand counterparts. This was of inestimable value for the exchange of techniques and expertise.
In 1962 there was another highlight when Smith handed over the ship to go ashore to take up the appointment of ‘Hydrographer RNZN’. (The previous RN Commanders had held the title of ‘Director of Hydrography’, on CNS’ Staff, and Commanding Officer, Lachlan).
About this time, replacements for the three survey boats were built in the Dockyard, to Admiralty design. The six previous boats had been a motley lot, all different, all on radial davits, dangerous in a seaway. With the 7ton survey boat, four relieving tackles were needed to hold her fore and aft. The three heavy boats were hoisted on manilla falls, which had to be led through blocks to the warping drums on the anchor windlass on the foc’sle. It worked, but it took time and effort to hoist all boats and bring them inboard. During the mid-life refit we were blessed with quadrantal derricks with electric motors.
About the same time, a large flight deck was built above the quarterdeck for hired helicopters. By now the ship looked totally different to the one that had left Australia. The Australians had built new ships and were only too pleased when we offered to buy Lachlan at scrap value. The offer was accepted, which was just as well because Naval Stores couldn’t find the 4inch gun mounting and deck.
During the winter in NZ the ability to progress with surveys is seriously restricted. On the other hand, NZ has responsibilities for Western Samoa, Tonga, Cook Islands and several others. So it was agreed that the ship should progress with work in these islands, plus some in Fiji, at British request. So for six weeks every year the ship’s company had some respite from home waters and the islands shared the benefit. Whilst up there one refuelling was needed, in Suva or Tahiti for a couple of days. No one grumbled.
In 1975 Lachlan was paid off due to boiler age and a hard life. The promise of a new ship in three years didn’t eventuate, as was to be expected. However, Prime Minister Muldoon noted that the Government owned a passenger/cargo ship coming available and which looked like the ‘Yard’ ship which was being proposed. Why couldn’t it be converted? The surveyors found this an easy argument to shoot down. But when pen was put to paper it was not so easy to refute. So we took the ship, the Moana Roa, out for a day to give it a hard time and prove it was unsuitable. We had to give the decision on the way back to harbour. It was ‘Yes’, providing the conversion would include controllable propellers, passive roll stabiliser and conversion of No.2 hold into workshops and accommodation. A large chartroom had to be built behind the bridge, plus a flight deck and hangar. In Wellington they said ‘Yes’.
In 1975 the Moana Roa became HMNZS Monowai, after the armed merchant cruiser, was sent to the makers in Scotland and came back again two years later. The conversion was thorough, and being much cheaper than a new hull we could afford to set her up with a superior survey outfit. She had Atlas and Raytheon sounders, Sidescan sonars, HiFix/6, Trisponder, Satellite Navigator, a Hydroplot plotting table, and all brought together with an automatic Data Logging System.
She was equipped with six boats, including a ‘Seatruck’ for landing the Land Rover. Helicopter capability was for a Westland Wasp, with an extendable hangar. Not only was she a large survey ship, but she could fulfil a number of other roles. Her length and draught were similar to Lachlan, but her breadth was ten feet wider and her displacement 21Ú2 times greater.
Monowai carried on where Lachlan had left off. Apart from hydrographic work, she undertook surveys to find a route for telephone cable linking Australia and New Zealand with Canada, now known as the ANZCAN cable. She undertook many tasks, but the most notable SAR incident was in the winter of 1994 when the ship participated in what became the largest SAR operation ever mounted out of New Zealand, rescuing eight people from three racing yachts in violently stormy seas. The ship and her company received commendations and other awards.
On decommissioning in 1998 it was said that Monowai “had become well known around the New Zealand coasts during her twenty years of service. Her first survey took her down to Fiordland, and that was to be the area in which she finished her career. In that time extensive areas of coastal waters and parts of the South Pacific Ocean had been charted. During her two careers of services to New Zealand, Monowai had steamed a little over a million miles, almost equally divided between merchant and naval service”.
The 50th Jubilee of the Royal New Zealand Navy’s Surveying Service was celebrated in October 1999, with the achievement of virtually all coastal waters and commercial harbours being charted. Re-surveying and surveying the Sounds, inlets, further harbours, New Zealand’s Southern Ocean islands and the northern Pacific Islands, together with periodic upgrading of all charts, will make necessary a professional hydrographic service for a very long time yet to come.
- ’This Stern Coast’ by Rear Admiral J.O’C. Ross CB. Publisher AH&AW Reed, WELLINGTON. First Published 1969
- ’No Day To Long’ by Rear Admiral G.S. Ritchie CB, DSC, FRICS 1992. Publisher Pentland Press. Published 1992 | <urn:uuid:7637839d-0e3c-4056-bcc5-f14e43403d08> | CC-MAIN-2021-10 | https://www.hydro-international.com/content/article/as-it-was-12 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-10/segments/1614178385378.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20210308143535-20210308173535-00461.warc.gz | en | 0.982596 | 2,977 | 2.609375 | 3 | {
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What exactly is Asset Management System? Many definitions have been offered over the years. In 1994 Hudson et al* state that Asset Management or Infrastructure Management, depending on how it is termed, is “the process of integrating design, construction, maintenance, rehabilitation, and renovation to maximize benefits to the user and minimize total costs to the owners and users.”
The authors suggest that the term infrastructure management is appropriate but clearly the highway and transportation industry has chosen asset management to describe this process. They also point out that the technology used in the asset management is:
- good data inputs
- economic models and analysis,
- benefit-cost studies
- good maintenance and rehabilitation
All are needed to provide good asset management. They point out that an asset management system is a “framework consisting of the operational package (methods, procedures, data, software, policies, decision, budgets, and fund, etc.) that links and enables the carrying out of all the activities involved in asset management.” Many other definitions are around but these served to set the pattern we discuss here.
Asset management must integrate all the major factors for several types of assets combined simultaneously or individually, and over time. It is also necessary to carry out full multi-objective and multi-constraint optimization over many types of assets.
A functional asset management system consists of a combination of management systems or modules for individual asset types, such as safety, pavement, and bridges and a set of interfaces that ties these modules and their output together. Finally, a series of analytical tools including optimization, cross-optimization, and asset trade-off analyses are needed to allow administrators to combine budgets in the most effective way at the executive level.
True asset management must be outlined from the administration at the top of an agency but in practice, it is truly a bottom-up process. Each class of assets, e.g. pavements, bridges, must be outlined with details from proper data collected to the development of fully functioning software that can stand on its own. Additional modules such as safety, fleet, etc. are then added as needed. These are all interfaced using proper asset trade-off analyses and data coordination. Appropriate analyses and reporting functions are developed, used and codified at several levels starting with the bridge department and pavement department, etc. where the data, data analysis, and details actually exist to actively make day-to-day decisions.
The data and the analysis results are also codified and summarized in necessary reports which are more easily used by planners, financiers, and finally top administration. This is an iterative process where top administrators outline what they think they need. These needs are then met, but often as the administrators see the additional information, maps, tables, financial summaries, etc. (which can be provided), they change, or add to or subtract from their original needs. A good asset management system presents the information in the manner which best helps the user role/level being served. For instance, at the top administration level, dashboards and summaries are presented, but also tools are available where an active administrator can use to drill down and get any details s/he wants. For example, point at a map and up pops the detail, e.g. condition, and serviceability level for a particular section which an influential legislator or citizen is asking about.
AgileAssets currently offers 12 Asset Management Modules. As far as we can determine from the literature, observed practice, and talks with transportation agencies, this is more than any other provider has available. Thus, AgileAssets is best positioned to provide agencies software that can be developed step-by-step into total asset management. Whether you are interested in the first step or a full asset management system AgileAssets can fulfill your needs.
* Haas, Ralph, W.R. Hudson, and J.P. Zaniewski, Modern Pavement Management, Krieger Publishing Company, Malabar, Florida, 1994. | <urn:uuid:9e166482-9e27-4f04-9be1-146edb5d2540> | CC-MAIN-2020-05 | https://www.agileassets.com/blog/what-is-a-transportation-asset-management-system-and-why-do-you-need-it/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579250610919.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20200123131001-20200123160001-00175.warc.gz | en | 0.934706 | 820 | 2.703125 | 3 | {
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The story of Jonah has been viewed and interpreted in three primary different ways by various scholars, which has consisted of allegory, parable and history (Bullock, 52). While most lay Christians tend to view it literally, it is important that we take a closer look at the other two positions, if only to further strengthen the literal view which I feel is crucial to biblical truth as a whole. There are arguments about when Jonah was written, but my position is that it was probably written in the eight century B.C., but most certainly long before the destruction of Nineveh in the seventh century (612 B.C.).
Jonah as Allegory
The first school of thought is that the story of Jonah is allegory, with Jonah as the figure that represents Israel, the large fish as the Babylonian world power that swallowed up Israel, Nineveh as the conversion of the Gentiles, and Jonah’s complaint as the objection by the Jews to the inclusion of those Gentiles (Bullock, 52). However, the argument against this is that it does not present itself well as allegory, but instead conveys a strict exactness that differs from other examples of allegory in the Old Testament. My additional argument is that if it was written before the destruction of Nineveh in 612 B.C. as seems the most likely, using that city (which was never rebuilt) as a symbol for conversion of the Gentiles is quite awkward. Additionally, any such allegorical reference to Babylon as the major world power in that area of the world would not fit within the historical context either since that did not happen until around the beginning of the sixth century B.C.
Jonah as Parable
The second school of thought and the majority position in modern scholarship is that the story of Jonah is a parable, arguing that the didactic nature of the book stresses the narrowness of nationalism, the universalism of God, or other various ideas that might comply well with a parable format (Bullock, 52). However, this is quite long for a parable and the supernatural miracle elements found in Jonah are generally absent from Near Eastern parallels of the time. In addition, in my opinion, the exactness of real people (Jonah) and real places within a real historical setting makes the idea of a parable less likely.
Jonah as History
The final position is that the story of Jonah is to be taken as literal history, but some problems with dating the events and the miracles described in the book have been taken by some critics as an argument against a literal interpretation (Bullock 53-57). And though the miraculous aspects of the narrative such as being swallowed by a whale and the rapid growth of a gourd often give rise to skepticism, the literal view is supported by the testimony of Jesus himself (Matt 12:39-41; Luke 11:29-30). I personally think that the God who created the universe most certainly can do any of this. I also find the book in a similar style to the narrative of Elijah and Elisha in the Old Testament, and similar to the New Testament Gospels.
I am convinced by the available evidence that Jonah should be interpreted as literal history, including all of its more remarkable aspects such as Jonah being swallowed by a large fish or whale. If it is not literal, then the story is quite meaningless and it calls the historicity of much of the Bible into question by also dismissing the testimony of Jesus and others to many other major events of biblical history. If we deny the story of Jonah as literal in the face of the position of Jesus that it should be taken literally, we also must question the accounts of Adam and Eve, the deception by the talking serpent, the parting of the Red Sea, and almost every other significant biblical event from the beginning.
Bullock, C. Hassell. An Introduction to the Old Testament Prophetic Books. Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2007.
© Robert Alan King at BibleCommentator.com. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:00ca65d8-f171-43e8-a937-645dfccf2bcf> | CC-MAIN-2018-13 | http://biblecommentator.com/jonah-allegory-parable-history/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-13/segments/1521257647567.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20180321023951-20180321043951-00576.warc.gz | en | 0.96701 | 822 | 3.6875 | 4 | {
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Water can vary immensly
Natural Mineral Water
A product of pristine purity. By law, natural mineral water must originate from a subterranean source that is protected from every possible contamination. Only water that has been officially approved and tested for purity may be dubbed "natural mineral water". Before reaching this stage, it must pass about 200 separate analyses.
In order to retain the certified purity until the time of consumption, mineral water must furthermore be bottled directly at its place of origin – filled straight into the containers meant for the consumer.
As already indicated by the name, mineral water not only supplies water to the body but minerals as well - in varying amounts and proportions, depending on where it originates from. Like vitamins, minerals are essential to the body. Every day they need to be part of the diet in sufficient amounts, since the human body cannot produce them on its own.
Chemical agents, additional minerals or other types of water may not be added to natural mineral water. Solely the removal of iron (de-ironing) or sulfur is allowed. Iron might form residue in the shape of unaesthetic brown flakes at the bottom of the bottle. Too much sulfur would smell and taste.
The adjustment of the amount of carbonic acid contained is admissible. Carbonic acid as such is thus not a typical characteristic of mineral water. The purity and naturalness of every mineral water is monitored through regular analyses. As soon as even the most minor of contaminations is detected, the water loses its attribute as "natural mineral water" and may no longer be so called.
Natural Health Water
"Natural health water" stems from special mineral springs and is subject to the strict guidelines of the German pharmaceutical law. Belonging to the so-called ready medicines (Ger. Fertigarzneimittel), health waters must offer some kind of medicinal potency, for instance by guarding against or alleviating certain illnesses, or even curing them. The medicinal effect is proven through an elaborate procedure and only then approved by the law.
St.Gero Heilwasser is such a natural health water. It is for instance applicable in cases of gastro-intestinal diseases, various aliments of the kidneys and osteoporosis. But healthy people can also benefit from the excellent quality and the favorable composition of a health water such as St.Gero, and may drink it without constraint just like any other mineral water as a thirst quencher.
Spring water stems from subterranean water resources. Contrary to mineral water, spring water does not need to have any verifiable effects on health, nor does it have to contain any specific and stable amount of minerals. It also does not bear the seal of official approval.
Table water need not be of natural origin. It is an artificial mixture of tap water and other ingredients such as salt water or mineral water. Since table water is not bound to a specific spring it may be produced and bottled anywhere. It also may be sold "loosely", meaning out of dispensers and such. Contrary to mineral water, it does not require the seal of official approval.
Tap water is usually not a natural product. Unlike mineral water, it is drawn from ground and surface water. The quality of this "raw water" varies from location to location.
Contrary to mineral water, it is not of natural purity. Depending on how clean the raw water is, it is processed and purified by the waterworks. When the basic quality is not very good, it can for instance be treated with chlorine or additionally filtered through activated-charcoal.
Tap water can never be turned into mineral water. This also goes for water from so called "soda-streamers": it has the same quality and consistency as the untreated tap water and differs only in that carbonic acid has been artificially added. For people who set store by natural purity and freshness as well as healthy substances contained in "their" water, natural mineral water is the only thing suitable. | <urn:uuid:567daeec-089d-4161-a647-d9c6783dd146> | CC-MAIN-2013-48 | http://www.gerolsteiner.de/index.php?id=1565 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-48/segments/1386164737564/warc/CC-MAIN-20131204134537-00045-ip-10-33-133-15.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954446 | 813 | 2.953125 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 2.2924797534942627,
"reasoning_level": 2,
"interpretation": "Moderate reasoning"
} | Health |
With the emergence of online schooling, the concept of plagiarism has gone mainstream. It was a term that many people were unfamiliar with, but it is now the first word that every student speaks.
Plagiarism has made our tasks more difficult and it has become a problem for us. Every student wants to know how we can avoid plagiarism.
What can be the procedure to follow while avoiding plagiarism in their assignments and reports? A strict checking is being done by teachers and students score low grades.
How can students detect and prevent plagiarism is our today’s topic?
We’ll be sharing a proper guide with you guys so that you people can work smartly and get good grades in your education.
Don’t miss any part and read until the end if you want to know solutions to all your queries. Without further ado, let’s get into it.
What do you mean by plagiarism?
Plagiarism is known as stealing someone’s work and pretending to be owning it. Displaying the text that does not belong to you and you claim that you’ve written it or you’re the owner is called Plagiarism.
It can be anything ideas, content, text, images, videos, thoughts anything that doesn’t belong to you. Being a professional person, you need to have the integrity to give credits to those who own the work originally.
You can add references and citations with them if you want to use them.
There can be so many tricks on how you can avoid plagiarism.
How to detect and prevent plagiarism – The ultimate guide for student
It gets quite easy for you once you know the tricks and tips to avoid plagiarism.
First, you need to detect it and then we can prevent it. Here is the ultimate guide for students on how you can detect and prevent plagiarism. You need to follow all the steps below to write plagiarism-free assignments.
Our first step would be researching. Conduct proper research on the topic you’re assigned before moving further.
Whenever you write anything it is advised to research all the necessary information is before writing about your topic.
In this way, you would be able to write accurate and reliable information. You can use all the possible sources for research purposes it can be any of the below;
- The newspapers and books
- Research papers and case studies
- Journals and magazines
- Websites and articles
A pro tip can be using Google Scholar for your studies can be beneficial for all the students. Always follow accurate formats and styles while writing anything.
You can score the highest grades by making research your habit.
Once your teacher goes through your paper, he’ll know you’ve collected enough information and have studied the topic profoundly.
Paraphrasing is our second important part of this incredible guide. You must always paraphrase your work instead of just copy-pasting it to your documents.
It is known as the worst practice for students. Students are assigned topics to learn and understand the scenarios.
You should think and do it with your mind instead of copying it.
Read the topic from different websites but always write it down in your writing style and in your way. This will automatically eliminate the factor of plagiarism.
If it’s difficult for you then you may paraphrase the content by using different online paraphrasing tools. The rephrase tool uses the latest artificial technology to paraphrase the given content within seconds.
It further changes specific words with their accurate synonyms to make content unique and free of any plagiarism.
3. CITATION AND REFERENCES
Other useful tips for avoiding plagiarism in your assignments include a citation and referencing. If you wish to use any information or writing, make sure to properly cite and reference it.
This can help you avoid using plagiarized information in your reports. For example, suppose you’re writing something from any book.
You must include a correct reference to that book to properly acknowledge your teacher that you are using their reference to context or to elaborate your idea in other words to support your point.
You can also learn the referencing techniques and citation styles to adopt while writing anything.
It can save you from plagiarism in so many ways. You can follow these citation styles in your writings.
APA (American Psychological Association) for students citing the educational, behavioral, and social sciences in their academic work. MLA (Modern Language Association) for students of humanities work and research.
Chicago/Turabian style for the students related to business, history, or fine arts. Harvard Style is mostly used for academic and scientific research by students.
If you’re a student, you should make proofreading and editing a habit. You should always go through and reread what you’ve written on paper.
This allows you to identify and correct any errors you made while writing.
Always attempt to proofread your document before submitting it so that you have error-free work and have the least chances of obtaining bad grades.
5. CHECK PLAGIARISM
Lastly, never forget to check plagiarism before submitting any of your assignments. This can save you from scoring bad scores.
Once you check plagiarism, you’ll get to know what needs to be corrected and you can write it accurately then and there before submission.
This can save you from unwanted plagiarism in your assignment and writings.
There will be no doubt left about copied content once you check plagiarism. In this way, you can have accurate, uncopied, and plagiarism-free information in your papers.
You can avoid plagiarism by using online tools. It can save your time and help you with your studies as well.
ENJOY GOOD GRADES
You can lose your teacher’s trust if you keep copy-pasting text from different websites. Teachers don’t want you to just submit assignments but they want you to have a grip on any particular topic.
That’s why they keep giving us assignments and quizzes to test our abilities to understand. Try to be honest with yourself and your teacher while writing anything related to your studies. Try to write to the point information.
Only mention what’s being asked and avoid unwanted information. Keep your answers brief instead of writing long paragraphs.
You must write everything unique on your paper. Keep all the steps in mind while writing so that you can never go the wrong way or miss anything.
I hope it covered all the aspects and points to make you understand everything about preventing plagiarism. I believe you can now efficiently avoid plagiarism in your studies as well as it will help you score excellent grades.Share and Help us Reach out to Other Students | <urn:uuid:8e03cc7f-8cd8-4b61-b014-ba93b0e065b5> | CC-MAIN-2022-49 | https://startskool.com/how-to-detect-and-prevent-plagiarism/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-49/segments/1669446710902.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20221202114800-20221202144800-00170.warc.gz | en | 0.932079 | 1,423 | 2.9375 | 3 | {
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The Zone Diet is a nutritional plan created in 1995 by a biochemist named Dr. Barry Sears. Sears argues that US growing obesity problem stems from hormonal imbalance that after eating too many sugars and refined carbohydrates, people develop insulin resistance that causes the body to store fat. The “Zone” is what Sears calls it ideal hormonal balance, where energy, performance and mental clarity is at its highest. To “go into the Zone,” Sears prescribes that the diet should contain 40 percent carbohydrates, 30 percent fat and 30 percent protein.
Dieters should eat within an hour of waking up, and eat at least once every five hours. . In Sears’ plan, this means three meals and two snacks per day. Dieters should also drink eight cups of water a day and exercise as often as possible. Sears says that after 40:30:30 ratio and eat Zone approved foods will lead to more weight loss than following a diet based on willingness and calorie restriction.
The Zone Diet utilizes glycemic index, a measure of the effect different foods have on blood sugar. Foods with high glycemic index most breads, rice, sweets, fruit and potatoes-are strictly limited. Foods with a low glycemic index-egg whites, lean poultry, nuts, seafood, vegetables and low-fat dairy-encouraged
Meals in Zone plan should be around or under 500. calories, snacks should be around or under 100 calories. Both should contain a portion or “block” of protein and carbohydrate. In a sample zone menu, breakfast would include a large portion of egg whites and a small portion of oatmeal and strawberries. Lunch would be a salad with chicken breast, tomato and a small amount of olive oil dressing.
Advantages and disadvantages
Unlike many other fad diets of the 1990s, the Zone Diet does not prohibit carbohydrates, and thus has been touted as a more sustainable, moderate lifestyle plan. However, the plan limit carbohydrates, and any reduction in carbohydrates will likely lower the dieter energy level. In addition, the Zone Diet is much higher in protein than the average American meal plan, and dieters should always eat protein and carbohydrates relative-prescribed “blocks.” Therefore, eating in restaurants is difficult for dieters.
Dr. Sears’ first book, “Enter the Zone,” has sold more than 4 million copies, and he has since published 10 books on diet his plan. A man named Manuel Uribe, who weighed just over 1200 pounds in its heaviest, used the Zone Diet to lose more than 400 pounds per April 2008. Celebrities such as Tiger Woods, Cindy Crawford and Jennifer Aniston reportedly followed the Zone diet. | <urn:uuid:43b0bed3-15f1-4006-be95-6e9822deaa6e> | CC-MAIN-2017-26 | http://www.kickingfat.com/2017/01/20/zone-diet-explained/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128320063.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20170623133357-20170623153357-00040.warc.gz | en | 0.949238 | 551 | 2.9375 | 3 | {
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For many Americans, “barbecue” is a gathering of friends in the back yard for food prepared over a hot grill. For those who are serious about their barbecue, there is a distinction between barbecue and grilling. Barbecuing is preparing food outdoors using the indirect heat from a wood fire. Grilling is what many backyards chef do when they cook hamburgers, hot dogs, seafood, you name it over a hot grill using direct heat.
That grill can use barbecue briquettes, wood chips, gas or any combination of those fuel ingredients. Both can involve some sort of hot sauce or spicy barbecue sauce to heat things up. Barbecuing, because it involves indirect, slow cooking, usually is reserved for large pieces of meat like pork (whole or roasts), beef brisket, ribs, etc. It can take longer than 12 hours to cook a whole hog or a large beef brisket with ribs taking anywhere from four to five hours to cook. “These low temperatures and slow cooking – low ‘n slow – create the unique, smoky meat appearance, taste and texture that is authentic barbecue,” notes the web site of the California Barbecue Association.
BBQ Galore History
There are almost as many theories of the origins of the word “barbecue” as there are ways to prepare barbecue. Some trace the word to the French “barbe-a-queue” which is loosely translated as from beard to tail. Others say the term derives from the Spanish word “barbacoa,” which means a framework of sticks – what was used to hoist a hunk of meat over a fire to cook it. And the term “barbacoa” supposedly is derived from the Arawak word “babracot” for wooden apparatus.
Tar Heel magazine was quoted as saying the word “barbecue” comes from a nineteenth century advertisement that cited a combination of whisky bar, beer hall, pool establishment and roast pig seller , which is summed up as bar-beer-cue-pig. How it came to the United States is also anyone’s guess. The California Barbecue Association posits that barbecue first came to California by Franciscan friars who brought it from the Caribbean. In the 17th century, the friars came to California, which was then part of Mexico. Another theory is that barbecue originated in the late 1800s during Western cattle drives.
Slowly cooking tough meat over a fire was a way to tenderize the meat and make it tastier. German butchers reportedly brought barbecue to Texas in the mid-1800s.What’s certain is that barbecuing has been an American pastime for hundreds of years. Some say that large barbecue gatherings were common starting about 50 years before the Civil War in the south. Later on in the nineteenth century, it became a mainstay at church picnics and politic rallies as well as private parties. Today just about everyone grills or barbecues at one time or another – whether it’s a little hibachi grill on an urban fire escape or an all out pig roast complete with a barbecue pit dug in your home’s backyard.
BBQ Galore Regional Differences
There are also regional differences when it comes to barbecue. Reportedly, vinegar-based sauces are what fire up back-yard chefs in North and South Carolina. Tennessee barbecue sauces tend to be spicy and sweet as well as tomato-based. Dry rubs can be used almost anywhere. Kansas City, Mo., another barbecue hot spot, uses a tomato-based sauce like Tennesseans, but also adds molasses to the mix. Texas sauces show a Mexican influence and may use chilies and limes in the sauce or as accompaniments to the meal.
The type of meat used also varies by region. Beef is prime in Texas whereas pork is the old stand-by for the Carolinas and the rest of the south. In the Pacific Northwest and the East Coast, most people grill rather than having a bbq galore. Specifically for the Pacific Northwest, grilling of fish, especially salmon, is popular as is the use of cedar planks to add flavor. It’s certainly clear that cooking over a wood fire was something we all did in prehistoric times and mostly with meat. It was the first type of cooking, popular around 125,000 B.C. and helped propel us to today’s meat-centered diet.
Having a BBQ galore and grilling also arose independently all over the planet. Grilling is a popular way to prepare meat in China and Korea, for example, as well as in the Caribbean. According to the History Channel, BBQ or “barbecue” appeared in print for the first time in 1655 back when the United States was a colony of Great Britain and by the mid-nineteenth century barbecue was a popular way to prepare meat, especially out West.
BBQ Galore – 1920’s to 1950’s
Barbecue really started cooking in the 1920s because of Henry Ford and his assembly line. Sounds like an odd couple, Henry Ford and barbecue, but economic necessity enticed Ford to create the charcoal briquette, now a mainstay fuel source for grills. Ford invented the briquette because his assembly line produced not just cars, but a lot of wood scraps. Ford figured he could turn his garbage into cash and he did. Similarly, utility companies introduced gas grills in the 1950s and then a worker at Weber Brothers Metal Works fashioned the first Weber kettle grill in 1951, also according to the History Channel.
As time marches on, barbecuers continue to perfect their art. One of the major trends in barbecueing is the “water smoker,” says the infoplease.com web site. The water smoker can be fueled by electricity or coal. Burning wood chips and boiling water allows an outdoor cook to slowly cook meat while the circulating water/steam bastes the food and keeps it moist. BBQ Galore Marinade And whether you grill or barbecue, one of the best ways to prepare meat or vegetables is to marinade them first in the marinade or sauce of your choice.
If you’re simply grilling meat over a hot flame, marinades may not be required, but a dipping sauce provided with the meal can add flavor.
To view more of our roasters, visit our website at http://www.LaCajaChina.com/ To get detailed instructions on how to roast a pig, you can now download our eBook for free. This will serve as your step by step guide on how to use your La Caja China to have a perfect feast with BBQ Galore. | <urn:uuid:c353722d-471f-4078-b6f5-d2bc8b51d548> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://kingofpork.com/bbq-galore-the-great-american-pastime/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141747887.95/warc/CC-MAIN-20201205135106-20201205165106-00278.warc.gz | en | 0.947055 | 1,398 | 2.9375 | 3 | {
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The Oceti Sakowin Camp - Cannon Ball Reservation.
Alcatraz Island - now a tourist attraction -
operated by the National Park Service
Few remember - well and more clearly - the takeover of Alcatraz Island - in the 1960s.
89 Native American Indians - inspired by the Treaty of Fort Laramie signed in 1868 - that offered the Right of First Refusal to vacant Federal land and facilities. This treaty signed between the Federal Government and the Lakota Sioux Nation.
The brave women and men warriors - who occupied Alcatraz Island for 19 months - sent a powerful message all over Turtle Island - aka America - that enough was enough - treating Native Americans - as second class citizens - had to come to a STOP.
The takeover of Alcatraz caught everyone by utter surprise and after years - the Federal Government - decided to use pressure more force to force out the " freedom fighters " - surrender and vacate Alcatraz Island - pressuring them that they would be charged as " felons " - the rest is history.
When such a historic event take place - there are all sorts of stories - written about the situation at hand.
Suffice to say - the event at Alcatraz - renewed HOPE and those that were fast asleep at the cockpit - woke up.
Those warriors who were part of the take over of Alcatraz - demanding justice for all Native Americans - many are still alive.
It would be remiss of me not to mention some of the leaders - Richard Mckenzie, Mark Martinez, Garfield Spotted Elk, Virgil Standing Elk, Walter Means.
Allen Cottier who acted as a spokesman.
The Federal Government once held a standard 49 cents purchase price - for vacant Federal Land for use - an estimate of 49 cents per acre - amount to $9.40 for the rocky island - this fixed amount - was offered for Alcatraz - to the Federal Government.
President Nixon - the U.S. President in office at the time - was informed of this offer - and pondered much over the negotiation to come as best he could.
Today on so called Thanksgiving Day - some of us line up by Pier 33 - and take the First Ferry Boat to Alcatraz Island - to gather as united Tribes - and participate in the Sunrise Ceremony.
Here are some photographs for you to enjoy and respect:
Chief Sitting Bull -
he united all the tribes -
he made the Latoka Sioux Nation thrive.
I have always had a fond love and respect for Chief Sitting Bull - as I have for Chief Joseph - these two have always inspired me to serve the Native Americans - as best I can - given the unique opportunities I have had - working for the United States -government.
What is the meaning of Oceti Sakowin? Pause and read:
Today is the 120th anniversary of the death of Chief Sitting Bull - a man as I said that I respect and honor - the man who spurred me to take this journey - 1600 miles to North Dakota - to Cannon Ball Reservation - to Camp Oceti Sakowin. Aho.
Learn more about Chief Siting Bull of the Lakota Sioux Nation:
Recently we took a spiritual journey to Cannon Ball reservation - and listed the Oceti Sakowin Camp - we met hundreds of decent people - thousands gathered on any day - that we visited.
The Latoka Sioux Nation have inspired many - learn more about the Tribal Council and their aspirations at Standing Rock:
Again and again - I got a flash back - remember my many trips to Alcatraz Island - the better ones - attending the Sunrise Ceremonies.
We have thousands of photographs documenting the many trips - much as we have - of our spiritual trip to Camp Oceti Sakowin:
History is some entity documenting an event.
Those that see what they see - see it through their own eyes.
Each historian - she or he can write and paint their own picture - photographs - tell you more - and in providing a better sense of the situation - help now and in the future.
When thousands come from all over the world - the White House and all its ploys, machinations, and shenanigans - are laid flat for all to see.
The Democrats and President Barack Hussein Obama has NOT been fair to the First People of Turtle Island.
As I said - I went to Cannon Ball Reservation myself - to see for myself - and check out things for myself.
I met many - who recognized me from my long years - working for the Federal Government - many surprised - why I took the time to make this arduous journey.
As I said - there once was a a revolution that led to a Movement - the one on Alcatraz - a spark that took note of the Treaty of Fort Laramie signed in 1868 - offering the Right of First Refusal - to the Native Americans - that led to the occupation of Alcatraz Island - from March 20, 1969 to June 11, 1971.
The Oceti Sakowin Camp - has spurred the Indian Activism - that has laid dormant for decades - those " evil to the core " - shudder to deal with the thousands of " Veterans " - all prepared and stand tall - shoulder to shoulder - in the land of Sitting Bull.
The Federal Government is weak - weak in the knees, spiritually bankrupt - and with President Barack Hussein Obama out - a lame duck President - who did little and could have done more.
The interim-President is known to favor the Dakota Access Pipeline - Donald Trump the Bum - is studying the situation at hand.
The compromise is narrow - the crude oil pipeline - must NOT enter the Missouri River - and more not tarnish its fast moving waters.
As we speak - other oil pipelines - other projects in the pipeline - are leaking - could leaking oil - contaminating the land, the air and watershed.
Missing in this equation the role of Canada - raking in billions.
Canada sits on the fence and laughs all the way to the bank.
This nonsense can STOP - if we think outside the box - and take swift - action.
The Great Spirit has empowered the " protectors of the water ' to do what is right - their heart in the right place.
We all must support them - as we have - to stay put - until we are fully satisfied - most of our aspirations - fulfilled - when that time comes - our fortitude in our patience - and our patience will bring - VICTORY.
I met some of the leaders - on my recent trip to North Dakota - and have been following up - we know the capacity of the enemy - and for now - that is all I will say.
Amazing how the digital world has brought us together - amazing how our meetings and encounters - some years ago - made us all realize - that doing right - is what matters - come what may. Aho.
This fight to protect " water " is like caring and fighting for our own " BLOOD " - there is no comparison - but - this one sentence - says it all.
Of course the strangers - know less - because for all the longest time they have lived - the breathe " greed ".
" Greed " - will not bring peace and harmony - greed is evil - and evil breeds hatred and contempt - much like we see at Bismark in North Dakota.
In those other places - where many lack spirituality in North Dakota - palefaces - fearing the future - because they stole the land.
We must be prepared - we must be vigilant - but most of all - we must fortify ourselves with principles unwritten - the indigenous spiritual way - that has always brought - victory - amazing. | <urn:uuid:c1670f1b-1a96-4be0-bd65-eb3e75d11756> | CC-MAIN-2018-05 | http://kilamanjaro-kilamanjaro.blogspot.com/2016/12/few-truly-remember-take-over-of.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-05/segments/1516084892699.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20180123211127-20180123231127-00561.warc.gz | en | 0.94396 | 1,600 | 3.0625 | 3 | {
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The 3rd (Yongle) Ming emperor, died in 1424 and was succeeded by his first son, Zhu Gaochi, with a reign title of Hongxi ("Vast Splendor" or "Vastly Bright"). His temple name Renzong meant "Benevolent Ancestor".
Zhu Gaochi was already quite familiar with managing the imperial administration, when he ascended the throne. The Yongle emperor had declared him Crown Prince twenty years earlier in 1405 and Zhu Gaochi had ruled the empire each time that his father, the Yongle emperor, was away on military campaigns. And that had been quite frequent.
What he possessed in administrative skills he however lacked in health. Suffering from gout he already passed away in May 1425, just nine months after ascending the throne as emperor of the Ming Dynasty.
The Hongxi Emperor was a genuinely able and humane ruler. He had great compassion for common people and understood well that the glue that bound the empire together depended as much upon the "lower" folks than it did upon those at the higher end of the social scale.
His compassion is demonstrated through old records, which tell of how he ordered officials to open up government barns and give free corn to people who were eating grass seeds due to a severe famine.
Zhu Gaochi loyally followed his father's instructions of building a new capital in Beijing and moving the court there.
But unlike his father, Zhu Gaochi did not believe it necessary to have the capital so close to the northern Mongolian archenemies to safeguard the northern borders.
Soon after ascending the throne he announced his intentions of abandoning the Yongle Emperor's Forbidden City and brand new capital in Beijing. He planned to move the entire court back to Nanjing, which he considered to be the natural capital of the Ming dynasty -close to its dynastic origin.
However, as fate would have it, Zhu Gaochi passed away before he could implement any of his plans. Beijing would have been a very different city today if he had lived for just another few years!
The Hongxi Emperor passed away aged 48 in Qin'andian (Hall of Imperial Peace) of the Forbidden City in May 1425, leaving behind Empress Zhang, 10 sons and 7 daughters.
Fortunately for the empire, Empress Zhang was a wise person. She maintained a significant influence as empress dowager not only on the subsequent reign of her eldest son, the Xuande emperor, but even to some extent on the subsequent regent, the Zhengtong emperor. She was respected by the gentry and was a pillar of stability until she passed away in 1442.
The Hongxi Emperor's mausoleum has a unique layout.
In front and east of the main mausoleum was the administration (A) and the sacrificial Kitchen (K).
The Memorial Stele (M) today sits rather isolated down a small footpath.
The some 580 years old bridges crossing the small water flow are still extant (B1 and B2).
The ceremonial and burial sections are completely separate and spaced apart almost 200m.
Moreover, the two main sections and the memorial stele are not entirely aligned on the Sacred Way.
One of the reasons for the unusal design is the flow of a river which snakes in front of both sections. Another is the fact that there is a hill between the two sections.
The water flow has been left undisturbed since year 1425; even the small loop (L) remains in place until today.
The northern section of the mausoleum has recently been restored but unfortunately remains closed to the general public.
His short reign did not allot enough time for the Hongxi Emperor to construct a magnificent mausoleum for himself.
But he at least had the privilege of being entombed in a mausoleum adjacent to that of his famous father, the Yongle Emperor.
Subsequent Ming emperors obviously had to find suitable tomb sites further and further away from the geomantic optimal site of Changling.
The Hongxi Emperor's mausoleum is named Xianling and is located in front of the western peak of the Huangshan Temple Ridge just 1-2 kilometers north-northwest of Changling. On a clear day the memorial tower of Xianling is clearly visible from the Minglou of Changling (photo above).
Construction of Xianling commenced in July 1425 and lasted 18 years. The total mausoleum spans an area of some 42,000 square meters.
Being a thrifty person the Hongxi Emperor had decreed that he only wanted a simple burial and that little resources be spent on his mausoleum.
His wishes were heard and Xianling only has the basic structures of an imperial tomb of the early 15th Century. Compared to his father's mausoleum next door Xianling is indeed quite frugal.
But what Xianling might miss in size and splendor it has in abundance in uniqueness. The mausoleum is divided into two distinct and separate sections spaced apart almost 200 meters with a hill in between!
The sacrificial area in the south contains the usual front gate and sacrificial hall. The area was originally enwalled, but there are now no remnants of the wall.
The northern, burial section contains the usual Double-pillar gate, stone vessels, Soul Tower and, of course, the Precious Mound itself. The triple-door gate in front of the burial section incidentally doubles up as a "front" gate of this section.
The unusual divided layout demonstrated respect for nature by not removing the hill that was "in the way". Moreover, the hill "in the middle" added significant postive "qi" -'essence of life'- to the mausoleum since geomancers ranked mountains the highest in terms of producing "qi".
As if that wasn't enough the natural water flow in this area was such that not one, but two natural creeks flowed by the front of the mausoleum, retaining positive qi in conformance with good geomancy. One creek passed in front of the sacrificial section and the other in front of the burial section (photo).
Pushing "fast forward" till today, the layout and the fact that the southern section lies unrestored offer an unparalleled opportunity to explore the ruins of an imperial Ming tomb. In fact, it's the only unrestored ceremonial section of a Ming emperor tomb that you can explore unhindered. By the way, when you do please respect the cultural relics when walking around this area.
2016: The front section of the mausoleum has now been fenced off to the public.
Start your exploration by parking your vehicle at the small rest stop (the Britons would call that a "layby") marked (P) on the map right. Cross the road and walk further on along the road side until the sharp bend right. On your left is the beginning of a small footpath -marked "path" on the map.
You are now at the start of your personal archaological excursion into the Ming dynastic mausoleum layout.
Less than 60 meter down the path you arrive at the memorial stele, which is easy to spot from a distance. The stele carries no inscription in line with other Ming mausoleums.
Interestingly, only the tortoise stele of the entire tomb is perfectly oriented on a north-south axis.
It is in reasonable condition although the original square building sheltering it has long since collapsed. Only a low remnant of the base wall still stands.
A little further straight ahead (don't take the path that branches off to the right) you will cross an old bridge erected back when Xianling was constructed in the late 1420's. This bridge is marked (B1) on my map.
Turn left after crossing the small bridge and follow the southern bank of the creek. When you arrive at the point where it curves back north you should look straight east. Some 70-100 meter ahead you can see a small incline on which the original adminstration complex stood. It has now been recovered as farm land by the local population.
Follow the northbound creek another 50 meters until you arrive at the bridge marked (B2) on my map. Also this bridge stems from the late 1420's and led from the memorial stele across the creek to the Sacred Kitchen complex.
The Sacred Kitchen complex used to lie next to the administration area but it has suffered the same fate as its neighbor, plowed down to allow for farming.
If you go to the area where the kitchen used to be and look carefully around then you can still find 500+ years old tile shards from the roof of the original buildings!
Back to the creek. Soon amongst some trees the creek bends right (east) where it meets up with the county road. The banks of the creek were reinforced with stone which has survived until today except where the roots of the trees are pushing their way through (photo left)..
Emerging from the little grove the creek now just runs alongside the road looking like any other ditch. Perhaps that's why most people do not realize its historic significance.
One last interesting point. Across the road from the rest stop the creek still forms a small loop, which has been there according to centuries' old maps. The loop is likely protected as a historic relic as otherwise the local farmers would likely have farmed it away a long time ago.
Whereas the burial section has been restored, the southern section has long since fallen into total disrepair and by now only a few segments made of stone or ceramics remain. In fact, the area is littered with tile shards from the collapsed roof.
It lies hidden in a small grove off the beaten path so unless you know where and what to look for you'd easily miss this section. Only a small footpath leads from the country road into the former glorious mausoleum.
Again, start from the rest stop and go forward along the road without crossing it. No more than 20 meters from the rest stop an almost concealed footpath on your right leads up a small incline, which ends in the entrance to the ceremonial section front gate.
The front gate platform is almost buried under soil and dead foliage. The gate itself was originally a 3x1 bay building with a single-eave gabled roof covered with yellow glazed tiles. Additional support columns in front and back added to the visual impression as well as a strengthening of the roof construction.
Apparently, the gate only had one door in the center. It was equipped with the traditional wooden threshold. The stone foundations of the door details are still clearly visible in the rear part of the gate platform (photo).
A wide flight of three stairs led from the back of the gate to the sacrificial courtyard (photo). The inner Sacred Way leading from the gate to the sacrificial hall is still clearly visible having been made of stone.
The sacrificial hall was a large 5 bay wide and 3 bay deep building covered with a yellow glazed tile roof.
The elevated stone platform in front of the main hall was quite large, almost of the same width as the hall itself.
Three flights of stairs led up to the platform in the front and one flight on each side. The decoration of the center Danbi stone is quite simple with just mountains and clouds and no dragon.
The large hill separating the two sections of the mausoleum is taller than both tomb sections.
Folklore has it that the emperor had an affair with his aunt and hence the hill will forever cast shame on him by not allowing the ceremonial offerings in the front section reach the rear burial section. The validity of the tale is doubtful considering the emperor's good-natured personality.
The official -and maybe more proper name of the hill is "Jade Table Mountain".
A small foot path winds through a plantation up to the top of the hill. From there you have a perfect view of the entire Xianling mausoleum (photo).
The burial section further north is surprisingly not constructed on the center line of the Innner Sacred way but a little west thereof.
But a pleasant surprise in in store for you when arriving here; - a view of a perfectly restored triple gate and a nicely restored triple-arch bridge in front.
Like its southern partner the northern section had also fallen into disrepair, but here the authorities recently allocated resources for a major overhaul of the entire burial section.
The triple gate serves as the front entrance to the burial section. It has been restored to its original splendor with a roof of yellow-glazed tiles in typical imperial style.
The base parts of the Double-Pillar Gate (Lingxingmen) have been fully restored but the uprights, the roofed cross section and the wooden doors themselves no longer exist.
The stone altar with its five symbolic stone vessels has also been brought back to their original early 15th century state.
Also the "Square City" and the Soul Tower on top have underwent major archaeological "surgery". The brick base has been cleaned up and repaired and the tower has been equipped with a new roof -of course covered with the traditional imperial yellow-glazed tiles (oh yes, and the usual lightening rods).
The Hongxi Emperor took only one wife in his life, empress Zhang.
She was from Yongcheng County (still today's Yongcheng County in Henan Province) and entered the imperial palace in 1395 as a consort to the then heir of Prince of Yan.
In 1399 she gave birth to the later Xuande emperor and in 1404 she was promoted to princess when her husband's father took the throne.
She was bestowed the title of empress in 1424 when her husband became emperor of the Ming dynasty. She then became Empress Dowager when her husband passed away already in 1425. This title changed to Grand Empress Dowager when her grandson, the Zhengtong Emperor, ascended the throne in 1435.
She was a powerful and influential woman, who played a significant and stabilizing role in the two reigns that followed that of her husband. Notably the reign of her grandson, emperor Zhengtong, was at first peaceful and prosperous -not least due to her guiding hand. Empress Zhang died in 1442 and was entombed in Xianling.
As was still customary at the time, 10 concubines were buried in Xianling along with the Hongxi Emperor and Empress Zhang. They were among others Noble Consort Gongsu and consorts Zhenjingjing, Gongjingchong, Gongxishun, Hui'anli and Zhenhuisu. This horrific custom of immolation would survive another few years.
Xianling has never been opened and has likely not been robbed. Considering the frugality of the Hongxi Emperor there may also not be a lot of loot to be found inside the burial chamber? | <urn:uuid:0f3ec792-d18d-4cc8-bd4f-807aae7d4cbd> | CC-MAIN-2017-22 | http://mingtombs.eu/emp/04hongxi/hongxi.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-22/segments/1495463607862.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20170524211702-20170524231702-00501.warc.gz | en | 0.968796 | 3,107 | 3.140625 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 2.8366034030914307,
"reasoning_level": 3,
"interpretation": "Strong reasoning"
} | History |
What is Astrophysics?http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrophysics popular
Information and resources on Alternative Astronomy, Astronomers, Cosmology, Eclipses, Occultations, Extrasolar Planets, Galaxies, Interstellar Medium, Observatories, Planetariums, Research Groups and Centers, Solar System, Star Clusters, Stars, etc.\ Astrophysics (Greek: Astro - meaning "star", and Greek: physis – φύσις - meaning "nature") is the branch of astronomy that deals with the physics of the universe, including the physical properties of celestial objects, as well as their interactions and behavior. Among the objects studied are galaxies, stars, planets, exoplanets, the interstellar medium and the cosmic microwave background. Their emissions are examined across all parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, and the properties examined include luminosity, density, temperature, and chemical composition. The study of cosmology addresses questions of astrophysics at scales much larger than the size of particular gravitationally-bound objects in the universe. Because astrophysics is a very broad subject, astrophysicists typically apply many disciplines of physics, including mechanics, electromagnetism, statistical mechanics, thermodynamics, quantum mechanics, relativity, nuclear and particle physics, and atomic and molecular physics. In practice, modern astronomical research involves a substantial amount of physics. The name of a university's department ("astrophysics" or "astronomy") often has to do more with the department's history than with the contents of the programs. Astrophysics can be studied at the bachelors, masters, and Ph.D. levels in aerospace engineering, physics, or astronomy departments at many universities. Although astronomy is as ancient as recorded history itself, it was long separated from the study of physics. In the Aristotelian worldview, the celestial world tended towards perfection—bodies in the sky seemed to be perfect spheres moving in perfectly circular orbits—while the earthly world seemed destined to imperfection; these two realms were not seen as related. Aristarchus of Samos (c. 310–250 BC) first put forward the notion that the motions of the celestial bodies could be explained by assuming that the Earth and all the other planets in the Solar System orbited the Sun. Unfortunately, in the geocentric world of the time, Aristarchus' heliocentric theory was deemed outlandish and heretical. For centuries, the apparently common-sense view that the Sun and other planets went round the Earth nearly went unquestioned until the development of Copernican heliocentrism in the 16th century AD. This was due to the dominance of the geocentric model developed by Ptolemy (c. 83-161 AD), a Hellenized astronomer from Roman Egypt, in his Almagest treatise.
Submitted in section: Astrophysics: What is Astrophysics? | <urn:uuid:f44f6640-f84b-4229-a66a-6a2c50b9b388> | CC-MAIN-2017-09 | http://www.paraseek.com/db/What_is_Astrophysics__133992.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-09/segments/1487501170992.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20170219104610-00365-ip-10-171-10-108.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935762 | 599 | 2.921875 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 2.6194067001342773,
"reasoning_level": 3,
"interpretation": "Strong reasoning"
} | Science & Tech. |
Zim - A Desktop Wiki
Each notebook consists of a set of pages. Each page can contain, text, images and links to other pages. The pages can be arranged in a hierarchical index.
Page names use a ":" as a path separator for pages that are nested in the hierarchy. So the name "Foo:Bar" refers to a page names "Bar" that is nested below a page "Foo".
+ Foo `--- Bar
The parent page is sometimes also referred to as a notebook "section" in which the page is store. So in this case the page "Bar" is said to be part of the section "Foo". Which is the same as saying that "Bar" is a sub-page of "Foo". Sections can be used to organize notebooks. Also sometimes sections are used for special purposes, for example the Journal plugin uses a section like ":Journal:" to contain all journal pages.
There are various ways to refer to other pages, either by absolute or relevant links. E.g. the page "Foo:Bar" can be linked from "Foo" as ":Foo:Bar" but also as "+Bar". For more details see Links. The editor tries to automatically turn page names into links, as a special case you can use "CamelCase" to make page names more recognizable and make the auto-formatting easier. See Auto Formatting and Preferences.
There are a number of characters that are forbidden in page names, these are: "?", "#", "/", "\\", "*", '"', "<", ">", "|" and "%". These are forbidden because they have a special meaning in the zim wiki syntax or because they can not be encoded on common file systems.
Pages can have attachments, for example images, data files, related documents etc. See Attachments for more details.
New Page Dialog
The New Page dialog prompts for a page name and then creates a new page with the specified name. To create a page that is nested in the hierarchy, specify it with a ":" in between the parts of the hierarchy.
New Sub Page Dialog
This dialog is similar to the New Page dialog, but it creates a new child page of the current page. So no need to specify the full hierarchy path.
Jump To Dialog
This dialog is intended to jump to a specified page. It is actually hardly different from the New Page dialog except that it resolves page names relative to the current page and does not immediately create a new page. However you can always create new pages by jumping to a page that does not yet exist and start editing.
When you select "Delete Page" by default zim will try to trash the page and all it's sub pages and attachments - that means all files that are in the folder below the text file for the page. If you deleted something on accident you should be able to recover the data from your system's trash can. After recovering data you probable need to run "Re-build Index" from the "Tools" menu to make sure zim indexes the data again.
If zim is not able to move data to the trash can it will offer to delete the data permanently. In this case a dialog is shown to ask for confirmation which includes a detailed list of files to be deleted.
If you don't like to use the trash by default (e.g. for notebooks that contain sensitive data) there is an option in the notebook config file to disable the trash. In this case the confirmation dialog will always be shown on "delete page". | <urn:uuid:82823808-1cd1-4019-a01b-f7bcd42f15a5> | CC-MAIN-2018-09 | http://zim-wiki.org/manual/Help/Pages.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-09/segments/1518891813691.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20180221163021-20180221183021-00035.warc.gz | en | 0.905818 | 742 | 2.75 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 1.7224198579788208,
"reasoning_level": 2,
"interpretation": "Moderate reasoning"
} | Software |
Academic scholarships are one of the most common types of scholarships available to students. These scholarships are awarded based on a student’s academic performance, such as their GPA, standardized test scores, and class ranking. They can range from small amounts to full tuition coverage, and are often renewable each year as long as the student maintains a certain GPA. Academic scholarships are highly competitive, and students should focus on maintaining good grades and constantly striving for academic excellence to increase their chances of receiving one. For expanding your understanding of the subject, we suggest exploring this thoughtfully chosen external site. Scholarship, uncover supplementary details and intriguing perspectives on the topic.
Athletic scholarships are awarded to students who have demonstrated exceptional athletic ability in a specific sport. These scholarships are often offered by colleges and universities to recruit talented athletes to their sports teams. To be eligible for an athletic scholarship, students need to excel in their chosen sport and catch the attention of college coaches through their performance in high school competitions. Athletic scholarships can provide students with the opportunity to continue playing their favorite sport at a higher level while also earning a college education.
Merit-based scholarships are awarded to students based on their accomplishments and talents in a variety of areas, such as academics, arts, community service, leadership, or a particular skill set. Unlike academic scholarships that focus solely on grades, merit-based scholarships consider a wider range of qualifications. These scholarships aim to reward students who have shown exceptional abilities and achievements outside of the traditional classroom setting. Students applying for merit-based scholarships should highlight their unique talents and experiences to stand out among other applicants.
Need-based scholarships are awarded to students who demonstrate financial need. These scholarships are intended to help students from low-income backgrounds afford a college education. Financial need is typically determined through a thorough evaluation of a family’s income, assets, and other financial obligations. Need-based scholarships can be a crucial lifeline for students who would otherwise struggle to pay for their education. It’s important for students and their families to thoroughly research and understand the eligibility criteria and application process for these scholarships.
Minority scholarships are specifically designed to support students from underrepresented racial and ethnic backgrounds. These scholarships aim to promote diversity and equality in higher education by providing financial assistance to minority students. Minority scholarships are available for various minority groups, including African American, Hispanic, Asian American, Native American, and LGBTQ+ students, among others. Students belonging to these minority groups should actively seek out and apply for scholarships that are targeted towards their specific background in order to increase their chances of receiving financial aid. To gain a fuller comprehension of the topic, explore this external site we’ve picked for you. Check out this informative content, explore new perspectives and additional information on the topic.
Understanding the different types of scholarships available can help students navigate the complex world of higher education funding. Whether it’s through academic achievements, athletic prowess, unique talents, financial need, or minority status, there are scholarships out there for almost every student. It’s important for students to research and apply for scholarships that align with their individual strengths and circumstances. By taking advantage of the various scholarships available, students can alleviate some of the financial burden associated with pursuing a college education and open doors to new and exciting opportunities.
Explore more about the subject in the related posts we suggest. Enjoy: | <urn:uuid:ca3a1783-83a9-4873-8b30-e482c04fc284> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://ncordchurch.com/understanding-the-different-types-of-scholarships/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474573.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20240225003942-20240225033942-00078.warc.gz | en | 0.957709 | 680 | 2.65625 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 1.9713956117630005,
"reasoning_level": 2,
"interpretation": "Moderate reasoning"
} | Education & Jobs |
Baptist Sunday School Board's first
published hymnal helps standardize worship in Southern Baptist
Trustees change name from Baptist
Female University to Baptist University for Women. Baptist
University for Women Students publish the first yearbook, Oak
Formation of the Northern Baptist
Convention; attempt to integrate work of various special-purpose
societies (now the American Baptist Churches, USA).
A general meeting of all the three
societies-Foreign, Home and Publication-met to set up the
Northern Baptist Convention.
Laymen’s Missionary Union of the
Southern Baptist Convention organize. Purpose was for world
mission. A counterpart to the already established Women’s
Missionary Union (WMU).
Southern and Northern Baptist
Conventions formally divided the country following WW II, the
SBC abandoned regional limitations and spread across the
The first Congress of European
Baptists, meeting at Berlin.
The Annie Walker Armstrong building
in Burnsville, NC was dedicated in appreciation for her service.
Southwestern Baptist Theological
Seminary is founded.
Baptist Historical Society founded.
The American Baptist Missionary
Union (ABMU) becomes the American Baptist Foreign Mission
First known paid Sunday School
Superintendent (pastoral staff),1st Baptist, Dallas.
Southwestern Theological Seminary moves to Fort Worth, TX.
Merger of the Free Will Baptists
with the Northern Baptist Convention.
The Ministers and Missionaries
Benefit Board (M&M) founded.
Second Congress of Baptist World
Alliance at Philadelphia.
December 24, Death came to the
frail servant of Christ, Lottie Moon, on Christmas Eve aboard
ship in the harbor of Kobe, Japan.
World Wide Guild founded.
Founded in 1913 in Nanjing, China
as a women's Christian college, Ginling College officially opens
with eight students and six teachers. It was supported by four
missions: the Northern Baptists, the Disciples of Christ, the
Methodists, and the Presbyterians.
M.H. Wolfe of the SBC moved to
amend and revise articles of the Constitution in order to create
one strong executive board.
I.J. Van Ness is elected third
chief executive of the Baptist Sunday School Board.
Executive Commitee formed to
oversee all SBC ministries.
New Orleans Baptist Theological
Seminary is founded.
James Bruton Gambrell is elected
president of the SBC.
1917 Oswald Chambers (b. 1874),
Scottish Bible teacher and evangelical mystic, died. The son of
a Scottish Baptist pastor, Chambers was converted after hearing
C. H. Spurgeon preach. While studying for the Baptist ministry,
Chambers met William Quarrier and from him learned a simplicity
of faith and prayer. For three years he worked as a traveling
missioner for the Pentecostal League of Prayer (founded by
Reader Harris). He then became principal of the League's Bible
Training College at Clapham Common in London. Chambers died in
1917 in Egypt after two years of working as a YMCA chaplain
among the desert troops. He was a man of mystic faith and
intense prayer who taught that the Christian life was to be a
victorious one. His most important book is his classic
devotional "My Utmost for His Highest", still in print and
available in several languages.
White Cross project to help medical
missionaries begun. Effects of the Landmark still evident,
Baptist Standard editor J.B. Gambrell wrote, "Baptists antedate
the Reformation by many long centuries. Spurgeon said with a
good view of truth: "Baptists sprang directly from the loins of
Christ and his Apostles."
At Denver convention of the NBC the
New World Movement was launched. This was an effort to collect
$10 million between 1919-1924. Money was to be used to
strengthen Baptist work at home, overseas, and ecumenical
projects. The movement was able to raise $45,009,378.04.
$75 million campaign launched by
the Southern Baptist Convention, it was an effort to raise $75
million between the years 1919-1924.
As with the NBC the SBC didn't have
much success because of the world war economy. Raised
The SBC considers requiring FMB
missionary candidates to subscribe to "A Statement of Belief"
but rejects the proposal.
Curtis Lee Laws, editor of the
Baptist Watchman-Examiner, coins the term fundamentalist.
Conservatives in the Northern
Baptist Convention organize the Fundamentalist Fellowship to
combat spreading liberalism.
Baptist Mid-Missions formed; Church
of the Nazarene enters Syria.
The Baptist book store operation begins.
The department of survey,
statistics and information begins.
controversy of the 1920's which marks a time of great debate
between the Fundamentalist W.B. Riley and the Modernist George
Foster, 1858-1918, Walter Rauschenbusch, 1861-1918.
Cooperative Program Formed by the
Southern Baptist. Encouraged the churches to send their
offerings for denominational ministries and state conventions.
The states would keep a portion and send the rest to the SBC
office in Nashville. It was a victory for the fundamentalist.
Georgia Baptists adopt the
The 1925 Confession of Faith was
adopted despite much opposition.
The SBC issued a statement on
Relation of Southern Baptist Convention to Other Baptist Bodies.
The Baptist Sunday School Board
assumes responsibility from the Southern Baptist Convention
Executive Committee for the operation of Ridgecrest Baptist
Eleven American Baptist Foreign
Mission Society Missionaries die as martyrs for the Gospel of
Jesus Christ at Hopevale in the Philippines during WWII.
Southern Baptist Convention
received some California churches into its membership violating
the Fortress Monroe Conference committee agreements and
beginning the expansion of Southern Baptists into all the United
Organization of the Conservative
Baptist Foreign Mission Society; leads to secession from the
Northern Baptist Convention in 1947
Founding of American Baptist
Assembly and Green Lake, Wisconsin.
Golden Gate Baptist Theological
Seminary is founded.
Following controversy and heated
debate, a resolution is passed at Grand Rapids convention
stating: "We reaffirm our faith in the New Testament as divinely
inspired record and therefore trustworthy, authoritative and
all-sufficient rule of our faith and practice..."
Southern Baptist Foundation is
Conservative Baptists formed,
leaving Northern Baptists.
Conservative Baptist Foreign
Mission Society begins work among the Senufo tribe in Cote
d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast).
Northern Baptist Convention (NBC)
changed name to American Baptist Convention (ABC).
First World Fellowship Offering,
now the World Mission Offering, WMO.
Northern Baptist Convention becomes
one of the founding communions of the National Council of
Churches of Christ.
Approximatley 77,000 Baptist
American Baptist Foreign Mission
Society and Woman's American Baptist Foreign Mission.
Society merge administrative
functions leading to a merger in 1968.
American Baptist Home Mission
Society and Woman's American Baptist Home Mission Society merge
Auca Indians kill Jim Elliot, Nate
Saint, Ed McCully, Pete Fleming, and Roger Youderian in Ecuador.
National offices of American
Baptist Convention moved to Valley Forge, PA.
The SBC at its annual meeting
approved a motion to revisit the 1925 Baptist Faith and Message
and "present...some similar statement which shall serve as
information to the churches." The committee comprised the
"presidents of the various state Conventions" (as qualified by
Bylaw 18), with the motion also indicating "It is understood
that any group or individuals may approach this committee to be
September 18, the Russian Baptists
broke from their forced union with other evangelicals, forming
their own organization, the CCECB—the Council of Churches of
Evangelical Believers, Baptists.
In response to "demands" of a Black
Caucus, the General Council of the ABC provided for fuller
participation in denominational leadership.
Merger of the ABFMS and the WABFMS
American Baptist Convention and
Progressive National Baptist Convention entered into an
The SBC Foreign Mission Board
introduces a requirement that missionary candidates respond to a
question concerning the Baptist Faith and Message. The question
asked is "Are your doctrinal beliefs in substantial agreement
with those printed in Baptist Faith & Message (1963) and adopted
by the Southern Baptist Convention in 1963?"
Implementation of recommendations
of Study Commision on Denominational Structure (SCODS); General
Council replaced by a more representative 200 member General
Board, office of the General Secretary strengthened, and name
changed to "American Baptist Churches, USA".
Under restructuring the American
Baptist Foreign Mission Society (ABFMS) becomes the Board of
International Ministries (BIM), the American Baptist Home
Mission Society becomes the Board of National Ministries (BNM),
and the American Baptist Board of Education and Publication
(ABBEP) becomes the Board of Educational Ministries (BEM).
The American Baptist Churches and
the Church of the Brethren move toward an associated
relationship to begin in 1973.
The SBC FMB changes the question
for missionary candidates concerning the BF&M to "Are you
familiar with the contents of the Baptist Faith & Message? Are
you in substantial agreement with this statement? Please cite
and explain the areas of differences in beliefs and/or
Grady C. Cothen is elected sixth
chief executive of the Baptist Sunday School Board.
First Retired Ministers and
Missionaries Offering collected (RMMO).
(Sept. 6) Date of letter by Paul
Pressler to Bill Powell proposing an organized campaign to
change the SBC's leadership at the 1979 convention. In the
letter he wrote "I do not believe in fighting a battle unless
there is a good chance of winning. If we fight and lose, we lose
credibility. Therefore, I think it is imperative that we plan,
organize, and effectively promote what we are trying to do
before we attempt any strong action."
33 million members in the Baptist
World Alliance (1/3 were Southern Baptists).
The SBC adopted its first definition of the Cooperative Program,
defining it as undesignated gifts only.
The Baptist Hymnal is translated
Recommendations of a two-year study
on Women in Ministry, commissioned by the Minister's Council in
1977, approved by the Council.
Fundamentalist burrowing of the SBC
Conservative Southern Baptists
began to take control of the SBC.
Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is
Baptist Theological Seminary at
Richmond opens for classes.
Baptist Center for Ethics begins.
A new denominational emphasis, ABC
2000: Renewed for Mission, is launched at the San Jose Biennial.
Mercer University's Board of
Trustees votes in June to establish a School of Theology. | <urn:uuid:b0098cf8-4d48-45cb-8a3e-71cd1e096241> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.reformedreader.org/history/timeline/20thcentury.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560282932.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095122-00506-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.904699 | 2,387 | 2.703125 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 2.6751089096069336,
"reasoning_level": 3,
"interpretation": "Strong reasoning"
} | Religion |
Recent breakthroughs in technology mean that solar heating is now more efficient and cost-effective than ever before. Whereas traditional solar panel based heating systems relied on a traditional boiler, new style systems use a combination boiler as a back-up, rendering the whole thing more energy efficient. It almost goes without saying that if the system is more energy efficient, the user will save money, and may even increase their feed in rate.
All that aside, there is a question of how popular solar heating is. While the basic technology has been in place for years, the cost of the product meant that few people were able to take it up – the costs simply didn’t match the savings – and it wasn’t until the UK government introduced incentives (such as Feed In Tariffs) that solar panels became something of a ‘must have’ item.
However, since August of this year, the FIT rate dropped from a maximum of 21p per unit to 16p per unit and analysts have been watching to see what effect this may have. While it will be some time before we get true data, there was an inevitable spike in system sales prior to August, the early signs are encouraging.
From January to March 2012, around 100,000 solar panel systems were installed in homes around the UK (with 99% of those partaking in the FIT scheme). To put this into context, these numbers are backed up with research data that shows that 83% of UK residents are fully supportive of solar heating systems.
These numbers are certainly impressive and point to a large amount of good feeling surrounding solar heating.
But the question of the FIT does continue to raise its head. Many are suggesting that while the spike of early summer is unlikely to be repeated any time soon, the fall in the FIT rate shouldn’t effect solar panel system sales much, if at all. Why? Simply put, because the systems are now cheaper.
In the early days of the scheme, systems were still quite expensive so it made sense for the FIT to be a little high. As the cost of systems fell, it was felt that the FIT was in danger of over-incentivising people which negated the point of the scheme. So, while it may seem unfair that your neighbour receives an extra 5p per unit of electricity fed back to the grid, it is very likely that your system cost far less to buy and install.
With electricity prices continuing to rise, and advancements in technology making solar heating more accessible and cost-effective than ever, it seems there is no end to the popularity of solar panels. | <urn:uuid:4e2e93d8-160d-41d4-ae0b-7c55ef08eae4> | CC-MAIN-2020-05 | http://www.cheaplikemeblog.com/energy/how-popular-is-solar-heating/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579250597230.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20200120023523-20200120051523-00264.warc.gz | en | 0.974164 | 533 | 2.546875 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 2.9718525409698486,
"reasoning_level": 3,
"interpretation": "Strong reasoning"
} | Science & Tech. |
Verrucae, also known as plantar warts, are a viral infection at the base of the foot, or in the toes. The virus may be contracted from a previously infected person, or from sharing an environment such as common bathrooms, changing rooms, swimming pools or locker rooms of the gym. Verrucae can also occur on skin that has a sore or a wound previously.
Verrucae are usually harmless to health, but can cause pain while walking. Continued pressure on the plantar wart can also cause back, hip or leg pain. People with compromised immunity are susceptible to the contraction of verrucae. Formation of verrucae is also risky in diabetics. If you are worried about verrucae infection, please contact CuraFoot Clinic for an appointment.
Verrucae can often be mistaken as corns since these also look like black dots that are painful. The primary difference between corns and plantar warts is the absence of skin striations in the latter. For corns, the striated skin is visible on the area which is not there for verrucae.
Verrucae is contagious and can occur if you share the same area with an infected person. To prevent verrucae formation, it is best to avoid the skin from touching the floor in areas such as changing rooms. In addition, it is best to not share socks and shoes with anyone, since that can spread the virus. In case you are using shared locations, use a disinfectant to clean your feet at the earliest to mitigate the chances of infection.
Children are usually more prone to the contraction of plantar warts, and it is best to maintain hygiene by keeping separate towels and not being bare feet in public areas.
There are a few Over–The–Counter (OTC) creams or plasters that doctors can recommend as a treatment for verrucae. Based on the diagnosis and the doctor’s recommendations, the following modes of treatment can be adapted to treat verrucae:
- Salicylic acid: Creams or foot plasters that have salicylic acid as a component can be very useful in the treatment of plantar warts.
- Cryotherapy: Sometimes cryotherapy is used in case of adults for the treatment of verrucae. This involves the freezing of the wart using liquid nitrogen, and the process can be continued till the wart disappears. However, this may cause blisters in the adjoining area and can cause pain or irritation during the process. It is usually not a therapy recommended for children.
In case a person with diabetes contracts warts, it is better to consult a foot specialist immediately, since a foot infection or a sore can develop into further complications for diabetics. | <urn:uuid:5ccfa9cc-ff2f-4717-85c8-4c948fa4aeb8> | CC-MAIN-2022-49 | https://clinic.curafoot.in/conditions-and-treatments/verrucae/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-49/segments/1669446711017.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20221205132617-20221205162617-00308.warc.gz | en | 0.955669 | 583 | 2.828125 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 1.26907479763031,
"reasoning_level": 1,
"interpretation": "Basic reasoning"
} | Health |
Kafka began his career with an Italian company, Assicurazioni Generali, with offices in Prague. That company, formally known as Imperial Regia Privilegiata Compagnia di Assicurazioni Generali Austro-Italiche (the name should give an indication of its operation), was closely associated with the port of Trieste, in Italy, the largest, busiest port of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
In 1908, after two years of employment, Kafka left that firm to take up a more prestigious position with The Workmen’s Accident Insurance Institute for the Kingdom of Bohemia in Prague, a semigovernmental institution responsible for administering insurance in the province of Bohemia, but answerable to Vienna k.u.k.—kaiserlich und königlich, imperial and royal,” its autocratic description—crownseat of the Crownlands. Bohemia was just one of 18 provinces of an Empire that stretched from the German Reich to the Russian wilds, and Prague, Bohemia’s capital, Kafka’s home and birthplace, was only the third city of that Empire, after Vienna, capital of Cisleithania, and Budapest, capital of Transleithania, or the Kingdom of Hungary—dealings between provinces were complicated; the Empire’s fetish for organization led only to chaos.
A cylindrical safety shaft from the engineering works of Bohumil Voleský, Prague-Lieben.”
Prague, then, was half-metropolis, half-provincial, a dark, Gothic city where German-speakers lived alongside ethnic Czechs, while political allegiance was split between German-language fealty to Empire and Czech desires for self-determination, finally realized by T.G. Masaryk in 1918 with the founding of the first Czechoslovak Republic. These two factions were united by an envying mistrust of the Reich, and also by the mediating presence of Socialists and Jews—two minority designations that often applied to the same set of people. They could be found at solidarity meetings one day, then on the next night at the Altneu synagogue, in whose attic lives the Golem. Across the Vltava River, known in German as the Moldau, loomed The Castle”—Das Schloß, also known as the Hrad.
Workers’ Accident Insurance was first established in Europe due to a multitude of factors, not least this rise of socialism. The Germanic Socialist workers’ movements of the late 19th century—practical embodiments of Marxist thought, infused with French esprit as perfected in the insubordination of the 1871 Paris Commune—arose in response to the growth of industry, which demanded practical and fair relief from its efforts to effectuate Modernity. A balm had to be found in this newly technological Gilead to heal workers’ injuries incurred in the service of the Industrial Revolution. The Empire’s comprehensive workers’ accident insurance plan was based on that of the German Reich, which unified in the same year as the Commune appeared, 1871. Marx began his work in the 1840s in the Reich’s strongest territory: Prussia.
Unlike the multinational Empire, however, Germany was a nation-state: It was both a state responsible for practical administration, and a nation interested in preserving national character—a character defined by perceived mental and physical fitness, and even superiority, suffused with folk vestiges of the Romantic movement. Accordingly, the welfare of Germany’s workers was intimately bound up in ideas of commonweal, and common origins. The Empire, by contrast, was a multinational hodgepodge that had to create a social welfare state if not out of concern for its disparate workforce, then to maintain its fractious coalitions—to placate its competing nationalisms and political platforms, and to counteract the agitation of anarchist and secessionist groups (such as the one that spawned the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand early in the next century). It might follow, then, that workers’ insurance helped keep the Empire together at a time of divergent allegiances. It might follow, also, that Marx’s Socialist doctrine can be read as a pretext—truly, a pre-text —to legislation that provided insurance to workers helping to bring about a revolutionarily capitalist, consumer society.
In 1887, four years after Kafka’s birth, the Empire implemented its policy of workers’ accident insurance, and founded its Institutes. Unlike in the Reich, the Empire’s insurance was organized according to geographic territories, and not by types of trades. Whereas Germany established a Metalworkers’ Trade Association and a Textileworkers’ Trade Association, the Empire established Prague’s Bohemia branch, which covered all trades throughout Bohemia, and which accepted Kafka for employment after he was finished insuring the best boats, and wealthiest companies, of Trieste (Assicurazioni Generali’s was the oldest type of insurance: Modern commercial insurance was founded two centuries earlier in London to indemnify the first private firms interested in international maritime shipping).
Now, however, Kafka worked not for the mutual benefit of large industry and the Crown, but as a mediator between the concerns of the working class and its management, between that management class and the Institute, and, lastly, between the Institute and Kaiser Franz Joseph in Vienna. Initially, Kafka’s Institute job was as a deputy clerk, or assistant secretary, but he was eventually promoted to become Senior Legal Secretary—an Obersekretär —the indispensable righthand man, a sort of Court Jew, to the organization’s Director, Doctor Robert Marschner (a note about titles: in the office he was always addressed as “Herr Doktor Kafka”). As Obersekretär, Kafka’s responsibilities included risk classification (which involved evaluating the degree of danger of a certain job, and so setting the level of premium to be paid by business owners), and improving the Institute’s efforts at accident prevention. The latter duty required Kafka to dabble in public relations, writing informative bulletins and even popular newspaper articles—his chief outlet was the proletarisch, large-circulation Tetschen-Bodenbacher Zeitung—hoping to educate management, labor, and the general public in advances in workplace safety.
‘The blades of the square shaft are screwed directly to the shaft, and their exposed cutting edges spin at 3800-4000 revolutions per minute.’
“The blades of the square shaft are screwed directly to the shaft, and their exposed cutting edges spin at 3800–4000 revolutions per minute.”
While at night Kafka was writing stories about the infinite and eternal construction of The Great Wall of China, and about a Flying Dutchman set adrift on a deathship, floating forever amid ports of call, during the day he was writing interminable pages about the perils of wood-planing machines (“the introduction of the cylindrical safety shafts in wood-planing machines is finally progressing well”), the perils of chimney-sweeping, and brandy consumption in quarries, problems with automobile insurance (as the majority of cars were then driven by chauffeurs, the vehicles themselves had to be classified as businesses), and the risk classification quandaries posed by the recently electrified elevator (Where is the electrical generator stored? Who, exactly, has access to the elevator’s switches?).
To read these 18 examples of office writing without the context of Kafka’s other work, without knowing who, in fact, Kafka ever was, is essentially to go to work. Here is a sampling of their titles, some provided by the book’s three editors, and others by Kafka himself, or by his newspaper editors: “Fixed-Rate Insurance Premiums for Small Farms Using Machinery”; “On the Examination of Firms by Trade Inspectors”; “Petition of the Toy Producers’ Association in Katharinaberg, Erzgebirge”; and “Help Disabled Veterans! An Urgent Appeal to the Public.” Their style, even more so than the style of Kafka’s stories and novels, is neutral. Their subject matter is expectedly worse: specialist, abstruse, culled from the most humdrum and desiccated of corporate genizahs.
Then again, we should remember that nobody asked us to read them. Sigmund Freud’s laundry lists probably aren’t any better (though they might prove equally as revealing). Indeed, to read the office writings as one is supposed to, like a good student of the Kafkaesque, or a diligent K.-like worker, is instructive: it is to understand Kafka’s art anew, and to be reminded of the discreet, double-life of modern working man, whose true, pleasure-giving interests lie almost entirely outside of the workplace. The Office Writings are the Ur texts to Kafka’s extracurricular fiction, Kafka’s precursors as much as Talmud (which he did not know well), and Hasidic wonder stories, Hamsun and Kierkegaard and von Kleist and Flaubert, Dostoyevsky’s psychological murderers, and Dickens’ urban grotesquerie and grit.
‘The blades of these shafts are completely protected between the flap or between a wedge and the solid frame of the shaft.’
“The blades of these shafts are completely protected between the flap or between a wedge and the solid frame of the shaft.”
The examples of this connectivity are simple—of how the work-work influences the artwork—but the interpretations, and the ramifications, are not. In the aforementioned “Measures for Preventing Accidents from Wood-Planing Machines” of 1910, Kafka argued that the square shafts that supported the blades used to plane wood were responsible for a regrettable number of accidents and maimings, including the loss of parts of fingers, or, rarer, the severance of entire appendages. Because these shafts were square, gaps would appear between the blades screwed to a turning shaft and the lip of a worktable. A worker’s finger would become stuck in these gaps—four gaps for each single revolution of a square shaft, revolving 3800 to 4000 times per minute—resulting in debilitating injuries. Kafka’s solution was innovative, but seems elementary: He proposed to introduce a newly patented model of cylindrical shaft—a round shaft (with its blades hidden under flaps or between wedges) that obviously lacked sharp quadrilateral corners, and so lacked the gaps that would trap, and — in the days before plastic surgery—irreparably harm. Kafka describes how his solution would benefit workers and management (workers would be healthier, and so more productive; the cylinders were even more “cost-effective”), while emphasizing the carnage of such accidents with what, at the time, was a novelty: images, illustrative plates showing both injured hands, and multiple views of the cylindrical shaft. This commissioning was one of the first uses of illustrations in a business report—Franz Kafka, father of multimedia.
‘Even if fingers are caught in the slot, the resulting injuries are slight, consisting merely of lacerations that need not even interrupt work.’
“Even if fingers are caught in the slot, the resulting injuries are slight, consisting merely of lacerations that need not even interrupt work.”
This report can be convincingly linked to Kafka’s “In the Penal Colony.” In that story of inscription as incision, a convicted felon is punished by torture, and death. The vast, unwieldy apparatus that accomplishes this punishment inscribes on the body of this convict the exact nature of his transgression; the sin becomes internalized through the medium of the flesh, in a mark of Cain for the Machine Age. While no introduction of “cylindrical shafts” could overturn such a metaphysical damnation, there is no doubt that the image of a body inscribed by technology springs from Kafka’s arbitrating experience with traumatized workers. Kafka’s deskbound milieux of inscription and accountancy is also where we first hear about the first primitive computer, a variety of calculator known as the Hollerith machine, used for the processing of statistical data using the technology of the “punch card” (the machine’s process was inspired by the practice of punching a railway ticket, and so encoding it with information; the Hollerith’s best success was with the Nazis, in their use of it to schedule the train deportations of European Jewry). In Kafka’s fiction the human body is the Punch Card of Modernity. In modern life, the body has become the storage, “the muscle memory,” and so the casualty, of the workplace—both physiologically, and psychologically.
Another example of Kafka’s appropriation of insurance work is more direct. Often the attractions of philosophical influence, the wisps and correspondences of ideas, and complex technologies, obscure mundane inspirations and models. In 1914, the same year as he wrote “In the Penal Colony,” Kafka wrote a report editorially entitled “Accident Prevention in Quarries.” In it, he faulted quarry owners for paying wages in alcohol, and for allowing workers to work when drunk, and without the proper safety equipment such as goggles (“It is true that safety goggles are frequently issued to the workers, but the men find them impossible to use, or they are prejudiced against using them, so that the goggles are usually found in the workers’ pockets during the workday. Such a situation can exist because supervision of the operation is either inadequate or altogether lacking.”)
Kafka condemned the entire quarrying industry as under-regulated, and accused the sector’s inspectors of not reporting problems, and not recognizing the fundamental nature of the dangers that quarrying posed: “Quarries call for a kind of inspection that differs from that required by other operations. In this work, it is not a matter of safety devices that, once acquired, will last and be useful for long periods of time; what matters is efficient excavation, which has to be planned over and over so as to fit with the ever-changing soil conditions.” These inspectors comprised an inspectorate class emplaced in response to the legal prohibition against the Institute inspecting the premises of any business it insured, in order to protect the businesses’ trade secrets. These inspectorates would prove “independent” in other ways, too, often settling upon widely divergent meanings for workplace safety ratings of “satisfactory,” and “normal”—to Kafka’s displeasure, and the Institute’s incomplete evaluation. Here, in this report, Kafka also introduced photographs, now of delinquent quarries, noting depictions of unsafe conditions such as teetering boulders, and precarious piles of rock.
He writes, about Fig. IV:
“At the very top to the right in the debris, marked with ‘B,’ a loose stone block, 1 cubic meter in size, lies almost suspended above a projecting rock wall. At the center of the picture, marked ‘S,’ a man can be seen working at a dangerous spot, 4 meters above ground, without being attached to a rope. Debris is not removed, and quarrying work has been pushed forward almost to the edge of the walkways shown through the railing.”
With “a loose stone block, 1 cubic meter in size,” we are reminded, palpably, of the chilling last scene in “The Trial”—the execution of Joseph K. This is his sacrifice by two unknown men, his diabolical akeidah.
“Not to leave K. standing motionless, exposed to the night breeze, which was rather chilly, he took him by the arm and walked him up and down a little, while his partner investigated the quarry to find a suitable spot. When he had found it he beckoned, and K.’s companion led him over there. It was a spot near the cliffside where a loose boulder was lying. The two of them laid K. down on the ground, propped him against the boulder, and settled his head upon it.”
This quarry is the site of martyrdom, character’s and author’s—a wounding for the working cause.
This is where one held K.’s throat, “while the other thrust the knife deep into his heart and turned it there twice.” | <urn:uuid:c1c003f0-7d7d-47cf-8641-9f3ab9bbaba8> | CC-MAIN-2015-48 | http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/books/1017/the-office-series-day-three-kafka | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-48/segments/1448398448227.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20151124205408-00209-ip-10-71-132-137.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959356 | 3,534 | 2.609375 | 3 | {
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What is an urologist?
This is a medical professional who focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of injuries and diseases in the urogenital system in men and urinary tract in women. This includes the kidneys, ureters, urethras, adrenal glands, bladders, and the male reproductive organs but not the female reproductive organs, which are treated by gynecologists. The word urology comes from Greek words that mean “the study of urine” and is the name of a surgical subspecialty.
Job description of an urologist
Becoming an urologist you will be dealing with a variety of conditions with some of them pertaining to just adult patients and some pertaining just to children although there are some that can affect both children and adults. The American Urological Association (AUA) lists 8 subspecialties that you can specialize when becoming a licensed urologist. These include:
- Female urology
- Male infertility
- Urinary tract stones
- Pediatric urology
- Erectile dysfunction also known as impotence
- Renal transplantation
- Urologic oncology which refers to tumors.
Being an urologist you will perform a variety of procedures such as:
- High intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU)
- Laser techniques
You will also use a variety of equipment when practicing as an urologist that can include:
- Radiograph machines
- Radium emanation tube
An urologist is also a surgeon that performs various treatments including operations by using different medical equipment like those listed above along with X-rays. They should also know how to use all of the necessary medical equipment that they will use in their jobs and the techniques that are used to sterilize and sanitize the equipment. You must also have excellent eye-hand coordination and the ability to pay attention to detail. As many of the operations that the urologist does they need to have the stamina to endure lengthy surgeries. You should also have good bedside manners.
Some of the other things that are in the job description of an urologist can include:
- When discussing with the patient about the treatment plan that is going to be used that the patients knows the potential risks and benefits of the treatment.
- Consulting with patients who are having surgery done the things that they must do and cannot do both pre-operative and post-operative.
- Making sure that you are engaging in continuing education in the field of urology in order to keep your license current and up-to-date.
How to become an urologist?
If this is your career choice to become an urologist and you know this when you are in high school you should make sure that you are taking science and math classes along with some business classes if you are going to open your own practice. One thing that you need to know is that this medical field will demand a high degree of sensitivity and competence along with surgical skills and steady hands. Once you have graduated from high school you need to go to college to get your bachelor’s degree which can be under whichever major you choose but it is advisable that you choose a major in the science field or pre-med to help ensure that you will be ready for medical school.
After completing 4 years to get your bachelor’s degree it will be time for medical school. It is a very competitive market to get into medical school as some only takes a few new students each year. You need to make sure that you have a high GPA and pass the Medical College Admission Test with a high grade. Both of these are important and needed to get into medical school. Medical school is 4 years of which the first 2 years will consist of classroom and laboratory work and in the last 2 years you will be doing clinical rotations along with some classroom work. During your last year of medical school you need to star applying for a residency program that you must complete before you become a licensed urologist.
To graduate from medical school and earn the degree Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree you will have to take the United States Medical Licensing Examination. When you are choosing your residency and where it is being done make sure that the residency has been accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Educational. When doing your residency you will spend 12 months doing general surgery. Another 36 months you will be in clinical urology, and the last 12 months you will do classroom study and surgery in a field that is relevant to becoming an urologist. In the last year of residency you also must serve, under the appropriate supervision, as the chief or senior resident. If you decide that you want to sub-specialize it could take another 1 – 3 years to complete that fellowship.
In order to become a practicing urologist you will need to be certified by the American Board of Urology. To become certified you have to have completed 16 months of clinical practice and pass an oral exam.
Work environment and schedule
Most urologists after graduating and getting their license will accept employment in a private clinic or hospital setting but if they choose they can join a group practice or open their own private practice. If they have their own practice or work in a group practice most of their patients would be referrals from a primary care physician. They may also have some that call their office for an appointment without being referred. Many times the environment they work in can be stressful or difficult because the patients they see could be in discomfort and severe pain. In addition the surgical environment can be filled with unpleasant smells and sights. Although the urologist may have to deal with discomforting or unpleasant diseases and illnesses their work environment will be well-lit and clean. When performing an operation an urologist will have a team of surgical nurses and other medical personnel. Some of the surgeries can be quite long so an urologist may spend several hours bent over an operating table.
Urologists will usually have to work longer hours than many other medical professions. Working in an office or clinic seeing patients, diagnosing their problems, and treating them can be straight forward and help them to stay close to regular business hours. There is also a possibility that treating some patients may take longer than their allotted appointment so this can throw their schedule off. When doing surgeries each one is given a certain amount of time but if problems arise such as the surgery involves more than what was originally planned, having an emergency surgery, and a variety of other problems it can make for a long day. You may also have to be on-call for any emergency surgeries that would come into the emergency room.
When you see a new patient you will ask them what their symptoms are, how bad the symptoms are, their pain scale, and then do an examine. The urologist may order blood tests and/or diagnostic tests to confirm a diagnosis and to rule out any other medical problems that could have the same symptoms as the actual medical condition they have been diagnosed with. The urologist will have them set up another appointment to go over the test results and treatment plan. The urologist will have to mark in the patient’s chart what their problem is, the diagnosis, tests and diagnostic images that were done, and the treatment plan. A copy of the report will be sent to the patient’s primary care physician. If they have a patient in the hospital the urologist will usually see them before they start seeing patients in their office. If the urologist has their own private practice or group practice they may spend 2 – 3 days in the office and the other days doing scheduled surgeries.
Pros and cons of being a Urologist
The job that urologist performs assumes a lot of training and educational requirements. You’ll be spending a lot of time in school and for that you’ll really have to be certain that a career in urology is really what you want to follow.
As a urologist, the main pros that can be found in this job start with the rewarding of improving your patient’s lives and helping those who are in pain. The good news is that there is no place for getting bored. You’ll be visited by plenty of patients each with various diseases or illnesses to treat, so there will be a variety of procedures for you.
Gaining more and more complex experience in this field is a huge bonus that can increase a lot your chances not only of being an awesome urologist, but you’ll get career opportunities for advancement as well.
You’ll get to perform as well many surgeries, and you’ll be spending many hours in the operating room. You’ll also be using a lot your hands so you’ll really need to be good with your hands. This can be considered as a pro and as a con at the same time. If the pure idea of having to spend a lot of time (depending on your cases) on your feet in the operating room, you should think twice. If this will give you an exhausting and uncomfortable opinion, you might reconsider choosing another career. Also, if the need to use your hands will make your hands sweaty, then this field might not be for you.
Working as a urologist will bring you a huge pro when it comes to your payment. Your salary in this field will be estimated to range between $250,010 per year and could go up to $400,010 per year. At the same time, you’ll be using the advanced technology such as advanced robotics and many others.
A major con in this field will be the training that is very long not to mention is hard. Those who are enrolled in a residency will complete 5 to 6 years with two years in general surgery where they learn how to treat many kinds of conditions that are not many times linked with the urinary conditions. When you are a urology resident you won’t have a lot of sleep, your work will be very complex, and the hours are usually long.
This area of medicine is mainly filled with men, and the number of women working as urologists is not that high. You’ll surely have to work your way up if you are a woman.
Urologist job growth
The employment expected job opportunities for urologists are comprised between 16% and 18%, a percentage that is greater than the mean for other jobs. Due to the nature of this job and the vital role that urology plays in the medical field, the number of demanding is constantly growing.
An overview of the job indicates a clean start and great job stability for those who consider becoming urologists. The income in the urology field is still very attractive, and the needs of patients are continuously growing, this providing a great job employment future perspective.
Because an urologist also does surgery the average yearly urologist salary can be very lucrative. In fact, being an urologist is one of the highest salaries in the medical field. It has been noted that in the medical field of urology many of the physicians there are older and some are even close to the retirement age so their salaries can be pretty high. In the coming years as a new urologist the average yearly salary will be lower but as they get more experience the wages will start to increase. On average the yearly urologist salary for those just graduating can be over $200,000, so $72 per hour. Since most urologists have basically the same education unless they spent 2 years in a fellowship to become a specialist education is not a major factor in what an urologist salary would be. What is considered is the employer and the number of years of experience they have.
A busy urologist who has a lot of surgical patients could feasibly see an average yearly salary over $400,000 and could progress gradually to $750,000 just by practicing good business in a hospital industry. For an urologist who has years of experience, advanced expertise, and specialized skills can make over $1 M per year. Again in this profession men and women are not paid equally even with the same years of experience and specialized skills. It is shown that men earn approximately 14% more than women with average yearly urologist salary for men being $344,000 and women being $303,000.
The average yearly urologist salary according to the region of the United States where they are working is:
- $433,000 in the Great Lakes region
- $388,000 in the North Central region
- $350,000 in the West region
- $343,000 in the South Central region
- $340,000 in the Southwest region
- $332,000 in the Northeast region
- $323,000 in the Southeast region
- $322,000 in the Northwest region
- $309,000 in the Mid-Atlantic region
The average yearly salary for an urologist in these working environments is:
- $412,000 working multispecialty group practices
- $377,000 working in single-specialty practices
- $362,000 working in healthcare organizations
- $328,000 working in a hospital
- $275,000 working in a solo practice
- $252,000 working in an academic setting
- $266,000 working in other settings
Average yearly urologist salary based on number of years of work experience is:
- $60,000 – $356,000 for 1 – 4 years
- $112,751 – $204,470 for 5 – 9 years
- $96,846 – $453,018 for 10 -19 years
- $100,101 – $499, 666 for 20 or more years
What their actual average salary would be you would also figure in the geographical location and the employer they are working for.
In addition to these salaries you also need to figure in the benefit packages which usually include paid vacation, sick, and personal days, life and health insurance just for the employee or for the family, 401K, social security, pension, vision and dental care, malpractice insurance, and possibly profit sharing.
Salary of an Urologist in 2015
The US average estimation of a salary in the field of urology is mentioned to be at $250,010 per year. This number is still improving due to a diversity of factors such as the geographical location, the specialty area in which you are activating and the environment, in which you work.
For the year 2015, the number of demands for these kinds of specialists is still growing, and the job overview offers a clean start and lot of stability for those who want to work as urologists.
Urologist Salary in 2016
The income of a urologist for the year 2016, in the US, is very lucrative, based on the nature of this job, since these professionals also perform surgery. The salary of a urologist is seen as one of the highest salaries in the medical system.
The starting salary for a new urologist in the years that come tends to have a lower point but as these specialists are starting to gain more experience their earnings gradually increase. Those who just graduate can expect to take home an estimated average of around $200,010 per year.
Considered to be as main factors that impact the salaries of urologists are the years of experience, the location in which one has found work, employer and the number of cases that one has. For instance, a urologist with lots of surgical patients can reach at an average yearly income estimated to be over $400,100 per year and it could increase in time at $750,030 per year. Presuming the fact that he can practice a good business within the medical environment of a medical industry such as the hospital industry.
On the other hand, urologists that already have years of work experience, a specialized set of skills and advanced expertise can make even more than the figures revealed earlier. In the suburban areas of the US, a urologist is making an estimated average of around $500,030 per year or even a lot more according to each urologist and the number of hours that he or she is working.
Another factor that affects these earnings is the gender. In this field the income of a male is not the same as the income of a female, this including the same years of experience and specialized set of skills. This will lead to the fact that the average yearly income of a urologist man is around $345,010 per year while that of a urologist woman gets around $303,230 per year.
A difference of income can be also spotted according to the demographic factor that includes various earnings according to each state or city, and also according to the metropolitan or non-metropolitan areas. The difference is also established for those who professionals that are working in the private or the public system.
According to the practice setting, you will discover that there are various earnings in the compensation. For instance those who work for healthcare organizations can expect an average yearly income that reaches around $402,300 per year, this being considered the highest percentage. The lowest point is reached by urologist, who work for office based solo practice where the earnings that are usually gained reach at around $269,010 per year.
Urologist salary in Canada, Australia and UK
In different parts of the world the standards that a person must have to become a practicing urologist are set by the relevant governing body.
- Canada—in Canada this governing body would be the British Association of Urological Surgeons. The average yearly salary would be CAD$279,000.
- Australia—in Australia this governing body would be the Urological Society of Australasia. The average yearly urologist salary would be AUD$75K to $90K for junior urologists, AUD$ 80K to $110K for a middle grade urologist, AUD$100K to $150K for staff urologist, AUD$150K to $350K for a specialist, AUD$100K to $250K for general practitioner, and AUD$200K to $500K or more for a private practitioner.
- UK—in the UK this governing body would be the Urological Society of India. The average yearly salary is based on tenure and age with being in your 20’s it would 75,000, in your 39’s it would be 98,000, and in your 40’s and 50’s it would be 116,000
Conclusion on urologist salary
Although an urologist can spend at least 13 years in college, medical school, and residency along with 1 – 3 more years if they are doing a specialized fellowship the average yearly urologist salary is usually over $200,000 plus most will have an awesome benefit package. As you gain more experience you can see a big increase in your salary. You also need to make sure that you are choosing a region of the United States where the salary is high along with the right working environment.
- First Published Date: 16 June, 2014
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In 2017, an Irish National Clinical Guideline for Hepatitis Screening was endorsed by the Minister for Health which conditionally recommended offering once-off testing for hepatitis C to people born between 1965 and 1985 (that is, birth cohort testing), subject to the outcome a health technology assessment (HTA). Following publication of the National Clinical Guideline, HIQA commenced work on a HTA which aimed to establish the clinical, cost-effectiveness, and budget impact of introducing birth cohort testing for hepatitis C in Ireland.
HTA of birth cohort testing for hepatitis C
The hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a blood borne virus that predominantly affects the liver. Acute HCV infection is generally defined as the first six months following infection with the virus. Between 55% and 85% of those acutely infected fail to clear the virus and develop chronic HCV infection, the progression of which is slow and unpredictable. Chronic HCV infection is frequently asymptomatic which means that newly diagnosed cases may have been contracted many years previously. If left untreated, over the course of 40 years, between 20% and 40% of people will develop compensated cirrhosis subsequent to the onset of liver fibrosis.
Birth cohort testing involves offering once-off testing for HCV infection to people born during a particular period of time because there is evidence (such as epidemiological trends) of an elevated risk of exposure relative to the overall general population. The Irish birth cohort was identified based on national HCV surveillance and seroprevalence data, which indicated that 72.5% of people with HCV infection were among the population of approximately 1.5 million people born between 1965 and 1985.
This research was carried out in accordance with HIQA’s guidelines for the conduct of HTAs. As part of the HTA, the epidemiology of HCV in Ireland was assessed, the diagnostic accuracy of tests for diagnosing chronic HCV infection was reviewed in addition to the safety and effectiveness of therapies used to treat chronic HCV infection. Systematic reviews of the diagnostic accuracy of laboratory-based tests using dried blood spot samples and the cost-effectiveness of population-based testing strategies for identifying people with undiagnosed chronic HCV infection were also undertaken. An economic model was developed to estimate the cost-effectiveness and budget impact of the potential introduction of birth cohort testing in Ireland. Finally, analyses of the organisational and ethical implications of the proposed introduction of birth cohort testing were undertaken.
The draft HTA was made available for a six-week public consultation period, during which members of the general public and stakeholder organisations had the opportunity to provide feedback on the draft HTA report. Changes were made to the HTA report, as appropriate, following the public consultation.
The HTA was supported by an Expert Advisory Group with representation from the Department of Health, the National Hepatitis C Treatment Programme, the National Virus Reference Laboratory, the National Programme for Pathology, the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, clinicians with specialist expertise in infectious diseases, the National Screening Service, the National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics, the Irish College of General Practitioners, relevant patient advocacy groups and methodological experts.
Advice to Minister for Health
A birth cohort testing programme to identify and treat those with undiagnosed infection would be a cost-effective use of resources, but would require a significant upfront investment. Over a five-year period, it was estimated that the budget impact of introducing birth cohort testing would be between €44 million and €65 million depending on the type of birth cohort testing programme introduced. Given substantial uncertainty regarding the prevalence of undiagnosed chronic HCV infection in the 1965 to 1985 birth cohort and the logistical challenges posed by a potential birth cohort testing programme, consideration should be given to an initial pilot programme. Further research (such as surveying members of the general public) could also be considered to reduce uncertainty around the likely test uptake rate. | <urn:uuid:ac861739-1366-402f-86ed-268dc4e6664b> | CC-MAIN-2022-27 | https://www.hiqa.ie/reports-and-publications/health-technology-assessment/hta-birth-cohort-testing-hepatitis-c | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-27/segments/1656104204514.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20220702192528-20220702222528-00440.warc.gz | en | 0.95411 | 808 | 2.609375 | 3 | {
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This story appears in the June 2017 issue of National Geographic magazine.
Veteran cavers Peter and Ann Bosted were cruising around their hometown of Hawaiian Ocean View, on Hawaii’s Big Island, a few years ago when Ann spotted a small hole off the side of the road.
It was no more than three feet wide—just big and inviting enough for the couple to pull their car over and try to slink into.
“We had a couple hours to kill,” Peter told me, “so we started surveying, and we found a side passage that turned out to be a lot more mazy than we expected.” Back home, Peter marked the puka, or cave entrance, on a digital map and planned to return later—with the landowner’s permission—to see where the opening might lead.
From outer space, the town of Hawaiian Ocean View looks like a thatched mat of asphalt draped over the side of Mauna Loa volcano. The 102-square-mile grid of crisscrossing streets and vacant lots is nearly twice the size of Washington, D.C., yet is home to fewer than 4,500 residents. You might think that only a pathological optimist would choose to build a house on the parched slope of an active volcano, but over the past two decades, Ocean View has become an international destination for cavers, who have come to explore and map the Kipuka Kanohina, a network of lava caves that course like veins 15 to 80 feet beneath the town.
There are two ways to make a cave: fast and slow. Many of the world’s most iconic caves—Carlsbad Caverns and Lechuguilla in New Mexico, Mammoth Cave in Kentucky—were carved out over millions of years, by the plodding drip and flow of acidic water through soluble limestone.
By contrast, lava caves, widely known as lava tubes, are formed in a geological instant—a year or two, sometimes weeks—by an eruption from the Earth’s crust.
Most of Hawaii’s lava tubes are formed by a type of syrupy flow called pahoehoe. As it pours down the volcano, the lava at the surface is cooled by the air and solidifies, creating an elastic, skinlike outer layer. Beneath this inflating membrane, the lava continues to ooze, eroding the ground beneath it and carving underground tunnels. Now insulated from the air, the hot lava can surge unimpeded, often for many miles. As the eruption subsides and the channels drain their last molten contents, what’s left behind is a massive, 3-D fun house of plumbing.
Puu Oo cone
Lava flow since 1800
Probably no other place on Earth has as many accessible lava tubes as Hawaii, and probably no other town has proved such fertile terrain for their exploration as Ocean View.
In the 1990s, the Bosteds were active members of the team that mapped the 138-mile-long Lechuguilla Cave, widely regarded as one of the world’s most beautiful. Now in their 60s and semiretired—Peter is a particle physicist affiliated with the College of William and Mary—they are among a handful of experienced cavers who have become full-time residents of Ocean View. Ann has pigtails down to her waist, and Peter sports a bright Hawaiian-print shirt, a white driver’s cap, flip-flops, and a biblical-length white beard. They say they’re now doing more caving than at any other point in their lives. They reckon that some years the two of them have spent more than 200 days underground.
Peter and Ann brought me back to explore the new roadside puka they’d discovered, along with another couple, Don and Barb Coons, Illinois grain farmers and lifelong cavers who winter in Ocean View. Don, 64, was a guide at Mammoth Cave for 10 years and spent 18 winters on the legendary expeditions that helped expand the map of Chevé in Oaxaca, Mexico, the second deepest cave in North America. He’s the president of the Cave Conservancy of Hawaii, a nonprofit trust that has been buying up land in and around Ocean View to preserve the tunnels that lie beneath.
Wearing helmets, headlamps, and volleyball pads on our elbows and knees, we slither on our backs into the hole and army crawl for about a hundred yards through a previously mapped passage less than three feet tall. It has been centuries since lava flowed through this particular cave.
Festooned with trippy Dr. Seuss–like ornaments, the lava tubes of Hawaii seem to belong on another planet. Delicate lavacicles hang from the walls and ceilings like stalactites and take on a panoply of weird shapes, from spiky shark’s teeth to bubbly, gooey driblet spires. Long, hollow soda straws, squeezed out of the ceiling by gas while the cave was cooling, hang in thick clusters. In spots, the cave’s silvery, magnesioferrite glaze crinkles up like peeling paint. Elsewhere a thin layer of gypsum colors the walls a bright white, and mats of rock-eating bacteria excrete blue-green splotches of microbial poop.
Our army crawl ends at a junction where the ceiling dips down to less than a foot above the sharp, serrated floor. “This is our idea of fun,” Peter says drily, as we wriggle forward on our bellies into the impossibly tight crawlway, my T-shirt audibly ripping on the jagged floor. The passage is too cramped for even our helmets to squeeze through, so we take them off and shimmy forward in the dark.
Forged By Fire
Hawaii’s basaltic shield volcanoes have produced some of the world’s deepest and longest lava tubes—tunnels carved by rivers of molten rock. Caves etched by flowing water can take millions of years to form, while a volcanic eruption can generate miles of lava tubes in a matter of weeks or months. Thousands of these tubes twist, braid, and intersect beneath the surface of Hawaii’s Big Island.
Forged By Fire
Hawaii’s basaltic shield volcanoes have
produced some of the world’s deepest and
longest lava tubes—tunnels carved by
rivers of molten rock. Caves etched by
flowing water can take millions of years to
form, while a volcanic eruption can
generate miles of lava tubes in a matter of
weeks or months. Thousands of these
tubes twist, braid, and intersect beneath
the surface of Hawaii’s Big Island.
How A Lava Tube Is Formed
A Volcano Erupts
A Cave Takes Shape
New Land Is Made
How a LAVA TUBE is formed
A Volcano Erupts
lava is insulated
a cave takes shape
New Lava is Made
Molten rock and gas escape from deep
beneath the Earth’s surface, sending
lava spewing out in effusive and
sometimes explosive eruptions.
Factors like speed, gas content, and volume can yield two flow
types: the rough and chunky aa or the smooth pahoehoe. Most
lava tubes in Hawaii are formed by pahoehoe flows.
As the outer layers of lava cool
and solidify, they form an
insulated tube, trapping heat
and allowing the molten core to
flow long distances.
The volume of lava, speed
of flow, and rate of erosion
determine the nascent
cave’s depth, ceiling height,
If the lava volume increases or
debris blocks the tube, lava can
push up through open “skylights”
or burst through cracks, making
new surface flows or tubes.
Since Kilauea’s ongoing Puu Oo
eruption began in 1983, hundreds
of acres have been added to
the southeast coast of Hawaii’s
As the slower moving sides
of a lava channel gradually
cool, solidify, and grow
inward, the top of the flow
can crust over, making a roof.
On flatter slopes, pahoehoe
flows can spread by inflating
and pushing forward sheets
of lava while maintaining a
Tubes are often built
atop previous lava
flows, channels, and
tubes—the new flow
burying the old.
Floating chunks of hardened
lava can gather into a logjam,
which helps form a crust.
Extreme heat can melt
the solid lava at the
tube’s edges and base,
enlarging the tube.
If lava flows into the
ocean, it can create gravelly
and unstable spits of land in
danger of collapse.
As the top of the tube
cools, cracks can form
in the ceiling, causing
portions to cave in.
A Volcano Erupts
Molten rock and gas escape from deep beneath the Earth’s surface, sending lava spewing out in effusive and sometimes explosive eruptions.
Factors like speed, gas content, and volume can yield two flow types: the rough and chunky aa or the smooth pahoehoe. Most lava tubes in Hawaii are formed by pahoehoe flows.
Floating chunks of hardened lava can gather into a logjam, which helps form a crust.
As the slower moving sides of a lava channel gradually cool, solidify, and grow inward, the top of the flow can crust over, making a roof.
On flatter slopes, pahoehoe flows can spread by inflating and pushing forward sheets of lava while maintaining a molten core.
Lava Is Insulated
As the outer layers of lava cool and solidify, they form an insulated tube, trapping heat and allowing the molten core to flow long distances.
Tubes are often built atop previous lava flows, chanels, and tubes—the new flow burying the old.
A Cave Takes Shape
The volume of lava, speed of flow, and rate of erosion
determine the nascent cave’s depth, ceiling height,
Extreme heat can melt the solid lava at the tube’s edges and base, enlarging the tube.
If the lava volume increases or debris blocks the tube, lava can push up through open “skylights” or burst through cracks, making new surface flows or tubes.
As the top of the tube cools, cracks can form on the ceiling, causing portions to cave in.
New Land Is Made
Since Kilauea’s ongoing Puu Oo eruption began in 1983, hundreds of acres have been added to the southeast coast of Hawaii’s Big Island.
If lava flows into the ocean, it can create gravely and unstable spits of land in danger of collapse.
TUBES TO CAVES
After an eruption subsides, the remaining lava hardens, and some tubes can become accessible caves. Many have long served as an important part of native Hawaiian culture and as a source of water and shelter.
tubes to caveS
After an eruption subsides, the remaining lava hardens,
and some tubes can become accessible caves. Many
have long served as an important part of native Hawaiian
culture and as a source of water and shelter.
Flow ledges, stalactites, stalagmites,
lava-level markings, and shiny or
textured walls can occur from changes
in lava levels and cooling rates.
Lava flows can split off
into branching tubes
and form vast, complex
networks of caves.
Some lava caves can be the
size of subway tunnels, while
others are too small for a
person to squeeze through.
Flow lodges, stalacites, stalagmites, lava-level
markings, and shiny or textured walls can concur
from changes in lava levels and cooling rates.
Lava flows can split off into branching tubes and form
vast, complex networks of caves.
Some lava caves can be the size of subway
tunnels, while others are too small for a person to
For all our scrapes, bruises, and torn clothing, our compensation this morning will be 154.4 feet of fresh cave added to the map of the Kipuka Kanohina network. That may not sound like much, but it’s through days like this that the map inches toward completion at the rate of three to four miles a year. Kanohina may soon be the longest surveyed lava tube system in the world.
The cave that the Kanohina system seems poised to supplant in the record books is on the other side of the Big Island. It was likely created during a 15th-century eruption of a different volcano, Kilauea. At more than 40 miles long, Kazumura is the longest lava tube mapped to date, and also the deepest. Though its roof is never more than a few dozen yards beneath the surface, the vertical drop—from the top of the cave, midway up the volcano, down to its terminus near the coast—is 3,613 feet.
Unlike the Kanohina system, which consists of several parallel passages that interweave like the delta of a large river, Kazumura is mostly one long, gaping straight shot of a tunnel—so wide and tall (more than 60 feet) in parts that it feels as if it could be easily adapted for a subway train. Despite Kazumura’s cavernous profile, the first through trip didn’t take place until 1995, when it was completed in a two-day expedition.
“This is a national treasure, and yet there are people on this island who live right on top of the cave and don’t even know it exists,” says Harry Shick, a landowner who operates tours through a stretch of Kazumura that lies under his property.
There is, it seems, an omertà that surrounds the Big Island’s lava tubes. Most cavers and conservationists would prefer that outsiders never learn the locations of their finds. When the Bosteds offered to take me to a cave called Manu Nui that they’ve been mapping since 2003, it was on the condition that National Geographic not reveal its precise whereabouts, except to say that it was created by Hualalai, the island’s third most historically active volcano, after Mauna Loa and Kilauea.
Manu Nui is, in many respects, the jewel of the island. With an average incline of 15.7 degrees, it is one of the steepest lava tubes in Hawaii, and its features are surreal. After entering the cave through a mist-shrouded puka on private land, we head uphill to a chamber that could be a fantasy from Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. The walls, spattered in chocolate-, peanut butter-, cherry-, and butterscotch-colored drippings, look so luscious and fudgelike that I’m almost tempted to lick them. The Bosteds are keen to ensure the unique formations aren’t disturbed by curious adventure seekers. A lavacicle is a fragile thing, and it takes only one misplaced handhold to permanently disfigure a cave. Shick has meticulously gone through several miles of Kazumura, reattaching fallen features with superglue.
“We don’t even fully understand these cave ecosystems,” says Lyman Perry, from Hawaii’s Division of Forestry and Wildlife, “so we don’t want people going into them. The reality is that if people find out about these places, they’re going to ruin them eventually.”
Even more delicate than the caves’ features are the cultural sensitivities that surround them. Many native Hawaiians consider lava tubes kapu, or sacred sites, because of their frequent use as ancient burial grounds. In Hawaiian tradition, bones contain a person’s mana, or spiritual energy, and aren’t to be unnecessarily disturbed.
Keoni Alvarez, a 31-year-old activist and filmmaker who has battled developers trying to build atop burial caves, says that whenever human remains are found inside a lava tube, they render the entire cave system, start to finish, kapu. “We believe our caves are sacred and should not be desecrated,” he tells me. The problem is that no one can know whether a particular cave was used for ancient burials until it has been explored. Many native Hawaiians categorically refuse to venture into lava caves out of respect for what they might encounter inside.
But if modern Hawaiians tend to be wary of lava tubes, their ancestors clearly used them quite a bit. Many cave openings show evidence of prehistoric habitation, complete with hearths and sleeping terraces. In war, longer lava tubes were sealed and used as “refuge caves” to hide women, children, and elders. In some cases, stone walls were built across tube entrances, leaving a passage just big enough for a single person to climb through.
A local expert estimates that one in two caves on the Big Island contains some sort of archaeological artifact. Especially on the dry, leeward side of the island, freshwater is hard to come by, and lava tubes were often the best place to find it. Deep inside Kanohina, hundreds of yards from entrances, one frequently comes across remains of kukui-nut torches and rings of rocks that once propped up gourds used to collect dripping water.
Don Coons and Peter Bosted are insistent about the difference between adventure and exploration. Adventure is what you do when you’re out for a thrill. Exploration is slow, methodical, and never for your sake alone. Every cave they explore, including this narrow, jagged section of the Kipuka Kanohina that we’re crawling through, must be meticulously surveyed and mapped using clinometers and laser range finders.
“The deep sea, outer space, and caves: Those are the only frontiers left,” says Coons, who does his exploring in a lightweight helmet with a small flashlight duct-taped to the brim. “On a workingman’s salary, you can go into an unexplored place and discover something new and be the only person in history to see it.”
Back in the roadside puka, our prone bodies pinched between the ceiling and floor, Bosted makes a disconcerting judgment call. “This seems a bit dangerous,” he says in his dry monotone. “I have to exhale in order to get through.” He announces that he’s turning around, leaving the rest of us to figure out where the cave might lead.
Seven and a half body lengths farther on, we reach a pile of breakdown rocks so heavy they can’t be budged from our prostrate position. The lead ends here for now, but the cool breeze we feel flowing over our faces can mean only one thing: There is more cave to chase on the other side.
Joshua Foer wrote about dolphin intelligence for the May 2015 issue. | <urn:uuid:7ef492a6-67c3-48e2-b140-d6c15bee7a2b> | CC-MAIN-2020-16 | https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2017/06/lava-tubes-hawaii-caves/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-16/segments/1585371883359.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20200410012405-20200410042905-00389.warc.gz | en | 0.925168 | 4,076 | 3.09375 | 3 | {
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Review of Nightwalking: A Nocturnal History of London by Matthew Beaumont (Verso, 2015), originally published in The Oxonian Review (Issue 28.4).
By the end of the 16th century, England was scarcely recognisable: the countryside was being divvied up by private landowners and the customary rights of those who had farmed there for centuries abolished. Real wages dropped while food prices and rent soared. Those who could fled to the city to find work, but London—a maze of cramped medieval streets—was hardly fit to accommodate them. In fifty years, its plague-ravaged population had doubled to 140,000. Unscrupulous property developers, seeing an opportunity, partitioned old houses and quickly constructed new ones. Many, though, were forced on to the streets and became nightwalkers, homeless and destitute, the victims of a new kind of poverty and a new attitude to the poor.
In 1572, the Punishment of Vagabonds Act made “vagrants” the responsibility of local authorities or “bridewells”—so named after London’s notorious Bridewell prison. These were “houses of correction” that, as Matthew Beaumont puts it, treated the poor as criminals “to be punished, reformed through labour, and even transported.” But who were the poor? George Rudé, in his book on Hanoverian London, gives a swift, depressing rundown of “the unemployed and unemployable, the indigent, the aged, the poorest of the immigrant Irish and Jews” who were together classed as vagabonds—or worse—and discarded.
Such disdain for the poor was frowned upon, if not condemned, in early medieval England, where poverty was still regarded as a “holy state” and charity seen as essential to the attainment of salvation; then, churches not “bridewells” cared for the poor. In the late medieval period, says Christopher Hill, this state of affairs was reversed: idleness became next to sinfulness and poverty “presumptive evidence of wickedness.” From the 16th century onwards a new lexicon of moral approbation and mistrust arose: the poor were palliards, rascals, courtesy-men, clewners, eavesdroppers, dummerers, clapperdudgeons. A number of these abusive terms refer to beggars pretending to a worse condition than they were in: palliards carried self-inflicted injuries, dummerers acted at being dumb, and courtesy-men took on the role of ex-soldiers. As now, the idea that the poor were just pretending—conniving at people’s sympathy—made their suffering easier to dismiss.
Beaumont, in his new book on the history of the London night—which is more about the people who were forced to take refuge there—does not exactly have to overreach himself to bring out the contemporary resonances. He links the Vagabonds Act and nightwalker statutes—which gave watchmen “warrantless arrest authority”—to the Vagrancy Act of 1824 (known as the “Sus” law) that allowed police to stop, search and arrest anyone they suspected of criminal intent. During Margaret Thatcher’s first term, the indiscriminate use of this law—though highly discriminate in other respects—caused an outbreak of anti-police rioting across the country. It was repealed in 1981, though Theresa May has since pushed to have it reinstated.
Beaumont makes clear the extent to which capitalism, agrarian or otherwise, has always relied on “accumulation by dispossession” and the criminalization of the dispossessed. As E.P. Thompson remarks, “The greatest offence against property was to have none.” So property-less migrants, along with the poor, elderly and infirm, became offensive to public decency and to the state, their social vilification going hand in hand with their official criminalization. Beaumont cites as evidence the 49,000 offences that were tried at the Old Bailey in the 18th century, 95% of which were property-related. This was a “war against the poor”, he says, and the respectable classes were not just complicit but willing combatants. John Gore, foaming at the mouth, called the poor “the very Sodomites of the land, children of Belial,” while Samuel Johnson—despite himself being an occasional houseless nightwalker—defined the proletarian as “men; wretched, vile, vulgar.”
In the 1770s, though some way from the dream of 24/7 capitalism, London began a series of more radical transformations: morphed by “processes of capital accumulation,” old slums were demolished and shopping districts built in their place. A leaden curtain fell between the lamp-lit West End and the dank, unlit East End, where gangs of proto-Bullingdon boys ventured out after dark to terrorise the proletariat or get dosed up in Covent Garden’s red light district. The poor were ghettoised, made to feel ashamed, alone and, as John Clare said of himself, “homeless at home.”
It was this psychological and social stigmatization—expertly realised—that paved the way for the working class’s later assimilation into the 19th century “industrial army”. Beaumont borrows this phrase from Marx, who used it to describe the new world of commodified labour where workers were “organized like soldiers.” But these soldiers were lucky, in a sense. They were shadowed by the still more desperate ranks of the “industrial reserve army,” made up of those same floating workers displaced at the end of the 16th century. In the late-18th and 19th centuries, the interplay of these active and reserve armies performed a decisive role in the industrial-capitalist system: the reserve force competed with the active one for jobs during stagnant periods, quelled dissent in booms and, ultimately, came to justify the immiseration of both. Even now, despite the advances of the labour movement, a similar illogic justifies the West’s continued reliance on structural unemployment, zero-hours contracts and unpaid labour, concerns about which are brushed aside because, at root, the unemployed are seen as lazy scroungers until otherwise proven.
It is in the Victorian period—with capital in full ascendance—that Beaumont’s book draws to a close. The final image is of Edgar Allen Poe’s “Man of the Crowd”, a composite of the nightwalker’s various guises—”petty criminal, detective, bohemian outcast, stalker, homeless vagrant and, finally, Satan himself.” He observes passers-by, restless and flushed, talking and gesticulating to themselves, “feeling in solitude on account of the very denseness of the company around.” Alone among others, turned out onto the streets and driven further into the dark, Poe’s narrator becomes—even at the centre of a booming megalopolis—”terminally marginal.”
Beaumont is a protégée of Terry Eagleton—who returns the favour by dubbing Beaumont “one of the most brilliant of the younger generation of English critics”—and both balance a reverence for the canon of English literature alongside a deep engagement in Marxist theory. Nightwalking could have easily taken shape as a non-partisan study of the London night and the literature surrounding it, but, attentive as it is to both base and superstructure, it achieves something more timely and, in a sense, timeless.
It is not, though, as Will Self calls it, “a grand narrative of the counter-Enlightenment.” Nor is it, as its more modest subtitle suggests, just “A Nocturnal History of London.” The first is too “grand”, while the second sounds more like a coffee table book. Beaumont, influenced by Louis Althusser’s “pluralist” approach, sets out a range of multiple, often conflicting histories, which are reflected in the book’s layout: it divides into four parts of fourteen chapters, each splitting into further sub-sections (titles include “Witty Extravagants”, “Knight Errant of Hell”, “Paddington Frisk”) of varying length and tone. The past is unpicked, entangled, made into a series of conjunctures—points of crisis and conflict—so as to be woven together again to form what Eagleton calls a “tradition of the dispossessed.” The result is not so much “grand narrative” or capital h “History” as a more readable, pleasurable mix of Althusser and Foucault, with added close reading and humanism thrown in.
The Enlightenment, in Beaumont’s eyes, brought about less illumination than it did benightment. Keats was keenly aware that, underlying the surface improvements made to the commercial centre of London and the new valorisation of scientific progress, was a deeper, encroaching sense of moral darkness. To talk about Keats’s “dreamy, sensuous” prosopopoeia (as Beaumont does) without looking at the underlying shift in the mode and relations of production (as Beaumont also does) would be to limit the work, to shorten its aesthetic stakes. This, perhaps, could define twee: the love of a past without context. “The goblin is driven from the heath,” said Keats, “and the rainbow is robbed of its mystery!” This lament, if not seen in the context of the countryside’s rapid despoliation and disenchantment, is all twee.
Most of the poets Beaumont discusses—like Richard Savage, Oliver Goldsmith and Keats—channel a form of dispossessed, dissident poetics, but it is William Blake who occupies the pivotal role. Early on, Blake saw the darkness at the heart of the Enlightenment project and pitted himself against its “instrumental logic”—one that sought to justify, in rational terms, colonial exploitation abroad and violent repression at home. One image remains a constant, haunting presence in his work, though it disappeared behind the walls of Newgate Prison in his early-twenties: the gallows at Tyburn. For him, as Beaumont suggests, it was “an unescapable symbol of the oppressiveness of Britain’s ruling elite.” William Ryland, an artist to whom Blake was almost apprenticed aged 14, was hanged there along with at least 1,200 other Londoners over the course of the 18th century. Most of the executed were poor men and women—”apprentices, ill-paid servants, unemployed labourers and vagrants”—whose crimes were ones of desperation.
By the turn of the 19th century the Bishop of London, whose land it was, had begun building an expensive new development—with the gruesome name of Tyburnia—over the former execution site. In a song dedicated “To the Jews” from Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion, Blake asks:
What are those golden Builders doing
Near mournful ever-weeping Paddington
Standing above that mighty Ruin
Where Satan the first victory won.
Those poor “Builders” (mainly migrant Irish labourers), forced to squat in huts, living off potatoes tilled nearby, were trying to redeem the land, to purge it of its evil spirit. This, says Beaumont, is why they are “golden”. But, in return, Charles Knight and others derided them as “squatters of the lowest community.” They were given a hateful task and hated for it. Their plight draws out a paradox: capitalism is fuelled by the twin-desire to erase all trace of origin while ingraining the myth of constant progress (Pascal said “The truth about the usurpation must not be made apparent; it came about originally without reason and has become reasonable”).
Capitalism’s “ideal state,” in Eagleton’s words, is a state of “eternal motion without source or telos.” The sinister result is dirt-poor labourers building over the bones of the executed poor, “elegant remains… sunk in earth enriched by the remains of brutalized bodies.” Civilisation and barbarism go side by side as the “mournful ever-weeping” cycle of crime and punishment rolls on.
There are numerous ways to approach Nightwalking, but running beneath them all is an account of how London’s urban elite turned against the poor. The writers Beaumont focuses on—themselves often on the dark fringes of society—give a depressing portrait of the city, but it is one whose very bleakness suggests a utopian lining. In a real dystopia, after all, injustice would pass without comment, everything being taken at its dark face-value.
But Blake sees through it, his prophetic outrage animated by the kind of radical Christianity preached at the Sermon on the Mount. There, Jesus’s argument hinges on the impossibility of anyone serving two masters, God and mammon, “for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.” (Matthew 6:24) Cyril Connolly updates this maxim for a secular age: “you cannot serve both beauty and power.” Holding to a love of power will lead to despising beauty; holding to a love of beauty will lead to despising power. Against all better reason, faced with the civilised barbarity of the Hanoverian state, Blake would have us put our faith in beauty.
Just one of these options poses an existential threat to state power, though, so it is no wonder that, right now, the Conservative government is looking to make further cuts to arts funding (Culture Minister Ed Vaizey says we need to find “new and imaginative ways of supporting the arts”) at the same time as it seeks more “imaginative ways” to slash benefits—again—and essential services for the poor, disabled and elderly; its rhetoric on economic migrants has, unsurprisingly, grown ever more hostile. Without a politicised, active arts sector that might act as a counterweight—and offer a range of utopian possibilities—this course has been made to feel inevitable, the past re-aligned to block out all glimmer of hope.
Beaumont’s book stops short of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries for a reason. Why go any further? Here is what he might have said: nightwalkers and nightsleepers still rove the backstreets of London; a new generation of nightworkers—drawn from the old “reserve army”—service the craven needs of 24/7 capital; property speculators continue to build empty offices and luxury apartments; the poor, meanwhile, are as despised and immiserated as ever; mammon is unchallenged and beauty has been priced out of the market. | <urn:uuid:891c56ed-b557-43a0-9488-b2bd44d194b2> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://willjharris.com/2017/04/06/why-do-we-hate-the-poor/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334942.88/warc/CC-MAIN-20220926211042-20220927001042-00008.warc.gz | en | 0.963569 | 3,257 | 2.96875 | 3 | {
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"interpretation": "Strong reasoning"
} | Literature |
Buildings are supported on a foundation that transfers loads to the ground. Most residential foundations are spread footings but real foundation behavior is complex and requires professional design. A professional design may prove necessary in areas where there are poor soils, high wind, seismic hazards, or flood zones. Many landscape designs call to build retaining walls to prevent soil erosion, or maintain the slope of a lot. Whether you’re building a new home or renovating an existing one, retaining walls will help prevent future erosion and water damage.
There are many types of retaining walls available. These include cast in-place retaining and modular walls. These retaining walls can be made with many materials and can add a stylish and decorative touch to your property. These structures, however, are more expensive than other methods of reclaiming land and require constant maintenance. Therefore, they may not be appropriate for every situation.
Retaining walls can be a great way to restore stability and strength to your structure. A qualified contractor will inspect your property and offer a detailed solution. For example, helix tiebacks could be used to strengthen the retaining wall. FOUNDATIONS ON THE LEVEL uses ECP tiebacks, a leading manufacturer of foundation repair products. Don’t be fooled by low-cost materials – they will fail to restore the integrity of the structure.
Your property is protected with retaining walls. They hold the earth in place. They can bow or lean if they fail. If your retaining wall starts to lean, you can pull it back with helical tiebacks. They will hold your structure in position. In certain cases, walls can be constructed with helical tiebacks. You may need to purchase a new foundation if your retaining wall is leaning.
Retaining walls hold the soil in place and protect your property against erosion. However, they can fall apart over time and can cause major erosion problems. If they fail to stay together, they could eventually fall apart and crack your home’s foundation. A well-constructed wall will stop water from getting inside your home. Hire a foundation repair company that is experienced in retaining walls to ensure your wall is strong.
To ensure stability on your property, walls are essential. If you live in an area with a lot of landslides, these walls can bow or lean and cause serious damage. Tiebacks can be used to stabilize the wall and ensure you build on the correct level. For retaining walls that are not designed to withstand the elements, consult a contractor who has experience with similar projects.
Retaining walls can be important for soil preservation but they can also be susceptible of bowing or leaning. Your property’s structural integrity will depend on the level of its foundation. It can help protect your property by keeping the soil in which your home sits secure. A level surface is essential to prevent water from leaking beneath your home’s foundation. When a leaning retaining wall becomes unstable, you can use helical tiebacks to pull it back.
A retaining Wall is an important part to any property. A solid foundation will keep your home and property in their place. If you don’t, a landslide can cause a leaning retaining wall and cause major damage to your property. If foundations or retaining walls are damaged, they can be rebuilt and repaired. A contractor who is skilled in using a variety of materials and techniques will fix your foundation or weaken settling masonry.
A retaining wall and foundation can make your property more stable and increase curb appeal. While they are crucial to the property’s stability, retaining wall can also pose a problem. To fix the problem, you need to hire a professional contractor. ECP tiebacks are the most trusted manufacturer of foundation repair tools. | <urn:uuid:9ff1e3df-d1f0-4596-a36c-7213d6a59b9c> | CC-MAIN-2022-05 | https://davidfeeney.com.au/foundations-and-retaining-walls/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-05/segments/1642320304345.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20220123232910-20220124022910-00569.warc.gz | en | 0.933343 | 753 | 2.6875 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 1.9204844236373901,
"reasoning_level": 2,
"interpretation": "Moderate reasoning"
} | Home & Hobbies |
"I have no fear of making changes, destroying the image, etc., because the painting has a life of its own."
In 1987, a Spaniard was exploring a cave in Altamira, a small village in Northern Spain. His little daughter was with him, playing in the dark cave. You can well imagine his surprise when a child called out to him that she had just seen the bulls. A lamp was brought and in its light, the shapes of bison and other animals could be seen. They were painted on brown and red colors on the rough surface or the rock wall; they looked as fresh as if they had been done quite recently. Who, the man and his daughter wondered, painted all these pictures and when they do it?
Altamira cave is the finest spot in Spain since discovered in 1879. During 20th century, people amended an inquisitive debate that no humans can really paint as enchanting as these, until they discovered that there are only a few gifted people with this skill. The cave has a height of 300 meters.
Images above powered byBradshaw Foundation. Visit their website for more pictures.
WHAT THE PAINTINGS MEANT
The man has been living on earth for many thousands of years. During the last part of the Ice Age, some 14,000 to 24,000 years ago, life was very hard and was very different from today. Our prehistoric ancestors lived in caves and they needed all their energy just to survive. They got their foods for themselves and their families by fishing and hunting. They hunted large and powerful animals including mammoths, bison, deer, lions, and horses. Our ancestors had few weapons and tools, so they must have felt rather helpless and frightened when they had to go out and kill large beasts. Yet the life of the whole tribe defended on what the hunter can bring home.
Most artists of our times create their works so that the people could enjoy and see them. The earliest artists could not have worked for this purpose because their art was hidden in a cave and other people rarely saw it. Yet their work was very important for the whole tribe. It is thought that the artists acted as sorcerer one who could do things which seemed impossible. His magic was meant to help doubtful hunters and to give strength to the weak.
It seems that the hunters believed that if they had a picture of animal they wanted to catch, their power to capture and kill the animal would be increased. This gave them confidence. We call this belief in magic 'superstition.'
The magician-painter of their prehistoric animals did not want to help the hunters to kill any animals. He wanted him to find the particular bison or the special deer that would provide the best meat or the best clothing. So he showed in his paintings the most desirable qualities of the animal: it had plenty of meat and fat. The painting also showed that the animal was not aware of the hunter so that he could capture it more easily. This is why many buffaloes are painted sleeping, or with such tiny legs that they couldn't move quickly enough to escape.
In a cave of south-eastern Spain is the painting of stag-hunt. Red figures of stags and hunters painted on the rocks. The men are either standing and kneeling and they are using bows and arrows as their weapons. These figures clearly show that the first artists knew about the form of an animal than about the shape of a man. This is not surprising when we remember that the purpose of the artists was to show the stag as the hunter wanted it. To be sure of success, the artist shows one of the stags pierced by an arrow.
HOW THE ARTISTS WORKED
We know what tools the first painters used. Beneath some of the wall paintings, shoulder bones of buffalo had been found. They were used as palettes. The artist may have held his palette by putting his fingers through the hole into which the leg bone had fitted. In some other caves, hollow stones have been dug up. They were used as saucers for paints and as lamps. Brushes were made from bundles of split reeds, or of bristles from the tail of buffalo.
The colors were found in the soil. Ochre earth was ground up for red and yellow. Soot was used for the dark shades and the greenish color was made from the manganese oxide. These colors were mixed with fat. which made them stay on the wall. The paints were very much like those of today.
Before the forming of artifacts, prehistoric artists established Shamanic ritual. Above is the figure of the tools used from animal bones. Some tools are made of stones, belt and strings.
Image powered by Canadian Arctic
ENGRAVINGS AND CARVINGS
Many cave-painters were combined with engravings. In this technique, the shape of animals was scratched into rock. Recently color was painted into these drawings. Whether engraved or painted, the wall decoration of the earliest artists was surprisingly life-like. Certainly, those artists must have been observers of the movements, forms, and colors of the animals they painted.
Prehistoric stone figures have also found in caves. They were made by hammering stone on stone. Compared with tools of the modern sculptors, the instrument of the early artists seems rough and difficult to handle. A pointed stone, hammered by another stone, was used to shape a figure. The first artist could polish the surface by rubbing the stones against one another.
Stone figures were made for the same reasons as the paintings. When human shapes were carved, they were formed as people would have liked them to be. No doubt the first artist presented the ideals of beauty in those ancient times.
Other sculptor show animals like those in the paintings. A group of bison modeled in clay was found in a cave at Tuc d'Audobert in France. This bison seem to be asleep or resting so that they could be caught easily.
Image powered by Museum of Artifacts
Stones and clay were not the only materials that the earliest sculptors used. Some figures were carved in reindeer hone of from the tusks of mammoths.
Aniconism remained restricted to Judaism, which did not accept figurative sculpture until the 19th century, before expanding to Early Christianity, which initially accepted large sculptures. In Christianity and Buddhism, sculpture became very significant. Christian Eastern Orthodoxy has never accepted monumental sculpture, and Islam has consistently rejected nearly all figurative sculpture, except for very small figures in reliefs and some animal figures that fulfill a useful function, like the famous lions supporting a fountain in the Alhambra. Many forms of Protestantism also do not approve of religious sculpture. There has been much iconoclasm of sculpture from religious motives, from the Early Christians, the Beeldenstorm of the Protestant Reformation to the 2001 destruction of the Buddhas of Bamyan by the Taliban.
THE CAVE AT LASCAUX
We have learned many interesting facts about the life of the early earth-dwellers from their paintings and carvings. We recognized peace and slumber as well as fear and violence in the works of these first artists.
The greatest discovery since Altamira was the cave of Lascaux in France. In 1940, four boys playing on the hillside of the little village of Lascaux crawled through a narrow slit into a dark cave. Some rubble slipped away from under them and they came to a long passage, which contains some of the best paintings ever seen. Gigantic oxen, and horses, painted in grey, black and yellow, are still there in all their original freshness.
Other caves have been discovered, at Combarelles, Font-de-Gaume and Trois Freres in France, and Castille, Novalis, and Pileta in Spain. These have also added a great deal to our knowledge. In the video above is the cave in Pileta Spain.
Courtesy of the video: Eddie Eicher via Youtube
There is a good reason to expect that more caves will be found in future years. With these discoveries will come a greater understanding of our ancestors' customs and beliefs. In the meantime, we can think of the earliest artists as men who did an important job for their tribe. They were a source of peace of mind and of hope. This power links them with all great first artists throughout history.
The cave at Lascaux was closed in sixties era and until now, it can only be seen on book of Art Museum. The book has thousands of stories and illustration of the cave that can also bring us to their times.
Image powered by Phaidon
The tourists amazed to see what is inside the cave and they're lucky it was open when they came in. The government prohibits Lascaux cave to be visited today due to the organisms lived inside that can transmit diseases.
Image powered by Thought Co.
Courtesy of the video: Facts@web via Youtube
All rights reserved. No part of this
article may be reproduced without special
credits in writing from the publishers of Wikipedia, National Geographic Magazine, Uiowa. | <urn:uuid:03338bd4-71f4-4bad-93d6-2f68e4f690b2> | CC-MAIN-2020-34 | https://www.bitlanders.com/blogs/the-first-artists/7761209 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-34/segments/1596439736962.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20200806121241-20200806151241-00279.warc.gz | en | 0.985169 | 1,880 | 3.15625 | 3 | {
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} | History |
The Slavery Convention of the League of Nations, 1926Pages: <1>
Whereas the signatories of the General Act of the Brussels Conference of 1889-90 declared that they were equally animated by the firm intention of putting an end to the traffic in African slaves;
Whereas the signatories of the Convention of Saint Germain-en-Laye of 1919 to revise the General Act of Berlin of 1885 and the General Act and Declaration of Brussels of 1890 affirmed their intention of securing the complete suppression of slavery in all its forms and of the slave trade by land and sea;
Taking into consideration the report of the Temporary Slavery Commission appointed by the Council of the League of Nations on June 12th, 1924;
Desiring to complete and extend the work accomplished under the Brussels Act and to find a means of giving practical effect throughout the world to such intentions as were expressed in regard to slave trade and slavery by the signatories of the Convention of Saint Germain-en-Laye, and recognising that it is necessary to conclude to that end more detailed arrangements than are contained in that Convention;
Considering, moreover, that it is necessary to prevent forced labour from developing into conditions analogous to slavery;
Have decided to conclude a Convention and have accordingly appointed as their Plenipotentiaries:
Who, having communicated their full powers, have agreed as follows:
For the purpose of the present Convention, the following definitions are agreed upon:
The High Contracting Parties undertake, each in respect of the territories placed under its sovereignty, jurisdiction, protection, suzerainty or tutelage, so far as they have not already taken the necessary steps:
The High Contracting Parties undertake to adopt all appropriate measures with a view to preventing and suppressing the embarkation, disembarkation and transport of slaves in their territorial waters and upon all vessels flying their respective flags.
The High Contracting Parties undertake to negotiate as soon as possible a general Convention with regard to the slave trade which will give them rights and impose upon them duties of the same nature as those provided for in the Convention of June 17th, 1925, relative to the International Trade in Arms (Articles 12, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, and paragraphs 3, 4 and 5 of Section II of Annex II) with the necessary adaptations, it being understood that this general Convention will not place the ships (even of small tonnage) of any High Contracting Parties in a position different from that of the other High Contracting Parties. It is also understood that, before or after the coming into force of this general Convention, the High Contracting Parties are entirely free to conclude between themselves, without, however, derogating from the principles laid down in the preceding article, such special agreements as, by reason of their peculiar situation, might appear to be suitable in order to bring about as soon as possible the complete disappearance of the slave trade.
The High Contracting Parties shall give to one another every assistance with the object of securing the abolition of slavery and the slave trade.
The High Contracting Parties recognise that recourse to compulsory or forced labour may have grave consequences and undertake, each in respect of the territories placed under its sovereignty, jurisdiction, protection, suzerainty or tutelage, to take all necessary measures to prevent compulsory or forced labour from developing into conditions analogous to slavery.
It is agreed that:
Those of the High Contracting Parties whose laws do not at present make adequate provision for the punishment of infractions of laws and regulations enacted with a view to giving effect to the purposes of the present Convention undertake to adopt the necessary measures hi order that severe penalties may be imposed in respect of such infractions.
The High Contracting Parties undertake to communicate to each other and to the Secretary-General of the League of Nations any laws and regulations which they may enact with a view to the application of the provisions of the present Convention.
The High Contracting Parties agree that disputes arising between them relating to the interpretation or application of this Convention shall, if they cannot be settled by direct negotiation, be referred for decision to the Permanent Court of International Justice. In case either or both of the States Parties to such a dispute should not be parties to the Protocol of December 16th, 1920, relating to the Permanent Court of International Justice, the dispute shall be referred, at the choice of the Parties and in accordance with the constitutional procedure of each State, either to the Permanent Court of International Justice or to a court of arbitration constituted in accordance with the Convention of October 18th, 1907, for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes, or to some other court of arbitration.
At the time of signature or of ratification or of accession, any High Contracting Party may declare that its acceptance of the present Convention does not bind some or all of the territories placed under its sovereignty, jurisdiction, protection, suzerainty or tutelage in respect of all or any provisions of the Convention; it may subsequently accede separately on behalf of any one of them or in respect of any provision to which any one of them is not a party.
In the event of a High Contracting Party wishing to denounce the present Convention, the denunciation shall be notified in writing to the Secretary-General of the League of Nations, who will at once communicate a certified true copy of the notification to all the other High Contracting Parties informing them of the date on which it was received.
The denunciation shall only have effect in regard to the notifying State, and one year after the notification has reached the Secretary-General of the League of Nations.
Denunciation may also be made separately in respect of any territory placed under its sovereignty, jurisdiction, protection, suzerainty or tutelage.
The present Convention, which will bear this day's date and of which the French and English texts are both authentic, will remain open for signature by the States Members of the League of Nations until April 1st, 1927.
The Secretary-General of the League of Nations will subsequently bring the present Convention to the notice of States which have not signed it, including States which are not Members of the League of Nations, and invite them to accede thereto.
A State desiring to accede to the Convention shall notify its intention in writing to the Secretary-General of the League of Nations and transmit to him the instrument of accession, which shall be deposited in the archives of the League.
The Secretary-General shall immediately transmit to all the other High Contracting Parties a certified true copy of the notification and of the instrument of accession, informing them of the date on which he received them.
The present Convention will be ratified and the instruments of ratification shall be deposited in the office of the Secretary-General of the League of Nations. The Secretary-General will inform all the High Contracting Parties of such deposit.
The Convention will come into operation for each State on the date of the deposit of its ratification or of its accession.
In faith whereof the Plenipotentiaries have signed the present Convention.
done at Geneva the twenty-fifth day of September, one thousand nine hundred and twenty-six, in one copy, which will be deposited in the archives of the League of Nations. A certified copy shall be forwarded to each signatory State. | <urn:uuid:773d39f7-9222-4861-8e09-51d030e52d21> | CC-MAIN-2018-47 | http://oreald.com/b6/ch17.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-47/segments/1542039745800.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20181119150816-20181119172816-00167.warc.gz | en | 0.947508 | 1,488 | 3.21875 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 2.942673921585083,
"reasoning_level": 3,
"interpretation": "Strong reasoning"
} | Crime & Law |
Just as desktop computers have "expansion slots" into which you can add expansion cards for video, sound, networking, and many other things, Arduino boards have "headers" on top where you can fit "shields" to add more functionality. The big difference, however, is that computer expansion slots are finite and independent: if your computer has 6 slots, you can put in 6 cards. And because (with some exceptions) each card is totally independent, it doesn't matter what you use. It could be 6 video cards, or 1 video card and 5 network cards, or whatever. The computer sees each card in isolation and they don't conflict with each other.
With Arduino shields it's not so clear-cut. There is no specific number of "slots", and shields can be stacked on top of each other to combine their features. Most of the time you'll only have one shield at a time fitted to your Arduino, but some people really take it to an extreme!
Photo by John Boxall
Sometimes shields can be stacked together and sometimes they can't, and it's not always obvious if they'll work together or not.
So how do you know if shields are compatible with each other?
All shields except the top one will need stacking headers. Many shields are fitted with regular male break-away headers that protrude down from the shield but don't provide a place on top where another shield can be plugged in. Try to use stacking headers on your shields whenever possible because it makes life much easier for you later if you need to stack them together. You can see the stacking headers clearly on the top shield in the photo above.
Even if your shields have stacking headers they may still have parts that are physically high and can foul another shield placed on top. Ethernet shields are notorious for this because the RJ45 jack is so physically high: the stacking headers are shorter than the RJ45 jack, so if you put another shield on top it will probably not sit down flat and the jack may short out tracks on the top shield.
One handy trick to get around that problem is to keep some spare stacking headers around to use as spacers between shields.
Check the pin assignments of the shields you want to use, and make sure they're not going to fight over the same pins. Sometimes this can be quite difficult to determine so you may need to go digging through the manufacturer's schematic to figure out which pins they use. Sharing the GND, 5V, 3V3, RESET, and AREF pins is fine, but if your shields try to use the same data pins you may be in trouble. At Freetronics we have a rule that all shields must have clear markings showing which pins they use so that you don't have to go looking for datasheets unnecessarily.
If your shields use SPI communications to the Arduino they can all co-exist on the same SPI bus, with the exception of the "SS" ("slave select") line (sometimes called "CS", or "chip select") which will need to be configured differently for each board. The "MISO", "MOSI", and "SCLK" pins can all be shared by multiple shields. If you have multiple shields that use SPI and they also use the same pin for SS you may need to modify one of the shields. A typical approach is to cut the track going to SS on one of the shields and use a jumper wire to connect it to an alternative pin, and then modify the software for that shield to use that pin when communicating with the shield.
One little catch is with Ethernet shields based on the Wiznet W5100 chipset, which includes the official Ethernet shield and many third-party shields. The W5100 has a design flaw that causes it to maintain control of the SPI bus even when another device has been selected, making it very tricky to combine the official Ethernet shield with other shields that use SPI. The Freetronics Ethernet Shield uses the W5100 chipset but includes a fix in hardware so it doesn't have that problem and will happily share the bus with other SPI devices.
Shields that come with a decent amount of software overhead (such as large driver libraries) can sometimes be a pain to combine if they use up lots of Flash, or SRAM, or have conflicting interrupts or tight timing requirements. This is something that may be difficult for you to determine at face value unless you know the internals of all the libraries involved quite intimately.
The Arduino only has access to about 500mA via either the USB connection or the external power jack, and some of that is required by the Arduino itself. That leaves a fairly small amount of power available for shields to share, so if you have shields that suck a lot of power you may run into problems when they are combined.
Sometimes it's not particularly obvious which shields have high power requirements, but common culprits are LCD shields (some backlights can consume 300mA on its own) and wireless shields.
Be particularly careful with any shields that rely on the 3.3V supply, because it has a very low current limit of just 50mA. Shields that require a large amount of current at 3.3V (such as ZigBee shields) should implement their own on-board voltage regulator rather than relying on the 3.3V supply from the Arduino, but many times they don't. Be super-careful if you have two shields that both use 3.3V from the Arduino.
Radio / Electrical Interference
If your shields use any form of RF communication it's possible that they can interfere with each other. For example, WiFi shields contain a transceiver to communicate at about 2.4GHz, so if you have another 2.4GHz device jammed right up against it on an adjacent shield you are likely to have problems.
Electrical noise may also be an issue. A worst-case situation would be to combine a shield that needs an extremely clean electrical environment (such as a high-speed, high-resolution analog to digital converter) with a shield that causes lots of electrical noise such as a motor driver shield. Fitting extra power supply decoupling capacitors to each board can often help if electrical noise is a problem.
Got a comment or suggestion about this tutorial? Shoot us an email! | <urn:uuid:a4af9941-c20b-4858-9fab-b3e429456812> | CC-MAIN-2018-51 | https://www.freetronics.com.au/pages/stacking-arduino-shields | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-51/segments/1544376827639.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20181216095437-20181216121437-00358.warc.gz | en | 0.950929 | 1,286 | 2.671875 | 3 | {
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"interpretation": "Strong reasoning"
} | Hardware |
This little patch acts like an invisibility cloak to mosquitoes
For many of us, mosquitoes are merely an annoying part of summer, sending us inside in the evenings and sometimes leaving us with itchy little bites on exposed areas. However, in some parts of the world, getting a mosquito bite could be a life or death situation, because those little bloodsuckers can carry diseases such as malaria, West Nile Virus and Dengue Fever, and there may not be any "inside" to retreat to, safely away from reach of mosquitoes.
But the development of a novel form of mosquito repellent could make it much safer for humans in those areas, because the non-toxic compounds in it can effectively block mosquitoes’ ability to track humans for up to 48 hours, rendering the wearer virtually invisible to mosquitoes.
"Malaria continues to kill a child every minute of the day – which is why we’re working 24/7 to build a new approach to help change the game against mosquitoes." - Grey Frandsen, Kite Patch Team Lead
The Kite Patch recently finished a wildly successful Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign (it raised $557,254, which blew away their original target of $75,000), and the first run of the product will be produced and then field-tested in malaria-impacted regions of Uganda (where malaria infection rates are over 60%).
The Kite Patch, which measures 1.5" square, is designed to stick on to clothing or equipment, and works by disrupting mosquitoes' carbon dioxide neurons, effectively blocking their primary method of tracking humans for feeding for at least 48 hours.
"Kite Patch uses powerful, non-toxic compounds that are FDA approved for harmless human contact. No more toxic sprays or lotions, and no more silly, ineffective ingredients that don’t work."
While full field trials are necessary to gauge the real-world effectiveness of the Kite, the product is backed by years of research and testing at Olfactor Laboratories, Inc., where the patch has been trialled in "every conceivable condition, climate, configuration, and human setting".
The Kite still needs to go through EPA approval in order to be offered for sale here in the U.S., which is estimated to take about a year. In the meantime, the team will be distributing about 100,000 of the patches in Uganda (said to be equivalent to 4 million hours of protection) and studying the effectiveness of the Kite there.
If successful in production and distribution, the Kite Patch could be a huge step forward in replacing the need for current mosquito repellent products that have ineffective or toxic chemicals in them, and provide almost instant protection for users as they go through their normal daily activities.
If you'd like to know when the Kite Patch will be available in your area, sign up via the contact form at the bottom of their website. | <urn:uuid:d170f2aa-b642-4bd5-bdfb-9629f9037e5e> | CC-MAIN-2016-22 | http://www.treehugger.com/clean-technology/little-patch-acts-invisibility-cloak-mosquitoes.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-22/segments/1464049270134.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20160524002110-00241-ip-10-185-217-139.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947348 | 595 | 2.5625 | 3 | {
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"reasoning_level": 3,
"interpretation": "Strong reasoning"
} | Health |
What is Tourism?
Traveling for pleasure, entertainment, business or other purposes is generally termed as Tourism. Travel and tourism sector is an important part of any economy. The contribution of the industry to global GDP is estimated at around 10.2% in 2016. Also, it has employed around 292 million people across the globe which means 1 out of every ten jobs on the planet is created in travel and tourism industry. Tourism may be domestic or international. The business of tourism involves attracting, accommodating and entertaining tourists and organizing tours and travel. Thus, careers in travel and tourism offers an excellent opportunity to learn, grow and earn. The best part of developing a career in travel and tourism industry is that the sector has job opportunities for skilled as well as semi-skilled professionals. Even an average student from a mediocre college can build an exciting career in travel and tourism sector by working hard and learn the tricks of the trade. Here we will discuss the jobs and careers in travel and tourism industry in Indian context.
Travel and Tourism Industry
The tourism and travel industry is the largest service industry in India.
It employed around 8.78% of the total workforce in the country in 2011.
A World Travels & Tourism Council report pegs this number at 9.3% in
2016. The industry supported 40 million jobs.
This is an increase of around 0.5% since 2011. It proves that this industry
is growing faster than the overall employment market in India.
The travel and tourism is a $136 billion industry, of which the tourism and
hospitality sector contributes $47 billion. This industry has a share of
7.5% in the total GDP of the nation.
The above figures represent only the organized sector within this industry.
A large part of the sector falls within the unorganized sector.
According to the estimates of the World Travels & Tourism Council, the
tourism contributed around $210 billion or Rs.14 lakh crore to the Indian
This is around 9.6% of the total GDP and is approximately 2.1% higher than
the organized sector. It means the unorganized segment also contributes
Although there are differences in the estimates from various agencies due
to the inaccuracies in statistics from the unorganized sector, tours &
travel industry is one of the largest in the country in terms of revenue,
contribution to the economy and employment generation.
Millions of people are employed directly and indirectly in this sector.
The WTTC report also predicts that this industry will grow at a speed of
6.8% which is almost equal to the GDP growth of India.
The industry is likely to reach $420 billion or Rs.28.49 lakh crore by
2027. This will be almost 10% of the economy.
According to the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report of 2017, among
136 nations, India ranks at 40.
There is also considerable support from the Government of India to project
the country as an attractive tourist destination.
A unique and yet important part of this industry in India is Medical
Tourism. It currently accounts for $3 billion and is slated to reach $8
billion by 2020.
India offers high-quality medical treatments at a fraction of the cost in
the developed nations.
Approximately 200,000 medical tourists visit India each year.
The above statistics show the massive size of the tours and travel industry
in the country and the potential it offers for employment.
It is probably one of the largest business segments in terms of the type of
employments it generates.
Right from a ticket booking clerk to a medical doctor, millions of Indians
constitute this industry and millions more will be needed in years to come.
If you aspire to a successful career, this industry has a lot to offer.
Keep reading to understand how you can become a successful professional in
Jobs in Travel Industry
Tours and Travel is a vast industry with millions of people working
directly and indirectly with it.
This section analyses some of the jobs that are directly associated with
India is a tourism hub with people from different parts of the world
visiting the country. They have different dietary habits.
Additionally, India is a land of diversity with thousands of cuisines. This
makes a chef one of the most prominent persons in the tourism value chain.
If you have a penchant for cooking and like to whet the appetite of people
with your delicacies, this is the perfect profession for you.
Not only it pays well but also brings recognition. Some of the chefs have
gone on to become celebrity chefs in the country.
There are numerous options in this field. Right from running your own
eatery in a popular tourist destination to working with a five-star hotel,
options are virtually unlimited.
At the beginning of your career, you can expect a salary of above Rs.20,000
working with a decent sized hotel.
There is a significant upside to it and soon you could be earning upward of
As a hotel management graduate, your starting pay could range between
Rs.25,000 and Rs.30,000.
With a few years’ experience, you can earn well over Rs.50,000 a month.
Apart from the basic salary, there are several other perks you can avail as
a manager in a top hotel.
For the unskilled and semi-skilled segment, the job of a waiter is
suitable. It doesn’t require much qualifications or education.
However, those working in premium hotels need to know English and should
have an amicable personality.
Depending on the type of hotel, the starting salary can range between
Rs.7,000 to Rs.30,000.
You may either work with a travel agency or can start your own business by
taking a franchise.
As an employee of a company such as Thomas Cook, you can expect a starting
salary of Rs.20,000 to 25,000.
As a tour guide, you’ll have the opportunity to interact with people from
Apart from the monetary benefits, you also get to learn a lot from this
Meeting hundreds of new people each day, all from different nations and
cultures, and talking to them has its own joy.
You learn a lot from them and also expand your horizon while also
displaying to them the glory and heritage of your own country.
At the early stages of your career, you can expect a salary of Rs.17,000.
However, several tourists also give handsome tips.
You can also earn more by arranging a customized tour for them.
There’s also a tremendous scope in this profession to start your own
Since the name of the industry is tours and travels, traveling is its most
important activity. A tourist shall visit several places in the country.
It makes ticketing a lucrative career option. As a ticketing agent, you can
earn commission or fee by either working individually or collaborate with a
larger firm such as Makemytrip or GoIbibo.
Alternately, you also have the option to work as an employee with similar
organizations. Even there are numerous government undertakings and
India is fast pushing its tourism industry. It means tourism department in
all states employee a large number of people mainly in jobs such as
As a fresher, you can expect a salary ranging from Rs.15,000 to Rs.18,000.
According to the WTTC figures, 8.89 million foreign tourists visited India in 2016.
They carry foreign currencies with them.
Many of them get their money exchanged at the airports, but that might not
suffice their requirement.
Alternately, they may choose to exchange their money locally within India.
All the large private and PSU banks offer this service apart from the forex
agencies such as American Express, Thomas Cook, etc.
Working in this profession requires a thorough understanding of regulatory
guidelines such as Foreign Exchange Monetary Act (FEMA) and anti-money
A person with right knowledge can have a successful career in this field.
A new employee in a forex department of a bank or moneychanger can expect a
starting salary of Rs.25,000 per month, which increases substantially with
This profession also requires several sales executives and managers due to
the intense competition among the banks and money changers
As a sales person in this field, apart from salary, you can also earn good
Travel and Tourism Courses
The qualification requirements vary from job to job in this sector. Some of
them require unskilled or semi-skilled workforce while several others need
highly trained manpower.
An official working in the forex department of a bank or moneychanger
preferably needs to hold a bachelor’s or master’s degree in commerce.
A hotel manager should have a degree in hospitality management.
BBA in Tours and Travels is an excellent qualification for those seeking
placements in this sector, especially the organized part of it.
An MBA degree in marketing and hospitality is beneficial for those who seek
a job in a customer facing role.
Hotel management is suitable for someone who’d aim for a job as a chef or
hotel executive and manager.
MBA Finance is suited for those working in the finance department of
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) offers several courses
suitable for those in the aviation part of the tours and travels industry.
Almost every person can make a career in this industry, which means there
is no restriction on the type of qualification.
You can find a job suitable for your qualification or pursue a course for a
profession that interests you.
Several colleges in India offer full-time courses in tourism. They also
offer placement assistance. Some of the top colleges are listed here.
- CT Group of Institutions
It offers MSc in Airline Tourism and Hospitality Management and is
affiliated with Punjab Technical University. It’s situated at Jalandhar,
- Amity University
It’s one of the most popular universities in India and offers tourism
courses among others.
It has a four year Bachelor’s degree in Tourism and Travel Management. The
University’s location is Gurgaon.
- NSHM Knowledge Campus
Situated in Durgapur, it offers three years Bachelor in Business Management
with specialization in Travel and Tourism Management.
· TransGlobe School of Logistics and Aviation Management
The instituted is situated in Kozhikode and offers a one-year undergraduate
Diploma in Aviation, Hospitality, and Travel Management.
· Vivekanand Institute of Hotel and Tourism Management
This Rajkot based Institute offers a full-time 4-year bachelor’s degree in
Hotel and Tourism Management.
Short term courses in Travel and Tourism
Apart from the aforementioned long duration courses, you may pursue shorter
These courses last from a few hours to a few months. Several of them are
self-learning courses that you can pursue at your own pace in an e-learning
Some of these courses are listed below:
|1||Accounting and Financial Management for Travel Agencies||IATA||E-learning||15 hours|
|2||Advanced Skills in Journey Pricing and Ticketing||IATA||E-learning||90 hours|
|3||Certificate course in Travel & Tourism||University of Delhi||Classroom||4 months|
|4||Airfares & Ticketing||University of Delhi||Classroom||2 months|
|5||Computer Reservation System||University of Delhi||Classroom||1.5 months|
|6||Kuoni Academy M.I.C.E. Management Program||Kuoni Academy||Classroom||6 months|
|7||Kuoni Academy Travel Management Program||Kuoni Academy||Classroom||6 months|
|8||Kuoni Academy Travel Management and Tele Sales Program||Kuoni Academy||Classroom||6 months|
|9||Kuoni Academy Travel and Tourism Business Development
|Kuoni Academy||Classroom||6 months|
|10||Computer Application in Tourism and Travel Industry||Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel Management||Classroom||2 months|
|11||Computerised Reservation System||Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel Management||Classroom||3 months|
|12||Air Travel, Fares and Ticketing||Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel Management||Classroom||1 month|
|13||Airlines, Travel Agency and Tour Operation Management||Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel Management||Classroom||1 month|
You may pursue these short-term courses along with your regular college
degree or while working.
They give you the much-needed skill upgrade to help build a successful
While opting for the short-term courses, it’s advisable to seek the
feedback from others who’ve pursued these courses.
Salary and Compensation
We’ve already discussed the starting salaries for some of the professions
in this industry.
With experience and performance, you can scale great heights and earn an
An advantage of working in the tours and travel industry is that it offers
a fast-paced career growth. You can scale great heights faster than other
This industry requires people that have not just the right occupational
skills but also soft skills. So, if you inculcate the right soft skills and
continuously improve your occupational skills, getting high salaries is
much easier in this industry than any other sector.
An executive chef with a five-star hotel with a few years of experience can
even earn more than Rs.3,00,000 a year.
Managers in hotels are also well-paid. Those working in the catering
department of international flights earn really well and also enjoy other
perks such as free hotel stay and food at places where they halt as well as
discounted airline tickets for their family members.
Tours and Travel industry is a booming sector. The Indian Government, as
well as the State Governments, have an immense focus on the development of
The sector has grown faster than the Indian economy and will continue to
grow for at least the next 10 years.
This sector is also least likely to be affected by automation as no machine
can replace a skilled chef or a friendly tour guide.
Apart from the decent starting salary, there’s tremendous potential to grow
real fast in this sector.
Some of the courses mentioned above can give a fillip to your career in | <urn:uuid:8c3850ef-5579-43e3-b339-7d733826ca92> | CC-MAIN-2019-18 | https://ect.co.in/careers-in-travel-and-tourism/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-18/segments/1555578806528.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20190426133444-20190426155444-00461.warc.gz | en | 0.929099 | 3,034 | 2.65625 | 3 | {
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The River Rail is a collective declaration of our interdependence—a hive mind focused on our rights and responsibilities to water that pushes beyond the outmoded boundaries of city, state and country to an intercontinental engagement.
Imagine a Forest Industry of the 21st Century where the act of harvesting preserves the system and the act of preserving the system provides meaningful work for the human community.
My art was born at the meeting point of two waters, the Aconcagua River and the Pacific Ocean, at a site the first peoples of Chile called Con cón: “Water water”.
I have been working in Tierra del Fuego for five years as part of the research collective Ensayos, which brings an international group of artists and social scientists together with ecologists and locals to think through environmental and sustainability questions in the region.
HAWAPI means “outside” or “to be outside” in Qechua, the native language of the Andes. It represents our ethos of working beyond the usual confines of the art world.
Water Out of Nowhere:
By David Michael Buhl
Technological Solutions to a Legal Failure on Salt River Reservation, 1910 – 1939
In a modern impulse to perfect nature and make it as productive as possible, either through spiritual or conservationist principles whose mandates dovetailed nicely, the settler population changed the environment of the area forever and severely limited indigenous water supplies in the process.
Infrastructure is Nature! Infrastructure is alive. It is an active extension of society and, thus, is active within the living world.
This is not water to wade in, to bathe in, to swim in. Nor is it a water of floods, of shipwrecks, of melting glaciers. It’s an entropic water, a polluted water, a corrosive, and therefore, a political water.
River Rail In Conversation
My earliest memory is trying to protect a beetle that kids were trying to crush in daycare. For some reason, I always wanted to protect animals.
Rivers, Ice floes, Glaciers, the Arctic and Antarctic ice caps, sonar views of the ocean floor, to simple water waves, frozen in time by a photograph. Rivers are something we tend to see at the place we know.
Water, in its geological nature, belongs where Mexico City now stands. The valley, now home to over nine million people, used to be the lacustrine system of Texcoco, a body of water extending over 1,200 square miles...
River Rail In Conversation
Alchemy and Hermeticism are about the primacy of the in-between. Reality and healing and transformation and creation and art are in the in-between, the both-and. And to the extent that we lose the ability to be in-between, we lose the world, and, for now, we have lost the ability to be in-between, and we have lost the world.
“el obrero se limita a producir el valor de su fuerza de trabajo” (el otoño más largo) / “the worker is limited to producing the value of his labor power” (the longest fall)
"Metaphor Exchange," "The Prospect," "Earth’s Horizon"
"Celestial Spine," "Infinity Reel," "Torn Expanse," "Pollopel Island," "Oh Water Man"
I have no sense of failure when I am with you / everything matters because everything / hurts someone somewhere as it is mattering...
A reimagined signification of ash swirling in water broadly reveals the hegemony of the coal industry and the way that its power serves the pursuit of capital through the dispossession of land, water, clean air, health, property value, and financial stability from surrounding communities.
Speech is river (raw material) / (water) / current descending or spirit in continuity
Originally, I wanted to steer clear of speaking on behalf of the people and things whose stories I want to see televised, so I rejected the early suggestion by my advisors that I should write scripts to get the web series going. As I described in my previous letter to you, I argued instead for a more experimental process of ethnofiction filmmaking, advocating for casual interviews, playful reenactments and analytical editing techniques as my chosen methodology.
For this issue of the River Rail Lauren Bon of Metabolic Studio asked me to recommend readings, resources, and audiovisual texts related to various interconnected themes
Meg Webster, Diana Wege, Alexis Rockman, David Brooks, Jackie Winsor, and Charles Gains.
From the Publisher & Artistic Director
The River Rail raises issues that many of us are not aware of, and proposes some actions. This augury of ecological concerns and explorations is a new beginning of our collective work in the making. | <urn:uuid:1232c2c2-3595-4617-8bfe-1abada49edd6> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | https://donate.brooklynrail.org/special/RIVER_RAIL/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233511023.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20231002232712-20231003022712-00582.warc.gz | en | 0.929559 | 1,022 | 2.546875 | 3 | {
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One decade of the new millennium is over and companies, especially in consumer electronics , are wooing customers with new models. Mobile handset vendors are releasing, on an average , about 35 new models in the domestic market every month, indicating a drastic reduction in product lifetime. However, new technology is also at the risk of becoming obsolete very fast. What do rapid evolution of technology and the resultant obsolescence mean for the stakeholders?
Should a customer change her mobile, desktop or laptop every year? How do companies generate economic value out of obsolescence ? Should the government step up investment in public IT infrastructure? First, let us take the effect of technological obsolescence on companies. Technology obsolescence impacts the future economic value of a product or a component, which increases the risk involved in financing its development.
Companies may resort to different strategies to tackle the problem. These include differentiated pricing for an upgraded product, forward or backward integration to gain control of the market for the product, greater R&D intensity to introduce differentiated products or diversification to derisk. In telecom, the move away from proprietary to opensource software adoption, especially in mobile handsets such as Android reduces technology obsolescence cost, both for handset-makers and consumers.
Another trend is the emergence of managed services wherein mobile service providers such as Airtel have outsourced network deployment and management to network equipment makers such as Ericsson and Nokia-Siemens . Airtel transfers the obsolescence risk to the network equipment makers. BSNL has gone a step further, adopting a franchisee model in broadband wireless access. Here, the obsolescence risk is transferred to the franchisee. Also, in technology, obsolescence may not be related to the whole product, but might occur for components that make up the product.
Sometimes , obsolescence rate is faster than the components lifetime. Technology refresh is required either because the component ages or has reached end-of-life . It is also possible that the technology refresh makes the system much more efficient that the extra features make it worth the refresh , or the maintenance costs go down substantially justifying the refresh cycle. Besides industry, technology obsolescence also impacts the consumer. The customer upgrades the hardware or software to stay on top of the technology trend. Pricebased competition is likely to provide similar alternative products to the subscriber and enable her to reduce the technology obsolescence cost.
The success of featurerich mobiles from domestic handset companies such as Micromax, Lava and Karbonn as reasonable cost-effective alternatives to handsets from multinational companies illustrates this customer rationality. A customer can also trade her old incompatible version to reduce costs. | <urn:uuid:06bfc2fa-3d6a-4ee9-8d79-b5985cd70e1c> | CC-MAIN-2017-51 | http://www.cainindia.org/news/2_2011/subsidise_tech_rd_budget_2011.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-51/segments/1512948588251.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20171216143011-20171216165011-00364.warc.gz | en | 0.927682 | 542 | 2.671875 | 3 | {
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} | Finance & Business |
What Is DNS Spoofing?
Have you ever typed in a website’s address and ended up somewhere completely different? Or received emails from what appears to be a familiar company, but with suspicious links that lead to unfamiliar pages? These scenarios may be the result of DNS spoofing, a type of cyber-attack that can leave your sensitive information vulnerable.
In this blog post, we’ll dive into what DNS spoofing is, how it works, who is at risk, and most importantly – how you can prevent it. Stay tuned for tips on protecting yourself against this threat!
Methods for DNS spoofing or cache poisoning attacks
DNS spoofing, or cache poisoning attacks, can take on several different forms. One common method is known as pharming, where a hacker manipulates the DNS server so that requests to legitimate websites are redirected to malicious sites. Another technique is called DNS hijacking, where attackers intercept and redirect traffic intended for a specific website.
Yet another approach involves exploiting flaws in the DNS software itself through techniques such as buffer overflows or stack-based overflows. In these cases, attackers may be able to bypass authentication measures and inject their own code into the system.
DNS amplification attacks involve sending a large amount of traffic to name server with an open resolver – this leads it to send out amplified responses that overwhelm the target IP address with data packets.
These are just some examples of methods used by cybercriminals attempting to carry out DNS spoofing attacks. It’s important for network administrators and users alike to be aware of these tactics to better protect themselves against them.
How DNS cache poisoning and spoofing works
DNS cache poisoning and spoofing are types of cyber-attacks that aim to redirect traffic from legitimate websites to malicious ones. The goal is to trick users into visiting a fake or malicious website, that looks identical to the real one, but has been designed for nefarious purposes.
The attack starts with an attacker sending forged DNS queries to a vulnerable DNS server. These queries contain false information about the IP address associated with a particular domain name. When the server receives these requests, it stores them in its cache memory so that future requests for malicious ip address of the same domain can be answered more quickly.
Once this occurs, any device that uses this DNS server will receive false information when trying to access the affected domain. This means that when someone types in a URL or clicks on a link, they may end up being redirected to an attacker-controlled website.
This type of attack is particularly dangerous because it can affect large numbers of people at once without their knowledge or consent. It’s also difficult for victims to detect since everything appears normal until it’s too late.
To prevent these attacks from occurring, it’s crucially important not only for individuals but also businesses and organizations alike keep their software updated regularly by installing patches as soon as they become available. Additionally, using secure connections like HTTPS instead of HTTP will make it harder for attackers carrying out such attacks against you and your business network infrastructure.
Targets of DNS spoofing
DNS spoofing is a serious concern for organizations as it can lead to various cybersecurity attacks such as phishing, malware distribution, and man-in-the-middle attacks. Hackers target DNS servers to redirect users to malicious websites or intercept their communications.
One of the primary targets of DNS spoofing is financial institutions. Attackers try to steal login credentials and personal information by redirecting users from legitimate banking sites to a fake site or ones that look similar. Once victims enter their sensitive data on these fraudulent websites, hackers gain access to their accounts.
Another common target of DNS spoofing is e-commerce sites. In this case, attackers may create identical-looking online stores with slightly different domain names than the original website. Unsuspecting customers who visit these fake sites end up giving away their credit card information and other sensitive details.
Moreover, government agencies and large corporations are also at risk of falling victim to DNS spoofing attacks. By targeting critical infrastructure systems like power grids or water treatment facilities, attackers can cause significant damage and disruption.
Any organisation that relies heavily on its online presence should take necessary precautions against DNS spoofing attacks to safeguard its reputation and protect customer data from being compromised by cybercriminals.
Examples of DNS spoofing & DNS cache poisoning attacks
DNS spoofing and cache poisoning attacks can have serious consequences for both individuals and organizations. One example of a DNS spoofing attack was the incident that occurred in 2008 when Comcast, an internet service provider, redirected users who were attempting to access BitTorrent traffic to fake pages.
Another notable example is the Kaminsky attack in 2008 which exploited a vulnerability in the Domain Name System (DNS) protocol. This allowed attackers to redirect users to malicious websites without their knowledge or consent.
In 2016, it was discovered that attackers had compromised several popular travel booking websites by using a DNS cache poisoning technique. This resulted in users being directed to fake sites where their personal information was stolen and misused.
In another case, hackers used DNS spoofing techniques to redirect unsuspecting victims trying to access legitimate webpages such as banks, shopping sites or even social media platforms onto malicious sites designed specifically for phishing purposes.
These examples highlight how damaging and widespread these types of attacks can be if left unaddressed. It’s important for individuals and organizations alike to take proactive steps towards preventing DNS spoofing and cache poisoning incidents from occurring in the first place.
Risks of DNS poisoning and spoofing
DNS spoofing and cache poisoning attacks can lead to various risks for both individuals and businesses. The most significant risk is the possibility of attackers redirecting users to malicious websites that might contain malware or viruses. Attackers can also use DNS spoofing as a tool for phishing scams, where they trick users into providing their sensitive information like login credentials, credit card numbers ip addresses, etc.
Another major risk of DNS poisoning is that it can disrupt an entire network or website’s operations. If the attacker manages to gain access to a company’s DNS server, they could alter its settings and redirect all traffic away virtual private network or from legitimate servers causing downtime for the business.
Moreover, DNS spoofing attacks pose severe threats in terms of privacy violations since these attacks allow attackers to monitor user activity on a compromised network. They could track user browsing habits or intercept sensitive data transmissions by modifying victim web traffic.
Without proper protection against DNS Spoofing & Cache Poisoning Attacks companies risking losing customer trust and damaging their brand reputation due to downtimes and security breaches caused by these attacks.
What threats does DNS spoofing pose?
DNS spoofing is a serious threat that can cause devastating consequences for individuals and businesses alike. One of the primary threats posed by DNS spoofing is the interception of sensitive data, such as login credentials, financial information, or personal details. Attackers can redirect users to fake websites where they collect this information through phishing attacks.
In addition to stealing valuable data, DNS spoofing can also be used to distribute malware. Cybercriminals may use it as an entry point into systems vulnerable to attack, with the aim of installing malicious software on targeted devices.
Another significant danger related to DNS spoofing lies in its ability to hijack website traffic and redirect it from malicious site towards illegitimate sites controlled by attackers. This way, cybercriminals can spread misleading information or propaganda or even sell counterfeit products using fraudulent websites imitating legitimate ones.
DNS Spoofing poses significant risks for internet users since it enables attackers to breach security measures established by online services and gain access sensitive user data while avoiding detection from users who think they are navigating safe web pages.
Regularly apply patches to DNS servers
Preventing DNS spoofing is crucial for ensuring web security, and it’s important to take measures to prevent such attacks. By understanding the methods of DNS cache poisoning and how these attacks work, you can secure your web activity against malicious actors.
Always remember that any device connected to the internet is vulnerable to cyber-attacks, so taking preventative action is essential for safeguarding sensitive information. Regularly applying patches to DNS servers ensures that they are up to date with the latest protective measures and security protocols.
By staying vigilant and informed about potential threats like DNS spoofing, you can enjoy a safer online experience. Implementing preventive measures like using trusted DNS resolvers or employing encryption technologies also helps in mitigating this threat. Protect your digital assets by being proactive in securing them from possible attacks!
Please wait while you are redirected to the right page... | <urn:uuid:574719d7-11be-47df-92a9-8971345df1fa> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://www.deviceauthority.com/blog/what-is-dns-spoofing-and-how-can-you-prevent-it/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224649302.35/warc/CC-MAIN-20230603165228-20230603195228-00242.warc.gz | en | 0.93368 | 1,762 | 3.171875 | 3 | {
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By Arjun Makhijani
When Greenpeace revealed in September 1994 that the U.S. Energy Department had been secretly supplying Japan with technical know-how on producing weapons grade plutonium, it was just one in a series of nuclear revelations that shocked the Japanese public.
In August 1994, a 25-year-old Japanese foreign ministry document was leaked to Mainichi Shimbum, a large daily newspaper. Written when Japan was considering the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1969, the document argued that the country did not need nuclear weapons “for the time being,” but that it should “keep the economic and technical potential for the production of nuclear weapons, while seeing to it that Japan will not be interfered with in this regard.” The Japanese government promptly admitted the authenticity of the document, but denied that the policy had ever been adopted.
Although Japan has the technological base, materials, and delivery systems needed to build a nuclear arsenal, in its public statements the government has consistently disavowed any nuclear ambitions. Japanese officials point to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to explain their country’s “nuclear allergy,'” which, they say, is so strong that Japan could never acquire nuclear weapons. In 1968, then-Prime Minister Eisaku Sato declared that Japan would not produce, not introduce, and not possess nuclear weapons.
In addition, Japan’s constitution would seem on its face to bar the maintenance of any military force. Article 9 states that “land, sea, and air forces as well as other war potential will never be maintained,” and pledges further that Japan will never use war or the threat of force “as means of settling international disputes.”
Over the years, however, the Japanese government has demonstrated considerable flexibility in interpreting the mission of its “self-defense” forces – so much so that defense forces could conceivably include nuclear weapons.
Although Japan relies on the U.S. nuclear umbrella, the 1969 document indicated that this may be a matter of convenience. The policy statement indicates that the acquisition of nuclear weapons should be governed by a “cost-benefit calculation” that weighs the desirability of relying on the United States against that of creating an indigenous arsenal.
Despite the government’s protestations, there is more recent evidence that Japan’s foreign ministry continues to favor nuclear weapons. In June 1994, the ministry prepared a statement for the then-coalition government to send to the World Court arguing that the use of nuclear weapons in war was not necessarily illegal (the World Court is deciding whether to take up a petition from the World Health Organization regarding the legality of nuclear weapons use).
In the end, the government did not forward the ministry’s statement to the World Court because its disclosure caused a public furor. Still, the foreign ministry’s opinion seemed to reaffirm Japan’s reliance on U.S. nuclear weapons and, at the same time, to indicate that the acquisition of nuclear weapons may not be entirely closed. Any policy that keeps the nuclear option open violates the spirit of the NPT in the same way that the failure of the nuclear powers to create a plan and a timetable for disarmament violates it.
Japan’s unhappy history of militarism in Asia continues to arouse suspicions on the part of it neighbors, especially North and South Korea. Given recent disclosures about Japan’s continuing interest in nuclear weapons, the Japanese government’s verbal protestations citing the tragic events at Hiroshima and Nagasaki are no longer enough. Japan should make public all documents relating to its nuclear-weapons policy from 1945 to the present.
If, as its government claims, Japan actually renounced the nuclear-weapon option between 1969 and 1976, when it ratified the NPT, it has nothing to hide. But the failure to make a clean breast of it by making its record public only heightens suspicions that Japan has continued to keep the nuclear option alive.
Japan also continues to extract plutonium from spent fuel and to accumulate additional stocks of plutonium as Britain and France, under contract, reprocess some of Japan’s spent fuel. Despite recent statements to the contrary by Japanese government officials, these stocks could be used to make nuclear weapons. The United States, in turn, does nothing to prevent Japan from accumulating large stocks of plutonium, even though it could have stopped the shipments from France to Japan. The United States has the legal right to intervene because same of the plutonium was made from uranium of U.S. origin.
Given the dangers of proliferation and the need to be even-handed in the enforcement of the NPT, the Clinton administration should bar all further plutonium shipments from Britain or France until Japan actually publishes all documents related to its nuclear policy.
- Arjun Makhijani. Open the files, please: Japanese government rhetoric about its “nuclear allergy” is not entirely persuasive; it’s time to clear the air. The final, definitive version of this paper has been published as a Guest Opinion in Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, v. 51, no. 1 (January/February 1995): p. 4. Online at http://books.google.com/books?id=twwAAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=open%20the%20files&f=false. Published by the Educational Foundation for Nuclear Science. Copyright © 1994 by EFNS. All rights reserved. Arjun Makhijani is president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research in Takoma Park, Maryland. ↩ Return | <urn:uuid:bc06584c-70f2-426d-9ab3-0bd9f1b3fef4> | CC-MAIN-2017-26 | https://ieer.org/resource/commentary/open-the-files-please/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128320915.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20170627032130-20170627052130-00053.warc.gz | en | 0.948358 | 1,170 | 2.8125 | 3 | {
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Southerners have been warned about the dangers of the deadly amoeba, Naegleria fowleri, which live in warm lakes and ponds, but finding the amoeba lurking in a home's plumbing system raises new concerns.
According to a report from the Associated Press, a Louisiana man died from the bug after using a neti pot, a small, plastic teapot-like device commonly used to clean sinuses andnasal passages to relieveallergies.
When the Naegleria fowleri gets up the nose, it burrows into the skull and destroys brain tissue. It's almost always fatal.
This month, the rare infection killed 16-year-old Courtney Nash, a Brevard County resident, who fell ill after swimming in the St. John's River, and a 9-year-old Virginia boy, who died after getting dunked in a lake at a fishing day camp.
However, health officials have traced the June death of a man in his 20s to his home's tap water, which he used to fill his neti pot. Health officials later found the amoeba in the home's plumbing.
The problem was confined to the house, and did not show up in city water samples, said Dr. Raoult Ratard, Louisiana's state epidemiologist.
After the finding, Ratard recommended that households use only sterile, distilled or boiled water in neti pots.
Scientists at the University of Florida are working to better understand where and how the amoeba flourish, and potentially save more lives.
About 120 U.S. cases of deadly amoeba infections have been reported since the amoeba was identified in the early 1960s, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Of Florida's 31 confirmed cases, about half have occurred in Orange County, home to nearly 500 lakes.
Dr. Amanda Rice, of the University of Florida's Emerging Pathogens Institute, is collaborating with the CDC and the Florida Department of Health to learn more about the amoeba's habitat, and then educate doctors about the signs of primary amebic meningoencephalitis — the brain infection the amoeba causes — so they test for it sooner and treat it quicker.
Although Naegleria fowleri are typically found in Southern states — with Florida and Texas reporting the most of cases — last summer a Minnesota girl died of the amebic infection, marking the first case in a Northern state.
[email protected] or 407-420-5158 | <urn:uuid:1f8d0e07-26b4-4392-a3df-9326f1088bfc> | CC-MAIN-2015-27 | http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2011-08-26/health/os-deadly-ameoba-neti-pot-20110826_1_deadly-amoeba-naegleria-fowleri-meningoencephalitis | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-27/segments/1435375095273.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20150627031815-00146-ip-10-179-60-89.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953225 | 534 | 3 | 3 | {
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Trinity College, founded in 1848, is the oldest surviving teacher-training college in Wales. When it opened, its role was exclusively to train young men for teaching in Church primary schools.
Walter Powell is recorded as the first student – he was seventeen and had served as an assistant in a drapery and grocery shop. Other students had worked as labourers, carpenters, tailors and printers. Within a year, the first of many young miners joined from Blaenavon, Gwent.
The original name of the institution – the South Wales and Monmouthshire Training College – indicated the ambitions of the founders. A new breed of qualified teachers was to staff elementary (primary) schools with the mission to alleviate widespread ignorance among children.
The college beginnings were modest – 22 students were recruited in the first year, taught by three members of staff including the Principal, William Reed. The entry requirements included a working knowledge of arithmetic and grammar, along with the ability to take notes accurately from dictation. In the early years, astute management helped the college survive closure threats because of limited numbers and funding constraints.
The regime in the early days was tough. Each morning, students were to be up by half-past-six for a cold bath. Everyday life at the college did not change much during the nineteenth century. The early curriculum covered manual subjects, such as gardening and woodwork, introduced to remind students of their humble position in life. The visiting inspector in 1849 congratulated the college on providing a ‘prudent mix of manual labour with sedentary employment’. Students also had lessons in Latin and Greek. Initially Welsh-medium lectures were provided on a government-funded scheme but this soon ceased and did not return until the late nineteenth century. The timetable had monastic overtones and contact with the townspeople (especially the females) was tightly controlled. Fines were imposed on students for all sorts of things, ranging from ‘girling’ (unapproved contact with girls) to setting off gunpowder in the dormitory!
In terms of recreation, students enjoyed musical concerts, smoking, reading newspapers in the common room and various sports. Photography became a popular hobby in the late Victorian era. During the inter-war years, the college extended its range of sports to include badminton, tennis and hockey. A Welsh society emerged to organise Welsh-medium concerts, eisteddfodau and visits. It was at rugby, however, that the college excelled. A number of ex-students became outstanding internationals including Sid Judd, Ronnie Boon, Dewi Bebb and Barry John.
Formal college reunions date back to the 1870s and by the inter war years branches of ex-college students were established throughout Britain. The building of the Students’ Union in 1972 provided a focus for entertainment. During the 1920s and 30s the campus expanded to accommodate increases in student numbers. Dewi hostel was erected in 1925. A student from the time recalled the living conditions in the new block:
“To keep oneself warm in the new wing during the Winter months was a problem for although it had a system of heating, the heat seldom reached even the second floor. To wash we depended on the rain-water caught in the roof of the building and this was always cold”.
The admission of female students in 1957 required further expansion and the building of Non hostel. Further projects in the 1970s and 80s included a teachers’ resource centre and education block to accommodate the needs of student teachers. The library opened in 1995 and reflected the widened portfolio of courses offered by Trinity. In the last twenty years or so, the college has diversified by introducing BA, and BSc degree programmes as well Masters Courses in a range of subjects.
The college has always tried to retain its three historic values of quality teacher-training, promoting a Christian ethos in education and bilingualism. In 1858, on the tenth anniversary of the college, one inspector suggested that teaching was ‘a thankless career leading to premature old age and, most probably, destitution.’ Perhaps students in the twenty-first century might nod their heads at this.
If you would like to read more about the history of the college, two books are available:
A comprehensive and lavishly illustrated history:
R. Grigg, History of Trinity College Carmarthen 1848-1998 (Cardiff, University of Wales Press, 1998)
A bilingual photographic history:
R. Grigg, A Noble Institution (Llandysul: Gwasg Gomer, 1998)
Most archival material relating to the college can be found at Carmarthenshire Archives Service, Parc Myrddin, Richmond Terrace, Carmarthen, SA31 1DS
Ffôn/Phone: 01267 228232 Fax: 01267 228237 | <urn:uuid:52a11b9e-7860-4b0d-8178-fb16f110c4e8> | CC-MAIN-2017-51 | http://www.uwtsd.ac.uk/alumni/trinity-college-alumni/history/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-51/segments/1512948514238.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20171212002021-20171212022021-00547.warc.gz | en | 0.970796 | 1,005 | 2.8125 | 3 | {
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Exotic. Reportedly established along the coast in some localities.
A flat bodied, fierce looking lizard from 2.5 to 7 inches in length. True to its name the Texas horned lizard has a large crown of spines on its head, with the two center spines being the longest. Two rows of fringed scales run down each side of the lizard. Generally brownish or sandy in color, most have dark spots that help them blend into their environment. Dark lines radiate from the eye. Even thought this lizard appears fierce, it is perfectly harmless.
Naturally occurs from Louisiana to Arizona, but was once commonly sold in the pet trade and therefore have been introduced in several locations in the Southeast. It is reportedly established along the coast in small and isolated areas. It is accidental in Alabama, but may occur in the coastal areas where sand dunes mimic their natural desert habitat. One hatchling had been collected in a field in Shelby County.
Prefers hot, dry, sandy habitats that are mostly open. Like all reptiles, horned lizards depend primarily on their environment to control their body temperature. Most live in desert or semi-arid environments and are often seen basking in the morning sun. However they are susceptible to overheating, so as the day gets warmer, they may move into the shade and or even go into burrows to stay cool in the long summer afternoons.
Horned lizards prey almost exclusively on ants but if necessary may eat other small insects such as grasshoppers, beetles and spiders. They often sit close to anthills and pick off the ants as they go by.
LIFE HISTORY AND ECOLOGY:
Western populations mate from April to May. Fourteen to 37 eggs are laid in a burrow dug by the female. Young hatch in about 6 weeks. Reproduction in Alabama is unknown.
Horned lizards are masters of camouflage, generally relying on their coloration for protection and sometimes even partially burying themselves in sand. If their camouflage fails, horned lizards have an unusual final defense; they can squirt droplets of blood from their eyes, potentially confusing a predator and allowing them to escape.
This lizard is common in the pet trade, but hard to keep alive in captivity, due to the availability of live large ants.
Knopf, Alfred A. 1979. The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Reptiles and Amphibians. Chanticleer Press, Inc. New York. 743 pp.
Mount, Robert H. 1975. The Reptiles & Amphibians of Alabama. Auburn Printing Company, Auburn, AL. 347 pp.
Savannah River Ecology Laboratory Website: http://srelherp.uga.edu/lizards/phrcor.htm
The Horned Lizard Conservation Society: http://www.hornedlizards.org/
Marisa Lee Futral, Wildlife Biologist, Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries | <urn:uuid:a17e120b-7f8a-42a1-84c6-9a69bb3157da> | CC-MAIN-2021-04 | https://www.outdooralabama.com/lizards/texas-horned-lizard | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-04/segments/1610703536556.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20210123063713-20210123093713-00275.warc.gz | en | 0.935899 | 607 | 3.140625 | 3 | {
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Infant transplant patients resist infections that kill adult AIDS patientsInvestigators have discovered that some type of protective system goes into action in some cases when a baby's immune system is deficient. This discovery indicates a hidden safety net that might have far-reaching consequences for treating diseases of the immune system such as AIDS. The Mayo Clinic-led study was conducted with colleagues in Toronto and Baltimore, and is reported in the early online edition of the Feb. 1 Journal of Immunology (http://www.jimmunol.org/future/176.3.shtml).
The researchers studied 20 patients who as infants underwent heart transplantation and had their thymus removed. As a result the infants were deficient in T cells, the cells depleted in AIDS patients that are crucial to fighting viruses and cancer tumors. The researchers found that over a 10-year-period the infant transplant patients resisted the same infections that often kill adult AIDS patients. The transplant patients maintained their health even with low T cell counts. The finding could help improve treatments of AIDS, cancers and diseases of aging related to declining function of the immune system.
"We are very excited by this result," says Jeffrey Platt, M.D., the Mayo transplant researcher who led the team. "This will be the first step to discovering how to make the immune system work in patients who have severe defects in their immune systems or who have cancer."
The Mayo Clinic researchers report results comparing T cell function between transplant patients 1-10 years post transplant and healthy people matched to the transplant patients by age and gender. To compare T cell function, they measured the T cell response to select viral immunization. This comparison enabled them to see that infant heart transplant patients had more help from the immune system post transplant -- even though some had a 10,000-fold reduction in T cells -- compared to the healthy control group. The nature of the compensating system is not yet known and is under study.
Significance of the Research
The findings are important because they show the immune system is more adaptable and resourceful than once thought. Something other than T cells is working to resist viruses in the post-transplant patients.
The findings also suggest an intriguing strategy for developing new treatments for AIDS, cancers and diseases of impaired immune function related to aging. If this ability of infant-transplant patients' immune systems can be identified and enlisted to fight viruses without T cells, it perhaps could be therapeutically manipulated in adult patients to arrive at new and better treatments for various diseases involving immune system deficiencies.
"We were struck by the fact that when a heart transplant is carried out in very young infants, the thymus that produces T cells is removed and a drug is given that depletes T cells," said Dr. Platt. "Yet the infants don't get the same diseases that adult AIDS patients do, even though the transplanted infants are basically a model of AIDS. In fact, the post-transplant patients do very well resisting infections. It seemed to us very important to understand why this is so, because maybe that would help us help people with age-related diseases caused by declining immunity, or AIDS, or cancers, and understand why certain people tend to be more susceptible to infections."
All healthy people have cells (lymphocytes) with receptors on their surfaces enabling them to recognize many different microorganisms. The diversity of lymphocytes is enormous. Each person has an estimated 1 billion different T cells capable of fighting various infections and another 1 billion of a different kind of immune system cell, the B cell, which produces antibodies. Yet, when the Mayo researchers looked at the immune system of infant heart transplant patients, they found that post transplant the infants have as few as 1,000 T cells -- one ten-thousandth of a healthy immune system. Immunologically, they are the equivalent of AIDS patients -- perhaps even more vulnerable to infectious diseases. Yet 10 years post transplant, the patients don't suffer from infections as AIDS patients do.
So promising is the work that it recently garnered a $6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to support further research into the roles of T cells, B cells and antibody production in the outcomes of pediatric heart transplants. "We're very excited about this opportunity to expand the current understanding of the human immune system -- and hopefully, in the process, discover new treatments for debilitating diseases," says Dr. Platt.
Collaboration and Support
Others researchers at Mayo Clinic included: Brenda Ogle, Ph.D.; Raymund Razonable, M.D.; Carlos Paya, M.D., Ph.D.; and Marilia Cascalho, M.D., Ph.D. From the Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute and the University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Lori West, M.D., D.Phil., participated. From the University of Maryland, Baltimore, Scott Strome, M.D., participated. The work was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health.
Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 21 Feb 2009
Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:848e17a7-4170-4831-b8e7-ed299cc25887> | CC-MAIN-2015-40 | http://psychcentral.com/news/archives/2006-01/mc-itp013006.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-40/segments/1443737904854.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20151001221824-00235-ip-10-137-6-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951876 | 1,050 | 3.078125 | 3 | {
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| ||Knowledge Nuggets | Fact Sheets | Research Papers
- A living mulch is a form of intercropping. It can be thought of as an extension of cover cropping in which an annual grain crop is seeded into a permanent secondary crop.
- The living mulch crop can be an annual or perennial. In most cases forage legumes are used.
- Perennial forage legumes being investigated for use as living mulches include kura clover, white clover, red clover, crownvetch, birdsfoot trefoil and alfalfa.
- The grain crop can be seeded at the same time as the legume living mulch crop, or it can be seeded into an established perennial forage stand.
- In a successful system, the living mulch has to be suppressed before seeding the grain crop. This reduces competition between the established living mulch and the new grain crop seedlings.
- The legume living mulch can be suppressed with heavy grazing, mowing or a herbicide application.
- Legume living mulch crops supply the grain crop with nitrogen, decrease soil erosion, increase water infiltration, increase soil organic matter, and improve soil structure and health.
- Legume living mulches also suppress weeds and can help decrease disease pressure.
- After the grain crop is harvested, the regrowth of the legume living mulch can be grazed or harvested as hay in the fall.
- Drawbacks to using a legume living mulch include competition aboveground between the two crops for light, competition below the ground for nutrients and water, and potentially lower grain yields.
Kura Clover Living Mulch System
Legume Living Mulches in Corn and Soybean - available in PDF format only
Soil and Production Enhancing Cover Crop and Living Mulch Systems - available in PDF format only
Barley and Triticale Underseeded with a Kura Clover Living Mulch: Effects on Weed Pressure, Disease Incidence, Silage Yield and Forage Quality - available in PDF format only
Corn Production with Kura Clover as a Living Mulch - available in PDF format only
Intercropping Corn and Kura Clover: Response to Nitrogen Fertilization - available in PDF format only
Integrating Herbicide-Resistant Corn Technology in a Kura Clover Living Mulch System - available in PDF format only
Spring Yield and Silage Characteristics of Kura Clover, Winter Wheat, and in Mixtures - available in PDF format only | <urn:uuid:b7fc5b21-ea43-436e-90d5-8b1c2560ed6a> | CC-MAIN-2018-09 | http://www1.foragebeef.ca/$Foragebeef/frgebeef.nsf/e5ae854df3230ce787256a3300724e1d/f9a3fb44e1523a0c872579e60077b1ba!OpenDocument | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-09/segments/1518891812327.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20180219032249-20180219052249-00710.warc.gz | en | 0.831945 | 521 | 3.078125 | 3 | {
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BERLIN, Jan. 14 (UPI) -- Few men become the best historical examples of their own great insights into the human condition. One who did wrote the following lines:
"The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed, the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist."
The author was British economist John Maynard Keynes, and the key to the world's current financial predicament lies in the argument and interplay between Keynes and another defunct economist, the American monetarist Milton Friedman.
Keynes was a British Liberal and progressive of the first half of the 20th century who Europeans would now call a moderate social democrat, or in American terms, a centrist Democrat. He believed that governments could and should act as lenders of last resort and use deficit spending to create jobs and haul a country out of depression.
Friedman was initially a supporter of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal and worked for it as a young economist. He was also a follower of Keynes, and it was he, rather than Richard Nixon, who originally said, "We are all Keynesians now."
A moderate conservative, Friedman was appalled by the way promiscuous use of Keynesian policies during non-depression periods had led to inflation and increased government intervention in the economy. Friedman became a critic (but remained an admirer) of Keynes and developed an alternative grand theory of economics that became known as monetarism. Its core contention was that "inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon" and that therefore the control of the money supply by the central banks was the key to getting into and out of depressions.
"The Fed was largely responsible for converting what might have been a garden-variety recession, although perhaps a fairly severe one, into a major catastrophe. Instead of using its powers to offset the depression, it presided over a decline in the quantity of money by one-third from 1929 to 1933," he wrote. "Far from the depression being a failure of the free-enterprise system, it was a tragic failure of government."
Broadly speaking, the global economy for the past 60 years has been run by apostles of these two men. Until the coming of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s, most finance ministries and central banks pursued Keynesian policies, sometimes to unsustainable extremes. Thereafter, they increasingly tended toward Friedman's thinking, but probably to equally unsustainable extremes.
One of the most intriguing aspects of the current financial crisis is that we are trying both remedies. So far, thanks to Ben Bernanke at the U.S. Federal Reserve and Mervyn King at the Bank of England, we have pursued Friedmanite policies, flooding the markets with liquidity and shoring up the banking system. Along the way, the Fed in the past year has increased its balance sheet from $700 billion to $2.3 trillion.
Bernanke, in a 2002 speech honoring Friedman on his 90th birthday, acknowledged the Fed's role in the Great Depression when he said to Friedman, "You were right, we did it. But thanks to you, we won't do it again."
But now comes Barack Obama with his vast $800 billion (or higher) stimulus package, which is straight out of the playbook of Keynes, as expressed in Keynes' famous open letter to the new President Franklin Roosevelt in 1933: "As the prime mover in the first stage of the technique of recovery I lay overwhelming emphasis on the increase of national purchasing power resulting from governmental expenditure which is financed by loans and not by taxing present incomes. Nothing else counts in comparison with this.
"It is beyond my province to choose particular objects of expenditure," Keynes went on. "But preference should be given to those which can be made to mature quickly on a large scale, as for example the rehabilitation of the physical condition of the railroads. The object is to start the ball rolling. The United States is ready to roll towards prosperity, if a good hard shove can be given in the next six months.
"I put in the second place the maintenance of cheap and abundant credit and in particular the reduction of the long-term rates of interest," Keynes added.
This "second place" priority of Keynes and the unblocking of the credit markets is now what Bernanke's Fed is trying to achieve.
So the thinking of the two great economic minds of the 20th century is now the lodestone of the key decision-makers who are seeking to haul us out of this recession before it becomes another Great Depression. The problem is that the theories of Keynes and Friedman are not really compatible.
Keynes believed that government and only government could, in the last resort, get us out of trouble, and that is also what Obama and most of the Democrats in Congress and most European policymakers believe.
Friedman, by contrast, was deeply suspicious of government and far from convinced of its wisdom and skill in crafting and implementing economic policy. He once said of himself, "I am a libertarian with a small 'l'" and claimed that his proudest accomplishment was helping to replace conscription with a professional military because the draft was "incompatible with a free society." In a perfect world, Friedman also noted, he would like to abolish the Fed.
This may go too far for many of today's Republicans in Congress, but on the whole they share Friedman's suspicion of big government. And since there are sufficient Republican senators to block Obama's legislative programs, it is an open question just how free Obama will be to apply Keynesian remedies. Republicans already have signaled their opposition to much of Obama's planned stimulus program.
For better or worse, the chances of avoiding another Great Depression look like hinging on these two defunct economists and on the coming battle between their political heirs. | <urn:uuid:c6e64086-26bc-4dc7-a986-a40b7fa7613f> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Opinion/Walker/2009/01/14/Our-two-dead-rulers/UPI-89791231949200/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280825.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00103-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971304 | 1,210 | 2.6875 | 3 | {
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Safe and Healthy Schools
Equality Florida Institute's Safe and Healthy Schools Program aims to create a culture of inclusion while countering the bullying, harassment, social isolation, and bigotry that dramatically increase risk factors for LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning) students.
Through this program, we seek to shift the culture so that each of Florida’s 67 school districts will adopt comprehensive, nationally recognized best practices for meeting the needs of LGBTQ students and in doing so build a model that can be replicated nationwide.
During the 2016-17 first school year of our Safe and Healthy Schools Project, we estimated working within 3-5 school districts to help Superintendents and upper-level leadership chart a course for institutionalized LGBTQ student, family and staff support. We have shattered this goal and as of Fall 2018 are working with 60 school districts across the state, and have delivered LGBTQ+ sensitivity and best practice professional development training to over 5,300 principals, assistant principals, as well as school counselors, social workers, and school psychologists. During this time we have also met with 22 Superintendents, and will continue our steadfast, groundbreaking work to ensure every student in our school districts are safe, valued, respected and graduate successfully.
This program is different from our previous endeavors on behalf of LGBTQ youth, both in depth and scope. It aims to transform entire school systems by ensuring that the school districts themselves invest in and take full responsibility for meeting the needs of LGBTQ students. We expect that the first school systems we work with will have the requisite training and resources to take full ownership of the program’s outcomes and financial sustainability after three years, allowing Equality Florida Institute to move on to other school districts, with the goal of replicating this program in districts throughout the state.
Equality Florida’s Safe and Healthy Schools program is working across the state with senior leadership, including superintendents, to assist districts in becoming more inclusive for all students. As part of these efforts, we host an annual All Together Now Conference. This conference is led by the tri-district steering committee (Broward, Palm Beach, and Miami-Dade School District, along with Equality Florida). The video above includes just a few highlights from our conference.
The purpose of the "All Together Now: Ensuring Safe School Environments for LGBTQ Students Across the State" conference is to gather upper-level school district officials from across the state to discuss and learn about the unique needs of LGBTQ students and families. Each year we have dynamic programming that includes sessions such as a superintendent’s roundtable discussion, family acceptance panels, GSA workshops, and legal expert testimonials.
This conference, the only LGBTQ school administrator leadership conference devoted solely to institutionalizing LGBTQ policies, programs and practices, is a cornerstone of the work that Equality Florida does and is critical in expanding best practices across the state for supporting LGBTQ youth.
Are you an LGBTQ ally? Demonstrate your allyship by placing one of our safe space stickers in your classroom or office. Click here to order.
The Safe and Healthy Schools program is working to ensure proven best practices are implemented at a systemic level in every school district. The graphic below highlights the best practices that should be occurring in every school district, as well as some benefits to implementing said practices. Superintendent Grego from Pinellas and Superintendent Runcie from Broward have welcomed all and keynoted the conference, now in its 6th year with 36 districts in attendance, representing over 130 upper-level administrators who care for 70 percent of our students in Florida's schools. Equality Florida believes that if a district implements all of these best practices, LGBTQ youth will not experience the negative data that is evident based on the 2017 YRBS data and be able to feel safe, stay in school and ultimately graduate successfully.
Support has been provided by the following Funds at the Community Foundation of Broward:
Mark & Carol Zemmel Fund for the Human/Animal Connection, Krupnick Campbell Malone Buser Slama Hancock Liberman Fund, Susan and Jack Loving Unrestricted Fund, Richard Frisby and Edward Burkhart Fund, The Knight Foundation Fund, Mary N. Porter Community Impact Fund, and Gay and Lesbian Broward Community Fund | <urn:uuid:385b7cdd-b810-4c01-a635-2b69b6a6cd9b> | CC-MAIN-2020-29 | https://eqfl.org/index.php/Safe_Schools | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-29/segments/1593657147031.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20200713225620-20200714015620-00103.warc.gz | en | 0.949912 | 864 | 2.515625 | 3 | {
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EAST ORANGE, N.J. — World War II in Europe was over, the celebrations had ebbed, and peace was on the horizon. But from her apartment in Harlem on June 5, 1945, Phyllis C. Dickson wrote a plaintive letter to the War Department about her missing husband.
Capt. Lawrence E. Dickson, 24, a black fighter pilot who had trained at the Tuskegee Army Flying School, had gone down over Italy, it was thought, on Dec. 23, 1944.
Months had passed since she’d heard any word. “Please believe me when I say I have been greatly distressed,” she wrote. “I have tried to be brave (but) it has really been an effort.”
“I meet the mailman daily hoping & praying for some news but so far none,” she wrote.
Seventy-three years later, the Defense Department may finally have some.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) is investigating the possibility that human remains and other items recovered from a wartime crash site in Austria this past summer may be those of Dickson.
If so, he would be the first of the World War II black aviators known as the Tuskegee Airmen whom the DPAA has accounted for, and probably the first missing Tuskegee Airman found since the end of World War II.
The agency stressed that it is not certain the remains are Dickson’s, that scientific testing is still underway, and it cannot tell when or if a positive identification would be made.
But strong circumstantial evidence points toward Dickson.
The crash site is a few miles from where his P-51 Mustang was reported to have gone down. Debris at the site was from a P-51. And German records report a lone P-51 crash there the same day Dickson disappeared.
“Historically, the site is a match,” Joshua Frank, a DPAA research analyst, said in a recent interview.
There are 27 Tuskegee Airmen missing from the war, Frank said. “Captain Dickson is one of those,” he said. “If his remains are identified, he would be the first of the 27.”
Dickson was among the more than 900 black pilots who were trained at the segregated Tuskegee Army Air Field in Alabama during the war.
They were African American men from all over the country who fought racism and oppression at home and enemy pilots and antiaircraft gunners overseas.
More than 400 served in combat, flying patrol and strafing missions, and escorting bombers from bases in North Africa and Italy. The tail sections of their fighter planes were painted a distinctive red.
He was on his 68th mission
Two days before Christmas 1944, Dickson took off from his base at Ramitelli, in southern Italy, in a sleek P-51D nicknamed “Peggin,” headed for Nazi-occupied Prague, Czechoslovakia.
Dickson was on his 68th mission and had already been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for meritorious service.
He was leading a three-Mustang escort of a fast but unarmed photo reconnaissance plane, according to the account of a wingman, 2nd Lt. Robert L. Martin, many years later.
(After 70 missions Dickson would have been eligible for R&R back home, Martin recounted in a 1997 letter, adding that white pilots needed only 50 missions for such a break.)
The four planes headed over the mountains for Prague. About an hour into the trip, at an altitude of 26,000 feet, Dickson radioed that he was having engine trouble and began losing speed.
His wingmen stayed with him as he dropped back. The twin-engine reconnaissance plane sped on and was soon out of sight.
Dickson decided to turn for home in his crippled plane, and his buddies stuck with him, Martin reported: “He did not order us to go after the photo plane.”
“The pilot of the photo plane had a chance to complete his mission in that with his maneuverability he might evade … attack and get home safe,” he wrote. “If we were to leave our flight leader in a plane with unpredictable engine problems high above the Alps his life would be forfeited.”
The trio gradually descended, as Dickson looked for a spot to land or bail out. Martin thought they were near the town of Tarvisio, in a mountainous area of northeastern Italy.
He saw Dickson jettison the canopy of his cockpit before bailing out, and swerved to avoid Dickson’s plane. But when he looked again, Dickson was gone.
The two wingmen circled, looking for a parachute, a column of smoke or burning wreckage. There was nothing but an empty, snow-covered valley. They started for home, but had second thoughts and went back.
Again, they saw nothing but “the whiteness,” Martin wrote. He fired a burst from his machine guns to alert anyone below who might search, then headed back to the base.
No further search was conducted.
Holding out hope
On Jan. 8, 1945, Phyllis Dickson got the dreaded telegram.
“The Secretary of War desires to express his deep regret that your husband Captain Lawrence E Dickson has been reported missing in action,” it read. “If further details … are received you will be promptly notified.”
Phyllis and Lawrence Dickson had been married in November 1941. He was a native of South Carolina, had taught himself how to play the guitar and spent two years studying chemistry at the City College of New York.
He often went by his middle name, Everett.
She was Phyllis Constance Maillard, 23, the daughter of Jamaican immigrants. She later got the nickname Fifi.
On July 14, 1942, in Harlem’s old Sydenham Hospital, they had a daughter they named Marla.
Two old creased snapshots show them sitting in chairs holding their daughter, who looks like she is only a few weeks old.
In her June 1945 letter, Phyllis told the War Department that Marla, then almost 3, “speaks about (her father) daily.”
Phyllis still held out hope that her husband was alive.
“I can’t even sleep for thinking about him being sick somewhere & not having anyone to care for him properly,” she wrote.
On July 21, 1945, the Army Effects Bureau sent her a form letter stating that it was forwarding two cartons of her husband’s things.
She replied on Aug. 18, saying she had received her husband’s clothes but not his electric guitar. “I would appreciate it very much if it could be sent to me as there is a great deal of sentiment attached to it,” she wrote.
The Army later explained that it did not have the guitar.
After the war, the service searched for Capt. Dickson near Tarvisio and nearby Malborghetto. Other crashed planes and remains were found, but not his.
In 1949, the Army recommended that his remains be declared “nonrecoverable.”
An unexpected call
This past August, a white-haired, 75-year-old woman named Marla L. Andrews, got a phone call at her home in northern New Jersey from the Army’s Past Conflict Repatriations Branch.
It was about her father, Lawrence Dickson. The caller asked a few questions but was vague about what was going on. “Have you found his body?” Marla said she asked. “No, but we’re looking,” she said the caller replied.
A few weeks earlier, an archaeological team in Austria had excavated the spot believed to be his crash site. The team had found pieces of a P-51 and human remains and was beginning the process of potential identification.
The work had started in 2011, after Frank, the DPAA analyst, was assigned to take a new look at World War II crash sites in Italy.
Frank compiled a database of reported sites, including Dickson’s, and was preparing a trip to Italy.
But first he checked German “downed allied aircraft reports” that had been seized by the Americans after the war. “Those are German reports of any shoot-downs of allied planes and capture of allied personnel and burial of allied personnel,” he said.
He found a record of a crash on Dec. 23, 1944, not in Italy, but just over the Austrian border near Hohenthurn.
Frank knew that only a handful of P-51 Mustangs went down in Europe that day. All but one were hundreds of miles away in northwest Germany.
Hohenthurn is six miles from Tarvisio.
“I think this is him,” Frank said he thought.
He asked an Austrian researcher, Roland Domanig, who had helped the DPAA in the past, to investigate. Two weeks later Domanig reported that he had found the crash site.
In May 2012, Frank and a small team went to Austria for one day. He met Domanig, and a local man who said as a child in the 1950s he often visited the site, until he found what looked like a human leg bone in the dirt.
“It scared him,” Frank said. “He never went back to the site after that.”
The man agreed to take Frank there.
The spot was in a pleasant clearing in the forest off a logging road near Hohenthurn.
There was a shallow crater, and moss covered the ground. When Frank pulled back the moss, airplane parts, consistent with a P-51, were right beneath the surface.
“They still had the ash on them, still burnt,” he said. “All of the older pine trees around the site had scars on the trees from when the plane was burning and the .50-caliber rounds popped off and hit the trees.”
Experts would later identify airplane bullet casings, part of a machine gun ammunition loading chute and human remains buried in the dirt.
In November, the human remains were sent for analysis to the DPAA laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, outside Omaha.
Looking to fill a void
One day last month, Andrews sat in her small house here and pulled out page after page of letters and documents pertaining to the tall, handsome father she never knew.
She’s legally blind now and can’t see much anymore. But the walls of her home are covered with pictures of him in his crisp officer’s uniform, him with his Tuskegee comrades in their goggles and parachutes, and him with his wife.
(Phyllis died on Dec. 28 in Nevada at the age of 96.)
There’s a framed invitation to his Tuskegee graduation ball in 1943, copies of his medal citations and his 1943 pilot training diploma from Tuskegee, dated March 25, 1943.
And in her files is the yellowed telegram and the letter that her father’s wingman sent her 50 years after the war explaining how he was lost.
“The act of writing to you so many years after … brings to me a sadness,” Martin wrote. “And yet I hope it will bring you a moment of peaceful remembrance of a loving father whom you lost.”
Together, the items make up part of the composite of a man she has longed to know, and whose life she has had to piece together over many years.
She has always wondered: What was he like? How was she like him? How could she be like him?
“I kept looking for ways to connect,” she said. “It’s always been an obsession. … It was always a questioning, a void, and I never could get enough.”
Her mother remarried after her father’s death and had two more children.
Andrews grew up, went to college and raised three children. She has lived in the same house for 47 years.
She and other family members recently provided cheek swabs so their DNA can be compared with that of the remains.
The Armed Forces Medical Examiner’s DNA operations branch has extracted DNA from a bone from the crash site. And Timothy P. McMahon, the DNA operations director, said experts are working to amplify and sequence it.
Andrews, meanwhile, is hoping to fill the last part of her void. She knows the case may or may not be resolved soon.
“At this age, I’m supposed to know that you roll with the punches,” she said. “You take it as it comes.”
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Groundwater or ground water is water located within the ground's zone of saturation, where the soil pore spaces and fractures in the rock are completely filled with water. It differs from soil water, which is the water that is in the unsaturated zone, or zone of aeration, where the soil pore spaces contain air and water but are not completely saturated. The term groundwater also has been used more broadly as any water beneath the earth's surface in soil; however, the above definition is aligned with those provided by such sources as the U.S. Geological Survey, New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation, and Pennsylvania Groundwater Policy Education Project.
The depth at which soil pore spaces or fractures and voids in rock become completely saturated with water is called the water table; in other words, below the level of the water table the soil pores and rock fractures are saturated with water. An aquifer is a layer within the zone of saturation that can readily yield and store water, such as in interconnected spaces (fractures, cracks, poor spaces, etc.) that can provide a source of water for a well.
As part of the hydrologic cycle, groundwater stores and transmits water that has filtered down from the surface and it also slowly flows back to the surface, with natural discharge at places such as springs, seeps, and wetlands. Groundwater discharging into a stream provides water to allow the stream to flow throughout the year. Groundwater also is withdrawn for agricultural, municipal, and industrial use by constructing and operating extraction wells.
Although a vitally important renewable resource, that serves many critical economic and environmental needs, groundwater reserves in various regions face such threats as depletion from overdraft and contamination.
The term groundwater has been loosely applied to any water beneath the earth's surface in soil, and thus including such features as soil moisture and permafrost (frozen soil) within areas not completely saturated with water (unsaturated zone). However, the term has been applied more technically and specifically to water below the water table, where the soil pore spaces and fractures in the rock are completely saturated with water (zone of saturation).
The following are some definitions of groundwater and related terms.
United States Geological Survey (Langbein and Iseri 1960)
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYS-DEC 2013).
Pennsylvania Groundwater Policy Education Project (PA-GPEP) (Stevens n.d.)
An aquifer is an underground geological formation in the zone of saturation that consists of a layer of porous substrate that can readily contain and yield groundwater.
Aquifers can be classified as unconfined aquifers and confined aquifers. An unconfined aquifer is one whereby the water table is at or near atmospheric pressure and the water can flow directly to the surface. A well penetrating an unconfined aquifer would have the same water level as the water table outside the well. A confined aquifer or artesian aquifer is one whereby the groundwater is bounded within layers of impermeable substances like dense rock or clay and is very often under pressure. As such, if a well were to be tapped into a confined aquifer,the artesian pressure would force the water to rise in the well to a level higher than the water table, including sometimes above the land surface, as with an artesian well, where the water flows without the need of a pump (Stevens, n.d.; (NYS-DEC 2013).
Aquifers also can be classified as consolidated aquifers and unconsolidated aquifers. A consolidated aquifer holds water in interconnected spaces between rock layers, fractures, small cracks, pore spaces, and/or solution channel openings. Limestone, granite, and sandstone are some of the rock types with consolidated aquifers. Limestone aquifers in particular can hold and yield substantial amounts of water, whereas granite small amounts, and sandstone moderate amounts. An unconsolidated aquifer involves rock debris or weathered bedrock where soil particles hold water in spaces between the particles. Clay and silt may hold a lot of water but release it very slowly, while coarse-grained sand and gravel may hold less water but release it more freely (Stevens, n.d.; (NYS-DEC 2013).
There may be several diverse aquifers within the zone of saturation, separated by geological formations called aquitards. Aquitards are layers that resist the flow of water from one aquifer to another, such as with nonporous rock or clay with tiny, poorly connected pores (Stevens n.d.). An aquiclude is a substrate with porosity that is so low it is virtually impermeable to groundwater.
The characteristics of aquifers vary with the geology and structure of the substrate and topography in which they occur. In general, the more productive aquifers occur in sedimentary geologic formations. By comparison, weathered and fractured crystalline rocks yield smaller quantities of groundwater in many environments. Unconsolidated to poorly cemented alluvial materials that have accumulated as valley-filling sediments in major river valleys and geologically subsiding structural basins are included among the most productive sources of groundwater.
The high specific heat capacity of water and the insulating effect of soil and rock can mitigate the effects of climate and maintain groundwater at a relatively steady temperature. In some places where groundwater temperatures are maintained by this effect at about 10°C (50°F), groundwater can be used for controlling the temperature inside structures at the surface. For example, during hot weather relatively cool groundwater can be pumped through radiators in a home and then returned to the ground in another well. During cold seasons, because it is relatively warm, the water can be used in the same way as a source of heat for heat pumps that is much more efficient than using air.
The water cycle—technically known as the hydrologic cycle—is the continuous circulation of water within the Earth's hydrosphere. The hydrosphere includes the atmosphere, land, surface water, and groundwater. As water moves through the cycle, it changes state between liquid, solid, and gas phases. Water moves through different reservoirs, including ocean, atmosphere, groundwater, rivers, and glaciers, by the physical processes of evaporation (including plant transpiration), sublimation, precipitation, infiltration, runoff, and subsurface flow.
About twenty percent of the freshwater in the world is made up of groundwater (about 0.61% of the water in the world, including oceans and permanent ice). The storage of groundwater globally is approximately equal to the amount of freshwater stored in ice pack and snow worldwide, including the south and north poles. Thus, it is an important reservoir in the hydrological cycle and can help buffer against shortages in surface water and times of drought (UNESCO 2011).
Groundwater deep underground and below oceans may be saline. There is an estimated 12.9 million cubic kilometers (3.1 million cubic miles) of saline groundwater, compared to about 10.5 million cubic kilometers (2.6 million cubic miles) of fresh groundwater (Gleick 1996).
As part of the hydrologic cycle, groundwater is continually replenished from areas on the surface and itself is in movement back to the surface. The replenishment takes place as precipitation from rain and snow falls on the surface of the land and filters through the soil. That water that is not taken up by plants makes its way to the zone of saturation, becoming groundwater. Like surface water, groundwater continues to move, although more slowly due to the substrate through which it is moving. This speed may range from just a few inches per year to feet per day depending on the nature of the rock or soil through which it moves. The water moves from upland recharge areas to lowland discharge areas, where the water table meets the land surface and the gourndwater discharges back to the surface via springs, streams, lakes, wetlands, and so forth. Eventually, it will be cycled back to the atmosphere as the water evaporates from surface waters or is transpired by plants that pick up the water (Stevens).
Groundwater can be a long-term "reservoir" of the natural water cycle (with residence times from days to millennia), as opposed to short-term water reservoirs like the atmosphere and fresh surface water (which have residence times from minutes to years).
The Great Artesian Basin in central and eastern Australia is one of the largest confined aquifer systems in the world, extending for almost 2 million km2. By analyzing the trace elements in water sourced from deep underground, hydrogeologists have been able to determine that water extracted from these aquifers can be more than 1 million years old. By comparing the age of groundwater obtained from different parts of the Great Artesian Basin, hydrogeologists have found it increases in age across the basin. Where water recharges the aquifers along the Eastern Divide, ages are young. As groundwater flows westward across the continent, it increases in age, with the oldest groundwater occurring in the western parts. This means that in order to have traveled almost 1000 km from the source of recharge in 1 million years, the groundwater flowing through the Great Artesian Basin travels at an average rate of about 1 meter per year.
Research has demonstrated that evaporation of groundwater can play a significant role in the local water cycle, especially in arid regions (Hassan 2008). Scientists in Saudi Arabia have proposed plans to recapture and recycle this evaporative moisture for crop irrigation. A 50-centimeter-square reflective carpet, made of small adjacent plastic cones, was placed in a plant-free dry desert area for five months, without rain or irrigation. It managed to capture and condense enough ground vapor to bring to life naturally buried seeds underneath it, with a green area of about 10% of the carpet area. It is expected that, if seeds were put down before placing this carpet, a much wider area would become green (Al-Kasimi 2002).
Groundwater is a renewable resource that serves many critical economic and environmental needs.
Economically, it is the source of drinking water for many communities (about half the population in the United States and nearly all the rural population), as well as providing water for agricultural and industrial needs (USGS 2013).
Groundwater is also ecologically important. The importance of groundwater to ecosystems is often overlooked. Groundwaters sustain streams, wetlands, and lakes, as well as subterranean ecosystems within karst or alluvial aquifers. While a rain storm or snow melt can provide a lot of water for a stream, at other times of the year the stream is provided all the water by groundwater seeping through stream banks and stream beds (called base flow), allowing the streams to flow year round (Stevens).
Not all ecosystems need groundwater, of course. Some terrestrial ecosystems—for example, those of the open deserts and similar arid environments—exist on irregular rainfall and the moisture it delivers to the soil, supplemented by moisture in the air. While there are other terrestrial ecosystems in more hospitable environments where groundwater plays no central role, groundwater is in fact fundamental to many of the world’s major ecosystems. Water flows between groundwaters and surface waters. Most rivers, lakes, and wetlands are fed by, and (at other places or times) feed groundwater, to varying degrees. Groundwater feeds soil moisture through percolation, and many terrestrial vegetation communities depend directly on either groundwater or the percolated soil moisture above the aquifer for at least part of each year. Hyporheic zones (the mixing zone of streamwater and groundwater) and riparian zones are examples of ecotones largely or totally dependent on groundwater.
Two key issues facing groundwater reserves are (1) depletion of groundwater; and (2) contamination.
Groundwater is depleted as is pumped out and used faster than it is replenished. This can have the effect of lowering the water table, which in tern can cause drying up of wells and the need for a well owner to deepen the well, lower the pump, or drill a new well, and greater energy costs for operation a pump; reduction of water that goes back into streams and lakes and loss of wildlife habitat and vegetation; and land subsidence. This last issue can arise when the loss of water causes soil to compact, collapse,and drop, and thus the loss of support below ground for structures on the surface (USGS 2013).
Groundwater contamination can occur from a number of sources. Toxins can filter down and waste from landfills and agricultural runoff. As water tables are lowered, saltwater contamination can increase, as the freshwater/saltwater boundary is disrupted and saltwater migrates inward as well as upward from the saline groundwater.
Furthermore, as water moves through the landscape, it collects soluble salts, mainly sodium chloride. As the water enters the atmosphere through evapotranspiration, these salts are left behind. In irrigation districts, poor drainage of soils and surface aquifers can result in water tables' coming to the surface in low-lying areas. Major land degradation problems of soil salinity and waterlogging result, combined with increasing levels of salt in surface waters. As a consequence, major damage has occurred to local economies and environments (Ludwig et al. 1993).
Unlike river waters being overused and polluted, groundwater problems are less evident, as aquifers are out of sight. Another problem is that water management agencies, when calculating the "sustainable yield" of aquifer and river water, have often counted the same water twice, once in the aquifer, and once in its connected river. This problem, although understood for centuries, has persisted, partly through inertia within government agencies.
In general, the time lags inherent in the dynamic response of groundwater to development have been ignored by water management agencies, decades after scientific understanding of the issue was consolidated. In brief, the effects of groundwater overdraft (although undeniably real) may take decades or centuries to manifest themselves. In a classic study in 1982, Bredehoeft and colleagues (Sophocleous 2002) modeled a situation where groundwater extraction in an intermontane basin withdrew the entire annual recharge, leaving "nothing" for the natural groundwater-dependent vegetation community. Even when the borefield was situated close to the vegetation, 30% of the original vegetation demand could still be met by the lag inherent in the system after 100 years. By year 500, this had reduced to 0%, signalling complete death of the groundwater-dependent vegetation. The science has been available to make these calculations for decades; however, in general water management agencies have ignored effects that will appear outside the rough time frame of political elections. Sophocleous (2002) argues that management agencies must define and use appropriate time frames in groundwater planning. This will mean calculating groundwater withdrawal permits based on predicted effects decades, sometimes centuries in the future.
Over-use of groundwater, known as overdraft, can lead to depletion and cause major problems to human users and to the environment. The most evident problem (as far as human groundwater use is concerned) is a lowering of the water table beyond the reach of existing wells. As a consequence, wells must be drilled deeper to reach the groundwater; in some places (e.g., California, Texas, and India) the water table has dropped hundreds of feet because of extensive well pumping. In the Punjab region of India, groundwater levels have dropped 10 meters since 1979, and the rate of depletion is accelerating (Lall 2009). A lowered water table may, in turn, cause other problems such as groundwater-related subsidence and saltwater intrusion.
Subsidence occurs when too much water is pumped out from underground, deflating the space below the above-surface, and thus causing the ground to collapse. The result can look like craters on plots of land. This occurs because, in its natural equilibrium state, the hydraulic pressure of groundwater in the pore spaces of the aquifer and the aquitard supports some of the weight of the overlying sediments. When groundwater is removed from aquifers by excessive pumping, pore pressures in the aquifer drop and compression of the aquifer may occur. This compression may be partially recoverable if pressures rebound, but much of it is not. When the aquifer gets compressed, it may cause land subsidence, a drop in the ground surface. The city of New Orleans, Louisiana is actually below sea level today, and its subsidence is partly caused by removal of groundwater from the various aquifer/aquitard systems beneath it. In the first half of the 20th century, the city of San Jose, California dropped 13 feet from land subsidence caused by overpumping; this subsidence has been halted with improved groundwater management.
Water pollution of groundwater, from pollutants released on the surface that can work their way down into groundwater, can create a contaminant plume within an aquifer. Movement of water and dispersion within the aquifer spreads the pollutant over a wider area, its advancing boundary often called a plume edge, which can then intersect with groundwater wells or emerge into surface water via such means as seeps and springs, making the water supplies unsafe for humans and wildlife. The interaction of groundwater contamination with surface waters is analyzed by use of hydrology transport models.
The stratigraphy of the area plays an important role in the transport of these pollutants. An area can have layers of sandy soil, fractured bedrock, clay, or hardpan. Areas of karst topography on limestone bedrock are sometimes vulnerable to surface pollution from groundwater. Earthquake faults also can be entry routes for downward contaminant entry. Water table conditions are of great importance for drinking water supplies, agricultural irrigation, waste disposal (including nuclear waste), wildlife habitat, and other ecological issues.
In the United States, upon commercial real estate property transactions both groundwater and soil are the subjects of scrutiny, with a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment normally being prepared to investigate and disclose potential pollution issues. In the San Fernando Valley of California, real estate contracts for property transfer below the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) and eastward have clauses releasing the seller from liability for groundwater contamination consequences from existing or future pollution of the Valley Aquifer.
Love Canal was one of the most widely known examples of groundwater pollution. In 1978, residents of the Love Canal neighborhood in upstate New York noticed high rates of cancer and an alarming number of birth defects. This was eventually traced to organic solvents and dioxins from an industrial landfill that the neighborhood had been built over and around, which had then infiltrated into the water supply and evaporated in basements to further contaminate the air. Eight hundred families were reimbursed for their homes and moved, after extensive legal battles and media coverage.
Another example of widespread groundwater pollution is in the Ganges Plain of northern India and Bangladesh where severe contamination of groundwater by naturally occurring arsenic affects 25% of water wells in the shallower of two regional aquifers. The pollution occurs because aquifer sediments contain organic matter that generates anaerobic conditions in the aquifer. These conditions result in the microbial dissolution of iron oxides in the sediment and, thus, the release of the arsenic, normally strongly bound to iron oxides, into the water.
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Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed. | <urn:uuid:21643f2c-163d-47b0-a5cf-0b0a450a39ac> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Groundwater | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988721387.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183841-00333-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944209 | 4,103 | 3.6875 | 4 | {
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WEDNESDAY, July 9, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Babies born to
mothers who exercise in late pregnancy may enter the world with a
little less body fat, a new study finds.
Researchers said that could be a good thing, since extra fat at
birth could continue into childhood and beyond. But the long-term
health implications, if any, are not known yet.
"Body composition at birth is important," said Dr. Dana Dabelea, the senior researcher on the study and an associate professor at the University of Colorado School of Public Health.
"Two babies can be born at the same weight," Dabelea said, "but have different amounts of fat mass and lean mass."
Normally, a newborn's tiny body is mainly composed of the
internal organs, bones and lean tissue -- with most of the "baby
fat" coming later, Dabelea explained. So if exercise in late
pregnancy does trim a bit of newborn fat, that could be a positive
effect -- as long as it doesn't harm fetal growth and development,
And that seemed to be true in this study, her team reports in
the August issue of
Obstetrics & Gynecology.
Looking at more than 800 mother-newborn pairs, the researchers
found that when mothers exercised regularly in the third trimester,
their babies were born with less fat, compared with newborns of
"But we didn't see any effect on lean mass," Dabelea said.
Experts already recommend that pregnant women get moderate
exercise -- for their sake and their baby's. The American College
of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says healthy pregnant women
should aim for 30 minutes of moderate activity, such as brisk
walking, most days of the week.
That's partly because exercise can reduce the amount of blood
sugar that gets to the fetus, which cuts the risk of having a
larger-than-normal baby, said Dr. Joseph Fernandez, an
obstetrician/gynecologist with Scott & White Healthcare in
Round Rock, Texas.
"There used to be some hearsay that women who exercise a lot during pregnancy will have a small baby," said Fernandez, who was not involved in the new study.
But he said these latest findings add to evidence that exercise
benefits mothers-to-be and their babies.
The study included 826 Colorado women, average age 28, whose
activity levels were tracked during pregnancy. Only 17 percent met
the recommended guidelines on exercise. About 45 percent were
overweight or obese.
In general, the researchers found, the one-quarter of women who
were most active in late pregnancy tended to have less chubby
babies than other mothers. Those active women were not running
marathons -- most got a modest amount of exercise on most days of
the week, Dabelea said.
The researchers did find that the most-active mothers had an
increased risk of having a "small-for-gestational-age" newborn --
which means smaller than the norm for babies born during a given
week of pregnancy.
But Dabelea attributed that to the lower level of body fat,
rather than impaired growth and development in the womb.
Another ob/gyn who reviewed the study said the higher likelihood
of small-for-gestational-age newborns is "a little concerning." But
there's no way of knowing whether there could be negative effects
in the long run.
"Is there a benefit from the lower fat mass? We don't know yet. Is there a risk from being [small-for-gestational-age] when there is no effect on lean body mass? We don't know," said Dr. Jill Rabin, co-chief of ambulatory care and women's health programs at North Shore-LIJ Health System, in New Hyde Park, N.Y.
Dabelea agreed that longer-term research is needed to see
whether that lower fat mass at birth actually benefits children's
But what is clear, the experts said, is that a generally healthy
lifestyle is vital during pregnancy and before.
"It's important to start optimizing your health before you become pregnant," Rabin said. "Eat a healthy diet, get regular exercise, take prenatal vitamins, quit smoking."
But even if a woman was sedentary before, it's safe to start
exercising during pregnancy, Fernandez said. Women can ask their
doctors about the types of exercise that are appropriate, he said.
In general, activities such as walking, swimming and cycling are
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has
exercise during pregnancy.
EBSCO Information Services is fully accredited by URAC. URAC is an independent, nonprofit health care accrediting organization dedicated to promoting health care quality through accreditation, certification and commendation.
Please be aware that this information is provided to supplement the care provided by your physician. It is neither intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice. CALL YOUR HEALTHCARE PROVIDER IMMEDIATELY IF YOU THINK YOU MAY HAVE A MEDICAL EMERGENCY. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider prior to starting any new treatment or with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
Copyright © EBSCO Information Services. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:e1d58473-4b24-488e-b7e9-ad36af70f94f> | CC-MAIN-2017-13 | http://www.wkhs.com/Cancer/Education-Resources/News.aspx?chunkiid=899478 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-13/segments/1490218189083.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20170322212949-00168-ip-10-233-31-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959951 | 1,134 | 3.078125 | 3 | {
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CDC has launched Life is Better with Clean Hands, a national campaign encouraging parents to make clean hands a healthy habit for the whole family.
Handwashing is an easy, inexpensive, and effective way to help your family stay healthy. Studies have shown that handwashing can prevent 1 in 3 diarrhea-related sicknesses and 1 in 5 respiratory infections, such as a cold or the flu. When your family is healthy, you don’t have to worry about missing school, work, or other activities.
Help your children make handwashing a healthy habit at home, school, and play by:
- Teaching kids the five easy steps for handwashing—wet, lather, scrub, rinse and dry—and the key times to wash hands, such as after using the bathroom or before eating.
- Giving frequent reminders so that handwashing becomes a habit and a regular part of your child’s day.
- Leading by example by washing your hands.
Washing your hands is easy, and it’s one of the most effective ways to prevent the spread of germs. Studies have shown that handwashing can prevent 1 in 3 diarrhea-related sicknesses and 1 in 5 respiratory infections, such as a cold or the flu.
Follow these five steps every time.
- Wet your hands with clean, running water (warm or cold), turn off the tap, and apply soap.
- Lather your hands by rubbing them together with the soap. Lather the backs of your hands, between your fingers, and under your nails.
- Scrub your hands for at least 20 seconds. Need a timer? Hum the “Happy Birthday” song from beginning to end twice.
- Rinse your hands well under clean, running water.
- Dry your hands using a clean towel or air dry them.
If soap and water aren’t available, you can use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol.
For Office Employees
Handwashing is one of the best ways to avoid getting sick and spreading illness to others. Germs can spread easily in offices where employees share the same space, supplies, and equipment. CDC recommends washing hands often, especially during key times when you are likely to get and spread germs. In workplaces, these key times are before eating lunch or preparing food, after using the bathroom, and after blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing.
If soap and water are not available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that has at least 60% alcohol.
For more information on Life is Better with Clean Hands, a campaign promotion toolkit, free posters, and other resources for promoting handwashing, visit www.cdc.gov/handwashing.
Show Me the Science – When & How to Use Hand Sanitizer in Community Settings
CDC recommends washing hands with soap and water whenever possible because handwashing reduces the amounts of all types of germs and chemicals on hands. But if soap and water are not available, using a hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol can help you avoid getting sick and spreading germs to others. The guidance for effective handwashing and use of hand sanitizer in community settings was developed based on data from a number of studies.
Why? Soap and water are more effective than hand sanitizers at removing certain kinds of germs, like Cryptosporidium, norovirus, and Clostridium difficile1-5. Although alcohol-based hand sanitizers can inactivate many types of microbes very effectively when used correctly 1-15, people may not use a large enough volume of the sanitizers or may wipe it off before it has dried 14.
Why? Many studies show that hand sanitizers work well in clinical settings like hospitals, where hands come into contact with germs but generally are not heavily soiled or greasy 16. Some data also show that hand sanitizers may work well against certain types of germs on slightly soiled hands 17,18. However, hands may become very greasy or soiled in community settings, such as after people handle food, play sports, work in the garden, or go camping or fishing. When hands are heavily soiled or greasy, hand sanitizers may not work well 3,7,16. Handwashing with soap and water is recommended in such circumstances.
Why? Although few studies have been conducted, hand sanitizers probably cannot remove or inactivate many types of harmful chemicals. In one study, people who reported using hand sanitizer to clean hands had increased levels of pesticides in their bodies 19. If hands have touched harmful chemicals, wash carefully with soap and water (or as directed by a poison control center).
Why? Many studies have found that sanitizers with an alcohol concentration between 60–95% are more effective at killing germs than those with a lower alcohol concentration or non-alcohol-based hand sanitizers 16,20. Hand sanitizers without 60-95% alcohol 1) may not work equally well for many types of germs; and 2) merely reduce the growth of germs rather than kill them outright.
From 2011 – 2015, U.S. poison control centers received nearly 85,000 calls about hand sanitizer exposures among children 25. Children may be particularly likely to swallow hand sanitizers that are scented, brightly colored, or attractively packaged. Hand sanitizers should be stored out of the reach of young children and should be used with adult supervision. Child-resistant caps could also help reduce hand sanitizer-related poisonings among young children 24. Older children and adults might purposefully swallow hand sanitizers to become drunk 26. | <urn:uuid:95379573-e982-4ddd-90d4-9ab2c799b6b2> | CC-MAIN-2021-39 | https://sph.lsuhsc.edu/life-is-better-with-clean-hands/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-39/segments/1631780057033.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20210920070754-20210920100754-00373.warc.gz | en | 0.946134 | 1,178 | 3.578125 | 4 | {
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Land and Resources, Physical Features
Purari, Mount Wilhelm, Kikori, Bismarck Range, Bismarck Sea
The mainland, which is wide in western Papua New Guinea and narrows in the southeast, has a rugged, mountainous interior. Steep slopes and jagged peaks stretch across the entire island from east to west. In Papua New Guinea, the mountains rise to a maximum elevation of 4,509 m (14,793 ft) at Mount Wilhelm in the Bismarck Range. Among the other ranges is the Owen Stanley in the southeast. Between the mountains are broad valleys that lie more than 1,500 m (4,900 ft) above sea level. These mountains and valleys constitute the central highlands. To the north of the central highlands is a low-lying, swampy plain. It was formed by sediment deposited by large rivers, including the Sepik and Ramu, which flow from the mountains into the Bismarck Sea. North of this plain are other mountain ranges that fringe the islandís coast. These run from west to east and continue in scattered peaks offshore, forming the islands of New Britain, New Ireland, and Bougainville. Most of the other large islands are mountainous. A few islands, such as the Trobriands, are low coral formations.
The coastline of mainland Papua New Guinea is mostly low-lying. In the south it is deeply indented by river mouths and by a number of bays, such as Milne Bay at the eastern extremity. Most southward-flowing rivers empty into the Gulf of Papua. Major rivers of the mainland include the Fly, in the southwest; the Purari and Kikori, in the south; and the Sepik and Ramu, in the north. The Fly is navigable for about 800 km (about 500 mi) and the Sepik for about 500 km (about 300 mi).
Papua New Guinea lies along the so-called Ring of Fire, a belt of frequent tectonic activity in the Pacific Ocean caused by the collision of several continental plates. The country often experiences earthquakes and there are about 40 active volcanoes along the north coast of the mainland and on the smaller islands. Dramatic examples of tectonic activity include the 1951 eruption of Mount Lamington on the mainland and volcanic eruptions and earthquakes in 1937 and 1994 near Rabaul in eastern New Britain. The latter event, which the government described as the nationís worst recorded natural disaster, caused the evacuation of about 90,000 people.
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Teachers are seeing increasing levels of anxiety and a rise in mental health problems among their students but lack the training and time to support young people.
Eighty two per cent of teachers are seeing anxious pupils and the worsening of existing mental health problems, compared to just one year ago, according to a survey for the Early Intervention Foundation.
Secondary schools and teachers face multiple barriers to better supporting pupils’ mental health – largely due to a lack of qualified staff, insufficient help from other professionals and critically a lack of time, the survey by TeacherTapp for the EIF found.
Donna Molloy OBE, director of policy at the Early Intervention Foundation said: “We know that supporting young people’s mental health is a priority for secondary schools. Now more than ever, it is essential that teachers are adequately trained to support young people in the development of essential life skills, which includes the skills needed to maintain good mental health and wellbeing.
“The evidence is clear that teacher-led support, when delivered to a high level of quality, makes a difference to young people’s mental health outcomes. Young people’s mental health must remain a national priority, and teacher training and dedicated time in the curriculum for focusing on wellbeing are important ways of reducing young people’s mental health issues.”
The survey carried out in August 2022 found:
• 41% of secondary school teachers have received training to support pupils’ mental health in the past 12 months.
• This is a six-percentage point increase from June 2021, when just 35% of teachers had received training in mental health support.
• This was unevenly split across seniority, with 64% of headteachers and 54% of senior leaders receiving training, but the same could only be said of 36% of classroom teachers.
• In schools rated outstanding by Ofsted, 49% of classroom teachers said they had received mental health training.
• This compared to 28% in “good”, “requires improvement” or “inadequate” schools.
• 82% of secondary school teachers have seen increasing levels of anxiety/depressive symptoms among pupils over the past year, which includes low mood and loss of interest in activities that they previously enjoyed.
• 70% of teachers have seen reduced motivation and engagement among pupils.
• 66% have seen a worsening of existing mental health problems.
Head of Practice at WillisPalmer Lucy Hopkins warns that teachers and school staff have competing priorities of trying to deliver a curriculum, help pupils to ‘catch up’ educationally post-COVID, while helping to identify children who are experiencing mental health problems or where there are safeguarding issues which have undoubtedly arisen since the various lockdowns and children may have been further isolated from any support.
“Teachers and school staff are ideally placed to spot signs of change in their pupils and to identify changes in presentation, emotional wellbeing, and potential issues at home. Since the first lockdown, local authorities have seen an increase in instances of domestic abuse, an escalation in substance misuse problems as people struggled to cope, and parental mental health also suffered. These issues, combined with increasing financial pressures as a result of furlough or job losses, health concerns and isolation resulted in an increase in some children being exposed to these types of issues and suffering significant harm as a result.”
“While schools want to do their best to support their students, and much of this intervention and support has increasingly become the responsibility of school staff, this can mean that they are having to balance providing pupils with everything they need to learn and develop academically along with assisting them to manage their emotional needs and mental health, the latter sometimes requiring a different type of experience and knowledge that is more akin to social work than teaching,” added Lucy.
The TeacherTapp survey for the EIF came after the former children’s commissioner for England Anne Longfield warned that the system for supporting children and young people with mental health problems is “buckling under pressure”.
The report by the Commission for Young Lives found “a profound crisis in children and young people's mental health services in England and a system of support that is buckling under pressure, frequently over-medicalised and bureaucratic, unresponsive, outdated, and siloed”.
In October, the Early Intervention Foundation and the Anna Freud Centre will be publishing practical evidence-informed guidance for secondary school teachers to support them in enhancing young people’s mental health and wellbeing through everyday interactions.
Jaime Smith, Director of the Anna Freud Centre’s Schools Division, says: “Education staff should not be expected to be mental health experts but they are well placed to spot early signs that young people may be struggling. That’s why it’s essential all school staff, no matter their role or stage of their career, have the appropriate training to be able to support their students, and refer on to mental health professionals at the right time. Every school should have a senior mental health lead and embed a whole school approach to mental health.”
The Early Intervention Foundation recommends that the education secretary gives schools the backing needed to provide more effective support to young people facing mental health issues.
Lucy Hopkins added: “As part of the development of the WillisPalmer School Social Work Service we have recently undertaken the first stage of a pilot whereby I was present at a local junior school each week, and the headteacher revealed that she spends at least half her time dealing with safeguarding issues.”
“That is why we have launched the School Social Work Service where an expert social worker is placed in a school one day per week to support schools with a range of issues including providing advice and consultancy around issues such as child mental health, parental mental health, domestic abuse, or substance misuse problems, and all of those issues that children may be experiencing at home that are subsequently impacting on them at school and affecting their ability to fully engage with learning” said Lucy.
“With so much pressure academically, schools cannot be expected to tackle societal problems without vital support, and with a large number of independent social workers at WillisPalmer we have the skills and experience to be able to help,” concluded Lucy.
For more information on the School Social Work Service visit the website. | <urn:uuid:a83411e2-c4f5-4ba0-af65-f9c9bc32fc5d> | CC-MAIN-2023-50 | https://www.willispalmer.com/school-staff-need-help-tackling-child-mental-health-as-anxiety-among-students-rises/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100056.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20231129041834-20231129071834-00356.warc.gz | en | 0.969447 | 1,308 | 2.609375 | 3 | {
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Psychologists at the University of Bath, King’s College London, and Cardiff have found that a common test used by doctors and researchers to measure autistic personality traits lacks reliability and might not be capturing the right signs of autism.
This means that research including scores from this test may lack validity and raises new questions about its use for screening for autism in the general population.
The 10-item Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ10) questionnaire asks people to report if they have personality characteristics associated with autism. There are many forms of these types of questionnaires, with the AQ10 being the shortest and most commonly used by GPs.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the government body responsible for making recommendations for clinical practice and to the NHS, recommends the AQ10 as a screening tool for autism in adults. For research purposes, results from the questionnaire are used in large-scale studies to measure autistic traits in the general population.
These autistic traits/tendencies are then linked to their performance on other tasks, in order to inform how autism may be related to other social behaviours and difficulties.
In a new study, published today in Cambridge University Press’ new journal Experimental Results, researchers used data from over 6,500 participants from the general population to examine the effectiveness of AQ10 in measuring autism.
Their results found that the measure had poor reliability across several statistical techniques and the team now suggest the reliance on AQ10 as a measure of autistic traits needs to be questioned. They suggest we need new systems in place designed to better capture the range of autistic personality traits across the population.
Dr Punit Shah, senior author of the study and expert on cognitive processing at the University of Bath’s Department of Psychology, explained: “Our findings add further evidence to a growing body of literature indicating that the measures of autism and autistic traits currently used in research are inadequate.
“A lot of what we know about autism – and how to help people with autism – has come from studies where these tools are used. However, if the measure of autism is unreliable, as we suggest, so too are the findings and conclusions. Without reliable measures, it is unclear if the findings from these studies are valid, and may be hampering the support we provide for people with autistic personalities or diagnosed autism in society.”
Emily Taylor, a PhD researcher on the team, added: “This is an important finding, which will hopefully initiate a more concerted effort at examining and refining tools used in autism research and clinical practice. Our analyses used a large sample without medical diagnoses, so the next step would be to conduct follow-up studies in equally large clinical samples.
“More generally, we have focussed on a measure of autistic traits, but we know that there are similar reliability problems with measures of mental health tools. We need far more ‘basic’ science to examine and address these issues in future research, towards improving their application in the management of mental health difficulties in society.” | <urn:uuid:fd9ff650-8209-450e-92c2-d641cdd8dac5> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://globalhealthnewswire.com/neurology-and-mental-health/2020/03/05/researchers-question-reliability-of-common-autistic-personality-test | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337625.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20221005105356-20221005135356-00368.warc.gz | en | 0.948342 | 619 | 2.9375 | 3 | {
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Robotics Tech Papers
Choice of Protective Measures
When a risk assessment shows that a machine or process carries a risk of injury the hazard must be eliminated or contained. How this is done will depend on the nature of the machine and the hazard. In basic terms this means preventing any access to the relevant parts while they are in a dangerous condition. The best choice of protective measure is a device or system that provides the maximum protection with the minimum impact on normal machine operation. It is important that all aspects of machine use are considered, as experience shows that a safety system which is difficult to use is more liable to be removed or by-passed.
To achieve this, choose either:
1. Preventing access during dangerous motion, or
2. Preventing dangerous motion during access.
The following provides a brief overview of the characteristics of the most commonly used devices.
Fixed Enclosing Guards
If the hazard is on a part of the machinery which does not require access it should be permanently guarded with fixed enclosing guards.
Movable Guards with Interlocking Switches
If access is required there needs to be a movable (openable) guard which is interlocked with the power source of the hazard in a manner which ensures that whenever the guard door is not closed the hazard power will be switched off. This approach involves the use of an interlock switch fitted to the guard door. The control of the power source of the hazard is routed through the safety contacts of the switch. The power source is usually electrical but it could also be pneumatic or hydraulic. When guard door movement (opening) is detected the interlock switch will isolate the hazard power supply either directly or via a power contactor (or valve).
Some interlock switches also incorporate a locking device which locks the guard door closed and will not release it until the machine is in a safe condition. For many applications the combination of a movable guard and an interlock switch with or without guard locking is a reliable and cost effective solution.
There are other ways of preventing access while the machine is in a dangerous condition. The use of two-hand controls is common on certain types of machinery. Two start buttons have to be operated at the same time to run the machine. This ensures that both hands of the operator are occupied in a safe position (i.e. at the controls) and therefore cannot be in the hazard area.
Note: This type of measure only protects the operator and does not give protection to other personnel.
A two-hand control system depends heavily on the integrity of its control and monitoring system to detect any faults, so it is important that this aspect is designed to the correct specification.
The physical design should prevent improper operation (e.g. by hand and elbow). The installation must also meet the safety distance requirements from the hazardous location.
The machine should not go from one cycle to another without the releasing and pressing of both buttons. This prevents the possibility of both buttons being blocked, leaving the machine running continuously.
Releasing of either button must cause the machine to stop.
The use of two-hand control should be considered with caution as it usually leaves some form of risk exposed.
It is very useful however on applications such as teach mode pendants and inching controls because it can give enhanced levels of protection when used in conjunction with other protective devices.
Preventing Dangerous Motion
When frequent access is required physical guarding at the hazard is sometimes too restrictive for part loading or adjustment. In this situation a device is required which prevents dangerous motion while allowing unrestricted access by sensing the presence of the operator and sending a stop signal.
Photo Electric Light Curtains
These devices emit a ‘‘curtain’‘ of harmless infrared light beams in front of the hazard area. When any of the beams are blocked the light curtain control circuit sends a stop signal to the guarded machine. There are many factors which affect the type and positioning of a light curtain and these are dealt with in the standard EN 999 ‘‘The positioning of protective equipment in respect of approach speeds of parts of the human body’‘.
Light curtains are extremely versatile and can guard areas many meters wide. By the use of mirrors the light beams can be diverted round corners to enclose a machine. They are available with different light beam spacings making them suitable for many applications ranging from totally enclosing perimeter guards for industrial robots, to point of access guard for certain types of presses.
Pressure Sensitive Safety Mats
These devices are used to guard the floor area around a machine. A matrix of inter-connected mats is laid around the hazard area and the proper amount of pressure (e.g. an operator’s footstep) will cause the mat control unit to send a stop signal to the guarded machine.
Pressure sensitive mats are often used within an enclosed area containing several machines e.g. flexible manufacturing or robotics cells. When access is required into the cell (for setting or robot ‘‘teaching’‘ for example) they prevent dangerous motion if the operator strays from the safe area.
The size and positioning of the mats should be calculated using the formulae from the standard EN 999 ‘‘The positioning of protective equipment in respect of approach speeds of parts of the human body’‘.
Pressure Sensitive Edges
These devices are flexible edging strips which can be fixed to the edge of a moving part such as a machine table or powered door where there is a risk of a crushing or shearing hazard.
If the moving part strikes the operator (or vice versa) the flexible sensitive edge is depressed and will send a stop signal to the power source. Sensitive edges can also be used to guard machinery where there is a risk of operator entanglement. If an operator becomes caught up and dragged by the machine he will be pulled onto the sensitive edge thereby tripping its switching action.
Light curtains, safety mats and pressure sensitive edges can all be classed as ‘‘trip devices’‘. They do not restrict access but only ‘‘sense’‘ it. They rely entirely on their ability to both sense and switch for the provision of safety therefore it is important that their control circuit be control reliable. Also they must only be used in correct applications. In general they are only suitable on machines which stop immediately after removal of power. Because an operator can walk or reach directly into the hazard area it is necessary that the time taken for the motion to stop is less than that required for the operator to reach the hazard after tripping the device.
Wherever there is a danger of an operator getting into trouble on a machine an emergency stop device must be readily available.
Emergency Stop Buttons
The usual way of providing this is in the form of a mushroom headed push button which the operator strikes in the event of an emergency. They must be strategically placed in sufficient quantity around the machine to ensure that there is always one in reach at a hazard point.
For machinery such as conveyors etc., it is often more convenient and effective to use a grabwire device along the hazard area. These devices use a steel wire rope connected to latching pull switches so that pulling on the rope will operate the switch and cut off the machine power.
Telescopic Trip Switches
Other variations include telescopic antenna switches where deflection of the antenna causes the switch to cut off the machine power. These devices are more commonly used as trip devices on machinery such as pillar drills. The switch is mounted on the drill and the antenna is extended down next to the drill bit. In the event of the operator becoming entangled with the drill he will be pulled onto the antenna which operates the switch. | <urn:uuid:227a6dfc-fcd3-43f5-bc81-8e80bffcb97b> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://www.robotics.org/content-detail.cfm/Industrial-Robotics-Tech-Papers/Choice-of-Protective-Measures/content_id/154 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988719273.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183839-00066-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92847 | 1,585 | 3.328125 | 3 | {
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Radon Gas Testing & Safety Products | Facts about Radon
What is radon?
Radon is a radioactive gas found in soil, rocks, and groundwater. It is released naturally due to the breakdown of uranium and can accumulate inside buildings by seeping through cracks or other openings in the foundation. Radon can also get into a house through well-water. Radon gas creates dangerous conditions for humans, since exposure to it has been found to cause lung cancer. Since you cannot see, smell, or taste radon gas, your only option is to test for it.
Is radon serious?
Radon is the leading cause of lung cancer for non-smokers, and according to EPA estimates, more than 20,000 people die from radon-related lung cancer every year in the United States. People who smoke and are exposed to radon gas have an especially high risk of lung cancer.
Where is radon located?
Dangerously high radon levels have been found in every state in the US. One of the most challenging things about radon is that any home can have a radon problem: new or old houses, and houses both with or without basements. The radon level can vary greatly from house to house, even within the same neighborhood. Since you cannot predict which homes will have high radon levels based on location or other factors, it is essential for all homeowners to test their homes, regardless of whether neighbors have radon problems or not.
Radon Testing and Mitigation
The unit of measurement used to assess radon gas is picocuries per liter of air. A normal (average) radon level inside a building would be 1.3 pCi/L. Outside, the average reading is 0.4 pCi/L. According to the EPA, homeowners should consider mitigating their home’s radon level if it is between 2 pCi/L and 4 pCi/L. If the level is at 4 pCi/L or higher, the US Surgeon General recommends that people fix the radon issue in their home.
Everyone should get their homes tested - there is no reason not to. Ideally, have the house tested before you move in, even if it was built with radon-resisted construction methods. The tests are generally simple to perform, and if your home is found to have a radon issue, it can be mitigated, reducing your household’s risk of lung cancer. If you find that your home does have a radon problem, contact your state’s radon office. They will be able to put you in touch with local radon mitigation contractors. Even if you find that your home has a high radon level, there are generally ways to reduce it to an acceptable level.
Advances in construction techniques and materials have made it possible for new homes to be built with radon-resistant construction. If performed correctly, radon-resistant construction methods have been found to reduce the risk of lung cancer caused by radon in the house. These methods typically do not add much to the construction cost of a new house – often less than $1000 for a new house. It usually is, however, more expensive to go back and mitigate a radon problem after the fact in an existing house. Radon resistant building techniques include: gas-permeable layers below the slab to allow gas to move beneath the house, plastic sheeting over the gas-permeable layer, proper sealing and caulking in the foundation, vent piping to allow gas to leave the gas-permeable layer without getting into the house, and an electrical junction box in the attic to make it easy to install a vent fan.
If you find that your home has radon issues that need to be addressed, contact a qualified radon mitigation expert. Radon mitigation techniques for existing homes include sealing cracks and openings in the foundation, as well as installing vent pipes and fans. Other actions may be appropriate as well, depending on your specific situation.
When performing renovations on your house, especially projects that involve lower floors, like finishing the basement, it is important to do radon tests before you begin, so that you can address radon issues while you are renovating. Later, perform another test once the renovations are done, in case the renovations happened to alter the home’s permeability, allowing radon gas to enter the structure.
Buying and Selling Houses
Before putting your home on the market, it is a good idea to perform a radon test first, taking steps to address any radon problems that arise. Prospective buyers will likely ask you about your home’s radon level, so it makes sense to be prepared with this information and perform any necessary mitigation ahead of time. If you are in the process of buying a home, find out the indoor radon levels before purchasing the property. Regardless of whether the property had been tested in the past, you may also want to have a new test taken. When discussing radon tests, take into account information such as the following: how long ago was the previous test, did a radon professional or the home owner perform the test, where in the home was the test taken (especially important if you intend to live on a lower floor of the house), and what changes have been made to the home since the test was performed? Also, if the house has radon reduction equipment, find out if that equipment is appropriate for the house and in good condition before buying.
Sump Pit Covers and Radon Test Kits
One of the ways that radon gas can enter your basement is through your sump pit. To cover and seal your sump pit, we offer The Original Radon/Sump Dome made by Jackal. See below for this product, as well as radon text kits you can use to assess your home’s radon levels.
The Original Radon/Sump Dome™
- Open or unsealed sump pits invite hazards such as radon gas, odors, and insects, and can be dangerous to small children and pets.
- Cover and seal your sump with The Original Radon/Sump Dome™ to mitigate these issues and make your home healthier and safer.
- Allows access for servicing your sump pump and controls.
- Easy to install.
Radon Test Kit - Long Term Alpha Track Kit
- Long-term passive radon test device - longer than 90 days
- Rated #1 by a leading national consumer advocacy group.
- Kit includes a single device, instructions, laboratory analysis, & return postage for test results.
- Use a long-term radon test kit to determine your home’s exposure to radon during different seasons and living conditions.
- Closed house conditions are not necessary during a long term test.
- To perform test, leave the test device(s) exposed for 91 days to 12 months under normal living conditions.
Basement Health Kit (Radon Test Kit & HygienicAire Treatment Compound)
- Kit includes a Radon Gas Test Kit and HygienicAire compound to help ensure cleaner air flow throughout your basement.
- Radon test kit is a Long Term Alpha Track Kit (AT-100) from AccuStar Labs. See this test kit’s product page on our website for more information on it.
- HygienicAire helps control the spread of odors, mold, mildew, and allergens - perfect for use in basements, ventilation systems, and other places where clean air is important. | <urn:uuid:ba7d0999-7c7e-472f-807b-e5ab28f3e1b3> | CC-MAIN-2017-09 | https://www.waterdamagedefense.com/collections/radon-gas-testing-safety-products-facts-about-radon | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-09/segments/1487501171620.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20170219104611-00061-ip-10-171-10-108.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94045 | 1,569 | 3.125 | 3 | {
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Despite the impression rendered in most contemporary movies and TV shows, men do have brains. In the last thirty years, most popular shows depict men and fathers as bumbling idiots. One inspiring exception is the recent movie Dunkirk, a real “man movie” that portrays the intelligence and nobility of men by land, sea, and air: men of all ages and professions, working together to defend “their Island” of England. We men actually have keen analytical minds. So a good man does not charge into danger. He analyzes a situation, and based on that data makes calculated, intelligent risks so as to be able to achieve an objective.
Bridges are a great story of calculated risk. In 1869 engineers told John Roebling that spanning the East River between Manhattan and Brooklyn could not be done. He died trying, along with 26 other men. But just before dying, he handed the project over to his son Washington Roebling, who spent the next 14 years supervising the project from his bedroom window. Like his father, Washington himself had sacrificed himself for the project (from decompression sickness while supervising tower excavations deep below the East River). But the bridge opened in 1883, a triumph of human ingenuity. Have you ever walked the pedestrian terrace over the Brooklyn Bridge? One strides above vehicular traffic on the bridge deck and river traffic below that, gazing up at the Manhattan skyline. Such a one cannot fail to acknowledge that this was a risk, and a sacrifice, worth making. At least John Roebling and sons thought so.
Fifty years later, few thought that building a bridge over the 1.3 mile Golden Gate Strait was possible. Construction would have to deal with notorious tides and currents, in 372 ft of water on the Marin side, in ferocious winds and blinding fogs. It was an Irish immigrant, Michael Maurice O'Shaughnessy, who did not shrink from the challenge. He had already spanned the 200 miles between the Sierra Nevada and the Pacific Coast with an aqueduct that delivers plentiful mountain snowmelt to our city’s water faucets. Whoever decided to build the Golden Gate Bridge, however, would have to span the greatest distance ever spanned. He would have to build towers taller than any bridge towers that could withstand unparalleled ocean forces. He would have to finance it all in the depths of the Great Depression. Eleven men lost their lives building the most photographed bridge in the world, still the tallest in the United States. The men who risked and lost their lives teach us that some risks are worth taking. To be a Christian, indeed, is to make calculated risks for ones we love, because that is what Our Savior did. He risked, and lost, his life to provide what only He could provide. And God raised him up. All Christian adventure takes its meaning from the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the greatest of all adventures.
It is good for men to take prudent risks and to set out on adventures. God gave us a longing to seek goals, even if we don’t know what those goals are. We seek what is yet to be found. We plan these adventures, we analyze costs and benefits, and we set out. We stretch our muscles and push our limits to provide for our wives and our children and our communities.
Consider King David, Israel’s most beloved ruler. The people loved this man because he took risks—he defied the giant Goliath unarmed for his people, trusting in God more than himself. If I ask you what is “David’s sin,” you will say “Bathsheba,” and the murder of her husband. But King David’s greatest sin was staying home. “In the spring,” we read in 2 Samuel 11, “at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king's men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.” The King’s job was to defend his people from enemy aggression, but “David stayed in the city.” While his men fought Ammon, this man lounged on his roof with nothing better to do than look at things he shouldn’t look at. “Now when evening came David arose from his bed and walked around on the roof of the king's house, and from the roof he saw a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful…” Notice that David arose from his bed “at evening.” He was laying around all day, bored out of his mind, and decided to look around for some excitement. Today the internet has made voyeurism very easy for us. But if we are doing our jobs, engaging the adventure of Christian manhood, we won’t have time for pornography. Mother Teresa can help us men here: she told her sisters, when the devil tempted them to thoughts of lust, to say to him quite simply: “I’m sorry, but I do not have time for that right now.” She kept her sisters quite busy in prayer and service, and we must do the same. We simply don’t have time for lust, because we are busy building God’s kingdom on earth for its full realization in heaven.
It was King David’s sheer laziness that drove him to great sin. He should have gone to war with his men instead of staying home on soft pillows and throw rugs. We men, who are given to laziness, must go out of our doors, into danger, from time to time. Adventures steel us, challenge us, and prepare us to defend what must be defended. One of the great adventurers in Western History has been largely forgotten. In second grade I learned a ditty, which we used to sing every October 14.
In fourteen hundred ninety-two
Columbus sailed the ocean blue.
He had three ships and left from Spain;
He sailed through sunshine, wind and rain.
He sailed by night; he sailed by day;
He used the stars to find his way.
By the end of the fifteenth century, a few men had attempted to find the end of the vast Atlantic Ocean, but none had ever returned. Cristoforo Columbo was the son of tavern keeper from Genoa. He was a bright boy and loved reading about the seas and continents and winds. When he grew up, he spent ten years planning and raising support for a voyage that would double the size of the known world. He set out on August 3 with three ships, the largest of which was shorter than many of today’s average pleasure yachts. He faced an unknown and seemingly endless ocean. Over two months he and 88 men suffered hunger, thirst, the fear of losing their way, storms and heat and cold. He held his desperate crew together as they were on the point of dissolving into mutiny. On October 14, 1492, he was the first European to kneel on a beach in the New World. With tears for the immeasurable mercy of God, he named the island San Salvador. Christopher Columbus wasn’t perfect, and he wasn’t a saint, but he was a man. He used the gifts of his manhood given by the good God to expand our world and provide for his fellow men.
The Bay Adventure
Every man should keep himself sharp and ready by smaller voyages of discovery. Who knows when God will call us to be another Christopher Columbus or John Glenn? A few weeks ago one of our young adults asked me to take him kayaking on the bay. We checked the tidal charts and set out. The wind came up, however, and the currents swept us out under the Golden Gate Bridge into the mighty Pacific. Joe’s kayak overturned and began taking on water. He had to learn how to keep calm even as overwhelming currents were carrying both of us into the open ocean. After some initial panic, he stabilized his boat and got back on. We made for the far shore, regrouped, and fought our way back through the choppiest water I’ve ever seen. I was sure he would capsize again, and I with him, but we concentrated on keeping the paddles in the water, taking long deep strokes, and made it past the worst of the current. We attained a high water mark of our endurance and skill, a new level of confidence, and a greater capacity for teamwork. | <urn:uuid:f94fb2c2-4161-4c02-9a9d-5d88d9da9dbe> | CC-MAIN-2020-05 | http://www.frilloblog.com/blog/lecture-captaining-your-ship-sf-mens-conference-23 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579250601615.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20200121044233-20200121073233-00194.warc.gz | en | 0.977145 | 1,767 | 2.59375 | 3 | {
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Unless you're in a very particular line of work, dead birds aren't something you're likely to think about, day to day. But scientists have long relied on the physical preservation of animal species to study the fundamentals of life on Earth.
In today's DNews field report special, Lissette Padilla pays a visit to the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, where biologists and curators preserve and house thousands of species of birds, mammals and other animals.
Laura Wilkinson, curatorial assistant with Department of Ornithology & Mammalogy, demonstrates the process by which dead animals are preserved for future scientific study. Working with a tiny Rufous hummingbird, which migrates through the Bay Area in the spring, Wilkinson carefully separates the bird's skin and feathers, then marks the location and date that the bird was collected.
This particular hummingbird died from crashing into a window, a common way that birds die in urban areas, Wilkinson explains.
"It basically gives us a placeholder of a species that existed at a certain place in a certain time," Wilkinson says. "So this is physical proof that this Rufous hummingbird was in San Francisco at this time."
Future scientists can then use this specimen for research. DNA can be extracted from frozen tissue samples, for instance, or isotopes can be analyzed to determine the bird's diet and habitat.
"It might be useful in 100 years if, say, this species was no longer found in California," Wilkinson says.
RELATED: Turning Dead Animals Into A Dream Job
The California Academy of Sciences is one of the largest natural history museums in the world. Established in 1853, it's been in the research business for a long time. In fact, about 75 percent of the specimens were collected prior to 1925, says Jack Dumbacher, curator with Department of Ornithology & Mammalogy.
The museum lost a huge portion of its collection in the earthquake of 1906. It also houses many species that are now extinct, including North America's only native parakeet as well as the late, great passenger pigeon.
"The specimens, I like to think of them as the most complete and tangible and permanent information about life on Earth," Dumbacher says. "It's the best record that we have."
Check out Lissette's video report for more information, including details on how the Academy acquires its specimens. Hint: Museum curators like to look at what the cat dragged in. Seriously.
-- Glenn McDonald
California Academy Of Sciences: Ornithology and Mammalogy
Livescience: How Taxidermy Keeps Extinct Animals Around
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SATURDAY, MARCH 3, 2018
The large auditorium at Crown Pointe Church, Lee’s Summit, MO is filled early on a Saturday morning. This year the Severe Weather Symposium has a stronger impact after last year’s tornado which struck Oak Grove and unincorporated Jackson County on March 6. In 2017, Missourians witnessed devastating severe weather. With this in mind, local and regional weather experts teamed together to provide the community with the most current weather safety tips and resources.
Jackson County Emergency Manager, Mike Curry greeted the crowd. “This year we have heavy hearts with the upcoming severe weather season. Last year as many of you know or lived through, a severe weather event yourself. This is why training and preparing for an emergency is so important. You never know if you or a loved one will be affected.”
Severe weather can happen anytime and anywhere. Being prepared can reduce fear and anxiety. People can also reduce the impact of a disaster by preparing (flood proofing, elevating a home or moving a home out of harm’s way, and securing items that could shake loose in an earthquake). By having a plan in place before severe weather occurs, the danger can be possibly completely avoided.
Bryan Busby from KMBC News 9 asked “How many of you are familiar with a microburst?” Microbursts are found in strong thunderstorms, they are a small but strong downdraft that moves in a way opposite of a tornado. Microbursts can cause extensive damage at the surface, and in some instances, can be life-threatening. “If you see a scary looking cloud that looks like a tornado funnel it doesn’t mean it’s a tornado, but it could be a microburst. A microburst can cause just as much damage as a tornado and can be very dangerous.” Wind speeds in a microburst can reach up to 100 mph or higher; which is the equivalent to an EF-1 tornado. Severe weather sirens will sound in the event of a microburst, it is very important to take shelter if you hear any serve weather warning.
“In 2017, Missourians witnessed the deadly and destructive power of both tornadoes and flash flooding and the absolute importance of preparedness,” National Weather Service Meteorologist Linda Gilbert said. “Almost half of Missouri counties were included in the federal disaster declaration for the spring flooding and severe storms. That’s a reminder of how important it is to know how to protect yourself and your family from flooding, tornadoes, and lightning, no matter where you live.”
The Missouri Severe Weather Awareness Week is March 4th to 10th. The National Weather Service, State Emergency Management Agency and local emergency managers urge Missourians to learn about severe weather and how to protect themselves during Missouri Severe Weather Awareness Week. Missouri’s annual Statewide Tornado Drill will be held Tuesday, March 6 at 10 a.m.
For information and safety tips visit Jackson Emergency Manager. | <urn:uuid:be4ae314-941e-446d-8595-5ddb261ab85c> | CC-MAIN-2020-16 | https://jacksongov.org/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=503 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-16/segments/1585370496227.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20200329201741-20200329231741-00237.warc.gz | en | 0.946234 | 629 | 3 | 3 | {
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Technical schools offer a variety of programs for individuals to receive relevant training for specific occupations. Technical school programs, for instance, provide the education necessary to work in these and other fields:
- Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning
- Culinary arts
- Medical coding and billing
- Medical office administration
When students enroll in a pharmacy technician program, for example, they will be able to launch their careers sooner than if they attended a traditional 4-year college program. This is due, in part, because technical schools don’t require their students to enroll in extraneous courses. Everything within these programs is relevant to the field.
It also costs considerably less to complete a trade school degree. On average, the price tag on technical career institutes will tend to be $33,000.00. When compared to the average price of a bachelor’s degree, which can be up to or in excess of $127.000.00, this can provide an overall savings of $94,000.00.
Prospective students interested in becoming a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) technician may be interested to know the earning power for HVAC technicians. In 2016, the average person working in this field earned over $48,000.00 a year.
In 2016, California, Florida, and Texas had the most jobs for HVAC technicians. Furthermore, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) estimates that there will be an increased need for workers in this field. By 2022, for example, the BLS projects that there will be a 21% increase in job growth within this field alone.
According to the BLS, there are several other fields that are expected to have an increase in job opportunities. These include bakers, culinary specialists, head cooks, and chefs.
While the BLS reports that there were 129,370 head cooks or chefs employed throughout the United States in 2015, these figures are expected to rise by 2024. Job opportunities for bakers are expected to increase by 7%, and the demand for culinary specialists is predicted to increase by 9%.
There is also a positive outlook for medical billing and coding specialists, according to the BLS. Between the years of 2014 to 2024, an increased demand for individual within this field is expected to increase by 15%.
Since prospective students will have a variety of questions, it’s important to contact a technical college directly for more information. At that time they will be able to consult with a specialist that can assist them with choosing the best possible program. | <urn:uuid:fbcd4bf1-87fd-4fd3-bcfb-f06d818a4073> | CC-MAIN-2022-49 | https://unmcontinuingeducation.net/returning-to-the-workforce-after-a-hiatus-consider-training-for-a-new-career-at-a-local-technical-college/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-49/segments/1669446710898.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20221202050510-20221202080510-00837.warc.gz | en | 0.953127 | 527 | 2.546875 | 3 | {
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Historic high seas declaration at risk
The declaration, foreshadowed by the OSPAR Commission for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic since 2008, would have been the world's first declaration of a suite of protected sites in waters outside any national jurisdiction.
“The sixteen Contracting Parties have been working towards a milestone achievement for several years, setting a global example to protect ocean wildlife and vulnerable habitats in international waters which is considered an unprecedented pilot by other coastal states worldwide," said Stephan Lutter, International Marine Policy Officer with WWF-Germany and WWF’s observer to OSPAR, the Oslo Paris convention on the north east Atlantic environment.
"Now, the reservation by four governments is putting the big break at risk.”
Ministers representing parties to OSPAR were scheduled to consider detailed proposals at a meeting in Bergen, Norway on 20-24 September.
“However now that the draft Decisions and Recommendations are on the table for adoption, a group of countries sadly withdraw their support to what could become a global push for good High Seas and ocean governance," said Lutter. "Due to the reluctance of Denmark, Iceland, Norway and the United Kingdom, the ambitious plan to deliver a first network of High Seas marine protected areas is at stake.”
The new found reluctance of these states to stick to their original commitments is thought to relate to them notifying extensions of their continental shelf beyond the 200 nautical miles Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) to the United Nations. These seabed claims now coincide with parts of the proposed marine protected areas.
OSPAR's 2008 agreement in principle designated large sections of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the so-called Charlie-Gibbs Fracture Zone as the first High Seas marine protected area. This underwater mountain range and canyon hosts a wealth of deep sea wildlife, from deep water sharks to cold-water coral reefs and sponge formations. In the upper water layer, there is the sub-polar water front rich in plankton and fish, attracting oceanic seabirds and migrating marine mammals such as big whales.
“Since the time of this political milestone agreement, OSPAR has made remarkable progress in terms of carving out specific conservation objectives and starting consultations about the future management of the protected area with the competent UN authorities for fisheries, seabed mining and shipping, another unique and innovative approach deserving global attention,” Lutter said.
Moreover, five additional seamount and ridge sites have been selected and nominated as marine protected areas in the meantime, altogether covering about 450.000 square km or appr. 9% of the North-East Atlantic’s international waters.
WWF disputes the basis of reservations of the four countries. Legal advice, including reports commissioned with Law of the Sea experts by WWF, notes the feasibility of establishing marine protected areas via shared responsibility of coastal states for protection of their seabed and international authorities for adjacent areas.
“We believe that states are even obliged to apply their marine conservation laws up to the offshore limit of their jurisdiction, “ Lutter said, highlighting the example of Portugal which has nominated four of the sites concerned on its extended shelf and is proactively inviting OSPAR to afford protection to the remaining waters.
“We have not abandoned all hope that this example might catch on and not lost faith in the upcoming Ministerial summit keeping its momentum and international credibility.”
Stephan Lutter, International Marine Policy & Marine Protected Areas, WWF-Germany
Mobile: +49 151 18854925 E-mail: [email protected]
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Carnivore: an animal that eats only meat.
Food web: the connections between all the organisms that eat and are eaten by each other in a particular place... more
Forage: to look for food. The word, forage, is mainly used when looking for seeds and plants... more
Herbivore: an animal that eats only plants.
Hibernate: the act of sleeping through the cold winter months, like some animals do to survive the winter... more
Metabolism: what living things do to stay alive. This includes eating, drinking, breathing, and getting rid of wastes... more
Prey: animal hunted for food by another animal or animals... more
Could you handle always living in the cold? Some animals can. Animals of all sizes have adapted to harsh weather conditions and long winters of the tundra.
Many animals have shorter legs and ears to minimize exposing their skin to the cold. Some are also well adapted to living high up in the mountains. For example, mammals at high elevation are able to use oxygen more efficiently.
Small creatures, such as ground squirrels, can seek refuge in vegetation but because it’s usually sparse and low, it may expose them to predators. To avoid danger, some species have evolved to be fast runners or to be camouflaged.
Between summer and winter, the grayish-brown fur of snowshoe hare, arctic fox, and others like them blends into white hairs in preparation for winter camouflage.
Sometimes prey animals feed at night to avoid being eaten. They may also reproduce a lot since not all young will survive to adulthood.
Another key to an animal’s survival in the tundra is knowing when to eat and when to sleep in order to save energy. Many animals in the tundra hibernate during the long, cold winter months.
Hibernation is a period of rest lasting several months. During this time, animals stay hidden in dens. Their metabolisms lower into a dormant state, so less energy is required for their bodies to perform the necessary functions. For that energy, they rely on stores of fat they built up over the summer.
Tundra animals have other strategies to keep warm too. It helps to have a lot of fur and fat. After all, the colder it is, the more energy it takes for a mammal to maintain a stable body temperature to live.
Just like in other biomes, in the tundra, different types of animals get energy from different types of foods. Carnivores are at the top of the food web because they are meat eaters.
Carnivorous mammals such as wolves and seals prey on smaller animals to survive while herbivorous mammals only consume plant-based foods. Animals that eat both other animals and plants are called omnivores.
Lemmings, voles, caribou, arctic hares and squirrels are examples of tundra herbivores at the bottom of the food web. They often have a strong sense of smell to help them find food underneath the snow.
Summer melts away the snow, allowing shallow wetlands to form. In the available pools of water, insects breed and attract birds. This explains why animals are most active in the short summer. They forage heavily on the plentiful insects and flowers that are in bloom before they are forced to hibernate or migrate to a warmer place for winter. Luckily, during the long-lighted days of summer, there is more time in each day to hunt for food.
Summer is for mating, too. Everything from insects, like mosquitoes, flies, moths, grasshoppers, blackflies and arctic bumble bees, to larger animals take advantage. It turns into a race against time.
Migratory birds such as falcons, loons, sandpipers, terns and snow birds must successfully produce young during the short summer. If they don’t, there is not enough time to start over with a second nest.
Even given constraints like these, a lot of animals call the tundra home for at least part of the year. As the seasons change, so do the species found in the tundra.
Young plover, a kind of bird, are abandoned on the tundra in Alaska and have to make their way back to Argentina in South America on their own. The adult parents leave earlier, perhaps to allow more food for the young.
Stories like the plovers’ are normal for species that spend part of the time in the tundra.
Picture holding an insect in your hand and how tiny it looks compared to you and everything else. Even small insects live in the tundra. But how do they survive in below-freezing temperatures? For some, the answer is antifreeze.
If you’ve heard of antifreeze, it was probably from someone with a car. In cars, antifreeze is a manmade (and very dangerous) chemical mixture that allows all the water-based liquids to operate in a wide range of low and high temperatures.
Just like it’s important for a car to function, antifreeze in tundra insects is critical for life. Insect antifreeze is a naturally occurring protein that lowers the freezing point of water in insect bodies.
The protein's structure also lets it attach to ice crystals to prevent more from forming. Not only do insects benefit from this adaptation, but arctic fish do as well.
The cold can affect insects in other ways, as some insects mature very slowly, perhaps taking 10 to 15 years to pass through all their larval stages. This slow growth occurs because they can only get a little food each short summer. No matter the size of the animal, life in the tundra can be tough.
Images via Wikimedia commons. Woolly bear image via IronChris.
Dr. Biology. (2014, February 17). Animals of the Tundra. ASU - Ask A Biologist. Retrieved February 17, 2018 from https://askabiologist.asu.edu/animals-tundra
Dr. Biology. "Animals of the Tundra". ASU - Ask A Biologist. 17 February, 2014. https://askabiologist.asu.edu/animals-tundra
Dr. Biology. "Animals of the Tundra". ASU - Ask A Biologist. 17 Feb 2014. ASU - Ask A Biologist, Web. 17 Feb 2018. https://askabiologist.asu.edu/animals-tundra
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When it comes to writing a first draft of your extended essay, or any essay, a solid structure is one of the surest guarantees of success there is it is your job to make sure that every piece of research is part of a bridge between the two the key is to have a view of the bigger picture of your essay how you. Essay on eddie carbone in arthur miller's a view from the bridge - in this essay i will discuss how the view's of eddie carbone, the lead role in “a view from the bridge”, changes among the audience i plan to go through the script and note any important scenes which i will then analyse in the audience's perspective. A view from the bridge by arthur miller examine the ideas of manliness, hostility and aggression in 'a view from the bridge' how are these ideas connected suggested structure for your essay the following points are areas you need to cover you may need more paragraphs than there are numbered points below 1. Free essay: therefore just by looking at the title of the play, you know that it is going to be tragic- usually associated with a death another. Convey information effectively to other people, and to convince them of some particular point of view like writing details of the lecture notes soon after the lecture as a bridge to your reading, say by looking up the fine so, if it is to help you to write an effective essay, a plan should make explicit the skeleton of an answer. Higher english a-grade critical essay on arthur miller's play a view from the bridge the essay is around 1600 words and answers the question: choose a play in which a central character experiences rejection, isolation or loneliness show how.
The inclusion of miller's essay “tragedy and the common man” is particularly relevant with reference to the tragic hero eddie in a view from the bridge excellent clarity and structure serve as good organisational tools tragedy and the common man a link to miller's own essay on “tragedy and the common man. After reading arthur miller's play a view from the bridge, i am convinced that the most striking character is marco he is an italian in the play, we are told that marco's plan is to make enough money to survive and be able to send some of that money to his wife and his three kids back in italy, who are starving marco. A view from the bridge by arthur miller get to red hook on the other side of the bridge, is manhattan, a much richer part of new york use the essay plan to write an essay about how eddie carbone brings his death upon himself.
This essay is written from my perspective as a program officer for research and training activities at the national institute of general medical sciences (nigms) for almost 27 yr it gives a bird's-eye view of the job of a program officer, which includes providing advice to applicants and grantees, making funding. “a view from the bridge” was written by arthur miller from new york, before “a view from the bridge” arthur miller wrote many other plays which were also success storys but some weren't “a death of a salesman,” which didn't have a narrator in it so the audience didn't immediately understand the meaning of. Hilton als reviews ivo van hove's production of “a view from the bridge,” and “ incident at vichy,” directed by michael wilson bloody with longing and schemes, they hope against hope while never losing their native intelligence without it, their torrent of language would have no structure think about.
Research essay sample on view from the bridge arthur miller custom essay writing alfieri eddie law justice. Examine the role of alfieri in a view from the bridge comment on his dramatic function in the play and his role as both character and commentator this essay will explore the different roles that alfieri takes on in 'a view from the bridge i will comment on how he uses his role as both commentator and character to create. | <urn:uuid:f3010b9d-8650-4da4-a915-2c221c60b181> | CC-MAIN-2018-09 | http://rncourseworkntbd.n2g.us/a-view-from-the-bridge-essay-plan.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-09/segments/1518891817437.99/warc/CC-MAIN-20180225205820-20180225225820-00056.warc.gz | en | 0.972407 | 850 | 2.84375 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 2.777007818222046,
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Young children who are exposed to secondhand smoke have a much higher rate of tooth decay than children who do not grow up around smokers, according to a recent study that was supported in part by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The study is the first in the United States to associate secondhand, or passive, smoking with tooth decay, a public health problem that costs an estimated $4.5 billion annually.
Although the occurrence of dental cavities in children has declined dramatically in the United States, little headway has been made in reducing cavities in children living in poverty, who generally have less access to dental care and appear to be more vulnerable to dental decay. Based on data from household interviews and health examinations of approximately 4,000 children ages 4 to 11 years, the study found that children had an increased risk of tooth decay if they had high levels of cotinine, a by-product of nicotine that is consistent with secondhand smoke exposure.
About 32 percent of the children with cotinine levels consistent with secondhand smoke exposure had decayed surfaces in their baby (deciduous) teeth, compared with 18 percent of children with lower levels of cotinine. The higher risk of cavities in tobacco-exposed children persisted after controlling for other factors such as poverty and frequency of dental visits. However, the study did not find a similar association between secondhand smoke exposure and cavities in permanent teeth.
Previous research has shown that nicotine promotes the growth of the bacteria that can cause tooth decay, so when mothers or others who smoke kiss children, they would tend to pass on these germs. According to the study's lead author, C. Andrew Aligne, M.D., of Pediathink, a child health think tank in Rochester, NY, who worked in conjunction with researchers from the University of Rochester and the Center for Child Health Research of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the results provide further evidence that passive smoking is harmful and that all children should be allowed to grow up in a smoke-free environment.
For more information, see "Association of pediatric dental caries with passive smoking," by Dr. Aligne, Mark E. Moss, D.D.S., Ph.D., Peggy Auinger, M.S., and Michael Weitzman, M.D., in the March 12, 2003 Journal of the American Medical Association 289(10), pp. 1258-1264.
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Proceed to Next Article | <urn:uuid:791c1ac6-cdd1-42a0-8659-206d110fc3b1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://archive.ahrq.gov/research/mar03/0303RA3.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709000375/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125640-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959584 | 598 | 3.171875 | 3 | {
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"interpretation": "Strong reasoning"
} | Health |
||Vocabulary Tools for Students: The Artist's Toolkit contains an Encyclopedia dedicated to defining and illustrating the elements and principles of art. Dig into the element of "Space" for diverse examples of how artists organize parts of an image to show depth.
|Historical Perspective on Perspective: Linear and aerial perspective are two of several organizing principles developed to convey the illusion of spatial relationships. Here are two instructional materials about seeing and understanding some traditional methods to represent depth and space:
- You Be the Judge: Use the Art Finder to select four Renaissance paintings. Together or in a group, students can use the worksheet to learn attributes of Renaissance paintings.
- Creating Illusions in Landscape Paintings: This worksheet suggests to search the galleries to identify different "space tricks" used by artists. Try using ArtsConnectEd's Art Finder instead.
|Suggestion for Student Research: What about where the paper hits the paper, so to speak? Are there tutorials that demonstrate constructing images using linear perspective? At the time this answer is being written, there is nothing exactly like that within ArtsConnectEd. But tools to address that need can be developed and shared as students and teachers create Art Collector sets. For example, using the "custom slide" feature in Art Collector, a video from YouTube, such as this: http://youtu.be/adRWYWSw2XI, can be embedded within a set. Students could even generate and upload original content—for example, a screencast on Google Sketchup or a video recording of drawing with paper, pencil, and ruler.
|Examine and Analyze Images in the Classroom: Use ArtsConnectEd's Art Finder to select works of art with linear perspective and/or aerial perspective. Display the images on a whiteboard (interactive or not). Either the instructor or student volunteers can trace and extend lines to find the vanishing point(s) and circle objects in the distance made indistinct as an effect of the atmosphere.
|Viewpoints on Perspective: Once students have practice with the traditional methods of perspective, they might find it exciting to see these methods manipulated by modern and contemporary artists. Even though linear perspective can be a mathematically precise process, students can investigate with their own eyes to see how artists deviate from the 'rules.' Students can work in pairs, each pair assigned a different work of art. (In a media lab, provide links so students can view fullscreen images using ArtsConnectEd. In a classroom without computers, instructors can use ArtsConnectEd to select artworks and prepare handouts using ArtsConnectEd's printable view function.) Within the student pair, one will argue "Viewpoint A" and the other, "Viewpoint B."
Viewpoint A: The artist's intent was to give the illusion of depth. As proof, _____. (The student describes a detail of the image, demonstrating how the artist achieved the illusion of space.)
Viewpoint B: The artist's intent was to remind us that this is a flat image, not real space. As proof, ____. (The student describes a detail of the image, demonstrating how the artist broke the 'rules' of persective or chose not to create the illusion of space.)
Neither point of view is entirely wrong or right and students can learn to notice the nuance of artists' decisions. It might help students to have an "inventory" of methods that artists use to create the illusion of space. One by one, students can identify the method being applied or manipulated.
When instructors select images for this activity, it's key to try out both viewpoints to make sure there are valid observations on both sides. Below are two examples of artworks for this activity and student dialogues that might unfold. An alternative structure for this activity is for a group of three students, two to argue the viewpoints while the third student serves as arbiter or transcriber. The dialogue could even be captured on ArtsConnectEd as comments or as an Art Collector set.
- Linear perspective
- Aerial perspective
- Varying size of objects
- Overlapping of objects
- Varying degree of detail
||IMAGE: Mervin Jules' A Hit
A: The stadium shows linear perspective because the lines made by the horizontal edges appear to converge as they approach the horizon
B: The green field looks the same in the foreground as it does in the background. The color or brushstrokes don't vary so it looks like a flat shape.
A. The players' sizes vary with distance. The closes man, holding the bats, is painted a bigger size than the third baseman.
B: The field feels like it's tipping up. The artist didn't convince me that this is a space I can walk into. Maybe the artist used some linear perspective, but he's distorted the proportions so the illusion is imperfect.
A. Look at the flags above the stadium structure. Going from left to right, the flags diminish in size.
B. The painting doesn't let me believe that there's a horizon behind the ball field. The sky looks like a flat shape with cloud texture rather than a deep atmosphere.
||IMAGE: René Magritte's The Promenades of Euclid (Related resource:Fact 3 from Math in Art, the March 2010 issue of Teaching the Arts
A: The street's edges appear to converge in the distance, meeting at a vanishing point on the horizon.
B. But next to the street, the artist painted a conical tower shaped just like the 'street.' The artist is poking fun at you for believing that's a street.
A. Land at the horizon is pale, bluish, and without detail. That's aerial perspective used by the artist to give the illusion of distance.
B. But the artist wanted to remind us that we're not looking into the distance. We're looking at a painting on an easel. Most of the view is blocked by the painting. | <urn:uuid:d65ea6b4-6b16-4034-9541-c412cf54fcb3> | CC-MAIN-2016-07 | http://www.artsconnected.org/resource/145308/how-can-i-use-artsconnected-to-teach-linear-and-aerial-perspective-to-high-school-students | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-07/segments/1454701145578.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20160205193905-00007-ip-10-236-182-209.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92181 | 1,226 | 4.125 | 4 | {
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History of Maids' Causeway
Royal Commission Survey of Cambridge 1959:
On the S side of Maids’ Causeway is the only vestige of the Causeway built under the terms of the will of Dr Perse (died 1615); the present appellation seems comparatively modern, deriving possibly from the Knight and Mortlock almshouses for ‘poor godly, ancient maidens’ formerly on the site of Nos 64-7 Jesus Lane, for it is still Barnwell Causeway on William Custance’s map of 1798.
Houses, thirty nine, Nos. 4 to 20 on the S side at the western end, and Nos. 2 to 17 Willow Walk, Nos. 1 to 5 and the hostel Fair Street, and Nos. 1 to 8 Short Street, generally of two storeys with basements, some with attics, have walls of Gault brick and slate covered roofs. They stand on a site, bounded by the streets names, formerly known as Doll’s Close, which was bought by Charles Humfrey, architect and builder, in part from James Burleigh in 1809 and in part from Downing College in 1810, and developed by him, the lay-out of the houses being to a carefully balanced and integrated plan. Building was started in 1815 and finished by 1826.
In 1815 Humfrey promised to offer for sale in the spring of 1816 ‘skeleton shells’ and ‘sites’ of houses here. In 1816 one of the houses was advertised as ‘newly erected and unfinished’. They were usually sold on 40 year leases, Humfrey retaining the freehold. After raising a mortgage of £7,000 on Doll’s Close in 1842, he was obliged to sell out in 1846.
The Doll’s Close buildings are of much interest as an example of a social and economic urban development of the early 19th century. They include dwellings proportioned in fact and appearance to two independent classes of society and, presumably in Willow Walk, for the outside staff of the wealthier of the two. It is of note as a development designed and controlled and completed by an architect who was a speculative builder; further, the aspect to Maids’ Causeway despite alteration is one of architectural distinction.
Terraced Houses in Cambridge plans
A B Gray in Cambridge Revisited agrees that Maids’ Causeway was named for the benefit the raised causeway brought to the two poor widows and four ‘poor godly, ancient maidens’ who lived in the Knight and Mortlock’s almshouses that were originally at 64-67 Jesus Lane. In 1880 the almshouses were rebuilt in King Street. | <urn:uuid:e0e602af-5780-4eec-83bc-4e099821e26e> | CC-MAIN-2021-39 | https://capturingcambridge.org/centre/maids-causeway/maids-causeway/?shared=email&msg=fail | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-39/segments/1631780055632.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20210917090202-20210917120202-00637.warc.gz | en | 0.971672 | 567 | 2.765625 | 3 | {
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The History of The University of Akron ROTC Program
Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps at The University of Akron had its origins in the establishment of the Students’ Army Training Corps, which was activated at the then -- Municipal University of Akron on 1 October 1918. After the Armistice ending the Great War and a disastrous flu epidemic in November 1918, the S.A.T.C. was dissolved on campus. Through the efforts of prominent local businessmen and Dr. Parke Kolbe, the President of the University, the War Department authorized the establishment of an Infantry Reserve Officers’ Training Corps in December 1918.
Army ROTC was at first a voluntary course, and thanks to the efforts of Dr. Kolbe, ROTC became compulsory for the freshman and sophomore years beginning in fall of 1919. The earliest Professor of Military Science and Tactics (PMS) was Captain Adolph Unger, sent to Akron in March 1919.
Army ROTC was extremely popular in the 1920s and provided several graduates of local note who excelled in business and professional endeavors. The earliest commissioned, were sworn on 14 June 1922.
Training in the early years consisted of field fortifications, hippo logy, field sanitation, and map reading, as well as Infantry tactics. Since virtually every male student was required to participate in ROTC for at least two years, ROTC was a very prominent institution on campus.
During the Second World War, Army ROTC was joined by an aviation unit, which published its own newspaper, the Kiwi. The Air Force established a separate ROTC Detachment at The University of Akron in 1947, and the two branches have co-existed ever since. In the 1950s ROTC grew into a large organization along with the University. Not only hundreds of young men, but also dozens of women in the role of sponsors participated in the Army ROTC program on campus.
Women first entered the program as cadets in the fall of 1973, and have participated ever since. The late 1970's brought several "firsts" to the cadet battalion, including: The first female to command the cadet battalion, first to receive a Regular Army Appointment, first commissioned to graduate the nursing program and the first women to become Airborne and Air Assault qualified.
Beginning in 1985, ROTC students were required to wear uniforms to class. In 1986, the University approved the study of Military Science as an academic minor.
In the school year 1996/97, The University of Akron was selected as a Partnership in Nursing Education (PNE) School by Cadet Command. This increased the incentives and opportunities for the cadet battalion and the college of nursing.
In the past 90 odd years, over 1,700 students have been commissioned into service through the Army ROTC program at the University of Akron. Today's Corps of Cadets continue in the traditions and footsteps of their predecessors as leaders in our great Army.
THE OHIO VOLUNTEER BATTALION
The University of Akron Army ROTC program is organized as a Cadet Battalion. The Battalion takes its lineage from a local unit formed here in Summit County. The Battalion is currently organized into a Battalion Headquarters and Staff, with three companies, Company A, B, and Company C. It's proud history is listed below.
In August of 1861, James A. Garfield was designated as a Colonel and chosen by governor William Dennison of Ohio to raise and serve as the commander of the 42nd Ohio Infantry Regiment. Col Garfield moved with his regiment from Northeastern Ohio to Columbus for final training and preparation to enter the Civil War. The Regimental nickname was designated as The Summit Rifles, a name that has stayed to this day.
The 42nd Ohio Infantry participated in the battles of Big Sandy, Shilo, Cumberland Gap, Chickasaw Bluffs, Vicksburg, and served in the siege and eventual surrender of Confederate General Canby in Mobile, Alabama. In total, the 42nd Regiment served in over 11 battles.
The 42nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry was deactivated by December 1864 after proud service. James A. Garfield went on to become the 20th President of the United States. | <urn:uuid:bd78240e-8dd8-47b2-8032-3822942ca2f1> | CC-MAIN-2015-27 | http://www.uakron.edu/armyrotc/bn-history.dot | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-27/segments/1435375095557.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20150627031815-00257-ip-10-179-60-89.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978887 | 867 | 2.828125 | 3 | {
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Author's name: Norman Dunbar
Author's Email: [email protected]
Date written: 18/04/2004
Oracle version(s): 22.214.171.124
Why would a reverse index be useful when the leading column of the index is generated from a sequence ?
When you store data in an indexed table, certain columns of data are copied into the index alongside the rowid of the data row in the table. The data in the table is stored 'randomly', or at least, not necessarily in the order you put them there.
The index entries, on the other hand, must be stored in order, otherwise the usability of the index is removed. If you could walk through the entries in an index, you would see that they are in order, usually ascending, but since 8i, descending also works.
Entries are stored in order of their internal representation, not necessarily the same as what you see on screen when you SELECT the columns from a table.
If the indexed column(s) contain character data (CHAR, NCHAR, VARCHAR2 or NVARCHR2) then the data will appear on screen exactly as it does in the index. For example, if the column contains 'ORACLE' the index entry will also be 'ORACLE'.
We can use the DUMP command to show us the internal representation of any data type. This command takes four parameters. The first is the data you wish to dump, the second is the base you wish to dump it in. The default is 10 which means that DUMP will display the characters in decimal, or base 10. The other allowed values are 8 (Octal), 16 (Hexadecimal) or 17 (Characters).
The third parameter is the start position in the data you wish to dump from and the final parameter is the amount of data you wish to dump. All but the first parameter have sensible defaults.
Using DUMP, we can see the individual character codes for our 'ORACLE' data :
SQL> select dump('ORACLE',10) from dual;
Typ=96 Len=6: 79,82,65,67,76,69
We can prove that this is correct by converting back from decimal character codes to actual characters :
SQL> select chr(79),chr(82),chr(65),chr(67),chr(76),chr(69) from dual;
C C C C C C
- - - - - -
O R A C L E
We could have used base 17 to do the same thing :
SQL> select dump('ORACLE',17) from dual;
Typ=96 Len=6: O,R,A,C,L,E
Numeric columns are very much different. The internal format of a number is different from that which appears on screen after a SELECT because the internal format is converted to ASCII format so that it can be displayed. We can see this in the following, first in character format :
SQL> select '1234' as "1234",
2 dump('1234', 17)
3 from dual;
1234 Typ=96 Len=4: 1,2,3,4
Then in internal format :
SQL> select 1234 as "a number",
2 dump(1234, 17)
3 from dual;
a number DUMP(1234,17)
1234 Typ=2 Len=3: c2,^M,#
The first columns in both examples look identical, but this is only because SQLPlus has converted the internal format of the number 1,234 into the character format so that the display device (the monitor screen) is able to show it. Binary characters have a nasty tendency to disrupt character devices like computer monitors when running in text mode.
Take a look at the second column in the above examples and notice the difference. In the first example we see the individual characters '1', '2', '3' and '4' while the second example shows only three bytes in the internal format of the number 1,234. Lets change the DUMP calls slightly, and do the whole lot in one command :
SQL> select '1234' as "1234",
2 dump('1234', 10),
3 1234 as "a number",
4 dump(1234, 10)
5 from dual;
1234 DUMP('1234',10) a number DUMP(1234,10)
---- ------------------------- ---------- ----------------------
1234 Typ=96 Len=4: 49,50,51,52 1234 Typ=2 Len=3: 194,13,35
This time, we see the actual character codes used internally. Once again columns 2 and 4 differ. Column 4 is showing three bytes and these three bytes are the internal binary representation of the number 1,234.
It is this binary representation that is used in the index entry when a number column is indexed.
Take a few minutes and experiment with dumping a few other numbers - stick to integers for now as those are what sequences generate.
SQL> create table test (a number);
2 for x in 1 .. 1e6
4 insert into test values (x, substr(dump(x,10), 14));
5 end loop;
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
If we have a look at the 'b' column of the table, we can see that each entry is ascending in a similar manner to the 'a' column. Here are the first 20 rows :
SQL> col b format a20 wrap
SQL> select a,b from test where a < 21;
The entries are very similar and all have the same leading byte.
As mentioned above, index entries have to be stored in order, however, the table data need not be. If your indexed column is fed by a sequence, the data will be similar to the 20 rows shown above.
Similar entries will group together in the index, so the index blocks will split as necessary and new entries will end up all hitting the same block until it too fills up and splits.
If you have one person running the application, this isn't too much of a problem. If the application is multi-user then it means that every user will tend to write into the same index block and buffer busy waits will be the outcome as transactions 'queue' to write data to the hottest index block around.
Back in our small test, if you select more data from the test table, you will find that in the 1 million rows, there are only 4 different values for the leading byte on the internal numeric format and even worse, most of the entries in the index have the same leading byte value :
SQL> select substr(b,1,3),count(*)
2 from test
3 group by substr(b,1,3);
I cheated and discovered that there was a comma in position 4 of every row in the table that's how I knew to use a three character length in my SUBSTR.
What the above shows is that in an index of 1 million sequential entries, the vast majority have the same leading byte and so will all be trying to get into the same block in the index.
A reverse key index stores the bytes of the indexed column(s) in reverse order, so the data 'ORACLE' is actually stored in the index as 'ELCARO'. Using a reverse index on a column fed by a sequence spreads the location of sequential numbers across a wider range of leaf blocks and the problem of a single hot block is removed because the index entries are stored in reverse order.
SQL> alter table test add (c varchar2(30));
SQL> update test set c = substr(dump(reverse(a),10),14);
1000000 rows updated.
SQL> select substr(c,1,instr(c,',')-1),count(*)
2 from test
3 group by substr(c,1,instr(c,',')-1)
4 order by to_number(substr(c,1,instr(c,',')-1))
All other numbers between 6 and 95 inclusive, have 10,101 entries each.
99 rows selected.
This time, our 1 million row index entry has it's leading byte value spread across 99 (100 if you include a value for zero) different values, rather than just 4. In addition, the actual reversed bytes are fairly randomly scattered across each of the different values too.
As more entries are added to the index, blocks will be split to accomodate the new entries in their proper location. As the data is arriving almost 'randomly' by means of the reversing of the actual data bytes for the index, the index itself will be extended to accomodate these new values. However, rather than always being stored in the same single 'hot' index block, new entries will be spread across a number of existing blocks (assuming the index has been around for a while) thus reducing contention. Of course, block splits will still occur on these blocks as new values fill up the existing block but it's happening all over the index not just in one place.
This is the reason why reversing the index when its leading column is fed by a sequence reduces buffer contention, removes the hot block problem and by doing so, reduces the potential for buffer busy waits on a multi-user system.
Of course, there are drawbacks as well. By setting up a reverse key index you are increasing the clustering factor of the index. The clustering factor (from USER_INDEXES) is used by the optimiser (CBO) to determine how best to access data in an INDEX RANGE SCAN. If the clustering factor is roughly equal to BLOCKS minus FREE_BLOCKS from USER_TABLES then the chances are that a range scan will read one index block, and locate all (or nearly all) of the data rows in needs in one or more adjacent blocks in the table.
On the other hand, if the clustering factor is close to NUM_ROWS in USER_TABLES then the chances are that the entries stored together in one index block are likely to be scattered throughout a wide range of table blocks - so the index range scan may not be chosen as a good method of access.
Obviously the above applies to an analysed table and index.
In a quick test on a table with 100,000 rows loaded using a sequence, a normal index was used for most queries returning up to 30 rows, as was the reverse keys index, however, when the number of rows went up to 1,000,000 the reverse key index was never used and a full table scan was used every time.
Although the clustering_factor is usually increased by rebuilding the index as a reverse-key index, there are two balancing points to consider:
i) Reverse-key indexes do not support
index range scans, because "... lexically adjacent keys are not stored
next to each other in a
reverse-key index..." ( http://download-west.oracle.com/docs/cd/B14117_01/server.101/b10743/schema.htm#sthref988 )
key values are generated from a sequence it is extremely rare that the rows identified
with lexically adjacent keys have any
real-world connection, so the index range scans ought never to be required by the application.
Of course, neither of these statements applies when the index is a multi-column index, and the first column contains repeating values.
Further reading: Oracle reference manual for your version of Oracle. | <urn:uuid:56c3b464-5ac8-4ef4-83a8-e29cdcba2fcd> | CC-MAIN-2017-13 | http://www.jlcomp.demon.co.uk/faq/reverseindex.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-13/segments/1490218187144.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20170322212947-00029-ip-10-233-31-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.855473 | 2,454 | 3.15625 | 3 | {
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REPORT: Australia Youth Development Index Shines a Spotlight on Nation’s Young People, August 2016
To mark International Youth Day 2016, on 12 August, the first-ever Australian National Youth Development Index report has been launched with support from the Commonwealth Secretariat.
The index measures the situation for 6.3 million young people aged 10 to 29 in Australia, and examines changes between 2006 and 2015 across five domains: education, health and well-being, employment, civic participation and political participation.
According to the index, all Australian federal states and territories have seen an improvement in overall youth development since 2006, with the one exception of Tasmania. Political participation has seen the largest improvements nationwide, with increases in the numbers of young people taking part in democratic processes.
Overall national youth health and wellbeing has however deteriorated, with illicit drug use, mental health, suicides and growing rates of sexually transmitted diseases key drivers of this decline.
The report highlights a large developmental gap between urban and rural areas, with the percentage of young people not engaged in education, employment or training significantly higher for rural youths than for urban youths. In addition, the index registered a large developmental gap for young people with Indigenous heritage, who experience much higher suicide rates than for non-Indigenous young people.
The Australian National Youth Development was commissioned by the Commonwealth Secretariat, with the input of youth experts from the Institute for Economics and Peace, the University of Canberra, the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Australian Institute for Health and Welfare, the University of Victoria and Youth Action.
The index complements the global Youth Development Index (YDI), an initiative of the Commonwealth Secretariat’s Youth Programme that measures the status of young people in 185 countries. Australia came top in the 2013 index.
Ms Katie Acheson, the chief executive of Youth Action, an Australian NGO focused on youth development, described the new index as a “milestone” achievement. “The YDI is the first ever national holistic framework to measure youth development in Australia. This is important because it shows us where we have been, where we are now, and where we can go.
“But this first report is just the start - a demonstration of the power and knowledge we can have if we continue to own and grow this index. So while we have this moment in time, we must solidify the next steps for this important measure for Australian young people and the people who support them,” she said.
The index will be formally launched at a ceremony in Canberra on 12 August attended by senior officials in the Australian government, youth workers, young people, as well as youth sector stakeholders and development practitioners from across the country.
Commonwealth Deputy Secretary-General Deodat Maharaj expressed delight that Australia’s national index is being launched on International Youth Day, a moment when the focus of the international community is focused on youth empowerment.
Mr Maharaj stated: “When the YDI was first launched , we hoped that it would inspire a global debate on the importance of gathering youth-specific data. I commend those involved in this project for their commitment to advancing youth empowerment throughout Australia and the wider Commonwealth. The Commonwealth Secretariat stands ready to assist any other countries that seek to follow Australia’s example.”
The second edition of the Commonwealth Secretariat’s global Youth Development Index will be launched in late September 2016.
· Stark divisions in education and employment opportunities between youth living in rural and urban areas, as well as for health and wellbeing.
· Rate of rural young people aged 15 to 29 who are not in employment, education or training higher than urban youth in all states and territories.
· Rural youth more likely to be victims of assault than those in urban areas across all states and territories, except Tasmania.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders
· Suicide rates for indigenous males aged 25 to 29 are higher than national rate.
· Rate of victimisation of indigenous youth much higher, with 31% of 18 to 24 year-old Indigenous youths a victim of physical or threatened violence in the previous 12 months.
· Ranked lowest across the index.
· Second highest for civic participation, with the highest proportion of young people who undertake volunteer work.
· Only state or territory to have made gains in health and wellbeing, with a 47% decrease in assault rates and a 21% decrease in suicide
· Highest rate of young people not in employment, education or training.
· Highest rate of chlamydia infections.
· Highest rate of illicit drug use, with nearly half of all youth using illicit drugs in previous 12 months.
· Highest adolescent birth rate in the nation.
· Lowest literacy and numeracy rates with little improvement over past decade.
· Ranked second last in the index and the only state or territory whose overall score deteriorated from 2006.
· Largest drop in health and wellbeing of all states and territories.
· 127% increase in the proportion of youth who have recently used illicit drugs.
· 62% increase in the rate of chlamydial infections.
· Highest proportion of 29 year olds whose highest level of education is year 10 or below.
· Second highest adolescent birth rate in the nation.
· Highest rate of assault, with 11% of 15 to 29-year-olds victims of assault in the previous year.
· Highest youth suicide rate in the nation.
Australian Capital Territory
· The top performer in the index.
· Highest scores of all states and territories in all areas except health and wellbeing, where it came second to NSW.
· A 35% deterioration in health and wellbeing was driven by increases in chlamydial infections and the use of illicit drugs.
· Highest percentage of year 9 students meeting national literacy standards.
· Ratio of youth unemployment to total unemployment worst in nation.
· The largest decline in its education score during the previous decade.
· Increase in proportion of year 9 students absent for NAPLAN literacy and numeracy tests.
· Second highest rate of assault, with 10% of 15 to 29 year olds experiencing assault in previous year.
· 16% increase in its overall index score since 2006.
· Second highest improvement to education results.
· Third highest rate of assault, with 9% of 15 to 29 year olds experiencing assault in previous year.
· Second highest rate of chlamydia infections.
· Third highest youth suicide rate.
· 56% increase in the rates of chlamydial infection.
· 72% increase in recent use of illicit drugs.
· 8% increase in suicide rates, with second highest suicide rate in the nation.
· Second highest rate of young people aged 15 to 29 who are not in employment, education or training.
· Third highest adolescent birth rate.
· The most dramatic increase in political participation.
· Health and wellbeing only area to see a decline, driven by increases in chlamydial infections and the use of illicit drugs.
· Second highest rate of illicit drug use, with 38% of young people using drugs in the previous year.
New South Wales
· Ranked second overall.
· 37% decrease in the numbers of youth not in employment, education and training since 2006.
· 18% decrease in the adolescent birth rate.
· Slight decrease in education, with decline in the percentage of year 9 students meeting minimum national standards for literacy.
· Decrease in health and wellbeing.
· 62% increase in chlamydia infections since 2006.
Read full report | <urn:uuid:b1d54991-a794-429a-a0e2-ee45e5f3e844> | CC-MAIN-2020-24 | https://youtheconomicopportunities.org/resource/5552/report-australia-youth-development-index-shines-spotlight-nation-s-young-people-august | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-24/segments/1590347387219.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20200525032636-20200525062636-00102.warc.gz | en | 0.925811 | 1,543 | 2.59375 | 3 | {
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Ever since my six-year-old Philip entered 1st Grade, I’ve started creating mock tests based on his textbooks, workbooks, and assignments, to help him prepare for school tests. I use a combination of apps — namely Pages, Keynote, and Skitch — to create these mock tests, but I always find it difficult to create diagrams for labeling exercises.
Fortunately, the developers at Memio.co contacted us about their app: Memio — Memorize Diagram. As the name suggests, it’s designed to help the users memorize diagrams. After trying it out, I can confidently say that it’s helped me create diagram-based quizzes easily and intuitively.
Conceal Terms and Practice Your Memory
To use Memio, you start by importing a diagram that you want to memorize. You can either choose a diagram from your Camera Roll or take a picture with your device’s camera. Then, using your finger, you swipe the labels to conceal them. Once you’ve finished, you will have a cleaned version of the diagram.
Then, you can switch to study mode and practice identifying these labels. If you need to take a peek, you can tap on a concealed label to reveal it. The app doesn’t keep scores; the main purpose of this activity is just to help your memorize diagrams.
You can repeat the practice mode as many times as you like. During each iteration, you can also change which labels you want to conceal/reveal. Simply switch to Edit mode and tap on the marked labels to uncover the text underneath.
Memo comes pre-built with a tutorial that shows you how to do all this in a single diagram. The tutorial nicely shows how you can use Memo to mark a diagram and convert it into a quiz practice.
Once you’ve got the hang of it, you can import as many diagrams as you like. You can also organize them into decks and mark the ones that you need to practice more. You can easily go through the diagrams you’ve marked by tapping the Study button.
Parents Need to Know
Memio is designed to be used by all ages. Its ability to transform diagrams into interactive study tools can benefit anyone from first graders to medical school students. You can even use it to create simple flashcards to introduce your toddlers to animals.
After you downloaded or imported all the necessary images you need, you don’t really need an Internet connection to use Memio. Everything is stored locally and can be accessed offline. The app doesn’t have any third-party ads, in-app purchases, or links to social networks.
Keep in mind that because you can basically import any image and convert it into a study tool. For example, you can take a picture with your iPhone and sync it over iCloud Photo Library to your iPad, where Memio is installed. That way, you don’t have to search for images on the Internet.
Update: As of November 2015, Memio is now a Universal app for iPhone, iPad, and iPad Pro. The update also includes new features such as zoom and pan, marker size flexibility, and camera functionality improvements.
Things I Like
The way I use Memio is really straightforward. I perform a Google Image search, grab the diagram that I want, and save it to my Camera Roll. Then, I open Memio, import the diagram, and start concealing terms that I want my kids to learn.
I don’t conceal all the terms in a single quiz because the revealed terms can act as contextual hints. Usually, these are very common terms that would be too repetitive for my kids to identify. This approach is also great if the diagram has too many terms. Hiding a different set of terms per quiz allows you to reuse the diagram several times with different emphasis on difficult terms.
Sometimes I also use Memo to take a picture of Philip’s textbooks, workbooks, or written tests. Instead of having to copy them beforehand or even recreate them afterwards, I can simply take a picture of the parts that need more practice, and start creating blanks for Philip to practice as many times as he needs to.
I’m grateful to find out about Memio. This intuitive and easy-to-use app helps me to present all kinds of diagrams to my kids as small quizzes. I can reuse any printed school materials that my kids need to learn simply by taking a picture and concealing terms. I believe all parents should have a copy of Memio.
App was provided for our honest review. | <urn:uuid:e9357415-5cca-47ab-9bf5-95af1d946374> | CC-MAIN-2019-35 | https://www.geekswithjuniors.com/blog/2015/10/5/create-your-own-diagram-based-quizzes-with-memio | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-35/segments/1566027317688.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20190822235908-20190823021908-00428.warc.gz | en | 0.94192 | 956 | 2.84375 | 3 | {
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If you spend any time in vinyl shops or have a fondness for classic progressive rock from the 70s, then the picture to the right should look comfortingly familiar; it’s the cover of Pink Floyd’s 1973 album The Dark Side of the Moon. But the purpose of this message is not to talk about classic progressive rock music (though I’m happy to do that with anyone who’s interested when I’m off the clock). Rather, this iconic picture of light being refracted through a prism is an image that I have continuously recalled as I speak with parents and faculty about their aspirations and fears as we develop our next strategic vision for CAIS.
Imagine that the single beam of light in the image is your child. The triangular prism through which the light passes represents immersion education. And the spectrum of colors in the refracted light on the right side of the diagram are the many and various outcomes of an education in which children are asked to “embrace Chinese.” What specifically do the colors in the refracted light represent? For context, I’d like to share an excerpt from our school’s philosophy statement on diversity, equity and inclusion:
心怀中华 Embrace Chinese
Immersion in a new language and culture requires humility, curiosity, empathy, connection, and a true appreciation of difference…. The attitudes and aptitudes that are cultivated through Chinese immersion at CAIS extend far beyond language and prepare students to engage respectfully with a diverse world.
Humility, curiosity, empathy, connection, appreciation for difference, respectful engagement with a diverse world; these are some of the observable outcomes of deep immersion in a world language and culture. Imagine each strand of refracted light representing one of these outcomes. Many of our CAIS parents and teachers are living examples of this process; if you were born outside of this country, as many of our parents were, then you came to the US and had to immerse in a second (or third, or fourth) language and culture. In addition to an understanding of and sensitivity to English language and American culture (whether NorCal, Midwest, East Coast or somewhere else), I would bet that you carry with you many of the attitudes and aptitudes listed above. Or perhaps it was your parents who came to this country, and as child you had a front row seat to the process of their own immersion process. To these attitudes and aptitudes, I would add the ability to take linguistic and cultural risks in unfamiliar situations with imperfect or incomplete semantic tools—meaning making and problem solving all day long every day, without much of a safety net. This requires a tremendous capacity for perseverance and resilience. So for me, the refracted light looks like this: red—empathy, orange—appreciation for difference, yellow—humility, green—perseverance…and so on. These are the colors of the true global citizen.
Twenty-first century schools place an appropriate amount of emphasis on social emotional learning (SEL) and on issues of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). These are the skills and attitudes that will enable kids to use the solid academic learning at CAIS in prosocial ways (we want them to become superheroes, not supervillains). In the past, and perhaps even now, there has been a perception for Chinese immersion in general and CAIS in particular that the time required by language and cultural immersion is an obstacle to achieving the social, emotional, equity and inclusion outcomes of non immersion schools. Well, not only do I disagree with this, but I think that language and culture immersion (the prism) give us a unique mechanism for achieving SEL and DEI outcomes (refracted light beams) that our monolingual peer schools do not have. As a CAIS parent put it to me the other day, “with this kind of education it is impossible to see folks as ‘the other.’” I’m not sure if we are there yet, but we have the tools.
In my conversations with parents, it is clear that they get this. In one way or another they convey what our DEI statement says, that “the attitudes and aptitudes that are cultivated through Chinese immersion at CAIS extend far beyond language and prepare students to engage respectfully with a diverse world.” I remember when I first arrived at CAIS in the summer of 2010, common questions I would hear were “how many Chinese characters will my child learn by eighth grade?” or “will my child be able to read a newspaper in Chinese?” These concerns remain important, but of equal importance is “how will Chinese immersion prepare our children for the world into which they will graduate?” The answers to this question are as varied and as brilliant as the color spectrum of refracted light. | <urn:uuid:54425eea-f4df-46b6-b5a7-db017e584185> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.cais.org/strategic-vision-plan-immersion-superheroes/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334579.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20220925132046-20220925162046-00068.warc.gz | en | 0.959289 | 994 | 2.828125 | 3 | {
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It’s interesting how long it takes for solid research to be integrated into daily life, especially research that produces results that shock us, but that we have somehow understood at some deep level all along. The CDC’s ACE Study — which linked childhood trauma with the adult onset of chronic disease, including mental illness, and violence or being a victim of violence — is one of those research studies.
Tuesday’s roundup featured a story about how exposure to child abuse and bullying affected our DNA, showing that stress leads to accelerated biological aging. Stephanie Pappas did a good story about the research in LiveScience, in which she quoted Dr. Elissa Epel, a University of California, San Francisco, health psychologist who studies stress and cell aging.
“Now we have some evidence that indeed children’s immune-system aging can be adversely affected by severe stress early in childhood, a scar that could last possibly decades later,” Epel told LiveScience. “This study underscores the vital importance of reducing violent exposures for children — both serious bullying and abuse in the family.”
The researchers pointed out that the violence doesn’t have to affect the child physically — it’s the cumulative stress that’s affecting the DNA.
This is another study that adds to the body of evidence supporting the work of neurobiologists and pediatricians, such as Dr. Martin Teicher and Dr. Jack Shonkoff, both at Harvard University, who’ve studied the effects of toxic stress on children’s developing brains. It also supports the research of the ACE Study, which looked at 10 types of childhood trauma — only two of which were physical abuse.
The video above is an introduction to a DVD that contains four hours of presentations by and interviews with Dr. Robert Anda and Dr. Vincent Felitti, co-founders of the ACE Study. The DVD also has an interview with Dr. David Williams, a CDC researcher who introduced Felitti and Anda, and also contributed to the project. All provide information about the genesis of the research, its findings, its impact, and how it might be implemented. Dr. Frank Putnam, a child psychiatrist and director of pediatrics at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, provides his view of the impact of the research. A high-quality production, the DVD is divided into chapters. You can order it from the Academy on Violence and Abuse. | <urn:uuid:9704c26d-d916-4504-a767-7443ae597c0f> | CC-MAIN-2015-35 | http://acestoohigh.com/2012/04/26/ace-study-co-founders-tell-story-on-dvd-heres-an-intro/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-35/segments/1440645171365.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20150827031251-00027-ip-10-171-96-226.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956599 | 503 | 2.734375 | 3 | {
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Has your pet been diagnosed with chronic kidney disease (CKD)? This condition may also be called chronic kidney or renal failure, but no matter what its name, CKD is an all-too-common disease for both dogs and cats.
In most cases, the cause of CKD is never identified because the disease develops over the course of many months or years. Healthy kidneys have an abundant supply of nephrons, the functional unit of the kidney. Each nephron is essentially a microscopic filter that removes toxins and metabolic byproducts from the bloodstream while conserving water, protein, and other essential blood components. Acute events like infections or poisonings can disable a large number of nephrons at one time, but every day wear and tear also results in their more gradual loss.
Whatever the cause, once a pet is down to one-third the normal number of nephrons, its ability to concentrate urine is compromised, which leads to the common symptoms of increased urination and thirst. When only one-quarter of the nephrons remain, the kidneys can no longer excrete metabolic waste products like blood urea nitrogen and creatinine into the urine, effectively leading to a condition known as uremia. Typical signs of uremia include:
- increased thirst and urination
- loss of appetite
- weight loss and muscle wasting
- lethargy and depression
- behavioral changes
- poor coat quality
- unusually bad breath
- ulcers in the mouth or elsewhere in the gastrointestinal tract
- diarrhea or constipation
- unsteadiness when walking
Treating chronic kidney disease is not easy. Short of such extraordinary interventions such as a kidney transplant or stem cell therapy, nothing can be done to restore the nephrons that have been lost. The goal of traditional treatment is to keep the patient well-hydrated, maximize the function of the nephrons that remain, and deal with complications, like low blood potassium levels, as they arise. These goals can be accomplished, at least in part, with fluid therapy, prescription diets, and medications.
Fortunately, another treatment option is available. Azodyl is an over-the-counter nutritional supplement that helps the body get rid of nitrogen-containing waste products, thereby reducing the effects of uremia. The probiotic microorganisms contained in Azodyl break down nitrogen within the gastrointestinal tract, causing more to diffuse from the bloodstream into the gut and subsequently be broken down as well.
When pets suffer from chronic kidney disease, adding Azodyl to their current treatment regimen can reduce the kidneys’ workload, and even more importantly, make patients feel more like their normal selves. | <urn:uuid:6c2047cb-2d43-46cf-8035-8070434f3252> | CC-MAIN-2015-48 | http://blog.vetdepot.com/enhancing-a-pets-kidney-disease-treatment-plan-with-azodyl | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-48/segments/1448398538144.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20151124205538-00201-ip-10-71-132-137.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940737 | 544 | 3.171875 | 3 | {
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The Israeli attack on the USS Liberty was a grievous error, largely attributable to the fact that it occurred in the midst of the confusion of a full-scale war in 1967. Ten official United States investigations and three official Israeli inquiries have all conclusively established the attack was a tragic mistake.
On June 8, 1967, the fourth day of the Six-Day War, the Israeli high command received reports that Israeli troops in El Arish were being fired upon from the sea, presumably by an Egyptian vessel, as they had a day before. The United States had announced that it had no naval forces within hundreds of miles of the battle front on the floor of the United Nations a few days earlier; however, the USS Liberty, an American intelligence ship under the dual control of the Defense Intelligence Agency/Central Intelligence Agency and the Sixth Fleet, was assigned to monitor the fighting. As a result of a series of United States communication failures, whereby messages directing the ship not to approach within 100 miles were not received by the Liberty, the ship sailed to within 14 miles off the Sinai coast. The Israelis mistakenly thought this was the ship shelling its soldiers and war planes and torpedo boats attacked, killing 34 members of the Liberty's crew and wounding 171. Ships from the Sixth Fleet were directed to launch four attack aircraft with fighter cover to defend the Liberty, but the planes were recalled after a message was received at the White House that the Israelis had admitted they had attacked the ship.
Numerous mistakes were made by both the United States and Israel. For example, the Liberty was first reported — incorrectly, as it turned out — to be cruising at 30 knots (it was later recalculated to be 28 knots). Under Israeli (and U.S.) naval doctrine at the time, a ship proceeding at that speed was presumed to be a warship. The sea was calm and the U.S. Navy Court of Inquiry found that the Liberty's flag was very likely drooped and not discernible; moreover, members of the crew, including the Captain, Commander William McGonagle, testified that the flag was knocked down after the first or second assault.
According to Israeli Chief of Staff Yitzhak Rabin's memoirs, there were standing orders to attack any unidentified vessel near the shore.1 The day fighting began, Israel had asked that American ships be removed from its coast or that it be notified of the precise location of U.S. vessels.2 The Sixth Fleet was moved because President Johnson feared being drawn into a confrontation with the Soviet Union. He also ordered that no aircraft be sent near Sinai.
A CIA report on the incident issued June 13, 1967, also found that an overzealous pilot could mistake the Liberty for an Egyptian ship, the El Quseir. After the air raid, Israeli torpedo boats identified the Liberty as an Egyptian naval vessel. When the Liberty began shooting at the Israelis, they responded with the torpedo attack, which killed 28 of the sailors. In 1981, the National Security Agency noted that accounts by members of the Liberty crew and others did not have access to the relevant signal intelligence reports or the confidential explanation provided by Israel to the United States, which were used in the CIA investigation. The NSA concluded: “While these [signal intelligence of Israeli communications] reports revealed some confusion on the part of the pilots concerning the nationality of the ship, they tended to rule out any thesis that the Israeli Navy and Air Force deliberately attacked a ship they knew to be American.”2a
The Joint Chiefs of Staff investigated the communications failure and noted that the Chief of Naval Operations expressed concern about the prudence of sending the Liberty so close to the area of hostilities and four messages were subsequently sent instructing the ship to move farther away from the area of hostilities. The JCS report said the messages were never received because of “a combination of (1) human error, (2) high volume of communications traffic, and (3) lack of appreciation of sense of urgency regarding the movement of the Liberty.” The report also included a copy of a flash cable sent immediately after the attack, which reported that Israel had “erroneously” attacked the Liberty, that IDF helicopters were in rescue operations, and that Israel had sent “abject apologies” and requested information on any other U.S. ships near the war zone.
Initially, the Israelis were terrified that they had attacked a Soviet ship and might have provoked the Soviets to join the fighting.3 Once the Israelis were sure what had happened, they reported the incident to the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv and offered to provide a helicopter for the Americans to fly out to the ship and any help they required to evacuate the injured and salvage the ship. The offer was accepted and a U.S. naval attaché was flown to the Liberty.
The Israelis were “obviously shocked” by the error they made in attacking the ship, according to the U.S. Ambassador in Tel Aviv. In fact, according to a secret report on the 1967 war, the immediate concern was that the Arabs might see the proximity of the Liberty to the conflict as evidence of U.S.-Israel collusion.3a A second secret report concluded, “While the attack showed a degree of impetuosity and recklessness, it was also clear that the presence of a U.S. naval vessel, unannounced, that close to belligerent shores at a time when we had made much of the fact that no U.S. military forces were moving near the area of hostilities was inviting disaster.”3b
Many of the survivors of the Liberty remain bitter, and are convinced the attack was deliberate as they make clear on their web site. In 1991, columnists Rowland Evans and Robert Novak trumpeted their discovery of an American who said he had been in the Israeli war room when the decision was made to knowingly attack the American ship.4 In fact, that individual, Seth Mintz, wrote a letter to the Washington Post on November 9, 1991, in which he said he was misquoted by Evans and Novak and that the attack, was, in fact, a “case of mistaken identity.” Moreover, the man who Mintz originally said had been with him, a Gen. Benni Matti, does not exist.
Also, contrary to claims that an Israeli pilot identified the ship as American on a radio tape, no one has ever produced this tape. In fact, the official Israeli Air Force tape clearly established that no such identification of the ship was made by the Israeli pilots prior to the attack. Tapes of the radio transmissions made prior, during and after the attack do not contain any statement suggesting the pilots saw a U.S. flag before the attack. During the attack, a pilot specifically says, “there is no flag on her!” The recordings also indicate that once the pilots became concerned about the identity of the ship, by virtue of reading its hull number, they terminated the attack and they were given an order to leave the area. A transcript of the radio transmissions indicates the entire incident, beginning with the spotting of a mysterious vessel off El Arish and ending with the chief air controller at general headquarters in Tel Aviv telling another controller the ship was “apparently American” took 24 minutes.5 Critics claimed the Israeli tape was doctored, but the National Security Agency of the United States released formerly top secret transcripts in July 2003 that confirmed the Israeli version.
A U.S. spy plane was sent to the area as soon as the NSA learned of the attack on the Liberty and recorded the conversations of two Israeli Air Force helicopter pilots, which took place between 2:30 and 3:37 p.m. on June 8. The orders radioed to the pilots by their supervisor at the Hatzor base instructing them to search for Egyptian survivors from the “Egyptian warship” that had just been bombed were also recorded by the NSA. “Pay attention. The ship is now identified as Egyptian,” the pilots were informed. Nine minutes later, Hatzor told the pilots the ship was believed to be an Egyptian cargo ship. At 3:07, the pilots were first told the ship might not be Egyptian and were instructed to search for survivors and inform the base immediately the nationality of the first person they rescued. It was not until 3:12 that one of the pilots reported that he saw an American flag flying over the ship at which point he was instructed to verify if it was indeed a U.S. vessel.6
In October 2003, the first Israeli pilot to reach the ship broke his 36-year silence on the attack. Brig.-Gen. Yiftah Spector, a triple ace, who shot down 15 enemy aircraft and took part in the 1981 raid on the Iraqi nuclear reactor, said he had been told an Egyptian ship was off the Gaza coast. “This ship positively did not have any symbol or flag that I could see. What I was concerned with was that it was not one of ours. I looked for the symbol of our navy, which was a large white cross on its deck. This was not there, so it wasn't one of ours.” The Jerusalem Post obtained a recording of Spector's radio transmission in which he said, “I can't identify it, but in any case it's a military ship.”7
Spector's plane was not armed with bombs or, he said, he would have sunk the Liberty. Instead he fired 30mm armor piercing rounds that led the American survivors to believe they had been under rocket attack. His first pass ignited a fire, which caused the ship to billow black smoke that Spector thought was a ruse to conceal the ship. Spector acknowledged in the Post interview that he made a mistake, and said he admitted it when called to testify in an inquiry by a U.S. senator. “I'm sorry for the mistake,” he said. “Years later my mates dropped flowers on the site where the ship was attacked.”
None of Israel's accusers can explain why Israel would deliberately attack an American ship at a time when the United States was Israel's only friend and supporter in the world. Confusion in a long line of communications, which occurred in a tense atmosphere on both the American and Israeli sides (five messages from the Joint Chiefs of Staff for the ship to remain at least 25 miles the last four said 100 miles off the Egyptian coast arrived after the attack was over) is a more probable explanation.
Accidents caused by friendly fire are common in wartime. In 1988, the U.S. Navy mistakenly downed an Iranian passenger plane, killing 290 civilians. During the Gulf War, 35 of the 148 Americans who died in battle were killed by friendly fire. In April 1994, two U.S. Black Hawk helicopters with large U.S. flags painted on each side were shot down by U.S. Air Force F-15s on a clear day in the no fly zone of Iraq, killing 26 people. In April 2002, an American F-16 dropped a bomb that killed four Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. In fact, the day before the Liberty was attacked, Israeli pilots accidentally bombed one of their own armored columns.8
Retired Admiral, Shlomo Erell, who was Chief of the Navy in Israel in June 1967, told the Associated Press (June 5, 1977): No one would ever have dreamt that an American ship would be there. Even the United States didn't know where its ship was. We were advised by the proper authorities that there was no American ship within 100 miles.
Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara told Congress on July 26, 1967: It was the conclusion of the investigatory body, headed by an admiral of the Navy in whom we have great confidence, that the attack was not intentional.
In 1987, McNamara repeated his belief that the attack was a mistake, telling a caller on the Larry King Show that he had seen nothing in the 20 years since to change his mind that there had been no coverup.9
In January 2004, the State Department held a conference on the Liberty incident and also released new documents, including CIA memos dated June 13 and June 21, 1967, that say that Israel did not know it was striking an American vessel. The historian for the National Security Agency, David Hatch, said the available evidence “strongly suggested” Israel did not know it was attacking a U.S. ship. Two former U.S. officials, Ernest Castle, the United States Naval Attache at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv in June 1967, who received the first report of the attack from Israel, and John Hadden, then CIA Chief of Station in Tel Aviv, also agreed with the assessment that the attack on the Liberty was a mistake.10
The new documents do not shed any light on the mystery of what the ship was doing in the area or why Israel was not informed about its presence. The evidence suggests the ship was not spying on Israel.
Israel apologized for the tragedy immediately and offered on June 9 to compensate the victims. Israel ultimately paid nearly $13 million in humanitarian reparations to the United States and to the families of the victims in amounts established by the U.S. State Department. The matter was officially closed between the two governments by an exchange of diplomatic notes on December 17, 1987.
1For the most comprehensive analysis, see A. Jay Cristol, The Liberty Incident. (Washington, D.C.: Brassey's Inc., 2002); Yitzhak Rabin, The Rabin Memoirs, (CA: University of California Press, 1996), pp. 108-109.
2Rabin, p. 110.
2aAttack on a SIGINT Collector, the U.S.S. Liberty.
3Dan Kurzman, Soldier of Peace: The Life of Yitzhak Rabin, (NY: HarperCollins, 1998), pp. 224-227; Rabin, p. 108-109.
3a“United States Policy and Diplmacy in the Middle East Crisis, May 15-June 10, 1967,” declassified secret document, Lyndon Johnson Presidential Library, pp. 143-144.
3bL. Wainstain, “Some Aspects of the U.S. Involvement in the Middle East Crisis, May-June 1967,” Institute for Defense Analysis, (February 1968).
4Washington Post, (November 6, 1991).
5Hirsh Goodman, Messrs. Errors and No Facts, Jerusalem Report (November 21, 1991); Arieh O' Sullivan, “Exclusive: Liberty attack tapes revelead,” Jerusalem Post, (June 3, 2004) .
6Nathan Guttman, “Memos show Liberty attack was an error,” Ha'aretz, (July 9, 2003).
7“Pilot who bombed 'Liberty' talks to 'Post,“ Jerusalem Post (October 10, 2003).
8Hirsh Goodman and Ze'ev Schiff, The Attack on the Liberty, Atlantic Monthly, (September 1984).
9The Larry King Show (radio), (February 5, 1987).
10Jerusalem Post, (January 13, 2004); Washington Times, (January 13, 2004). | <urn:uuid:2cfaf81b-a43a-4d84-b493-243747f4140f> | CC-MAIN-2018-05 | http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/history-and-overview-of-the-uss-liberty-incident | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-05/segments/1516084886952.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20180117173312-20180117193312-00524.warc.gz | en | 0.983133 | 3,151 | 3.03125 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 3.0788443088531494,
"reasoning_level": 3,
"interpretation": "Strong reasoning"
} | History |
First of all, why should I deal with the topic of how many moons does Earth have? We can all see it almost every night, and it is only one. However, we cannot see everything that is out there in space. And many researchers or mere amateur astronomers have wondered: could there be other moons out there? And if they exist, how does this influence Earth?
What We Know: A Few Moon Facts
Before I start speculating (and bringing proof) about other moons, here are some facts about the moon we all know.
First of all, although we know it as the moon, this is not its real name. The French call it “la lune,” the Germans “die Mond” and the Italians “la luna.” So it gets a bit confusing when each nation calls it differently in its language.
Then, what is the name of the Earth’s moon? Scientifically speaking, it is named Luna. That means that the French and Italians are closer to its real name than English and German-speaking people.
Other interesting moon facts (or Luna facts, to be more accurate):
- 384,400 km is the average distance from Earth;
- 27.3 days it takes the moon to orbit around Earth;
- 3,476 km is the diameter of the moon at its equator (at the very middle);
- –20°C is the average temperature on the surface of the moon.
How Big Is the Moon?
Let me continue with other interesting moon facts. Luna is also extremely tiny compared to Earth – it has only 0.01 of the mass of our planet. By direct connection, the gravity of the moon is also smaller – only 0.17 of the Earth gravity.
This is why you saw Neil Armstrong having a hard time keeping both feet on the surface of the moon during the historic Apollo mission broadcast. Also, you have to consider that Armstrong’s spacesuit weighed nearly 82 kg. However, on the moon, its weight felt a mere 1.3 kg.
If you are dismayed by reading the numbers about how big is the moon, you should know that it is still the fifth largest satellite in the solar systems. The ones bigger than our Luna orbit around the two massive planets that dominate our system: Jupiter and Saturn.
Other Moons in the Solar System
Our moon is, thus, not a unique occurrence. Moons (also known as satellites) are small celestial bodies that wandered into our Solar System. They are the result of collisions between larger planets or the aftermath of a quasar explosion.
As they drift along the space, they eventually get trapped in the gravitational field of a much larger planet or star. Thus, they start orbiting around them forever – or until the celestial body keeping them trapped is also destroyed.
So, how many moons does each planet have in our Solar system? The answer is quite a lot. Here they are ranked from the top down:
- 67 – Jupiter: the largest planet in our Solar System also has the largest number of moons, including the 4 famous Galilean moons: Callisto, Ganymede, Io, and Europa;
- 62 – Saturn, the largest and best known of its moons being Titan;
- 27 – Uranus;
- 14 – Neptune;
- 5 – Pluto, despite being a dwarf planet (for a while, it was demoted from the title of the planet);
- 2 – Mars.
Mercury and Venus do not have any moons. And Earth, as we all know, only has one moon. Or does it?
So, How Many Moons Does Earth Have?
To answer this question, I have to separate fact from fiction. There were many hoaxes over the years. There were also fake extra moon findings by people who genuinely believed in their discovery.
Other falsely identified secondary moons of recent years were proven to be discarded parts from the launch of various navigational satellites and space missions.
To answer how many moons does Earth have, I will use a chronological order of valid discoveries and what they really are.
1. 1846 – Petit’s Moon
In the middle of the 19th century, French astronomer Frederic Petit announced that he discovered a second moon.
At that time, Petit was the director of the Toulouse Observatory, thus a genuine scientist.
He did not actually see this putative moon; rather, he inferred that it existed based on the perturbations in the movements of Luna. So far, no one has managed to capture Petit’s moon in telescope images.
2. 1898 – Waltemath’s Moon
Dr. Georg Waltemath, a scientist from Hamburg, Germany, announced a discovery of a system of tiny moons. Like Frederic Petit before him, Waltemath based his assumption on the perturbations in the gravitational field of the visible moon.
Twenty years later, in 1918 an astrologer (not an astronomer) named Walter Gornold claimed that he had identified one of Waltemath’s tiny moons. He described it as being dark and named it Lilith.
While Gornold stated that he saw this moon crossing the Sun, he could not bring any proofs – and no one else saw it, for that matter.
3. 2016 – HO3
HO3 is an asteroid discovered on 27th April 2016, by a space observatory in Hawaii. It is a quasi-satellite of Earth and quite stable compared to others. A quasi-satellite will stay in the orbit of a larger celestial body for a few orbital periods.
However, it will eventually fall down into the planet or drift away in space. At present, HO3 is still orbiting in the gravitational field of Earth.
4. 2018 – The Two Dust Moons
The most recent and believable moon spotting belongs to a team of researchers from Hungary: Judit Sliz-Balogh, Andras Barta and Gabor Horvath. They published their findings in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society in Great Britain.
The researchers started from a claim made as far back as 1961 by Polish astronomer Kazimiers Kordylewski. He was the first person to observe the dust clouds he designated as moons.
Half a century later, the three Hungarian scientists have captured images of these dust moons, which National Geographic published in exclusivity. The science magazine quoted Gabor Horvath explaining the importance of this discovery:
“The investigation of the dynamics of Kordylewski clouds may very well end up being most important for space navigation safety.”
According to the team, the two dust moons have a significant size: each has a surface of 104,600 by 72,400 km, almost 9 times wider than Earth.
How many moons does Earth have then? It appears there is no single correct answer. Our planet has one stable and visible moon – Luna. There are also the recently discovered dust moons which, although invisible, could pose a threat to future space missions launching from Earth.
Also, various asteroids get caught in the gravity of Earth from time to time. They spend some time orbiting around our planet, then crash into it or drift away.
In the end, it all depends on how you define the moon: something you can see for yourself, or something that scientists tell you is out there, although invisible to the eye.
What is your position in this debate? How many moons does Earth have from your point of view? Do you know any other interesting facts about the moon? Drop your thoughts in the comments section. | <urn:uuid:b5b999eb-d384-4fd9-99ee-fee6c94ef6da> | CC-MAIN-2021-21 | https://alignthoughts.com/interesting-facts-about-moon-how-many-moons-does-earth-have/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-21/segments/1620243988961.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20210509062621-20210509092621-00152.warc.gz | en | 0.952455 | 1,577 | 3.5625 | 4 | {
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"interpretation": "Strong reasoning"
} | Science & Tech. |
The findings of the Noble prize winner, Dr. Otto H Warburg, revealed that cancer is actually caused by oxygen deficiency to acidity in the body.
Therefore, he found that cancer cells are anaerobic, (do not breathe oxygen), so they cannot thrive in an alkaline environment, in the presence of high levels of oxygen. On the other hand, all normal body cells need oxygen in order to live.
Our pH balance in the body, which is the balance of the acid and alkaline in the fluids and cells, is mostly affected by our diet. In order to function normally and survive, our body needs to be at a slightly alkaline level and have a pH value of 7.365.
Yet, we consume highly processed and unhealthy foods nowadays, full of chemicals, preservatives, sugars, GMO, refined grains, etc. Such a diet disrupts the normal environment in the body, and the body becomes acidic and thus prone to serious health problems like cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, osteoporosis.
If the acidity in the body is not treated for long, it might drastically accelerate the aging process, since viruses, bacteria, parasites, and candida in acidic environments.
To neutralize these pathogens and prevent all kinds of other health issues and chronic conditions, you need to regulate the pH levels and alkalize the body.
Therefore, maintaining pH balance is one of the important tools to optimizing your health. Here is a simple and highly effective home remedy for acidity:
Home remedies for acidity
- 1/3 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice or organic apple cider vinegar
- 8 0z. water
Mix the juice with the baking soda, and their mixture will start to fizz. Keep adding the baking soda until it stops, and then, add water.
Drink the remedy all at once. This will neutralize the acidity in the body, relieve a heartburn, boost your energy levels, and protect the body from numerous invaders and diseases.
You should also try the following smoothie which will fight fatigue and neutralize body acidity:
Alkaline ‘activator’ green smoothie — recipe
- 1-inch slice of cucumber
- 1⁄2 celery stick
- 1 lime
- 2 apples, chopped
- 1-inch slice of pineapple,
- wheatgrass powder, 1 teaspoon
- A handful of spinach or kale
- water, as desired to thin consistency
- 1⁄2 teaspoon Spirulina powder, (optional)
- 1⁄2 avocado, (optional)
You should wash all ingredients well, and then place them in the blender. Blend until you get a homogeneous mixture. Pour the alkalizing smoothie into a glass and enjoy.
Here is a list of more alkaline foods and drinks you should include in your daily diet:
- Vegetable juices and smoothies
- Almond milk
- Coconut water
- herbal teas, such as ginger tea
- Alkaline water
Therefore, do your best to always keep your body in an alkaline state, and thus enjoy your optimal health and well-being! | <urn:uuid:e515e00b-ebdc-4d88-888a-949d15fc292d> | CC-MAIN-2021-04 | https://healthylifeforever.net/2018/08/16/your-body-is-acidic-here-is-what-you-need-to-do/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-04/segments/1610703507045.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20210116195918-20210116225918-00615.warc.gz | en | 0.889104 | 656 | 2.71875 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 1.8643964529037476,
"reasoning_level": 2,
"interpretation": "Moderate reasoning"
} | Health |
Can good news for farming be bad news for farmers? Why did OPEC fail to keep the price of oil light? Does drug interdiction increase or decrease drug related crime? At first, these questions might seem to have little in common. Yet all three questions are about markets, and all markets are subject to the forces of supply and demand. Here are applying the versatile tools of supply demand and elasticity to answer these seemingly complex questions.
Can good news for farming be bad news for farmers?
What happens to wheat farmers and the market for wheat when university agronomics discover a new wheat hybrid that is more productive than existing varieties? First we examine whether the supply or demand curve shifts. Second, we consider which direction the curve shifts. Third, we use the supply and demand diagram to see how the market equilibrium changes.
In this case, the discovery of the new hybrid affects the supply curve. Because the hybrid increases the amount of wheat that can be produced in each acre of land farmers are now willing to supply more wheat at any given price. In other words, the supply curve shifts tot e right. The demand curve remains the same because consumers’ desire to buy wheat products at any given price are not affected by the introduction of anew hybrid. Figure shows an example of such a change. When the supply curve shifts from S1 to S2 the quantity of wheat sold increases from 100 to 110, and the price of wheat falls from $3 to $2.
Does this discovery make farmers better off? As a first cut to answering this question, consider what happens to the total revenue received by farmers. Farmers total revenue is P X Q the price of the wheat times the quantity sold. The discovery affects farmers n two conflicting ways. The hybrid allows farmers to produce more wheat (Q rises) but now each bushel of wheat sells for less (P falls).
Whether total revenue rises or falls depends on the elasticity of demand. In practice, the demand or basic foodstuffs such as wheat is usually inelastic because these items are relatively inexpensive and have few good substitutes. When the demand curve is inelastic as it in the figure, decrease in price cause total revenue to fall. You can see this in the figure. The price of wheat falls substantially whereas the quantity of wheat sold rises only slightly. Total revenue falls from $300 to $220. Thus, the discovery of the new hybrid lowers the total farmers receive for the sale of their crops.
If farmers are made worse off by the discovery of this new hybrid why do they adopt it? The answer tot his question goes to the heart of how competitive Markets work. Because each farmer is only a small part of the market for wheat he or she takes the price of wheat as given. For any given price of wheat it is better use the new hybrid to produce and sell more wheat. Yet when all farmers do this, the supply of wheat increases, the price falls and farmers are worse off.
Although this example may at first seem hypothetical it helps to explain a major change in the US economy over the past century. Two hundreds years ago, most Americans lived on farms. Knowledge about farm method was sufficiently primitive that most Americans had to be farmers to produce enough food to feed the nation’s population. Yet over time, advances in farm technology increased the amount of food that each farmer could produce. This increase in food supply, together with inelastic food demand, caused farm revenues to fall, which in turn encouraged people to leave farming.
A few numbers show the magnitude of this historic change. As recently as 1950, there were 10 million people working on farms in the US, representing 17 percent of the labor force. In 2004, fewer than 3 million people worked on farms, or 2 percent of the labor force. This change coincided with tremendous advances in farm productivity. Despite the 70 percent drop in the number of farmers US farms produced more than twice the output of crops and livestock in 2004 as they did in 1950.
This analysis of the market for farm products also helps to explain a seeming paradox of public policy. Certain farm programs try to help farmers by inducing them not to plant crops on all of their land. The purpose of these programs is to reduce the supply of farm products and thereby raise prices. When inelastic demand for their products, farmers as a group greater total revenue if they supply a smaller crop to the market. No single farmer would choose to leave his land fallow on his own because each takes the market price as given. But the farmers do so together each of them can be better off.
When analyzing the effects of farm technology or from policy it is important to keep in mind that what is good for farmers is not necessarily god for society as a whole. Improvement in farm technology can be bad for farmers because it makes farmers increasingly unnecessary but it is surely good for consumers pay less for food. Similarly a policy aimed at reducing the supply of farm products may raise the incomes of farmers but it does so at the expense of consumers. | <urn:uuid:37382043-ba93-4fe9-a287-764cfed69432> | CC-MAIN-2021-39 | https://www.citeman.com/10447-three-applications-of-supply-demand-and-elasticity.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-39/segments/1631780060877.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20210928153533-20210928183533-00374.warc.gz | en | 0.95694 | 1,019 | 2.96875 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 3.052993059158325,
"reasoning_level": 3,
"interpretation": "Strong reasoning"
} | Industrial |
If you use Windows, you might have wondered about the small key with the Windows logo on your keyboard. It opens the Start menu and performs useful shortcuts, but where did it come from? Why is it there? Let’s take a look.
The Origin of the Windows Key
It might seem like the Windows key has always been with us, but it hasn’t. It first appeared in September 1994 on the Microsoft Natural Keyboard. This ergonomic keyboard was in the same vein as the earlier Apple Adjustable Keyboard, which split the standard QWERTY keyboard in half. Unlike Apple’s keyboard, though, Microsoft’s tilted each half at gentle angles to reduce wrist strain.
By this point, Microsoft had already created other hardware products, including its widely acclaimed mice. When it was time to create its first keyboard, someone at Microsoft had the brilliant idea of including a permanent piece of Windows branding on it. This resulted in two Windows keys, located between the Control and Alt keys to the left and right of the space bar.
These new keys would justify themselves by becoming the new meta-keys for enhanced Windows shortcuts, similar to the Command key on the Mac. When pressed once, the Windows key opened the Start menu in Microsoft Windows 95 (released almost a year after the keyboard).
When used in combination with other keys, the Windows key could perform other Windows-related tasks, like opening File Explorer (Windows+E).
In addition to the Windows keys, the Natural Keyboard also had a Menu key designed to open the right-click context menu on Windows 95.
Soon after its release, the Natural Keyboard became a runaway success, selling 600,000 units a month at the height of its popularity. (In February 1996, Byte Magazine reported “nearly 1 million” units had been sold during its first year on the market). This success spawned a long-running ergonomic keyboard series at Microsoft that continues to this day.
The Windows key wasn’t limited to only ergonomic keyboards, though. Microsoft created a new 104-key standard (an extension of the 101-key Model M layout) that other keyboard manufacturers soon licensed. With the marketing blitz of Windows 95, hardware manufacturers didn’t want to be left out of any new features promised by the much-hyped OS. So, suddenly, the Windows Key was everywhere.
More recently, as part of the Windows hardware compatibility program, all keyboards with more than 50 keys must include a Windows key (also called the “Hardware Start Button” in some Microsoft documents) to be certified as Windows compatible. The certification allows vendors to use the Windows logo as part of their marketing.
Through these initiatives, Microsoft found a clever way to put its branding on every PC keyboard, further cementing its dominance in the PC market. Even if you run Linux on generic PC hardware, chances are you’ll see a tiny Windows logo on your keyboard.
Windows Key Pushback
Not everyone was a fan of the new Windows and Menu keys, however. Gamers, in particular, soon discovered the Windows key got in the way when playing many of the thousands of MS-DOS games that used the Control and Alt keys as action buttons, like Doom.
Additionally, if you played an MS-DOS game on Windows, or even just a full-screen Windows game, pressing the Windows key often launched the Start menu. This not only jolted players out of their game, but, in some cases, it also crashed the game.
Remedies included physically removing the Windows key from a keyboard with a screwdriver or running a utility like WinKey Killer that disabled the key via software. Today, you can disable the Windows key with a utility like Microsoft PowerToys.
Beyond gaming, not everyone needed or appreciated having to use an extra modifier key. Even Brad Silverberg, former senior vice president of Microsoft’s Personal Systems Division and one of Windows 95’s main architects, doesn’t use it.
“I just never got in the habit of using the Windows key,” Silverberg told How-To Geek. “I don’t use many keyboard shortcuts in general. It’s just how my brain and fingers work.”
Still, Silverberg understands why people enjoy the Windows key and chalks it up to personal taste.
“Some people are keyboard shortcut diehards,” Silverberg said. “They know them all and use them extensively. I use a few; they just don’t stick in my brain.”
Silverberg also noted, though, that the ability to use powerful keyboard shortcuts in addition to the more obvious, mouse-based menus was a key design aspect of Windows 95. It was important to him that keyboard shortcuts would be “accelerators, not the only way to do something.”
And so it remains to this day.
Of course, some diehards (including those who prefer the classic IBM Model M keyboard) have never upgraded to a keyboard with a Windows key. If that’s you, and you’ve found that you occasionally need a Windows key, you can simulate it via PowerToys or just press Ctrl+Esc to open the Start menu.
What Does the Windows Key Do Today?
As we mentioned above, a single press of the Windows key opens the Start Menu. (It’s no coincidence the Start button is also the Windows logo.)
When used in combination with other keys, the Windows key can launch dozens of tasks in Windows 10, including the following:
- Windows+I: Opens Settings.
- Windows+E: Opens File Explorer.
- Windows+D: Shows/hides the desktop.
- Windows+F: Opens the Search box.
- Windows+M: Minimizes all open Windows.
- Windows+Tab: Shows Task View.
- Windows+L: Locks the screen.
- Windows+A: Opens Action Center.
- Windows+Period: Opens the Emoji panel.
The Windows key was—and is still—a monumental marketing victory for Microsoft. But even so, 26 years after its introduction, the Windows key remains incredibly useful in the Windows ecosystem. | <urn:uuid:8130983e-4521-4388-bcd3-3b570883caf0> | CC-MAIN-2021-17 | https://www.howtogeek.com/701786/why-do-keyboards-have-a-windows-key-heres-where-it-started/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-17/segments/1618038101485.44/warc/CC-MAIN-20210417041730-20210417071730-00183.warc.gz | en | 0.926747 | 1,298 | 3.46875 | 3 | {
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I’ve moved to WordPress. This post can now be found at The 2009/10 Warming Of The South Atlantic##################
The Sea Surface Temperature (SST) anomalies for the South Atlantic are shown in Figure 1. First observation: it’s a noisy dataset. Then, other than the dip and rebound in 1991/92, likely caused by the eruption of Mount Pinatubo, and other than the mysterious dip and rebound that occurred in 1996/97, SST anomalies have been relatively flat there from the late 1980s to the late 1990s. Until 2009/2010. The normal dip after the seasonal spike did not occur early in 2009. SST anomalies rose instead.
This post will illustrate when and where the multiple warmings occurred in the South Atlantic during 2009, and it will illustrate if they appear to be normal or abnormal occurrences when compared to past variations.
Figure 2 shows four monthly SST anomaly maps for the South Pacific and South Atlantic. Cell a, January 2009, shows a strong warming in the mid latitudes, 50S-30S, along what appears to be the Antarctic Convergence Zone. In Cell b, May 2009, the mid-latitude warming is nearing its end, but there is a short spike in SST anomalies along the equatorial Atlantic. In cells c and d, the low-latitude warming, 30S-10S, is highlighted.
The low-latitude warming appears to begin just before the start of the secondary rise in NINO3.4 SST anomalies and continued until recently. What I’m referring to as a secondary rise can be seen in Figure 3. NINO3.4 SST anomalies paused during July through September then rose again in October until the peak in December.
MID-LATITUDE SOUTH ATLANTIC
The mid-latitude (50S-30S, 70W-20E) SST anomalies for the South Atlantic are shown in Figure 4. The warming in the early part of 2009 is not unusual. Larger spikes occurred in 1999/00 and 2001/03, and an earlier spike reached a similar magnitude in 1991. What is unusual in 2009 is the duration of the warming at these latitudes, having lasted a good portion of the year.
Figure 5 is a comparison of the mid-latitude SST anomalies with the SST anomalies for the entire South Atlantic basin. The mid-latitudes do account for part of the noise in the South Atlantic data, but note that the curious 1996/97 dip and rebound does not occur in the mid latitudes.
Comparing the mid-latitude SST anomalies of the South Atlantic to NINO3.4 SST anomalies, Figure 6, raises more questions than it answers. Are the spikes in 1999/00 and 2001/03 lagged responses to the 1997/98 El Niño, or seeming more likely, are they lagged responses to the variations of the 1998/99/00/01 La Niña? They do not appear to be responses to the Southern Annular Mode. (Not illustrated.)
I’m not going to spend much time on this area since the equatorial warming in mid year of 2009 lasted a month. Recall in Cell b of Figure 2, there was a warming in May 2009 along the equator. The very short mid-year warming and the timing are not unusual as can be seen in Figure 7.
Figure 8 compares the equatorial Atlantic SST anomalies to NINO3.4 SST anomalies. The equatorial Atlantic SST anomalies respond to some (the more significant) El Niño events, but not others (those that are less significant). Note the multiyear decays in the equatorial Atlantic SST anomalies after the 1986/87/88 and 1997/98 El Niño events. This is yet another SST anomaly dataset that does not respond to La Niña events.
LOW LATITUDE SOUTH ATLANTIC
The South Atlantic low latitude SST anomalies are illustrated in Figure 9. This is the area with the significant warming in the latter part of 2009. Refer back to Cells c and d of Figure 2. What stands out for me with this dataset is how flat it is for most of the term. How flat?
If we shorten this dataset to the period from July 1983 to November 2008 (the bottoms of the troughs in those years), Figure 10, the linear trend is 0.08 deg C per CENTURY. Can’t get much flatter than that.
Figure 11 is a comparison of South Atlantic low latitude SST anomalies and the SST anomalies for the South Atlantic basin. Though there are periods of divergence, the variations of the low-latitude data correlate well with the basin data--the low latitudes exaggerating the basin data.
Smoothing those two datasets and comparing them to NINO3.4 SST anomalies reveals the influence of major ENSO events on the South Atlantic, and the lack of influence of minor ENSO events.
PUTTING THE RECENT RISE INTO PERSPECTIVE
Let’s take a look at the longer-term HADISST SST anomaly data for the South Atlantic and the Low Latitudes of the South Atlantic. While the responses of those datasets to the 2009/10 El Niño was significant, they are dwarfed by the reactions to the 1972/73 El Niño. Refer to Figure 13.
Note how the South Atlantic data remains relatively flat from the late 1950s to the early 1970s. It shifts up approximately 0.1 deg C after the 1972/73 El Niño, then remains flat from ~1976 to 1983. It clearly shifts again ~0.2 deg C in 1982/83, then remains relative flat for the next few decades. Curious.
A QUICK LOOK AT THE WEEKLY DATA
I began writing this post a few weeks ago, and as I always do, I created the graphs first. Just to keep the post somewhat up-to-date, Figure 14 is a comparison graph of the weekly SST anomalies for the Low Latitudes of the South Atlantic and for the South Atlantic basin starting in January 2000 and ending on the week centered on April 28, 2010. Both datasets have begun their declines. The question now is: how low will they go?
AND ANOTHER LOOK AT THE 1996/97 DIP IN SOUTH ATLANTIC SST ANOMALIES
As part of a long-term project, I’ve been creating animations of SST anomalies where I’ve used the averaging feature (12-month) of the KNMI Climate Explorer map-making software in an attempt to minimize the seasonal variations and weather noise. So far the animations have looked good. Example: Figure 15 is a .gif animation of Atlantic SST anomalies that captures the 1996/97 dip and rebound in the South Atlantic. It appears to show the dip was a response to the unofficial (very weak) La Niña of 1996/97
Figure 16 shows the Atlantic SST anomalies for the Atlantic for approximately the same period but without the smoothing. It would be difficult at best to determine what caused the dip from that animation.
The maps in Figure 2 and the OI.v2 SST anomaly data are available through the NOAA NOMADS website:
The HADISST data and the enhanced map-making features used to create the animations are available through the KNMI Climate Explorer: | <urn:uuid:44e7a295-bfc8-4016-a7da-4fdf734d2848> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://bobtisdale.blogspot.com/2010/05/200910-warming-of-south-atlantic.html?showComment=1273347992747 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131297689.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172137-00155-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.876548 | 1,532 | 2.515625 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 2.980665922164917,
"reasoning_level": 3,
"interpretation": "Strong reasoning"
} | Science & Tech. |
Buy a cheap copy of a source book in indian philosophy by the heterodox and orthodox different indian philosophies buddhism/jainism/charvaka. Tag: nyaya vedas alone not like jainism,buddhism,charvaka,nyaya, vaisheshika, now let us see what the nyaya system of indian philosophy states on this subject. As firmly planted within moral philosophy (such as jainism, buddhism, and nastica or orthodox and heterodox rigorous overview of indian.
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The word is associated with meditative practices in hinduism, buddhism and jainism overview of the six orthodox indian philosophy samkhya and yoga,. Buddhism, hinduism, and jainism vedanta is a hindu metaphysical philosophy and, buddhism and jainism are technically hindu philosophies that fall. This orthodox-heterodox terminology is a [such as buddhism and jainism] are (1984), an introduction to indian philosophy (eighth reprint ed. Did buddhism oppose vedic religion grant hardy identifies 6 orthodox schools of indian philosophy jainism buddhism the heterodox schools are those.
Sāṃkhya and philosophical yoga by mikel burley most notably buddhism, jainism, journal of indian philosophy 271–2. 11/6 an introduction to analysis of harry potter and an overview of the concepts of heterodox and orthodox in indian philosophy of jainism and buddhism. Hindu philosophy explained hindu philosophy refers to a (heterodox or non-orthodox) indian while buddhism and jainism are considered distinct.Download
2018. Term Papers. | <urn:uuid:899d475e-ae89-43d8-9bde-bec0a9a9e1e7> | CC-MAIN-2018-39 | http://ercourseworkpsso.representcolumb.us/an-overview-of-the-concepts-of-heterodox-and-orthodox-in-indian-philosophy-of-jainism-and-buddhism.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-39/segments/1537267161350.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20180925083639-20180925104039-00034.warc.gz | en | 0.867038 | 976 | 2.921875 | 3 | {
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The European Organization for Nuclear Research (Italian: Organizzazione Europea per la Ricerca Nucleare French: Organisation européenne pour la recherche nucléaire), known as CERN or Cern is an international organization whose purpose is to operate the world's largest particle physics laboratory. Established in 1954, the organization is based in the northwest suburbs of Geneva on the Franco–Swiss border, (46°14′3″N 6°3′19″E) and has 20 European member states. Read more on wikipedia
The Future Circular Collider (FCC) could have a circumference of 80 to 100 kilometres (the LHC has a circumference of 27km), but first a five-year exploratory study will be carried out to look into the feasibility and cost of various different machines.
The ASACUSA experiment at CERN has succeeded for the first time in producing a beam of antihydrogen atoms.
The giant Large Hadron Collider at CERN’s lab in Europe may be closed until 2015 but experiments will still be run there in the second half of this year on much smaller synchrotrons that examined the decay of particles into electrons, muons and neutrinos, all of which belong in a family called lep...
It's been a fruitful year 2013 for CERN, with success in many forms, like awards (Nobel prize), discoveries and expansions:
The ATLAS experiment at CERN has released preliminary results that show evidence that the Higgs boson decays to two tau particles.
CERN's Short Model Coil (SMC) programme currently tests new magnet technologies with magnets about 30 centimetres long. This technology will be crucial to eventually help engineers build even more powerful magnets for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and ever-more powerful future accelerators.
Beams do not circulate inside accelerators forever. As particles collide with the sides of the beam pipe or with each other, the beams "degrade" – they become less likely to give collisions that could lead to interesting physics.
The 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to François Englert and Peter Higgs for their work that explains why subatomic particles have mass. They predicted the existence of the Higgs boson, a fundamental particle, which was confirmed last year by experiments conducted at CERN’s Large Hadr...
The successor to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) - the world's most powerful particle accelerator - will most likely be based in Japan. But this does not mean the end of CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, near Geneva.
Over the weekend, CERN opened its doors to the public in the CERN Open Days 2013. The event saw some 70,000 people visit over 40 activities on the surface across CERN's Meyrin and Prevessin sites, with 20,000 people visiting CERN's underground installations
In the video, engineers working on the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) – a general-purpose detector on the Large Hadron Collider – reinstall a crucial part of the muon detection system. | <urn:uuid:e519564d-d062-4bd7-86e4-3bfa1d96be4b> | CC-MAIN-2014-23 | http://www.scienceworldreport.com/archives/articles/topics/cern/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-23/segments/1406510273663.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20140728011753-00260-ip-10-146-231-18.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92165 | 648 | 3.28125 | 3 | {
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What is will a pineapple plant grow another pineapple?
Will a pineapple plant grow another pineapple is a common question among gardeners. The answer is yes, but it may take up to two years before the new fruit appears.
- Pineapple plants are known as bromeliads and can produce multiple fruits over their lifetime.
- Once the first fruit has been harvested or ripened, new shoots (called suckers) will form around the base of the original plant.
- If these suckers are allowed to mature and develop, they too can produce pineapples in the future.
In summary, growing pineapples from one plant to many is possible with patience and proper care. Just be prepared for a longer wait time between harvests!
The Step-By-Step Guide to Growing Another Pineapple on Your Pineapple Plant
Are you a proud owner of a pineapple plant and eager to grow another succulent fruit? Congratulations! You’re in luck as we’ve got a step-by-step guide that will assist you in growing another pineapple right on your pineapple plant. But wait, before moving on to the steps, do bear in mind that planting pineapples from seeds is possible but takes years for full maturity, so it’s best advised to propagate from established plants.
So let’s dive straight into the process!
Step 1 – Choose Your Pineapple
First things first, choose an already grown sweet-tasting tropical fruit with fresh green leaves intact. Observe if there are any yellow or wilted leaves present which signify unhealthy produce.
Step 2- Cut The Top Off
Once selected, grip the top firmly between two fingers and slice off the crown(approximately one to two inches) using clean secateurs or pruning shears. Detach carefully between foliage stem nodes (the small spaces where it grows out of).
Step 3 – Remove The Leaves From Crown And Dry
Remove about an inch of bottom leaves around the trimmed edge but don’t remove too much as not more than half cut through should be left untouched otherwise newly forming roots might weaken further deteriorating the chances of survival. Let air dry indoors overnight naturally; this will enable rooting soon after planting.
Step 4 – Soaking The Crown In Water
Fill up your glass container with water just enough for submerging only without touching its base beneath(typically at least one-third depending upon size). Rest gently by windowsill sunlight exposure avoiding direct heat exposure until new roots develop(roughly within three weeks time).
Step5- Planting Crown Into Existing Potting Soil Or Separate Container
Either place directly into existing soil pot or create separate smaller containers(preferably six-inch diameter pots) using peat moss mixed with perlite/vermiculite lightly moistened beforehand. Gently push crown into the soil covering up to its base and gently firm around it.
That’s all, folks! Follow these simple steps for growing another succulent pineapple on your already existing Pineapple plant. Don’t forget to place the pot where proper sunlight is available with adequate warmth temperature keeping away from frost as it thrives in humid and hotter weather conditions. Time spent and effort taken just requires patience but will reward with juicy sweet fruit soon once again after successful completion of this propagation process. Enjoy another homegrown delicious treat!
FAQ: Will a Pineapple Plant Actually Produce Another Fruit?
If you are one of the many homeowners who have decided to grow a pineapple plant indoors, then congratulations! You are now officially an exotic horticulturist. Pineapple is well-known for its sweet and tangy taste and has been used in desserts and as a garnish for tropical drinks all around the world. However, there seem to be plenty of misconceptions about growing it at home.
One common query among pineapple growers is whether or not their plant will produce another fruit after harvesting the first one. If that’s what you’re wondering too, then read on – we’ll provide all you need to know!
The answer to this question depends on various factors such as how healthy your original plant was when grown; also if it received enough water, proper fertilizer along with sun exposure amongst other reasons. The primary reason why most indoor-grown pineapples never bear fruits again is that they seldom get enough sunlight. Pineapple plants derive energy from photosynthesis- hence sunshine becomes crucial in stimulating growth.
If you want to improve your chances of obtaining more than one fruit from your pineapple plant, try giving it plenty of light! Indoor gardening using grow lights can help recreate natural sunlight levels without having access outdoors space necessarily. While providing additional lighting can be helpful in fruity production but fertilizing consistently and watering regularly could truly make a difference during harvest time.
Another vital factor affecting fruit productivity is optimal temperature conditions throughout each stage of development periods mentioned by experts typically being between 10–32°C (50–90°F). Keep this range staple during regular seasons while avoiding particularly hot or cold spells could boost potential yields considerably.
Lastly pollination plays foundational role & cross-pollinating multiple flowers together with chemical sprays potentially augmenting spurts yet may harm blossoms damaging future batches said Nancy Muleady-Mecham, Extension Horticulturist coordinating USU Master Gardener Program in Utah State University adding “generally it’s best to rely on soil quality, proper sunlight and temperature changes”.
In conclusion, growing your own pineapple plant indoors can be an enjoyable and rewarding experience. While there’s no guaranteed rule for pineapples bearing fruits again after the first harvest inside- it does depend largely on factors like providing ample light and heat conditions along with slight careful managing post-fruiting avoid suppressing or damaging future growth cycles. With these tips in mind, you could soon enjoy home-grown tropical delicacies all year round!
Top 5 Facts You Need To Know About Growing Another Pineapple on Your Plant
Pineapples are not only delicious, but they also make for great houseplants. With their spiky leaves and vibrant fruit, it’s no wonder that many people want to grow another pineapple on their plant. If you’re one of those people who wants to expand your pineapple plantation, here are the top five facts you need to know:
1. Pineapple plants do not produce seeds:
Unlike most other fruits or vegetables that we know, pineapples don’t give out any seeds. They grow through vegetative reproduction by sending off shoots from the original plant’s base instead of creating separate new seedlings.
2. The New Plant Needs A Lot Of Sunlight:
Pineapple plants require a substantial amount of sunlight (around six hours per day) to thrive and bear fruit in the next growing season.
3. Timing Is Key:
Before planting a baby top cutting into soil medium, wait until every leaf has turned fully green before slicing off its crown – this indicates that the little roots have developed thoroughly too,and will likely help all transplant shock related issues – giving better success rates with future growth.
4.. Temperature Can Be Troubling At Times:
These tropical delights can be sensitive towards extreme temperature variations- anything below 60 degrees Fahrenheit could stunt growth while warmer temperatures above seventy may inhibit flowering besides draining out nutrient supply rapidly from soil becoming thirsty vigorously due to high evaporation stages accelerating water consumption rate further limiting proper uptake in nutrients leading even more prolonged malnutrition manifested as yellowed leaves and stunted overall size among sickly conditions exhibited by inadequate foliage production hampering potential yields significantly affecting quality standards eventually affecting commercial viability in economic terms limits seller earnings
5Be Patient And Wait On Your Fruit:
After twelve months since first putting down roots ,a young adult bud “heart” should begin poking its nose up through center stem leaving behind few crowned tops already gone ahead making space for budding flower shoots signals forthcoming bounty of pineapple fruit! While it may take up to 2 years for mature plants carrying ripe pineapples, but the good news is you can expect offshoots of new little ones sprouting in size and maturity throughout your waiting period.
To wrap things up, growing another pineapple on your plant requires patience and a little know-how – but with these top five facts under your belt, you’re well on your way to having a fruitful home garden (or even farm if sized for mass).
Can Pruning Help Your Pineapple Plant Produce More Fruits?
Pineapples are not only juicy and delicious, but also very rewarding to grow. However, as with any plant, they require regular maintenance and care to produce optimal yields of sweet pineapple flesh. One versatile tool in your arsenal that can help you achieve this goal is pruning.
Pruning refers to the practice of trimming away the excess or damaged parts of plants. Pineapple plants (Ananas comosus) are no exception – they too benefit from occasional pruning as it stimulates new growth while keeping growth patterns under control.
One prime example where pruning is particularly useful is for younger pineapple plants – those that have already grown pineapples once before can be left untouched until a second fruit crop begins developing.
For young pineapple plants, removing suckers or side shoots at an appropriate time will direct its energy towards producing a single larger fruit instead of multiple smaller ones. These shoots gather nutrients from the main stem thereby reducing overall food supply reserved for fruit production.
Additionally, removing short-lived foliage and brown-tipped leaves places less strain on limited resources which allows greater circulation around crown area – thereby enhancing pineapple production possibilities in terms of flavor profile appearance
Remember though that some cutting procedures carry risks: if you cut off too much from the top portion of your adult pineapple plant when it’s still actively growing then current reserves would likely plummet due root disruptions caused by defensive mechanisms against damage propagation so approach such situations cautiously!
All in all we trust these tips should give you reason enough pick up your handy clippers and get busy optimizing your tropical garden space today!
How Long Does It Take For A Pineapple Plant To Grow Another Pineapple?
Pineapples, oh how we adore them! The delectable fruit is loved for its sweetness and unique tangy flavor. It’s no wonder they are a staple at many tropical-themed gatherings or eaten as an excellent source of Vitamin C.
But, have you ever wondered how long it takes for a pineapple plant to grow another succulent fruit? Well sit back and let me share with you some fascinating insights into the life cycle of a pineapple plant!
Firstly, lets clear up one major misunderstanding – Pineapple plants do not grow from seeds but sprout from the crown of very matured pineapples. These crowns can be planted directly in soil or grown hydroponically in gardening pots depending on your growing preferences.
Once planted and taken care of correctly (i.e., adequate sunlight, water)the roots will take hold over time as new leaves emerge from the center of the plant like rosettes.
The first stage lasts approximately 12-20 months where strong broad green leaves continue to develop outwards revealing long stems and forming intricate curly vines along their edges. After this point however; budding clusters start to appear out of these stem centers known as inflorescences which eventually form fruits – though this period may vary according to different factors such weather pattern shifts that might affect growing conditions before any progress becomes apparent
Within nine months plus about six weeks more pass after flowering making final harvest possible during summer months typically July through September.During optimal growth conditions ,pineapple plants yield healthy & robust fruits weighing between two-four kilogrammes which show off appealing golden color when fully ripened by nature’s natural process within twelve-month timeline baring no low temperature variations in environment .
So now you know — cultivating pineapples requires patience but also offers up juicy reward if done right creating delicious produce full of nutritious goodness! Now go grab yourself one today and make sure to give thanks to those hardworking farmers that made it possible…and maybe even plan your own pineapple garden?
Growing A New Pineapple: Understanding The Life Cycle of a Pineapple Plant.
Pineapples are a sweet tropical fruit that have become a household staple. Known for its unique look and juicy flavor, the pineapple has gained popularity around the globe. But did you know that growing a pineapple is relatively easy? Understanding the life cycle of this popular plant can help make it an enjoyable experience.
The first step in cultivating a healthy pineapple plant is to select a quality specimen from your local grocer or farmer’s market. The best candidate should not only be ripe but should also possess unblemished leaves with no discoloration or pests.
Once you’ve selected your prime pineapple fruit, prepare it by removing the stem and then slicing off about one quarter inch on both ends before chopping it up into small pieces. Afterward, place these bite-sized portions in water within shallow containers for three days without disturbing them until they start to develop roots.
After rooting, use sterilized soil mixture (peat moss), fill upmatured pots two-thirds full or directly till ground with moderate watering to cover any empty spaces between plants; avoid using much water as pineapples don’t like soggy surroundings, they prefer well-draining soils instead.
Depending upon seasonal variations, either sow seeds directly outdoor during summer months when temperatures exceed 60-65 F overnight or indoor under controlled condition through hotbeds during colder seasons; temperature range must always stay above 50F through all stages of growth while providing intense sunlight exposure anywhere between 6-10 hours every day though shading winds down when fruits begin appearing along stems signaling maturity level soon after flowering which usually takes time period spanning 4 months thereafter reaching peak harvest duration lasting another several weeks afterward yielding perhaps up to half-dozen sized good-quality edibles at once if handled properly throughout entire process including careful attention given towards pruning out specific leaves instead of cutting indiscriminately thereby avoiding accidental damage caused occasionally -these things matter more than usual!
Pineapple plants are very hardy and can thrive in a variety of conditions. While they prefer tropical climates with plenty of sunlight, they can be grown indoors or out in the garden.
If you plan to keep your plant outside, choose an area that offers well-draining soil and plenty of sun exposure. Pineapples do not like waterlogged soils as this prolongs fruiting time when such rocks are encountered leading to decreased productivity so make sure to have proper preparation for handling rocky areas if any exist around growing location beforehand.
Alternatively, if the weather does not permit outdoor growth or space is limited inside, pineapples can also be grown in pots! Just make sure to provide enough light and warmth since pineapple plants require high humidity levels plus mid-70F temperatures present at most times within their immediate surroundings all through germination period until harvesting reaches critical stage maintaining perfect balance between moisture -not too much nor too little-, degree Fahrenheit above 50 but below 90 get excellent results every harvest season .
Finally, once your pineapple plant begins producing fresh fruit, it’s important to pay attention to its needs carefully. As mentioned earlier seasonal variations could affect yields adversely by altering growth rate capacities which must always come into consideration during performances cycles; however regular care apart from seasonal shifts includes consistent watering schedules (preferably drip system) throughout entire tree lifespan centered on fertilizer applications throughout crucial stages starting off seedling days˜ first one-third development followed closely thereafter by another third while lastly produce phase which ultimately lead up till matured quality fruitful product ready cut anytime soon making it possible grow healthy berries right away from home backyard gardens even for novice enthusiasts seeking new gardening avenues worth exploring today!
In conclusion: Growing pineapples is an achievable feat under proper hands-on guidance spanning activities stretching developmental pains especially soaking freshly harvested fruits sprouting tiny roots far down containers tapped away after several months waiting amidst intense growing stage until finally culminating blooming production yield satisfying output desired results. With careful attention to soil settings, water levels, and fertilizing stages your plant can yield multiple sweet treats in just a few short years!
Information from an Expert
As an expert in horticulture, I can say that it is possible for a pineapple plant to grow another pineapple. Pineapple plants produce fruit once a year for two consecutive years before they stop producing altogether. After the first year’s harvest, you should cut off any new buds to ensure a larger yield on next year’s fruit production. If you want your pineapple plant to keep producing fruit, it must be cared for properly with enough sunlight and water, as well as regular fertilization during its growing season. With proper care and attention, your pineapple plant will continue to bear delicious fruits year after year!
It is a common misconception that pineapple plants only produce one fruit per plant. In reality, with proper care and maintenance, a single pineapple plant can continue to produce multiple pineapples for many years. | <urn:uuid:b303b2d2-a742-46b8-b4a8-17dd965e1ab0> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://evilonions.com/growing-pineapple-plants-how-to-get-multiple-fruits-complete-guide-with-stats-and-tips/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224656675.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20230609100535-20230609130535-00394.warc.gz | en | 0.926423 | 3,499 | 3.15625 | 3 | {
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Volume 3, Part 1: Armour, Artillery and Field Engineer Regiments - ARMOUR REGIMENTS
THE BRITISH COLUMBIA DRAGOONS
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Azure a maple leaf in autumnal tints proper within an annulus Vert edged and inscribed THE BRITISH COLUMBIA DRAGOONS in letters Or, enfiled in base by a scroll Vert edged and inscribed QUANSEM ILEP in letters Argent, the whole ensigned by the Royal Crown proper and flanked on both sides by maple leaves in autumnal tints proper.
The maple leaves represent service to Canada and also commemorate the 2nd Canadian Mounted Rifles Battalion and the 11th Regiment, Canadian Mounted Rifles, CEF. The Crown represents service to the Sovereign. "THE BRITISH COLUMBIA DRAGOONS" is the regimental title and "QUANSEM ILEP" is the motto of the regiment.
QUANSEM ILEP (Always first)
Fare Ye Well Inniskilling (5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards)
Additional March For Pipe Band
Scotland the Brave
The Royal Dragoon Guards
The First World War
MOUNT SORREL; SOMME, 1916; Flers-Courcelette; Ancre Heights; ARRAS, 1917, '18; Vimy, 1917; HILL 70; YPRES, 1917; Passchendaele; AMIENS; Scarpe, 1918; HINDENBURG LINE; Canal du Nord; Cambrai, 1918; PURSUIT TO MONS; FRANCE AND FLANDERS, 1915-18.
The Second World War
LIRI VALLEY; Melfa Crossing; GOTHIC LINE; Pozzo Alto Ridge; LAMONE CROSSING; Naviglio Canal; Fosso Munio; Conventello-Comacchio; ITALY, 1944-1945; Ijsselmeer; Delfzijl Pocket; NORTH-WEST EUROPE, 1945.
This Reserve Force regiment originated in Vernon, British Columbia on 1 April 1911, when two four-squadron regiments designated the 'British Columbia Horse' were authorized to be formed.1 It was redesignated: '1st Regiment, "British Columbia Horse"' on 1 December 1911;2 '30th Regiment, British Columbia Horse' on 15 April 1912;3 'The British Columbia Mounted Rifles' on 15 March 1920;4 'The British Columbia Dragoons' on 15 March 1929;5 '2nd (Reserve) Regiment, The British Columbia Dragoons' on 11 February 1941;6 '9th (Reserve) Armoured Regiment, (The British Columbia Dragoons)' on 1 April 1941;7 '9th Reconnaissance Regiment (The British Columbia Dragoons), RCAC' on 1 April 1946;8 'The British Columbia Dragoons (9th Reconnaissance Regiment)' on 4 February 1949;9 and 'The British Columbia Dragoons' on 19 May 1958.10
Upon redesignation as The British Columbia Mounted Rifles on 15 March 1920 (see above), it was organized as a two regiment unit with the 1st Regiment (2nd Canadian Mounted Rifles Battalion, CEF) on the Non Permanent Active Militia order of battle and the 2nd Regiment (11th Canadian Mounted Rifles Battalion, CEF) on the Reserve order of battle.
The 1st Regiment, British Columbia Mounted Rifles was disbanded for the purpose of reorganization on 15 October 1920 and reorganized the same day (GO 251/20). This change was administrative and does not affect the lineage of the regiment.
On 15 November 1926 the 2nd Regiment was redesignated the 2nd Regiment (11th Regiment Canadian Mounted Rifles, CEF) (GO 74/26). The reserve unit was disbanded on 14 December 1936 (GO 3/37).
'2nd Canadian Mounted Rifles Battalion, CEF'; and '11th Regiment, Canadian Mounted Rifles, CEF'
Kelowna, British Columbia
The First World War
The 30th Regiment, British Columbia Horse was placed on active service on 6 August 1914 for local protection duty.11
The 2nd Canadian Mounted Rifles Battalion, which was authorized on 7 November 1914 as the '2nd Regiment, Canadian Mounted Rifles, CEF',12 embarked for Britain on 12 June 1915.13 It disembarked in France on 22 September 1915 as part of the 1st Canadian Mounted Rifles Brigade.14 On 1 January 1916 it was converted to infantry, amalgamated with 'B Squadron' and the headquarters staff of the '3rd Regiment, Canadian Mounted Rifles, CEF' and redesignated the '2nd Canadian Mounted Rifles Battalion, CEF'.15 It fought as part of the 8th Canadian Infantry Brigade, 3rd Canadian Division in France and Flanders until the end of the war.16 The battalion was disbanded on 6 November 1920.17
The '11th Regiment, Canadian Mounted Rifles, CEF' was authorized on 7 November 1914.18 The regiment was converted to infantry and redesignated the '11th "Overseas" Canadian Mounted Rifles Battalion, CEF' on 23 April 1916.19 It embarked for England on 8 July 1916.20 Its personnel were absorbed by the '24th Reserve Battalion, CEF' on 18 May 1917 to provide reinforcements for the Canadian Corps in the field.21 The regiment was disbanded on 27 July 1918.22
The Second World War
Details from the regiment were called out on service on 26 August 1939 and then placed on active service on 1 September 1939, under the designation 'The British Columbia Dragoons, CASF (Details)', for local protection duties.23 The details called out on active service were disbanded on 31 December 1940.24 The regiment mobilized the '5th Canadian Motorcycle Regiment, CASF (BCD)' for active service on 24 May 1940.25 It was converted to armour and redesignated: 'The British Columbia Dragoons, CASF' on 9 February 1941;26 '9th Armoured Regiment (The British Columbia Dragoons), CASF' on 11 February 1941;27 '9th Armoured Regiment (The British Columbia Dragoons) CAC, CASF' on 15 October 1943;28 and '9th Armoured Regiment (The British Columbia Dragoons) RCAC, CASF' on 2 August 1945.29 It embarked for Britain on 13 November 1941.30 The regiment landed in Italy on 19 December 1943 as part of the 5th Armoured Brigade, 5th Canadian Armoured Division.31 On 20 February 1945 the regiment moved with the 1st Canadian Corps to North-West Europe, where it fought until the end of the war.32 The overseas regiment was disbanded on 31 January 1946.33
1. GO 52/11. Formed from two existing independent cavalry squadrons and two newly organized squadrons authorized on the following dates: 'A Squadron' at Lumley (1 April 1911), 'B Squadron' at Vernon (B Independent Squadron, The Canadian Mounted Rifles, 1 April 1908), 'C Squadron' at Armstrong (C Independent Squadron, The Canadian Mounted Rifles, 1 April 1910), and 'D Squadron' at Kelowna (1 April 1910) / Formé de deux escadrons de cavalerie indépendants et de deux escadrons nouvellement organisés, autorisés selon les dates suivantes : « A Squadron » à Lumley (1er avril 1911), « B Squadron » à Vernon (B Independent Squadron, The Canadian Mounted Rifles, 1er avril 1908), « C Squadron » à Armstrong (C Independent Squadron, The Canadian Mounted Rifles, 1er avril 1910), et « D Squadron » à Kelowna (1er avril 1911).
2. GO 199/11.
3. GO 74/12.
4. GO 26/20. This General Order also amalgamated the 'Victoria Independent Squadron (British Columbia Horse)' [authorized as the 'Victoria Independent Squadron' on 15 July 1914 (GO 122/14)] with the regiment / Cet Ordre général amalgama également le « Victoria Independent Squadron (British Columbia Horse) » [autorisé en tant que le « Victoria Independent Squadron »] le 15 juillet 1914 (GO 122/14), avec le régiment.
5. GO 34/29.
6. GO 79/41.
7. GO 236/41.
8. GO 115/46.
9. CAO 76-3, Supp Issue No. 114/49.
10. CAO 76-3. Pt 'B', Supp Issue No. 602/58.
11. GO 130/14.
12. GO 36/15.
13. Edwin Pye Papers, Summary of History of C.E.F. Units - 2nd Reg't C.M.R., Document Collection/Collection de documents 74/672, Series/séries VI, Box/boîte 17, Folder/chemise 6.
14. War Diary, 2nd Battalion, Canadian Mounted Rifles, 22 September 1915/22 septembre 1915, NAC/AN, RG/GE 9, Series 111-D-3, Vol. 4947, File/dossier 465.
15. Ibid, 31 December 1915/31 décembre 1915; and/et War Diary, 3rd Regiment, Canadian Mounted Rifles, 31 December 1915/31 décembre 1915, NAC/AN, RG/GE 9, Series 111-D-3, Vol. 4946, File 463.
16. G.W.L. Nicholson, Official History of the Canadian Army in the First World War, Canadian Expeditionary Force 1914-1919, (Ottawa, 1962), passim.
17. GO 207/20.
18. GO 36/15.
19. Telegram/télégramme Adjutant General to/à Inspector General for Western Canada, 23 April 1916/23 avril 1916, NAC/AN, RG/GE 24, vol. 1532, file/dossier 683-96-2; and/et Telegram/télégramme General Officer Commanding Military District No. 13 to/à Secretary Militia Council, 22 May 1916/ 22 mai 1916. NAC/AN, RG/GE 24, vol. 1516, file/dossier 683-30-2.
20. Edwin Pye Papers, Summary of History of C.E.F. Units - 11th Regiment C.M.R., Document Collection/Collection de documents 74/672, Series/séries VI, Box/boîte 17, Folder/chemise 6.
22. GO 101/18. GO 207/20 also details the disbandment of the regiment but at a later date of 6 November 1920 / Le GO 207/20 donne également les détails sur le démembrement du régiment mais à la date ultérieure du 6 novembre 1920.
23. GO 124/39; and/et GO 135/39.
24. GO 44/41.
25. GO 184/40; and/et GO 50/41.
26. GO 88/41.
27. GO 79/41.
28. GO 476/43.
29. GO 275/45. The Canadian Armoured Corps was redesignated 'Royal Canadian Armoured Corps' on this date / Le « Canadian Armoured Corps » fut rebaptisé « Royal Canadian Armoured Corps » à cette date.
30. R. H. Roy, Sinews of Steel, The History of the British Columbia Dragoons, (Toronto, 1965), passim.
Footnotes notice: This content is provided as it appears in the originating document (see PDF link above) and cannot be altered. Some notes reference annotation in only one of the official languages, and therefore numbers may not match in the content you are viewing. For clarification, we invite you to check the corresponding footnote in the French page. | <urn:uuid:439781a8-562a-4a3c-a868-88b7e62c3d02> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://www.cmp-cpm.forces.gc.ca/dhh-dhp/his/ol-lo/vol-tom-3/par1/arm-bli/BCD-eng.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131299515.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172139-00002-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.850941 | 2,583 | 2.640625 | 3 | {
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Meditation is a natural state of human mind. Somehow we lost most contact with it – maybe when mankind slowly developed culture, maybe because of our rushed modern lives. Conversely, some cultures devised ways to keep in touch with this quiet and nourishing state, and as our society changes we feel a greater need to compensate the unending rush with inner peace and calmness. Taijiquan (Tai Chi) is one such way.
There are many techniques to guide your mind towards meditation, and Taijiquan (Tai Chi) has its own. Being used to constant overstimulation, our brains continuously produce thoughts, with which we identity and try attach to. Our thoughts are ever-changing, so trying to attach to them causes restlessness and anxiety. Thus the first step towards meditating involves giving the mind one single, seemingly unchanging object on which it can rest. This is called concentration on one point (or thing, or object). The object of concentration may take very diverse forms: one’s breathing, one’s posture, a Koan in Zen Buddhism. Once the mind reaches the state of concentrating on one point, the point is surreptitiously removed, and the mind might stay in a state of concentration without an object. One would have just “fooled” his own mind into meditating, if this is done.
This is, on one hand, only the initial state of meditation, and the path goes way deeper than it. There are huge treatises written by ancient sages on the progress of it. On the other hand, being able to concentrate on nothing is a great achievement. When most people say they are meditating, they are in fact trying to get to this first stage.
Meditation in Taijiquan (Tai Chi)
Taijiquan (Tai Chi) has its own way of getting you to meditate. The first step is the object on which we concentrate – that is a static body posture. Grandmaster Chen Xiaowang has systematized Taijiquan (Tai Chi)’s didactic, and we use a Qigong exercise called Zhanzhuang, or Standing Post. In the first classes the teacher will say a standard set of instructions, found by the Grandmaster to be the most effective to guide the exercise. These instructions are not enough, but they are necessary for the Taijiquan (Tai Chi) student to understand what is going on. The teacher then corrects the students’ posture, so to achieve a more correct alignment.
The student, then, has to do nothing. That is the hard part, there’s actually nothing to be done. the student should keep the posture, and while not moving at all, relax his body and his mind, and let go. When not interfering, and keeping a well-aligned posture as set by a good teacher, the student’s body will slowly come to adhere to the natural laws of Yin and Yang which Taijiquan (Tai Chi) follows. What we call the Yin, or coarse part of energy, which was scattered all over by chaotic movement in an unbalanced posture, will settle down and deposit in the lower part of the body. The student can feel his legs heavy, and then burning, and the feet will seem to be planted on the ground. As long as there isn’t pain, the burning and tiredness in the legs are normal.
As the Yin energy settles in the lower parts, what remains on the top of the body is emptiness. This is naturally induced meditation.
The object of meditation, during Tai Chi’s Zhangzhuang, changes with the years of practice. As a beginner, the Taijiquan (Tai Chi) student concentrates on keeping the posture static, and this is hard enough already. The corrections a good teacher gives will change the mechanics of the body, and developing awareness of how to use the muscles in a new way is a big job. After this is done, the concentration should gradually change to the Dantian, for which there’s a precise technique. When the meditation progresses, silence will set in, and then it becomes very pleasurable. | <urn:uuid:97e97d09-df3d-49a1-8a5a-10ba329e6625> | CC-MAIN-2020-10 | https://taijiquan-ottawa.com/taichi-theory/standing-meditation/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-10/segments/1581875144498.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20200220005045-20200220035045-00436.warc.gz | en | 0.956523 | 867 | 2.578125 | 3 | {
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Train your environment
If I took 50 random strangers to the supermarket and asked them to fill their trollies with only nutritious, health-promoting foods, I bet they could do it. In other words, most people generally know what’s “healthy.” Or good for them.
If that’s true, why are so many people sick from chronic preventable diseases? Why are they sedentary and carrying around extra body fat? Why are people not putting all those nutritious, health-promoting foods into their shopping baskets — or more importantly, their bodies?
Why are people eating so poorly?
Obviously, just knowing stuff isn’t enough to actually do stuff. Being able to memorise carb grams, or calorie tables, or the names of exotic superfoods doesn’t often change what we eat when it’s time for a hurried breakfast or a got-home-late-from-work dinner.
Those particular eating decisions have more to do with what’s (and who’s) around us — our environment.
Why is an environment so important?
Research has shown that most of our decisions are automatic, based on patterns and brain shortcuts.
Instead of slowly deciding, step by step, our brains quickly process a handful of grab-n-go inputs and pick from a recognisable menu of options. We ignore stuff we don’t like or want to see, and we’re easily compelled by shiny distractions.
In general, when it comes to engineering healthy eating, here’s the golden rule:
- Make healthy behaviours convenient.
- Make other behaviours less convenient.
People often try to “work hard” to change their habits because changing how you think and feel is hard. But why should everything be so hard, all the time? There’s no need to white-knuckle the willpower. You can actually make change much easier by simply changing your environment. By just changing what’s around you in small ways, you can make changes without even thinking about them.
Here are 10 awesome tips — collected from some of the most experienced nutrition coaches in the world — for changing your environment.
“Hard work” and “willpower” not required.
10 ingenious environment tweaks that will improve your eating habits immediately
1. Keep the ice cream, cookies, and chocolates out of the house.
Make “laziness” work for you by making it harder and more inconvenient to reach for high-calorie, low-nutrition, easy-to-overeat foods.
If you want sweets, you have to go get them. At 10 PM, when you’re snuggled into your sofa binge-watching your favourite TV show, it’s going to be a lot harder to motivate yourself to get up and go to the shop.
2. Use a meal plan
Don’t make fresh decisions every day, or keep meal choices totally open-ended all the time. Instead, make decisions in advance and work from a template.
Pro tip: Every few days, sketch out the meals you’ll eat for the next few days. Check the list daily so you know:
3. Keep chopped, ready-to-eat vegetables in the fridge.
Put them front-and-centre so you see them and can get to them easily.
Pro tip: To make your favourite salad veggies even easier, store them “restaurant-style.” Dump chopped veggies (loose) into a container, and cover them with a damp paper towel to keep them fresh.
4. Don’t be hungry and in the supermarket at the same time.
Treat food shopping like a surgical operation: Have a plan (like your meal list from Tip 2). Get in and get out efficiently. (See if you can make a game of it.)
Pro tip: Focus on the perimeter — the produce, meat, and dairy sections. Don’t even go down the processed food aisles, so you won’t be tempted.
Shop with a basket instead of a cart to limit what you can buy (it sneaks in an arm workout, too).
5. Help your kitchen coach you.
Keep your kitchen as clean, pleasant and clutter-free as possible so you feel relaxed when you enter it (stress = cookie binges).
Pro tip: Make the fridge door a “vision board” with post-it notes reminding you of your goals, inspiring pictures, and cool looking magnets.
6. Turn your car into a locker room.
If you drive a lot, be prepared with gym clothes and a healthy snack so you don’t make counterproductive decisions in desperate moments. Keep a shaker bottle with measured protein powder and greens under the seat — just add water.
Pro tip: Keep a container of several changes of exercise clothes, shoes, and towels in your car so you’re ready to move no matter where the day takes you.
7. Keep workout gear in your face.
Have a kettlebell, resistance bands, a dumbbell or two, a pull-up bar in your home or office so you’re more tempted to use them.
Pro tip: Do “trigger training”: Leave the gear in various places throughout your house, and whenever you pass one of them, do a few reps. Over the day this adds up quickly without eating up too much time or leaving you wiped out.
8. Schedule workouts like you schedule meetings.
Put them on your calendar and treat them like any other appointment. Pro tip: Put everything from workouts to laundry, to work meetings, to rest and recovery on your calendar so that very few things are “unexpected.” Most of our routines are pretty predictable.
9. Separate yourself from your work once per hour.
Work for 50 minutes, then step away from your desk for 10 (may we suggest a walk, some stretches, or some squats?). Cycle this for your workday. You’ll find that you still have energy and focus by the end.
10. Turn family and friends into coaches.
To create a supportive environment, be explicit with loved ones that you’re trying to eat better and get fit — and why. They don’t have to participate but ask them to help. That takes the pressure off them to do what you’re doing, and most people (especially kids) like “helping” in some way. (Kids love to nag, so hire them as your alarm clock and workout reminder.)
Pro tip: Involve your family in goal-related activities, such as menu planning, meal prep, and rep counting. This reduces resistance by giving them ownership, meaning you won’t feel you’re the “other.”
Train your environment and your habits will follow.
Basically, our brains like the thinking version of fast food — go to the place that’s most appealing, speed through the drive-thru, pick the favourite combo from the menu, slam the decision, move on to the next choice.
So we don’t actually think much when we think we’re thinking. We follow patterns, physical cues that bubble beneath our awareness, and what’s around us. That means our environment powerfully shapes our decisions, more than we realise. | <urn:uuid:0c454db5-82c6-4ceb-88c7-e98d1873a178> | CC-MAIN-2020-34 | https://reebokcrossfitglevum.com/news/2020-04-21-train-your-environment | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-34/segments/1596439738015.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20200808165417-20200808195417-00337.warc.gz | en | 0.935245 | 1,550 | 2.8125 | 3 | {
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How Do Drones Work
When we talk about drones, a lot of questions remain unanswered to a lot of people. A drone is generally a small type of aircraft with a camera attached to it. Drones are usually controlled using a remote system by a pilot from a remote area. With the recent technology, better drones that can even carry missiles have been developed every new week. We have seen soldiers using this type of aircraft on the battlefield. Drones are recommendable in war fields from their small size and weight, which enables them to stay airborne in the fields for a couple of hours. Here is a discussion about how drones work.
How do drones work? This is a question many of us ask every day. However, to understand this, there are a number of things you need to know. This include:
What differentiate Drones from Remote Controlled Helicopters?
Not many of the people have the knowledge on what keeps the two machines different. However, when compared to a remote-controlled helicopter, a drone has a higher level of autonomy. This implies that a drone can fly, navigate or hover without much efforts from its pilot. A drone will have the ability to maintain its self-balance. It is also considered to possess the ability on holding its positions based on its GPS gadget. This is what makes a drone better and different from a remote-controlled helicopter.
What makes-up a drone?
Usually, drones are made of light materials to make sure that their weight is greatly reduced increasing their maneuverability. This allows a drone to rise to very high altitudes. In order to take photos or the needed videos, a drone is equipped with an infra-red camera. It also has a GPS gadget to track its position maintaining it within the necessary axis, that is, the X and Z axis. When on a flight, the onboard sensors will help to keep the drone aloft. It also possesses an altimeter that determines the altitude of the drone. Its movement and activities are controlled by a remote system referred in other words as the ground cockpit.
Communication between the Controller and the Drone
For a drone to fly the pilot must be in possession of a controller. Controllers can be in form of a gamepad, a Smartphone, or even a tablet. The communication between the controllers and the drone usually takes place in form of radio waves. In many instances, controllers will use Wi-Fi to make this communication happen. It is believed that Wi-Fi can get transmitted using the 2.4 gigahertz spectrum.
How to keep propellers spinning
For the propellers to get spinning there is a need for a power source. When buying a drone, one will be provided with a removable battery. This battery has the ability to provide the drone with approximately 12 minutes of flight. However, the batteries can be upgraded to provide the drone with approximately 25 minutes of flight. Therefore, it is good to note that more power implies more weight, therefore is good to maintain with the original battery power.
Drones will be available in different sizes. The big ones are preferably used in military activities. The unmanned aircraft are usually used in activities that involve large geographical area coverage. Example, they are used to handle the wildlife poaching problems. | <urn:uuid:68baf713-3a05-468a-8858-90a510b15c0e> | CC-MAIN-2018-43 | http://radiantshadows.ca/how-do-drones-work/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-43/segments/1539583515375.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20181022180558-20181022202058-00221.warc.gz | en | 0.963117 | 663 | 3.328125 | 3 | {
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Part I: Jerrod and Jump
- Why is there electrical activity in the brain? Describe how it is used by neurons.
Electrical activity is used in the brain in order to fire electrical impulses to communicate with each other. Neurons use electrical signaling to receive and send information. When a neuron is stimulated, an action potential is fired, which enables the message signals to travel rapidly down the axon terminal.
- What happens in the brain during a seizure?
A seizure first occurs when there is a disruption in the pattern of the electrical communication system in the brain. This causes neurons to fire off action potentials simultaneously at an extremely accelerated pace. The brain cannot properly compute these ‘mixed messages’, thus a seizure takes place.
- What is epilepsy? How is it diagnosed?
Epilepsy is a brain disorder in which a person has recurring seizures. Doctors use brain scans, such as an EEG, in order to diagnose epilepsy.
The procedures for conducted an EEG is to attach small electrodes onto the scalp of the patient, which record the electrical activity in the brain, as the actual EEG machine records that information as a series of squiggles, traces. The procedure for an MRI scan is first to remove all metallic objects, then lie in a motorized bed that moves inside of the scanner, in this case you would enter head. A computer is used to operate the MRI scanner by a radiographer in a different room. While in the MRI scanner, you must keep still throughout the entire duration of the scan to receive the most accurate results.
- What are some possible causes of seizures other than epilepsy?
A cause of Organic non-epileptic seizures (NES) includes a physical cause such as diabetes. Causes of Psychogenic NES include response to frightening or stressful situation (major accidents, psychological stress, abuse, etc). Other plausible causes include drug use, brain injury, withdrawal, stroke, and poison.
- Based on the information in the case, what type of seizures does Jerrod appear to be having?
Based on the information in this case, I believe Jerrod exhibits the symptoms of having an Absence Seizure since he during his seizures he ” stared blankly, moving his head slightly back and forth, and for a minute or two could not respond to his parents. When the seizures ended, Jerrod had no memory of them”. Absence Seizures cause lapses in awareness, such as staring as well as not remember the occurrence of the seizure. Moreover, I would specifically diagnose Jerrod with Complex Absence Seizures since he makes an involuntary movement, shaking his head back and forth, during the seizure. Furthermore, Absence Seizures are most common in children.
- What should you do during a seizure to help Jerrod?
During an Absence Seizure, you should make sure that his body is not in harm’s way. This could be done by placing him on a couch and blocking it off so that he does not fall off.
- What are some treatments for epilepsy?
Treatments for epilepsy include medication, surgery (to remove a portion of the brain or implant devices such as a vagus nerve stimulation- VNS), and a ketogenic diet, which is a high fat, low carbohydrates died used frequently for children who did not respond to medical therapy.
Part II: A Difficult Decision
- What is Rasmussen Syndrome (what are its history, symptoms, prognosis, etc.)?
Rasmussen Syndrome is associated with progressive neurological issues and seizures in children. Rasmussen’s Syndrome can become present from 14 months old to 14 years old. Symptoms include seizures, mild weakness in the arm or leg, deteriorating thinking/memory (hemiparesis) or language problems (aphasia). The prognosis of the disease is quite limited since seizure medications do not have much of an effect, anti-inflammatory steroids need more studies to prove their effectiveness. Immunologic therapies (globulin, gamma, rixtuximab, or plasmapheresis). In most cases, the surgical procedure called functional hemispherectomy is used for children in which one cerebral hemisphere is removed from the brain.
- How did the doctors use EEG and MRI to help diagnose the disorder?
Doctors use EEGs to help diagnose Rasmussen Syndrome by tracking the electrical activities. The EEG then shows which area of the brain demonstrates seizing activity, which can be used to show that there, are partial seizures, which in turn prove that the child has Rasmussen Syndrome. An MRI can be used by doctors to help diagnose the disorder so observe the abnormalities it the brain due to the seizures. Where there is more damage on a certain side of the brain, the doctor could infer, with further testing, that the patient presents symptoms of Rasmussen Syndrome.
- What structures or abilities of the brain are concentrated in the areas of the left hemisphere that would be removed in the hemispherectomy?
Abilities of the brain that are in the left hemisphere of the brain that would be removed in the hemispherectomy would be analytic thought, logic, language, reasoning, and science and mathematics skills.
- Other than reducing his seizures, how else might Jerrod’s thinking or behavior be affected by losing these parts of his brain?
Other than reducing Jerrod’s seizures, his behaviors and thinking patterns would be slower compared to other children his age since the left hemisphere of the brain, which is associated with logic, reasoning, and language would be removed during the hemispherectomy.
- What types of abilities would he still retain, because the brain structures would remain intact?
The abilities Jerrod would retain would be his senses: sight, taste, smell, touch, and hearing; art awareness and creativity; musical awareness; and imagination.
- What might the family do to help Jerrod recover after such a surgery?
After Jerrod’s surgery, his family should support through his recovery by aiding him with his necessities as well as sending him to the doctor’s to check on his status as well as attend therapy, possibly for speech if it is impaired.
If Jerrod had the surgery, would his level of functioning get better, worse, or stay the same over time?
If Jerrod had the surgery, the abilities, such as language and reasoning, found in the left hemisphere of the brain would decrease since that portion of the brain would be removed. However, it is possible that after therapy, his level of functioning could improve.
- What other kinds of questions would you have about the surgery? Can you find the answers?
Question: How soon do other neurological issues and weaknesses in the patient occur?
Answer: Weaknesses on one side of the body and intellectual dysfunction often begin 1 to 3 years after the start of the seizures.
- What decision do you recommend to the family? Why or why not go ahead with surgery?
I would recommend the family to go through with the surgery since it is the best treatment option for Rasmussen Syndrome. If there were no treatment, then Jerrod’s left hemisphere of the brain would just become more inflamed and deteriorate, causing more seizures and more irreversible damage in the brain. The surgery could help improve his situation, whereas there is no room for improvement without treatment.
Official Original Post: https://blogs.brown.edu/neuroscience2016sec1/2016/08/04/case-study-epilepsy-and-split-brain/ | <urn:uuid:1bbc1008-90dd-4d98-b34b-4858aa9f5719> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://blogs.brown.edu/sarahabdellahneuroscience/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296948951.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20230329054547-20230329084547-00400.warc.gz | en | 0.956471 | 1,586 | 3.53125 | 4 | {
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} | Health |
HISTORY by Norman Hugh Redington, Editor The St. Pachomius Orthodox
Lion of Judah
The spread of Orthodox Christianity in the New World has occurred mainly as a result of immigration from Eastern Europe. There are two regions, however, where this is not the case: Alaska and the Caribbean. The story of the conversion of the Aleut, Tlingit, and Yupik nations in Alaska has often been told; by contrast, that of the yet more improbable emergence of Ethiopian churches in Jamaica is little known. My hope is that this little tract will inspire someone with greater knowledge to study the subject properly; if it also leads to a deeper respect and understanding between mainstream Christians and the often-maligned brethren in Jamaica, may the Lord be praised.
ORIGINS: THE GARVEYITE AFRICAN ORTHODOX CHURCH. Marcus Garvey was a Jamaican-born Black nationalist leader whose Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) was the most prominent Black Power organization of the 1920s. Although himself a Roman Catholic, Garvey encouraged his followers to imagine Jesus as Black and to organize their own church. To emphasize that the new church was neither Catholic nor Protestant, the name "Orthodox" was adopted and the filioque (a phrase added to the Latin version of the Nicene creed in the early Middle Ages but rejected by the Orthodox) was dropped.
The African Orthodox Church entered into negotiations with the Russian Metropolia (now the OCA) for formal recognition as an Orthodox jurisdiction. Unfortunately, these negotiations broke down: the Metropolia demanded an unacceptable degree of administrative control, while the Garveyites wanted to promulgate whatever doctrines they chose. Eventually, the African Orthodox bishop was consecrated by the "American Catholics", a group which had rejected the authority of the Pope but was otherwise similar to the Roman Church.
The Garveyite Church had thousands of members on three continents, and was a symbol of anti-colonialism in Kenya and Uganda. The African Orthodox in those countries quickly broke off relations with the New York church and instead became part of the Greek Patriarchate of Alexandria and fully Orthodox. The same process repeated in Ghana more recently, where Fr. Kwami Labe, a graduate of St. Vladimir's Seminary in New York, has been building a strong Orthodox community on the foundations laid by the Garveyites. (I am distressed, however, that many now-canonical African Orthodox often seem almost ashamed of their "heretical" origins, and try to distance themselves from the earlier movement.)
Today the African Orthodox Church as such is largely defunct, although the parish of St. John Coltrane (!) in San Francisco remains quite active.
MORE ORIGINS: THE BLACK ISRAELITES. Black slaves always felt an obvious affinity to the enslaved Hebrews; a few took this sympathy to its logical extreme and claimed to be, in fact, Jews. This movement probably existed in the U.S. during slavery times, and there was at least one Black convert in the synagogue of antebellum Charleston. The spread of information about the Jewish "Falasha" minority in Ethiopia contributed to the growth of Black Judaism during the late 19th Century, and Jewish sects emerged in the northern ghettoes alongside Muslim ones. A number of these, and similar groups of more recent origin, remain very active today.
These groups (a few of them very anti-Semitic in their claim of being "real Jews") are in some cases "Christian", although with an Old Testament emphasis. Frequently they claim that whites have distorted the text of the Bible, and there are attempts to "restore" the text.
One of these, of importance in this story, is the "Holy Piby", an occult bible allegedly translated from "Amharic" and emphasizing the destruction of white "Babylonia" and the return of the Israelites to Africa, the true Zion. The Piby was adopted by Rastafarians as the source of their liturgical texts.
GARVEY THE PROPHET: The Marcus Garvey of history books is a mainly political leader interested in making the black race economically equal with the white. In oral tradition, however, he appears as a divinely annointed prophet, the Forerunner of Haile Selassie. In addition to many miracles and prophecies, he is credited with having predicted that a "mighty king" would arise in Africa and bring justice to the oppressed. When the Prince (Ras) Tafari of Ethiopia was crowned emperor to world-wide fanfare, many Jamaicans claimed the prophecy of Garvey had obviously just been fulfilled: the Ras Tafari Movement was born.
Garvey himself was still alive, although his movement had largely collapsed and he himself had been jailed on (subsequently disproved) allegations of business fraud. Garvey was no admirer of Haile Selassie, observing that slavery still existed in Ethiopia, and he attacked the Rastafarians as crazy fanatics. They, however continued to revere Garvey nonetheless, remarking that even John the Baptist had had doubts about Christ!
THE CLASSICAL PERIOD: From 1930 until the mid '60s, Rastafari was a local Jamaican religious movement with few outside influences. Several Garveyite leaders had independently declared that Haile Selassie fulfilled Garvey's prophecy, and the movement remained dominated by independent "Elders" with widely varying views. Not only did no Jamaica-wide "Rastafarian Church" develop, but there was not even agreement on basic doctrine or a canon of Scripture--both the Holy Piby and the King James Bible were used by various Elders, but were freely emended and "corrected".
OVERSTANDING: This "anarchy" was considered a virtue by classical Rastas. Rastafari was not a religion, a human organization, or a philosophy, but an active attempt to discern the will of JAH (God) and keep it. Classical Rastas were mainly uneducated Third World peasants, but they approached Rastafari in an almost Talmudic spirit, holding "reasonings" --part theological debate, part prayer meeting-- at which they attempted to find the Truth.
Their attitude differed, however, from that of Protestants interpreting the Bible. They were certain that they would arrive, by divine guidance, at an "overstanding" (rather than understanding) of the Truth. The Truth cannot be known by human effort alone, but "Jah-Jah come over I&I", one can participate in the One who is Truth.
MYSTICISM: Early Rasta mystical experience emphasized the immediate presence of JAH within the "dread" (God-fearer). The doctrine of theosis was expressed with great subtlety (although not all Elders correctly distinguished essence from energy). Through union with JAH, the dread becomes who he truly is but never was, a process of self-discovery possible only through repentance. (For this reason, Rastas did not proselytize, but relied on compunction sent by JAH.) The mystical union was expressed by the use of the pronoun "I&I" (which can mean I, we, or even you, with JAH present) or simply "I" in contrast to the undeclined Jamaican dialect "me".
COMMUNITY: Many Rastas lived (and live today) in the bush in camps ruled by an Elder. Some of these camps are segregated by sex and resemble monasteries (down to the gong at the gate); more often, they are reconstituted West African villages. The dreads observe the rules of "ital", a dietary code based on the Pentateuch with various additions, and otherwise observe a spiritual rule. Males are usually bearded (uncommon in Jamaica during the classical period, and a cause of social and religious discrimination, so that Rastas who held jobs often were "baldfaces" who kept their affiliation secret.)
The famous "dreadlocks" were worn during the classical period only by a minority of dreads, mostly those who had taken the oath of Nazirite. Very recent historical research suggests that the dreadlocks were popularized by a monastic movement which opposed the unrestrained and potentially corrupting power of the Elders. These celibate and almost puritanical "nyabinghi warriors" objected particularly to "pagan holdovers" in Rastafari, the continued use by dreads of ritual practices associated with the voudoun-like folk religion of the Jamaican peasantry.
HINDUISM: Another source of "pagan" thought in Rastafari was the religion practiced by the thousands of East Indian labourers imported to Jamaica after the abolition of slavery. Classical Hinduism is a major religious force throughout the West Indies, especially on Trinidad, but its influence on Rastafari has been little remarked. The dreadlocked, ganja-smoking saddhu or wandering ascetic is a well-known figure in India, and bands of saddhus often live in Rasta-style camps and smoke marijuana from a formally-blessed communal chalice-pipe. The Hindu doctrine of reincarnation is also advocated by many dreads, although often with a subtle twist: to say that (for example) today's Jamaicans are reincarnated Israelites, and even "I myself have felt the slave-master's whip", means to some dreads not that they personally have lived before, but that their solidarity with their ancestors is so great that there is a "oneness through time".
REPATRIATION: Among the few things all Elders agreed on were that Haile Selassie was "divine" (although what that meant was much debated) and that he intended to restore New World Blacks to Africa. Although a mystical interpretation of "repatriation" was advanced, there is no doubt that all early Elders (and most modern ones) expected outward literal return as well. This gave Rastafari an overt political dimension: the Rastafarians all, without exception, wanted to immediately emigrate to Ethiopia. This was a situation with no analogue except Zionism, and was beyond the ability of the Jamaican authorities to deal with. Revolutionaries are one thing, but the Rasta slogan was not "power to the people", but "let my people go". As time passed, Rastafarian frustration at this unmet demand became explosive.
The situation grew especially tense after 1954, when the government overran a Rastafarian mini-state called the Pinnacle, ruled by Elder Leonard Howell in exactly the style of a traditional West African chief. Howell's followers migrated to the slums of Kingston, and the movement went from a rural peasant separatist movement to one associated with the ghettoes of the capital. In the late '50s and early '60s, a few Rastas in desparation rejected the non-violent teaching of all authentic Elders and mounted a series of increasingly violent uprisings, culminating in several deadly shoot-outs between Rastas and British troops.
With this violence, the existence of Rastafari came to (negative) worldwide notice; more positive publicity was brought by the popularity of Rasta-performed reggae dance music a few years later. The classical period of isolation was at an end.
ETHIOPIANISM: I will now treat the issue of direct contact between Rastafari and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
THE ETHIOPIAN WORLD FEDERATION (EWF): As an African country mentioned in the Bible and the only African nation to successfully resist colonialism, Ethiopia was always prominent in New World Black consci- ousness, but actual contact was minimal until the Second World War. In 1937, Haile Selassie's government in exile founded EWF to raise money and political support from Black nationalist groups in the West. After the war, the EWF continued to exist in various forms, some completely under local control but all providing at least some contact with Abyssinia.
TRINIDAD & TOBAGO: In the 1940s, a Garveyite bishop named Edwin Collins set up what he said was a legitimate Coptic church under the Patriarch of Alexandria. However the Garveyite Coptics were tied more closely to the African Orthodox Church than to Egypt, and their canonicity was widely doubted. In 1952 the Garveyite Coptic diocese of Trinidad and Tobago broke away and placed itself under Addis Ababa. Clergy were imported from Africa and a fully canonical church was organised in the islands. Trinidad is an Ethiopian Orthodox success story: native- born clergy (including old-time Garveyite leaders) were rapidly ordained and parishes were founded all over the country and in Guyana.
ABBA LAIKE MANDEFRO: In 1959 the central Garveyite Coptic organisation in New York tried to improve its canonical status. The archbishop went to Ethiopia, where he was supposedly ordained chorepiscopos, and returned with a group of young Ethiopian priests and deacons who were to study in American universities. These clergy almost immediately broke with the Garveyites, however, and set up parishes more oriented to the needs of Ethiopian immigrants; the Garveyite Coptic church which had sponsored them went into an evidently irreversible decline. One of the young priests who came over at this time soon became Ethiopian Orthodoxy's main representative abroad. He is Laike M. Mandefro, now Archbishop Yesehaq, exarch of the Western Hemisphere and many would add Apostle to the Caribbean.
THE EWF IN JAMAICA: All of the above developments took place independently of the Ras Tafari Movement, which was still confined to Jamaica. An EWF chapter had opened there in 1938 and been almost immediately taken over by Rastafarians, in particular by the prominent Elders Joseph Hibbert and Archibald Dunkley. Both men were noted mystics and initiates of an all-Black "Coptic" Masonic lodge in Costa Rica; some might therefore find it ironic that they more than anyone else would prove responsible for the arrival of Orthodoxy in Jamaica!
"GROUNATION DAY": Presumably because of the spread of the Ethiopian Church in Trinidad, Haile Selassie was invited to visit that country in 1966. Jamaica was then in the throws of an ongoing national social crisis in which Rastas were perceived by the establishment as a revo- lutionary threat which had to defused; a team of social scientists had advised the government that one way to do this was to foster close ties with the real Ethiopia. Accordingly, the Emperor was invited to make a stop in Jamaica.
On April 21 -- "Grounation Day" to Rastas ever since -- Haile Selassie arrived in Kingston. Contrary to the widely repeated claim that the Emperor was "amazed" or "bemused" upon "discovering" the existence of the Rastafarians (the greater number of whom by 1966 believed him to be God in essence), there is much evidence that Haile Selassie's whole purpose in visiting Jamaica was to meet the Rasta leadership. Greeted at the airport by thousands of dreads in white robes chanting "Hosanna to the Son of David", Haile Selassie granted an audience to a delegation of famous Elders, including Mortimo Planno and probably Joseph Hibbert. The precise details of this historic meeting cannot be reconstructed, and there exist countless variants in Jamaican oral tradition. Almost certainly, he urged them to become Orthodox and held out the possibility that Jamaican settlers could receive land-grants in South Ethiopia. Most traditional versions of the meeting specify that he also gave the Elders a secret message, very much in keeping with the Emperor's known policies on Third World development: "Build Jamaica first."
THE JAMAICA MISSIONS: In 1970, at Hibbert's invitation, Abba Laike Mandefro began to evangelize the Rastafarians in person. In the course of a year he baptized some 1200 dreads and laid the foundation for the church's subsequent growth. He also encountered fierce opposition from those Elders who taught that Haile Selassie was Jah in essence and demanded "baptism in Ras Tafari's name". In Montego Bay, only one dread accepted Orthodox baptism; Laike Mandefro baptized him Ahadu -- "One Man".
THE ECUMENIST CRISIS: A major crisis struck the young church in 1971, when a public service marking the ninth anniversary of Jamaican independence was held in Kingston. Anglican, Roman Catholic, and Orthodox (Greek and Ethiopian) clergy all participated in the service. The Rastas were scandalized that Orthodox would pray with representatives of "false religions"; hundreds of baptized members defected, and an entire parish was lost. Many of these persons no doubt joined the organized Rastafarian churches which were beginning to replace the traditional Elder system, and which soon incorporated widely varying degrees of Ethiopian Orthodox liturgical and theological influence.
EWF RASTAFARI: Besides the heretical syncretist groups, however, a legitimate Orthodox Rastafari Movement continued to flourish as the backbone of the Jamaican church. The EWF under the leadership of Dunkley and Hibbert had enormous prestige, being tied both to the roots of the movement in Garveyism and directly to Jamaica. The EWF retained the political and social aspects and the distinctive cultural features of classical Rastafari while advocating a rigorously correct and canonical Orthodoxy, venerating the Emperor as a holy living ikon of JAH but not worshiping him. The first steps toward Orthodox Jamaica were being taken -- albeit by people whose main secular goal was to leave the country as soon as possible!
COMMENT FOR NON-ORTHODOX READERS
Orthodox theology distinguishes several levels of divinity. Only the Uncreated is "God-in-essence"; humans can become "divine by participation"; ikons are visible channels through which divine energy enters the world. The question which divides the "canonical" brethren from non-Orthodox groups is which of these levels of divinity applies to Emperor Haile Selassie. The Orthodox say he is divine by participation and ikonicity, and thus merits "douleia" ("veneration"); the Tribes say he is divine in essence and merits "latreia" or absolute worship.}
REGGAE: This was also the time when reggae music was at the height of its popularity, and when explicitly religious lyrics were the norm within reggae. Many popular bands were Orthodox, notably The Abyssinians, a group with priestly and monastic connections. The family of reggae's "superstar", Bob Marley, were mostly Orthodox, although Marley himself was for most of his career a member of the Twelve Tribes sect. In his last years, dying young of cancer, Marley underwent a remarkable spiritual transformation (evident in his music also) culminating in his baptism; his Orthodox funeral in 1981 was attended by tens of thousands of mourners.
THE SHEARING OF LOCKS: Haile Selassie was reported dead in 1975 (to the disbelief of many Rastas even today). The Ethiopian church, like many Orthodox churches under communist rule, endured terrible persecution which it survived partly by compromise with the persecutors. The Marxist regime in Addis Ababa was very unenthused that an emperor-venerating and/or worshiping cult was flourishing in a part of the world otherwise ripe for revolution.
In addition, I have the impression that some of the increasingly numerous and often middle-class Ethiopian emigres in the West looked down on Rastafarians. The pious suspected their Orthodoxy (no doubt often rightly; that many "Orthodox" Rastas continued to secretly harbor heretical views is quite likely); the staid resented association with an impoverished and reputedly criminal Black underclass. The latter consideration was especially strong in Britain, where all forms of Rastafari spread rapidly among the West Indian minority in the '70s. (It is important to add, however, that England's Ethiopian community also provided legal and other support for Rastas subjected to racist and police harassment during this period, especially in the Handsworth section of Birmingham.)
For whatever reason, in 1976 all Orthodox Rastas were required to cut their locks and to make an elaborate formal repudiation of heretical emperor worship (latreia). Whatever its long-term wisdom, this decree forced people who were "growing into an overstanding" by the slow traditional process to make a sudden decision; the cutting of locks, a purely external issue, seemed to many a repudiation of the movement's history.
SYNCRETISM: In spite of these not-inconsiderable conflicts, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church has spread through the Caribbean thanks to the Ras Tafari movement. While only a minority of Rastas have actually become Orthodox, nearly all have been influenced by Orthodoxy. The makwamya (the prayer stick used by Ethiopian clergy) is ubiquitous among dreads; items of clerical garb are also frequently adopted. Rastafarian painters have been heavily influenced by ikonography. Syncretism is particularly evident in the organized sects which have partly supplanted the charismatic Elder system.
THE TWELVE TRIBES OF ISRAEL (unrelated to the various Black Hebrew churches of the same name) are probably the largest and most famous of the sects. Founded in 1968 by Vernon Carrington (the Prophet Gad), the Tribes hold that Haile Selassie is Jesus Christ returned in majesty as King: the Second Coming has already happened. Their coherent theology and tight organization have won them many converts, including most of the famous reggae singers of the '70s. Something of the syncretistic feel of later Rastafari is conveyed by the cover art on the album "Zion Train" by Ras Michael (a brilliant hymnographer and one of the Ras Tafari Movement's more impressive living spokesmen). The painting shows two clerically-turbaned dreads before the open Royal Doors of an ikonostasis -- beyond which, however, is only a view of mountains against a red sky.
"PRINCE" EDWARD EMMANUEL, founder of another prominent sect, was a famous Elder of the classical era, responsible for convening the first "Nyabinghi" or Rastafarian general synod in 1958. The Prince was already a controversial figure who claimed to be one of the Holy Trinity along with Haile Selassie and Marcus Garvey; presumably, he hoped the Nyabinghi would recognize this claim (which it did not). Thereafter the Prince began transforming his large band of worshipers into an organized church, complete with dogma, liturgy, hierarchy, and a kind of monasticism. The group's priests, some of whom have actually been to Ethiopia, wear Orthodox vestments.
THE ZION COPTIC CHURCH, a semi-moribund Garveyite Orthodox denomination, was revitalized by white hippie converts in the '60s; despite its partly foreign leadership, it enjoyed explosive growth among Black Jamaicans disillusioned with the canonical church's approach. Although the "Coptics", as they are called, insist that they are a legitimate Orthodox jurisdiction and even publish tracts on such theological issues as the _mia physis_ and the Council of Chalcedon, they also engage in some very questionable speculations verging on Gnosticism. To their credit, they have gone much further than the canonical church in incorporating the best of classical Rastafrian culture into church life, and their retention of dreadlocks, nyabinghi drumming, etc. has helped them gain many converts. This success is reflected in their great material wealth, for which they have been criticized (they are supposedly among the largest landholders in Jamaica). One aspect of their "reverse syncretism" has caused much controversy, as well as a landmark church-state case which landed the Coptics' leadership in prison: their gnosticizing theories are used to justify ritual consumption of marijuana.
GANJA: Contrary to popular belief, pious Rastas do not smoke marijuana recreationally, and some (the canonical Ethiopian Orthodox and also the followers of certain classical Elders) do not use it at all. Most Rastafarian teachers, however, have advocated the controlled ritual smoking of "wisdomweed" both privately as an aid to meditation and communally from "chalice" pipes as an "incense pleasing to the Lord". The argument is that ganja is the "green herb" of the King James Bible and that its use is a kind of shortcut version of traditional ascetical practice. The Ethiopian Church, of course, strongly discourages this: Orthodox monks have learned over centuries of experience that such shortcuts are at best dangerous and at worst soul-destroying. The issue, however, has been much sensationalized by the press, in keeping with the racist stereotyping of Rastas as stoned criminals.
CONCLUSION: I believe that the Rastafarians have been greatly underestimated by the outside world, including, to some extent, many elements in the Orthodox community. The classical Rastas were sophisticated theological and philosophical thinkers, not cargo-cultists worshiping newspaper photos of an African despot. They had discovered many sophisticated theological concepts for themselves, and had retraced many of the Christological and other debates of the early Church. They brought a truly rich cultural and artistic legacy, including some of the twentieth century's most moving hymnography..
While Abuna Yesehaq, at least, certainly seems to recognize this, in practise Rastas often seem to be told by the church that they must become Ethiopians in order to become Orthodox. Many are willing to do this, so great is their thirst for Truth and so acute their sense of having lost their true African culture. More, however, are not--and in a way rightly so. The Church is the poorer to the extent it does not incorporate what is good about the Rasta experience and instead tiresomely emphasizes the "heresy of emperor-worship" and "herbal sorcery". What is forgotten is that the existence of the Rastafari movement is a miracle: a forgotten people and a lost culture bringing itself by "reasonings" to the very edge of Orthodoxy. Surely this is a supernatural event, and so the Orthodox Rastas see it. An anonymous nyabingi chant goes:
Michael going to bring them, bring them to the Orthodox Church. No matter what they do, no matter what they say. Gabriel going to bring them, bring them to the Orthodox Church. Raphael going to bring them, Uriel going to bring them, Sorial going to bring them, Raguel going to bring them, Fanuel going to bring them, bring them to the Orthodox Church.
I will conclude with a song by Berhane Selassie (Bob Marley), written around the time he was converting to Orthodoxy from the Twelve Tribes and summing up the whole Orthodox Rasta "seen":
Old pirates, yes, they rob I Sold I to the merchant ships, Minutes after they took I From the bottomless pit. But my hand was made strong By the hand of the Almighty. We followed in this generation, triumphantly. Won't you help to sing these songs of freedom? Cause all I ever have: redemption songs,
These songs of freedom. This was the last song on the last album Marley released before his death.
FOR FURTHER READING:
R. Auger et al., *The Rastafarian Movement in Kingston*, Univ. of the West Indies, 1960 (A long excerpt is in Lincoln, infra.)
L. Barrett, *The Rastafarians* Boston: Beacon, 1977
H. Campbell, *Rasta and Resistance* Trenton NJ: Africa World, 1987
E. Cashmore, *Rastaman* London: Allen & Unwin, 1979
B. Chevannes, *Rastafari: Roots and Ideology* Syracuse University, 1994
C. E. Lincoln,ed., *The Black Experience in Religion* New York: Anchor/ Doubleday, 1974
W. J. Moses, *Black Messiahs and Uncle Toms* Pennsylvania State University, 1993
R. Mulvaney and C. Nelson, *Rastafari and Reggae: A Dictionary* New York: Greenwood, 1990
W. J. Payne, ed., *Directory of African-American Religious Bodies* Washington: Howard Univ., 1991
Archbishop Yesehaq, *The Ethiopian Tewahedo Church* (available from Holy Trinity Cathedral,140-142 W. 176th St, Bronx NY 10451) | <urn:uuid:4d93cda8-fbb5-4f0f-8d6d-8d2dee5038d6> | CC-MAIN-2014-35 | http://rastas-home.tripod.com/history_of_rastafarians.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-35/segments/1408500834258.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20140820021354-00134-ip-10-180-136-8.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970068 | 6,010 | 2.96875 | 3 | {
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What’s one thing you’ll almost always see at the center of any given restaurant table?
First thing that comes up in my mind is a glass bottle of Heinz Tomato Ketchup. The fact of the matter is, Heinz ketchup has become a staple of American cuisine. Though, behind that world-famous condiment lies an unexpected story.
“Filthy, decomposed and putrid” are all words that famed cuisine author Pierre Blot used in 1866 to describe the quality of commercial ketchups being sold at the time. When you opened a bottle at that time, the contents could literally kill you. The main reason that ketchup was so filthy was due to the shortness of the tomato season. The season lasted from mid-August until mid-October, so ketchup could only be made fresh for two months out of the year’s twelve. By the late 1800’s Americans were so used to ketchup on their tables, that they expected its availability all year. Manufacturers then began to use preservatives on massive quantities of ketchup to meet the year-long expectations. Those preservatives included boric acid, formalin, salicylic acid, and benzoic acid. And yes, those are chemical compounds used in today’s acne treatments and other commercial cleaning products. Even worse, the manufacturers added coal tar color the ketchup its signature red. And finally, to top it all off, the ketchup was cooked in copper tubs, leading to a chemical reaction between the copper and ketchup that could actually make the concoction poisonous to consume. How delicious does that sound?!?
The important part is what happened next.
Heinz took a complete turn and became the world’s leader in clean ketchup. And it all started with the very bottle itself being crystal clear in place of the brown bottles used by the rest. Heinz workers were also expected to be superfluously hygienic. Heinz provided new uniforms, free laundry service for those uniforms, and even an in-house manicurist. In doing this Heinz nearly guaranteed clean employees, a clean environment, and a clean product. In fact, Heinz’s factories were such models of cleanliness that 30,000 visitors were allowed to tour the factory every year. Heinz knew he had nothing to hide.
As interesting as Heinz’s story is, the key part of it is what we learn it, and how we change as a result of the lessons we took away.
If there were any principles that Henry Heinz valued more than any others, they were purity & transparency. Every bottle of Heinz Ketchup sold is see-through is for that very reason. It’s a design statement: purity through transparency. It is with that very principle that we must present ourselves to the world. Be pure and transparent in your goals, vision, and core company principles.
Define the vision
Heinz has branded its company mission statement to be “As the trusted leader in nutrition and wellness, Heinz – the original Pure Food Company – is dedicated to the sustainable health of people, the planet and our Company.” Like them, it is important to be clear in what your company is working towards. When people understand what you want from yourself, they can better understand how they can help, which is what you ultimately want them to do in some way.
With vision, comes the values you choose to build on to achieve your goals.
Define the values
Heinz names team building & collaboration, innovation, vision, results, and integrity as its core values. When it comes to choosing your values, you must really only answer two questions. “What do you want to work towards?” and “What do you need to do, or are willing to do, to get there?”
Define the quality
For billions of consumers around the globe, “if it isn’t Heinz, it isn’t ketchup.” It’s rational for people not to settle for anything less than greatness when it comes to quality, for that reason Heinz puts so much effort in marketing its own quality. Heinz says is beautifully and simply, “Good food is who we are, pure and simple.”
Define your vision, values, and quality in each and every one of your PowerPoint presentations and you will begin to allow your brand to be universally recognized for exactly what you want it to be recognized for. Taking these steps will show your audiences who and what you are in a simple yet relatable way, which is amazingly useful when it comes to maximizing your sales. | <urn:uuid:4dd84ae1-6d56-4871-9eb0-e79264140463> | CC-MAIN-2018-39 | https://www.slidegenius.com/blog/heinz-transparency/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-39/segments/1537267155792.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20180918225124-20180919005124-00368.warc.gz | en | 0.969847 | 972 | 2.5625 | 3 | {
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Talking helps. Experts espouse it. Its benefits are well documented. It may not work for everyone, every time, but talking – on some level – really does help. Yet there are some things we still struggle to give voice to. Take sexuality and sexual identity as an example. It’s still a taboo subject. Fraught with stigma, shame, and a whole host of conflicting beliefs.
Talking about something so personal, so intimate is often difficult – even impossible. Confused thoughts fill your mind. You doubt yourself. Your self-esteem plummets. Then guilt raises its ugly head.
And that’s if you’re ‘straight’. If you identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, <insert label here>, it can reach whole new levels of complexity. The mere threat of discriminatory retaliation, be it verbal or physical, is enough to scare a person into silence. Making the problem worse.
No matter what position you are currently in however, it is important to keep one thing in mind…
You Are Never Alone
In a video titled ‘Never Alone‘ Welsh rugby legend Gareth Thomas reveals how support from his team-mates helped him deal with his “demons” when it came to revealing his sexuality.
See? Talking helps. But even if you’re not part of a world class sports team, there are people out there you can talk to. Confidentially and safely. People that will provide you with the kind of information and support that is critical to your well-being.
- Speak to your GP
- Speak to a youth worker
- Access Counselling services. (Such as what we offer here at TMT.)
- Access specific LGBT services (see below for helpful links)
No matter your sexual identity or your sexual preferences, if it’s causing you problems, don’t be afraid to talk about them. To a friend, a family member, a professional.
“Problems are not stop signs, they are guidelines.” – Robert Schuller
Don’t let your problems stop you.
- Broken Rainbow UK – Support for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT).
- Queer Youth Network – National LGBT youth organisation in the UK.
- Stonewall – Working for equality and justice for lesbians, gay men and bisexuals.
You May Also be Interested in…
This article published in the Guardian newspaper; “Goodbye Katie, Hello Ben” in which a father shares his experience of being a parent to a teenager undergoing a gender identity change. | <urn:uuid:9e728ce9-b5de-40a2-9d0f-2c3325314030> | CC-MAIN-2019-04 | http://tranquilmountaintherapy.co.uk/author/admin/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-04/segments/1547583829665.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20190122054634-20190122080634-00344.warc.gz | en | 0.937089 | 542 | 2.875 | 3 | {
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The Master-Slave Dialectic and the End of History
It follows for Kojeve that the fight that constitutes human being is necessarily a fight to the death because each of the two individuals involved in this fight is willing to venture his life in an effort to raise himself up as the supreme value of the other. If all human beings were the same, if all pushed this confrontation to its limit, the human reality and human being could never be realized or revealed (ILH 170 ). Thus, Kojeve indicates, there must be “two essentially different human or anthropogenetic behaviors” (ILH 15 ). It is the difference in these behaviors that allows the victory of one individual over the other in the struggle for recognition to produce a Master and his Slave rather than a mere victor and a corpse of the vanquished. At first glance, there appears to be a problem on this point with Kojeve’s analysis. On one hand, he recognizes that something must be different in the character of various homo sapiens, such that some become Masters and others become Slaves. On the other hand, he also wants to say that this something is “not innate”; that “nothing predisposes” a particular homo sapiens to become one or the other; that there is no cause or reason that can explain the outcome (ILH 496 [224-225] and 171n1 [43n1]; cf. HMC 353 ). It is a matter of decision or behavior, not of essence or nature. At the same time, however, the Slave “does not raise himself above his biological instinct of preservation”; he has “an intuition of human reality,” which may be that “animal-life is just as important to it as pure self-consciousness”; and he has a “fearful ‘nature,’” and a “slavish desire for life at any price” (ILH 170 , 176 , 21 , 179-180 [52-52], and 183 ). The Master, moreover, was willing to go to the end (i.e., to die), meaning it is simply a fact that he could not have become a Slave, but only a corpse. Thus, while “there is something in man, in everyman, that makes him suited to participate—passively or actively—in the realization of universal history,” it is difficult not to conclude (contra-Kojeve) on the basis of his initial account that the character of the participation of a particular individual is dependent on an essence or nature immanent within this individual (ILH 162 ). This tension in Kojeve’s analysis is caused by his needing to explain the duality of human being that is presupposed thereby, while also preserving some basis for human moral freedom understood as the capacity for choice or decision. When we return to this problem below, we will see that the decision of a homo sapiens is related not to his essence or nature, but rather to the particular circumstances of the actual struggle into which he enters. Regardless of the reason, ultimately one of the two combatants must yield to the other, and the humanity that is immanent in every homo sapiens will be actualized in the Master, while remaining merely potential in the Slave (ILH 162 ). At its birth, then, the human consciousness is always either Master or Slave, never simply human; at least at the outset, self-consciousness is either autonomous or dependent.
It is necessary also to examine the Master-Slave dialectic itself. In bringing the other to submit, the Master obtains that which he seeks—objective recognition of his subjectively certain autonomous value. In demonstrating his willingness to fight to the death, he likewise demonstrates his freedom or autonomy from nature; he shows that he is free from the particular existence that he has; he shows his “absolute independence of all given conditions” (ILH 180 ). There is another aspect to the Master’s freedom from nature— the fact that his existence is now mediated through the work of the Slave. The Slave works on the natural given to produce things for the consumption and enjoyment of the Master. Through his selfovercoming and the work of another, “the Master is free with respect to Nature, and consequently, satisfied with himself” (ILH 24 ). But the Slave’s relation to the object has changed as well. Prior to his submission to his Master he would have partaken of the fruits of his own labor, but now he works on the given, natural world in the service of the desire of another. As a result, this work can be considered to be the activity of the Master, and the Slave understood to be a tool. Yet his understanding of his own activity changes qualitatively over time. Whereas the Slave initially submitted to the Master because he did not overcome his biological desire for life, he is required to overcome his biological desires (e.g., for food and drink), to delay or deny their gratification, when working in the service of the Master. Thus the Slave, too, overcomes nature (i.e., certain biological desires) within himself.
Yet the Master-Slave relation is inherently unstable, owing to the deficient quality of the recognition between Master and Slave. The “unequal and one-sided recognition that has been born from this relation” is not “authentic recognition” because it is not reciprocal (ILH 24 ). As Kojeve explains, the recognition of the Master by the Slave fails fully to satisfy the former because “he can be satisfied only by recognition from one whom he recognizes as worthy of recognizing him” (ILH 25 ). If the Slave is the being who allows the Master to be liberated from nature by working for the Master’s ends, the Slave is no more than a living tool for the Master, a being whom the Master must consider lower than human. If the origin of the human is the anthropogenetic desire for recognition (which presupposes the existence of another worthy human to do the recognizing), and satisfaction comes only to the one so recognized, then mastery is a dead end. It would seem, then, that the road to freedom and satisfaction must pass through slavery.
At first glance this may seem odd, but in the end it makes sense, given that the birth of freedom is really about the overcoming of slavery. To demonstrate this, Kojeve has us consider the Master-Slave relationship from the perspective of the Slave. This consideration is intended to reveal how the Slave who has overcome his slavery is “[t]he complete, absolutely free man, definitively, and completely satisfied by what he is, the man who is perfected and completed in and by this satisfaction” (ILH 26 ). Notice that this man is completely satisfied by what he is; as such he is no longer future-oriented, no longer timely, and perhaps no longer historical. It is a possibility, then, that in becoming satisfied one ceases to be a human being. In any event, the Slave as Slave has a desire to overcome himself; he has every reason to do so, seeing before him the example of the Master, who is free and appears to be satisfied because not striving to overcome himself. According to Kojeve, “The Slave has renounced the risk of the Struggle and has submitted to the Master because in his eyes the troubles of the Struggle are equivalent to those of Servitude, because the benefits of security compensate for the burdens of Servitude. Or once again, Servitude is ‘just’ because in it the benefits and burdens mutually balance one off another” (EPD 292 ). Or yet again, “It is from the point of view of this Justice of equivalence that the Slave judges and justifies his own condition. He accepts it as just because in it the benefit of security is equivalent to the burden of the servile condition” (EPD 294 ). If the two states are equivalent, if the burdens and benefits of each condition balance off the other, then why switch one’s choice from slavery to mastery? The foregoing is true only for the pure slavish self-consciousness, for “if the Slave claims to be a juridical person, i.e., a human being, it is because he is no longer truly or solely a Slave. He is also a non-Slave, i.e., a Master, to the extent that he does this” (EPD 310 ). The self-consciousness of the Slave within history, of the Slave who is an active participant in the transformation of both the natural world and himself, changes over time. In the final analysis, “the Slave must impose his liberty on the Master,” by reengaging in the struggle to the death; he must “overcome his fear of death,” for there can be no liberty without the “bloody fight” (ILH 177-178 [50-51], 179-180 [52-53], and 182 ; cf. 518n1 [248n34]).
Naturally, we must ask, what makes the Slave capable of such self-overcoming? As Kojeve explains, it is his experience of
the fear of death, the fear of the absolute Master. By this fear, the slavish Consciousness melted internally; it shuddered deeply and everything fixed-or-stable trembled in it. . . . In his mortal terror he understood (without noticing it) that a given, fixed, stable condition, even though it be the Master’s, cannot exhaust the possibilities of human existence. . . . There is nothing fixed in him. He is ready for change; in his very being, he is change, transcendence, transformation, “education”; he is historical becoming at his origin, in his essence, in his very existence. On the one hand, he does not bind himself to what he is; he wants to transcend himself by negation of his given state. On the other hand, he has a positive ideal to attain; the ideal of autonomy, of Being-for-itself, of which he finds the incarnation, at the very origin of his Slavery, in the Master. . . . The Slave knows what it is to be free. He also knows that he is not free, and that he wants to become free. (ILH 27-28 [21-22])
The means by which the Slave secures his freedom is work. As we saw earlier, it is through work that the Slave masters nature and thereby overcomes that which resulted in his servitude. The Slave was dominated by the biological desire for self-preservation; work masters nature and thereby transforms the slave nature of the Slave; it frees him from his own ‘nature,’ from animal desire, and thus from the Master.
It is not just any old work that ultimately frees the Slave; “only work carried out in the another’s service is humanizing,” as work for another requires that one overcome one’s natural relationship to the objects produced (i.e., deny oneself gratification) (ILH 171 ; cf. 176 and 190 [65-66]). Furthermore, the conditions of the primitive struggle (and its immediate sequel) do not allow the Slave to be free; rather, these conditions must be transformed to make the freedom of the Slave, or of the former Slave, possible. What Kojeve has in mind is the transformation of the world brought about by the modern scientific project:
In the raw, natural, given World, the Slave is slave of the Master. In the technical world transformed by his work, he rules, or, at least, will one day rule—as absolute Master. And this Mastery that arises from work, from the progressive transformation of the given World and of man given in this World, will be an entirely different thing from the “immediate” Mastery of the Master. (ILH 28 )
The liberation of the Slave through work transforms the world, but also transforms man. The fear of death reveals the value of the mere fact of existence (i.e., the fact that every kind of human good presupposes life) and thereby renders existence a serious matter. “But [the Slave] is not yet aware of his autonomy, of the value and the ‘seriousness’ of his liberty, of his human dignity” (ILH 29 ). This awareness results only from the transformation he undergoes as a result of work, which requires that he sublimate his desires by repressing them. To work, to delay gratification, to repress the immediate desires in service of a future plan is to form oneself as a human being.
Kojeve refers to this “formed or educated” man as “the completed man who is satisfied by his completion” (ILH 30 ). In light of the professed goal of the modern project—the conquest of nature for the relief of man’s estate—one must ask whether man remains human in his completed form. Or put somewhat differently, does work (not mere labor but the active negation of the natural world, made meaningful as the transformation of the world required for the Slave’s liberation) come to an end at the end of history (cf. ILH 170-171 , 189 , 434n1 [I58n6], and 501n1 [230n25])? And if so, what then of the human? Does his existence echo that of the Master who works not and whose path was a dead end? In completing himself does man remain ever complete, eternally identical to himself, and if so, does he not then return to nature, become again a given being (cf. ILH 180-181 [53-54], 432 , 434n1 [158n6], 463 , 482-483 , 492 , 492n1 [220n19], and 494-495 [222-223])?
Setting these questions aside, we must consider the conditions under which one could attain perfection or completion. As argued earlier, the transformation and development of man requires the transformation and development of the world. This is understood to take place as a result of the prior (or at the very least concurrent) transformation of the Slave, that is, it is not the Slave as Slave that will be free and for whom the world is transformed, but the Slave become free and no longer Slave and yet not Master, “the Citizen” (ILH 175 ; cf. EPD 311-312 [256-266]). As Kojeve explains, “[i]t is the Citizen, and him [sic] only, who will be fully and definitely satisfied (befriedigt); for he alone will be recognized by one whom he himself recognizes and he will recognize the one who recognizes him. Therefore, it is only he who will be truly realized in actuality as a human being” (EPD 242 ). In light of this, the important question is: How is the citizen actualized? How is he brought into being? Answering this question requires a full understanding of the citizen, including an account of his origin (i.e., of the Slave and his character), as well as of the process of his transformation, and the goal of this transformation.
Self-consciousness issues, we recall, out of the struggle for recognition in the double form of Master and Slave. The Master is the one who subordinates absolutely his biological desire (i.e., his instinct for preservation) to his anthropogenetic desire (i.e., his desire for recognition); the Slave is the one whose anthropogenetic desire is overcome by his biological desire manifest as the fear of death. In other words, he has a “fearful 'nature"; a “slavish desire for life at any price” (ILH 179-180 [52-53] and 183 ). Casting this failure to overcome in its most favorable light, one could say that the Slave has “an intuition of human reality,” that he is unconsciously aware that “animal-life is just as important to it as pure self-consciousness” (ILH 176 and 21 ). It is precisely this intuitive awareness that must be overcome: the Slave must become conscious of the fact that “man ought to risk his life in certain circumstances to be truly human, to be a man” (EPD 249 ). Such awareness of the duty to risk one’s life in certain circumstances prompts the question: under which circumstances? This in turn raises the question of the origin of the Slave’s fear. Again, Kojeve contends that slavery is “not innate,” that is, “nothing predisposes” a particular homo sapiens to become a Slave or a Master; there is no cause or reason that can explain the outcome; it is only a matter of decision or behavior, not of essence or nature (ILH 496 [224-225], and 171n1 [43n1]). But this is not precisely the case; rather, there is something that causes, there is a reason that explains, the fear of the Slave: the relative physiological, biological, or natural inequality of homines sapientes prior to the initiation of the struggle for recognition creates in the relatively weak Slave doubt about his ability to prevail, that is, the Slave “does not believe in his victory . . . in the death of the other” (EPD 294 ; cf. 254n1 [222n8]). An individual may disregard such objective inequalities in the strength or capacity of the body and seek to compensate for them through greater strength or capacity of soul; however, such an individual, who will either prevail in the struggle or die, is not a Slave. Slaves are ‘reasonable’ in their assessments of relative capacities and would diagnose such a masterly type as suffering from a Napoleon complex.
Kojeve, then, appears to be correct that it is not the result of an essence or nature innate to or inherent in the one who becomes a Slave; rather, his slavery, like his future freedom, is dependent on certain circumstances—if he had happened to struggle with someone smaller or weaker, slower or stupider, less skilled or more cowardly, he very well could have prevailed as Master. For the Slave, the belief in one’s victory is inherently related to or relative to the circumstances in which one happens to struggle. But this conclusion opens up the possibility that the Master’s freedom, too, is dependent on particular, fortuitous circumstances (and as we see, this is an underlying assumption of the revolutionary action of the Slave, which drives history toward its end). However, it is also possible that, like the individual who from the slavish perspective ‘suffers’ from a Napoleon complex, the Master fails to recognize the ‘reasonable’ limits of the particular circumstances. Thus, while Kojeve asserts that the Master and the Slave do not exist in their pure form, that they are only principles (meaning that all real individuals already are citizens in some form with some mixture of Master and Slave within), there remains the logical possibility of the pure Master who “is ready to go to his death, which is equivalent to nothing (or is equivalent to the nothing), being pure nothingness” (EPD 272 ; cf 243 and ILH 178 and 180 ). The freedom of the pure Master rests on his subjectively certain belief in his victory and, therefore, would remain utterly independent of objective circumstances.
To return to the importance of the belief in one’s victory: it is only if one believes that one could prevail that one will consent to enter into the struggle. One consents to enter the struggle, rather than asserting one’s freedom by committing suicide beforehand, because one seeks recognition of one’s willingness to risk one’s life, of one’s freedom from the fear of death. To enjoy this recognition one must be alive. The eulogy uttered by the victor over the corpse of the vanquished—‘He fought valiantly and died with honor!’—satisfies not the latter, but honors and recognizes the accomplishment of the former. When one consents to enter the struggle, then, one seeks to live with the risk of an honorable death, rather than merely to die honorably. Kojeve’s discussion of the role of mutual consent in the initiation and issue of the struggle for recognition helps to clarify precisely what is occurring.
One of the adversaries, therefore, consents to struggle only because he assumes that the other equally consents to do so.
But this is not enough. He still assumes that the other effectively risks his life in the same way that he does so himself.
If he thought that the other engages in a struggle against him without risk to himself, he would not have consented to engage in it. (EPD 252 )
What is important to work out is what exactly is understood to be equal risk. “[T]he same risk” is referred to as “under the same conditions,” which cannot mean simply equally strong, large, speedy, smart, skilled, and courageous; rather, it is a formal sameness or equality (EPD 252 ). If individuals A and B are “interchangeable,” meaning that both A and B would consent to engage in the struggle for recognition even if they were to exchange places, then it can be said that A and B exist under the same conditions, that they enter the struggle with the same risk (EPD 274 ). Thus, the fact that there is a struggle implies that both Master and Slave are human in some form: “He [the Slave] is human because he has risked his life by first accepting the Struggle (or, at the very least, if he refused the Struggle from the beginning, he called to mind the idea of risk and death for recognition)” (EPD 293 ).
The conditions of the decision to undertake the struggle are crucial to our understanding of what is necessary for the Slave to overcome his fear. What we know at this point is that the Slave realized, whether prior to or during the struggle, that he would not prevail. In submitting to the Master, he establishes in fact that there is no longer equality between them, “for the one put in the place of the other would no longer have acted like him: the Master in the place of the Slave would not have surrendered, and the Slave in the place of the Master would not have continued the struggle to the very end” (EPD 255 ). The outcome of the struggle, while unequal, is said to be “equivalent. Mastery is for the Master what Servitude is for the
Slave. Two human conditions (equal or not), [are . . . ] equivalent, if in each of them there is an equivalence of constitutive elements, of benefits and burdens, from the point of view of the one who is in the condition in question” (EPD 294 ). This equivalence can certainly be seen at the conclusion of the struggle: as the Slave works in the service of the Master, he transforms himself, overcoming the biological desires responsible for his initial submission. As Kojeve explains, “if A’s condition changes, it is possible—for him—that his droits are no longer equivalent to his duties, [and] consequently neither [are] the droits and duties of B, even if B’s condition remains the same” (EPD 304 ). The particular example used to explain this formal statement is enlightening: “Thus, the ‘contract’ between the lord and his serfs changed from the sole fact that the latter no longer needed to be protected militarily. The ‘status’ of the lord has been altered according to this change of the state of the serfs. And it is of little importance that the lord continued to be ready to defend them if the case arose” (EPD 305n1 [261n21]). The equivalence of the mutual relations of Master and Slave is undermined by the change in the character and conditions of the Slave, leading him eventually to become again open to a struggle. This “transformation of the Slave, which will allow him to surmount his dread, his fear of the Master, by surmounting the terror of death—this transformation is long and painful” (ILH 180 ). Its goal is the reestablishment of the equality of conditions; but what kind of changes are required to reach this goal?
In discussing the place of the Master in the world transformed by the work of the Slave, Kojeve chooses a revealing subject as his example.
The human Action of the Master reduces to risking his life. Now, the risk of life is the same at all times and in all places.
The risk itself is what counts, and it does not matter whether a stone ax or a machine gun is being used. Accordingly, it is not the Fight as such, the risk of life, but Work that one day produces a machine gun, and no longer an ax. (ILH 178 )
The risk qua risk may remain the same, but the one who can risk, that is, reasonably risk with a belief in the possibility of his victory,
does not. In a fight between a strong man and a weak one, the latter has a better chance of prevailing with any weapon than he does with none. This remains true even if the former is armed. A weapon is a force equalizer, and, in a sense at least, it can be considered analogous to “the practice of handicap” in sport—it levels the playing field (EPD 295 ). Looking at the consequences of the establishment of equal conditions through the transformation of the natural world, we see that it not only reopens the possibility of the struggle for the Slave, but it may also at the same time close the respective openness of the Master. As more and more individuals are made technologically capable of effectively competing in the struggle (having been formerly, or naturally, incapable of doing so), it necessarily will become more difficult to maintain one’s status as Master while also potentially decreasing the benefits received from that status. If Kojeve is correct that, from the standpoint of the Master, mastery, like servitude, represents an acceptable equilibrium, then an increase in the burden with a simultaneous decrease in the benefits would seem to be liable to upset it in favor of servitude. It seems logical to conclude that over time only the those Masters closest to the pure ideal would maintain themselves as Masters; in fact, given sufficient time and equalization (or “at the extreme,” as Kojeve might say), there may remain only one—the most masterly of the Masters, the one who will fight regardless of the given circumstances.
At this point we have arrived at the (hypothetical) single Master together with the universal slavery of all others, that is, one man universally recognized by all others whom he does not recognize in turn—since they are unworthy of recognition because unwilling to engage in the struggle (EPD 274 ). Ultimately, the Slave “must impose his liberty on the Master”; he must “dare to fight against the Master and to risk his life in a Fight for Freedom” (ILH 178 and 180 ). In short, “[h]e will not cease to be a Slave, as long as he is not ready to risk his life in a Fight against the Master, as long as he does not accept the idea of his death. A liberation without a bloody Fight, therefore, is metaphysically impossible” (ILH 182 ). In discussing this metaphysical limitation, Kojeve connects the final rise of the Slaves against the Master to “Robespierre’s Terror,” indicating thereby not only that the revolution may not have to wait until there is but one Master alone on earth, but also the terrifying and bloody character of this final fight (ILH 194 ). But this final, bloody fight to the death must occur for two reasons: (1) as long as there is an element of mastery in existence, slavery, too, must necessarily exist—meaning that only the final abolition of mastery can abolish servitude; and (2) “the master is uneducable,” meaning the Master qua Master cannot be transformed (ILH 502 ).
It is in and by the final Fight, in which the working ex-Slave acts as combatant for the sake of glory alone, that the free Citizen of the universal and homogeneous State is created; being both Master and Slave, he is no longer either the one or the other, but is the unique “synthetical” or “total” Man, in whom the thesis of Mastery and the antithesis of Slavery are dialectically “overcome”—that is, annulled in their one-sided or imperfect aspect, but preserved in their essential or truly human aspect, and therefore sublimated in their essence and in their being. (ILH 502-503 )
With the rise of this historically synthesized citizen comes the birth of the universal, homogeneous state.
The need to abolish mastery absolutely in all its forms so as to abolish servitude ends up shaping the state’s efforts at equalization. Eventually, once the inequalities among men have been addressed, one must then turn to those rooted in “biological reasons, since Society—in order to last—must imply women and children incapable of struggle” (EPD 308 ; cf. 540 ). In other words, the final conquest of nature, according to Kojeve, requires the complete overcoming of all biological or ‘natural’ inequalities including those associated with the asymmetries of sex and age; females and children must be made equal to all adult males in their capacity to fight for recognition. Yet in the final analysis, the qualitative difference between men and women simply cannot be surmounted:
[I]n the case of women, one comes up against an irreducible difference: men cannot have children. One is thus forced to keep the principle of equivalence while trying to overcome as much as possible the human (“social”) consequences of irreducible biological differences. Practically speaking, one will try to establish a perfect equivalence between maternity and military service, while putting men and women on an equal footing everywhere else. (EPD 316 )
Just how radically one may have to reshape the society to bring about an equal footing remains obscure.
But in the case of children Kojeve provides a more explicit account of what would be entailed in overcoming their inferiority to adults. The first step is to secure for them tutors (i.e., supervised education). But this merely shifts the inequality: the adult is free; the child is supervised. The next step is to introduce tutors for adults, but this will tend toward submitting
both [children and adults] to an equivalent system, for example, by introducing a supervision of all activity by the State (the command economy). Now this supervision will sooner or later end up (in the socialist Society) in an equalization of situations of children and adults, [with] the adults, in a Society without private property, ceasing to exercise the majority of droits that the children are incapable of exercising themselves. (EPD 317 , emphasis added)
Kojeve’s next paragraph is but four words long: “Et ainsi de suited “And so forth.” He thereby indicates that there is another class of individuals whose situations would also have to be equalized, a class he typically includes explicitly (as he does two paragraphs later) when discussing irreducible differences: “the insane” (EPD 41 , 43 , 317 , and 412 ). If the equalization of adults and children requires the infantilization of adults, just what would the equalization of the sane and the insane require?
What is clear is that the progressive equalization of individuals has a distinct tendency toward the expansion of state power and the constraint of individual liberty. It would thus appear to be the case that the abolition of the final human Master inaugurates the birth of the Master state, and that the citizen re-creates his own servitude, not indeed to another human being but to a faceless, cold state. At the end of history we have the state as Master and the citizen as Slave. But the formal equality of citizens that the state secures, along with the reciprocal recognition on which the Master-state is founded, is for Kojeve sufficient to look forward to a rationally selfconscious, atheistic, and hence fully satisfied humanity.
- This distinction between human being in actuality, human being in potentiality,and homo sapiens (the animal support for human being), is of crucial importancein Esquisse d’unephenomenologie du droit: see, in particular, EPD 127 (121), 240242 (212-213), and 292-293 (251-252); cf. EPD 272 (236).
- We see here that Kojeve’s concern with subjective certainty as a criterion oftruth is rooted in the very foundations of his Hegelianism (cf. OT 153 and 162).
- Kojeve hints at the posthuman existence of homo sapiens at the end of history innumerous places in Introduction a la lecture de Hegel: see, for example, ILH 180181 (53-54), 432 (156), 434n1 (158n6), 463 (187), 492 (220), 492n1 (220n19),and 494-495 (222-223).
- While “the freedom of the Master does not depend on the particular form ofthe given” (ILH 179 ), the freedom of the Slave is directly tied to the conditions of the given (i.e., it is possible only at the end of history in the universal, homogeneous state). If, however, “the idea of freedom, or more precisely, ofautonomy, [is the] absolute independence of all given conditions of existence”(ILH 180 ), then the Slave can never be free (cf. EPD 238 ).
- Cf. ILH 522 (253) on the connection between the “seriousness” of human existence, human mortality, and the possibility of the failure of history.
- The persistence of such naturally occurring inequalities and the necessity ofstate action to overcome them explains why Kojeve (unlike Marx and Engels)sees the state persisting at the end of history rather than withering away.
- As detailed earlier, the work of the Slave transforms the circumstances in whichthe Masters exist and thereby changes the behavior of the marginal masterlytypes. The other Masters remain as they are and must be overcome through violent revolution.
- As we see momentarily, Kojeve also tends to include “the insane” in this category (cf. EPD 41 , 43 , 317 , and 412 ). | <urn:uuid:978c9849-f48e-4edb-8387-39131342dbeb> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://m.ebrary.net/104379/philosophy/master_slave_dialectic_history | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141176256.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20201124111924-20201124141924-00587.warc.gz | en | 0.95999 | 7,336 | 2.890625 | 3 | {
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Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang, North Korea, is one of the tallest unoccupied buildings in the world.
Construction on the “Hotel of Doom” began in 1987 and has stopped and started several times.
One side of the 1,080-foot building has been outfitted with LED screens used for light shows.
At 1,080 feet, North Korea’s Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang is one of the tallest unoccupied buildings in the world.
The 105-story “Hotel of Doom,” which is also North Korea’s tallest building, has never hosted a single guest, but it remains a subject of international fascination.
Here’s the story behind the abandoned skyscraper that dominates the capital city’s skyline.
Construction on the Ryugyong Hotel began in Pyongyang in 1987, but halted due to economic troubles in North Korea.
When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, North Korea lost its main trading partner and source of aid, spurring an economic crisis.
The hotel reached its full height in 1992, but the inside was never completed.
The Ryugyong Hotel is 105 stories tall and is sometimes referred to as the 105 Building.
To this day, it has never hosted a single guest.
Despite its aversion to foreign visitors, North Korea does have several functional hotels in Pyongyang. Until the Ryugyong Hotel is completed, the Yanggakdo International Hotel is the city’s largest, and the Ryanggang Hotel is widely regarded as the fanciest.
Its pyramid shape dominates the Pyongyang skyline from miles away.
Each of the building’s three sections, which join together at the top, are 328 feet (100 meters) long, according to Atlas Obscura.
At the very top of the building, an eight-story cone-shaped section was supposed to feature revolving restaurants.
It remains empty, like the rest of the hotel.
More external work began on the hotel in 2008 with the installation of glass panels over its entire surface.
An Egyptian contractor, the Orascom group, took over the project and revived construction in 2008, according to Reuters.
It would cost an estimated $2 billion to finally finish the Ryugyong Hotel, Reuters reported in 2008, citing South Korean media.
North Korea’s gross domestic product is around $40 billion, according to the most recent data on CIA’s World Factbook. That makes the cost of finishing the building around 5% of the country’s entire GDP.
In the meantime, North Korea has found other uses for the building.
Pyongyang celebrated May Day in 2009 with a fireworks display framing the Ryugyong Hotel.
It serves as a dramatic backdrop for arts troupes’ performances.
The troupes’ performances usually contain propaganda messages. North Korea sent an arts troupe to the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea.
It also provides a backdrop for propaganda messages made up of over 100,000 LED screens.
In 2018, lighting designer Kim Yong Il created a light show comprised of political slogans and party symbols. It played on the building’s surface for several hours every night, according to the Associated Press.
The building itself still doesn’t have electricity, and there’s no expected completion date, but there have been new signs of construction progress.
Alek Sigley, an Australian student who was studying for his master’s degree in Korean literature at Kim Il Sung University, tweeted about new signage above the main entrance of the hotel in June 2019. In July, Sigley was detained for a week and subsequently released after North Korean authorities accused him of committing “spying acts” against the state.
It continues to live up to its nickname, “Hotel of Doom.”
The hotel’s actual name, “Ryugyong,” comes from a historical name for Pyongyang meaning “capital of willows,” according to CNN.
Read the original article on Insider | <urn:uuid:35d0e2ca-fe11-42b6-9e72-ca0a0fd3846d> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | https://www.bloomingtonthemovie.com/north-koreas-tallest-building-is-an-abandoned-hotel-that-has-never-hosted-a-single-guest-take-a-closer-look-at-the-hotel-of-doom.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233510179.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20230926075508-20230926105508-00758.warc.gz | en | 0.95018 | 850 | 2.640625 | 3 | {
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How the Selection of Species Helps Define the Sound of Your Guitar (Acoustic Guitar Magazine, March/April 1994)
Why is it that different woods are used for acoustic guitars, and how do these woods affect the sound of the instrument? In the past, there was less opportunity for confusion on this issue, since most guitars were made of mahogany, rosewood, maple, ebony, and spruce. But with the dwindling availability of traditional tonewoods, particularly those cut from old-growth forests, major manufacturers and smaller luthiers have been compelled to consider the use of alternative species of tonewoods- some of them common and others decidedly uncommon. This article looks at the strengths and weaknesses of the woods most commonly used today for tops, backs and sides, fretboards, and bridges.
Differences between woods can be as mysterious and complex as differences between people. Even within a species, no two pieces of wood are exactly alike. Environmental conditions, genetics, the age of the tree, annular growth patterns, grain orientation, curing conditions, and so on all have an effect on the tonal properties of a piece of wood. In addition, tonewoods respond differently in the hands of different makers. They can also take on different characteristics when used in different models of guitars-even those built by the same maker. And whether a particular wood sounds good or bad depends partially upon who’s doing the listening. So any attempt to sort out distinctions between tonewoods can only be offered from a relatively subjective point of view.
When evaluating tonewoods, luthiers must take into account a wide variety of factors, some of which can be inscrutably subtle, and most of which are likely to vary in priority from one luthier to another. I tend to place a good deal of importance on a couple of elements that, when viewed together, illuminate much of my own understanding of tonewoods.
Velocity of sound refers to the speed at which a material transmits received energy. Simply described, plucked guitar strings transmit energy to the bridge. The bridge in return oscillates one surface of a ported enclosure, setting up sound pressure waves that eventually reach the eardrum. In order to contain this chain reaction, one must design an efficient ported enclosure and then make it out of materials that facilitate the transmission of the vibrational energy. Lively materials-those with a high velocity of sound, or low internal dampening-make the best facilitators.
There are a number of ways in which luthiers judge the sound velocity of wood. The most common method is to hold the wood at a nodal point, tap it, and then listen for the response. (Nodal points are analogous to the locations on a guitar string where natural harmonics can be played.) The difference between a high and a low velocity of sound can often be so apparent that one demonstration is usually sufficient to teach an apprentice how to select most of the good sets out of a given stack of wood. Sometimes a piece of wood is so lively that it doesn’t seem to matter where you tap it or where you hold it. I remember going through a large stack of aged Brazilian rosewood from which I was able to make my selection the moment I lifted a piece off the top of the pile; rubbing one piece of wood against another was enough to make the best sets ring!
In addition to testing for velocity of sound, luthiers also make use of the tapping technique to listen for harmonic content. Like a string, a piece of wood is capable of producing a fundamental tone and an array of harmonics. Though the presence and strengths of individual harmonics are distinctly influenced by changes in the geometry and mass of the piece of wood, elements such as clarity of tone, relative harmonic complexity, and high, low, or mid bias can readily be discovered by holding and tapping a piece of wood in a variety of ways.
Each part of the guitar seems to play a role, be it significant or subtle, in determining the tonal characteristics of the instrument. In very general terms, the top, or soundboard, seems to affect the guitar’s responsiveness, the quickness of its attack, its sustain, some of its overtone coloration, and the strength and quality of each note’s fundamental tone. Most luthiers (but not all) believe that the wood chosen for the top is the single overriding variable that determines the quality of tone of a finished instrument.
Spruce is the standard material for soundboards. These days the most commonly used species is Sitka, due to its availability and to the high yield from its characteristically large-diameter logs. Quartersawn Sitka is quite stiff along and across the grain; high stiffness, combined with the relatively light weight characteristics of most softwoods, is a recipe for high velocity of sound. A strong fundamental-to-overtone ratio gives Sitka a powerful, direct tone that is capable of retaining its clarity when played forcefully. Sitka is an excellent choice of topwood, then, for players whose style demands a wide dynamic response and a robust, meaty tone. On the other side of the balance sheet, the lack of a strong overtone component can result in a “thin” tone when played with a relatively light touch-depending, of course, upon the design of the guitar and the other woods used in its construction. The break-in period for a new Sitka guitar can also be longer than that of other spruces.
The most common alternative to Sitka is Engelmann spruce, another domestic western species. Engelmann is often more expensive than Sitka due to the lower yield from its smaller logs and because most logs have a spiral-grained structure that renders them unsuitable for proper quarter-sawing. Engelmann is considerably lighter in color than Sitka spruce, lighter in weight, and usually less stiff, resulting in a slightly lower velocity of sound. Engelmann also tends to exhibit a weaker fundamental tone, although it produces a noticeably broader and stronger overtone component. It is therefore a good choice for players who require a richer, more complex tone than can be obtained from most Sitka tops, particularly when the instrument is played softly. The downside is that Engelmann tops can have lower “headroom” than Sitka tops, which is to say that clarity and definition are often sacrificed when the guitar is played loudly.
European or silver spruce, the spruce of choice for makers of classical guitars, shares a number of characteristics with Engelmann spruce, including color, lightness of weight, harmonic complexity, and fullness at the lower end of the dynamic range. Because of its visual similarity and significantly higher cost, its name has been affixed more than once to a piece of Engelmann spruce by unscrupulous (or uninformed) wood dealers and luthiers. European spruce differs from Engelmann in its potentially quicker response and greater headroom. The availability of anything better than mediocre European spruce (which is easily exceeded in quality by the better grades of Engelmann-a commodity that is still readily obtainable) is sharply limited, unless the boards are selected at the source in Europe.
Eastern red spruce, also known as Adirondack or Appalachian spruce, was the primary topwood used by American manufacturers before World War II. Its use was all but discontinued due to over-harvesting of the resource but has recently been reintroduced thanks to 50 years of regeneration and to the legendary status that this traditional tonewood has attained. The small size of most logs and a shortage of wood conforming to market preference for even color and regularity of grain conspire to keep the price of red spruce extremely high.
Red spruce is relatively heavy, has a high velocity of sound, and has the highest stiffness across and along the grain of all the topwoods. Like Sitka, it has strong fundamentals, but it also exhibits a more complex overtone content. Tops made out of red spruce have the highest volume ceiling of any species, yet they also have a rich fullness of tone that retains clarity at all dynamic levels. In short, red spruce may very well be the Holy Grail of topwoods for the steel-string guitar. If players and builders were able to overcome phobias about unevenness of color, grain irregularity, minor knots, and four-piece tops, many more great-sounding guitars could be produced while the supply of potentially usable red spruce is still available. Old-growth woods are disappearing so fast that such an attitude change will need to be scheduled sometime in the near future, unless the majority of new guitars are to be made of synthetic materials.
Before leaving the spruces, I should mention bearclaw figure, or hazelficte-a delightful pattern in the grain occasionally occurring in all species of spruce. Bearclaw, like the curl in curly maple, is a rippling of the longitudinal fibers, which divides the surface of the wood into shimmering patterns. Unlike the even waves that usually occur in maple, bearclaw usually appears on asymmetrical or randomly broken patterns. This phenomenon almost always occurs in older trees that have dense, stiff grain structure and high sound velocity. Thus bearclaw is usually a reliable indicator of the better examples of tonewoods within any given species of spruce.
Western red cedar ranges in color from honey brown to light chocolate. It has a quickness of sound that exceeds any of the spruces, a higher overtone content, lower fundamental content, and lower stiffness along the grain. Additionally, cedar tops require a significantly shorter break-in period than spruce tops, a phenomenon that a few dealers of new guitars are beginning to pick up on.
Since World War II, cedar has been used extensively by makers of classical guitars. Cedar-topped guitars are characteristically lush, dark-toned, and bursting with flavor. They are often less powerful in projection than their spruce cousins, however, and they tend to lose clarity near the top of their dynamic range. Having enough bottom end is never a problem for a cedar guitar, although preventing the sound from getting muddy sometimes is. Because of its pronounced weakness along the grain, I find cedar to be used to its best advantage in smaller-bodied guitars or with non-scalloped braces. Redwood is usually darker in color than cedar and often displays the same general tonal characteristics, leaning slightly toward darker tones, less definition in the bass, and lower velocity of sound.
Koa and mahogany have been used for soundboards since the ‘20s, and makers have recently begun to use Maple. These hardwoods have in common a relatively low velocity of sound (as compared to softwood tops), considerable density, and a low overtone content. They therefore tend to produce a solid tone-though not an especially rich one-and respond best at the upper end of the dynamic range. Mahogany-topped guitars exhibit a strong “punchy” tone that is well-suited to country blues playing. Koa has a somewhat more midrangy tone that works well for rhythm and truly shines in guitars made for Hawaiian-style slide playing. Maple, in particular, having the lowest velocity of sound of the three, can be downright flat-sounding-a blessing in disguise when a guitar is amplified at high sound-pressure levels.
Back and Sides
Besides serving to form the enclosure of the soundbox, the back and sides of the guitar also act as a sympathetic resonator whose oscillations contribute greatly to the harmonic mix. When judiciously selected (with due consideration given to design criteria and the other tonewoods used in the instrument), the back and sides can have a tremendous effect on the overall tone of the instrument.
Brazilian and Indian rosewood have an extremely high velocity of sound and a broad range of overtones. The rosewoods, as well as their various rain forest cousins-cocobolo, kingwood, morado, and the like-have strongly pronounced low overtones, usually the lowest resonating frequencies in the entire guitar. These lows help to create a complex bottom end and to impart an overall darkness of tone to the instrument. Strong mids and highs serve to reinforce overtones generated by the top, contributing to a fatness of tone on the upper registers. Guitars made of rosewood also have a pronounced “reverby” tone, caused by a strong, clear set of sympathetic harmonics with a delayed onset and slow decay.
I’ve found that Brazilian rosewood has everything that Indian rosewood has, only more. I say this with great trepidation in light of that species’ likelihood of extinction within a couple of generations. An international embargo on trade on Brazilian rosewood products guarantees that the relatively few sets remaining in this country, which may be used only on domestically sold guitars, will continue to spiral in price as the supply dwindles.
Mahogany and Koa have relatively high velocities of sound when considered as materials for backs and sides and thus contribute much to overtone coloration. Lacking the low-end frequencies of the rosewoods and also their sustaining reverberation, these woods have an altogether different sound. Where rosewood guitars can be thought of as having a “metallic” sound, mahogany and Koa guitars are better described as sounding “woody, although the harder, more dense examples of these woods can take on some of the characteristics of the rosewoods. Between the two, Koa seems to have a little more fullness in the midrange, while mahogany tends to favor the bass (to some extent) and the treble.
Maple and Walnut tend to be more acoustically transparent than other tonewoods, due to a low velocity of sound and a high degree of internal damping. That is to say that they allow tonal characteristics of the top to be heard without the addition of extraneous coloration and may even serve to attenuate some of the overtones emanating from the top.
The harder, denser examples of these woods, such as sugar maple and black walnut- particularly quartersawn examples-tend to lean slightly more toward the tonal direction of mahogany, while softer examples, such as Big leaf Maple and Claro walnut, tend toward greater tonal transparency. Curly, quilted, or bird’s-eye figures do not seem to have much effect on the tone of the wood, but they can be used, like bearclaw, as an indicator of other properties. Quilted figure, for example, occurs most often in softer species and is best displayed when the wood is flat sawn-two characteristics that tend to produce higher damping properties.
Fretboards and Bridges
Players of electric guitars with bolt-on necks have long been hip to the fact that neck and fretboard materials can have a significant bearing on tone. Maple necks can impart a bright, poppy tone that can do much to reinforce the top end of a large-bodied guitar, while Mahogany necks help push the overall palette into a warmer, more woody tonal range.
Fretboard materials also exert an influence on overall tone, although they probably act more as icing on the cake than as a layer of the cake itself. Brazilian rosewood fretboards and their denser rainforrest counterparts add sparkle and ring, and Indian rosewood fretboards can help fatten up the midrange. Wenge, a dense, dark-colored African hardwood unrelated to the rosewoods, has tonal properties remarkably similar to those of Brazilian rosewood.
Ebony, the traditional fingerboard material found on violins, classical guitars, and high-end steel strings, has the lowest velocity of sound of all the woods commonly used in lutherie and has definite damping characteristics. This may not prove to be much of a problem for large-bodied guitars made out of red spruce or Brazilian rosewood, but it may be something to consider when designing smaller guitars, particularly those using some of the less resonant woods for tops and backs.
Bridge materials, like fretboards, cannot make or break an instrument, but they serve to enhance or edit the tonal contributions of other materials found on the guitar. The woods discussed above-ebony, Brazilian rosewood, and Indian rosewood-contribute similar tonal qualities when they are used as bridge materials as when they are used for fretboards.
It is important to remember that wood, when considered generically, can be responsible only for certain aspects of the tone of any guitar. Equally important are the design of the guitar, the skill of the maker, and the quality of the individual pieces of wood from which the guitar is made. Species selection can, however, be a determining factor in the creation of a very special guitar or a guitar designed for a specific purpose.
Our thanks to Acoustic Guitar Magazine for permission to reprint this article. | <urn:uuid:58c784f8-2827-4dfb-8312-ef05a126ae46> | CC-MAIN-2020-45 | https://diamondguitars.nl/about-guitars/tapping-tonewoods-by-dana-bourgeois/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-45/segments/1603107922746.99/warc/CC-MAIN-20201101001251-20201101031251-00516.warc.gz | en | 0.954689 | 3,516 | 3.21875 | 3 | {
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In K-12 education, an effective teacher is the single most important variable in student learning. Over decades, study after study has confirmed this finding and various reform efforts have evolved to ensure that all children are taught by highly-effective teachers. The challenge to achieving such a goal is multifold; there is a lack of consensus among researchers about what makes a teacher “highly-effective,” imprecise measures to ascertain such quality, and, regardless of definitions, insufficient talent to go around.
Critics of next generation learning have argued that technology-enabled learning devalues the role of teachers or makes classrooms “teacher-proof.” In fact, emerging models of next generation learning schools show the exact opposite to be true: innovative approaches that integrate technology and adopt more personalized, mastery-based approaches to teaching allow students to have greater access to highly-qualified teachers with new approaches to classroom staffing models.
One of our own NGLC grantees—Match Education—is a pioneer in adopting innovative approaches to staffing to ensure maximal access to excellent teachers. In Match schools, excellent teachers are supported by a corps of recent college graduates who receive free housing and a modest living stipend in exchange for a year of service. Members of the Match Corps are each assigned six or seven Match students at the beginning of the year with whom they work in small groups or in one-on-one tutorials over the course of each day, providing close academic support and building personal relationships. The tutors help support and sustain the highly-qualified master classroom teachers; some of the tutors, in fact, go on to train as teachers themselves.
Other schools are using blended learning techniques as a mechanism to enable new approaches to staffing. The national research and policy consulting group, Public Impact, has recently launched its Opportunity Culture network, a group of schools that are experimenting with new models of staffing to ensure that all students have access to excellent teachers. In fact, three out of four of the founding members of the network--Foundations College Prep, Touchstone Education, and Venture Academies-- are NGLC grantees as well. One of the models identified by the Opportunity Culture research is the “time-technology” rotation swap. In such a model, digital instruction replaces enough top-teacher time that they can teach more students. Students have digital instruction for 25% or more of learning time. This swap can take place in either an in-person, brick-and-mortar classroom setting or in a remote location. Public Impact has done an excellent job describing the time-technology model and many other models in its Opportunity Culture on their website.
As we launch our Wave IV of funding for new secondary, breakthrough schools (first round of applications due April 22), we encourage prospective applicants to experiment with innovative ways to deploy teachers, tutors, and other critical educators to best support student learning. We are eager to review models where technology is the enabling force that allows excellent teachers to have an even greater impact than in a traditional classroom. Join us today! | <urn:uuid:af9cfb86-a9fa-4bba-a5d0-4b2aab543c50> | CC-MAIN-2017-30 | http://nextgenlearning.org/blog/nglc-seeks-innovative-staffing-models | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549424931.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20170724222306-20170725002306-00638.warc.gz | en | 0.953922 | 616 | 2.734375 | 3 | {
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Origins of shrine are mysterious
Faithful often travel to site overlooking Trinidad hospital
TRINIDAD — Some of the largest shrines to the Virgin Mary have been built because of reported apparitions of the Mother of God to people around the world.
Beyond the town on a hill overlooking the Mt. San Rafael Hospital the Ave Maria Shrine was built for a similar reason.
The history of the Ave Maria Shrine, which is now belongs to the Catholic Diocese of Pueblo, is as mysterious as the Blessed Mother herself.
According to the Trinidad Holy Trinity Catholic Church, in 1908, a Trinidad physician was leaving Mt. San Rafael Hospital, after all night duty.
Through a snowstorm, Dr. John Espy was on his way home when he noticed a glimmer of light flickering on the hill directly behind the hospital.
Historians say that Espy first gave it little attention, believing that snow flurries were creating an illusion.
He then thought about the possibility that someone may be hurt or stranded on the hill so he ascended upward to where the light originated.
As Espy reached a clearing, historians said, he was spellbound at the sight of a 250-pound statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, with a lit candle flickering at its base.
Espy called out to see if anyone was on the hill, but no one answered.
The community wondered how such a large statue was taken up a snow-filled hill and how a candle would stay lit in such a storm.
Faithful residents accepted this as a divine sign from God that a shrine should be built in her honor on the hill.
“We do not know if this story is true or not. Still, it does remind us of a couple of things about Mary: Many Christians witness that Mary is for them a refuge,” a message on the Holy Trinity Catholic Church’s website said.
“Many Christians venerate Mary under the title of Our Lady of Light (Santa Maria de la Luz). Perhaps these are things all of us should be looking for here — refuge and light.”
John Pearce, business manager of the Trinidad parish, said a lot of people around town have embraced the story to be true.
“I embrace it as being true as well,” Pearce said.
The early settlers erected a small lava rock shrine, where Our Lady was placed, and the faithful made daily pilgrimages and offered prayers to God through here intercession.
In 1934, Trinidadian Rosaria Vecchio, and a group of woman known as the Circolo Moriano Society began plans for building the present chapel and a grotto.
Historians said that in 1962, vandals destroyed the statue, breaking it into 279 pieces. It was almost a total loss, but thanks to the patience and skilled hands of Sam Arguello and his son Anthony, it was restored and placed inside the Shrine, above the altar, where it remains today.
Over the years, many have helped develop and maintain the shrine and its surroundings.
Steps leading up to the chapel are flanked by two blue and white statues of Mary. A giant cross sits in a garden to the right of the chapel. Statues of saints also dot the landscape. A statue of Saint Anthony also is near the chapel. A large rosary is strewn across the front of the white building.
Pearce said it is hard to tell how many people visit the shrine.
“We have no way to count them, but based on what we see, there are several,” Pearce said.
“Both local and tourist. The tourist see the cross on the hill and that draws them there. It is a beautiful and quiet place to pray, both inside and outside.
A Mass and rosary are held every third Saturday of the month during the summer.
“If weather permits, we continue into the fall. The drive to the Shrine as well as the steps are the issue,” Pearce said.
There are between 30 and 40 that attend the services, Pearce said.
“For as long as the Ave Maria Shrine has been here in Trinidad, it is still somewhat unknown,” Pearce said.
“I heard a lady say at the last Mass that she has lived here all her life and this was her first visit. There are a few travelers that come through and want to see the shrine and we try to accommodate them as much as possible,” Pearce said. He said the doors are always locked and are only opened for Mass and rosary and a visitor.
To visit the inside of the chapel, call Trinidad Area Catholic Pastoral Center at 719-846-3369, ext. 14, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m Monday through Friday, except holidays. | <urn:uuid:9c2b0bf9-a4b2-4b4d-9466-12e96f2530d0> | CC-MAIN-2016-22 | http://www.chieftain.com/news/region/spanishpeaks/2822824-120/shrine-trinidad-maria-mary | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-22/segments/1464049274119.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20160524002114-00187-ip-10-185-217-139.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973251 | 999 | 2.828125 | 3 | {
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One of the sectors where Linux has been at the forefront is the Web server industry. Linux distributions act as servers for a high majority of the websites on the Internet. Apart from websites, they are also used nowadays for Software as a Service, Infrastructure as a Service, etc. platforms, all thanks to its ecosystem centered around security.
Linux Server Load refers to the average work being done by a web server in a given amount of time. It is generally specified in averages of the last 5 minutes, 10 minutes, and 15 minutes.
A higher average server load means that the CPU is being used more, and obviously, access to the server is slow. Apart from this, the memory usage of the system is also considered when server load is being referred to. A server system that runs out of memory can result in its shutdown.
Today, we will learn how to check server load in Linux.
Although the methods described in this article will work even without a server installed on a Linux machine, it would be a good exercise to try them out on a Linux system with a server installed.
You can try to install any common server like Apache or Nginx.
Check Linux Server Load Using Uptime Command
The main purpose of the uptime command in Linux is to show how long the system has been on, i.e., the time elapsed since the last boot. However, it also gives a very quick overview of the load on the system.
What does the load averages, 0.06, 0.03, and 0.00 mean?
As mentioned before these are three averages for the last 1, 5, and 15 minutes. They show the percentage of CPU used in those durations.
Hence, 0.06 means 6% average use of CPU in the last minute, 0.03 means 3% average use of CPU in the last 5 minutes. 0% average use of CPU signifies extremely less use over the span of 15 minutes, which can often be the case if the system is kept in suspend mode.
Check Linux Server Performance Using Vmstat Command
The vmstat command is used to view memory and CPU resource usage in Linux. Instead of displaying averages, it displays the instantaneous usage.
You can simply call it without parameters to get current usage values:
Under CPU, a ‘us’ means resources used by the user, ‘sy’ means resources used by the system, and ‘id’ means the percentage of idle resources.
If you have configured a Swap disk in your system (A partition on a hard drive to be used as RAM if RAM is completely used up), you can see its usage under the ‘swap’ column. If Swap is being used, that is a direct indicator that there is heavy memory usage.
You can also call ‘vmstat’ regularly at intervals to see the loads in near real-time. For example, the following will call vmstat 10 times with an interval of 3 seconds between each call.
$ vmstat 3 10
Notice how at the third call, only 25% CPU is idle, which means there was a load on the server during that time.
We have tried to present a basic understanding of what is meant by server load and explained two commands that can be used to check the server load in Linux. Which commands do you use to check the load on your server? Do let us know in the comments below! | <urn:uuid:c156d987-745b-472d-b478-136e1fdf3832> | CC-MAIN-2021-31 | https://www.linuxshelltips.com/check-linux-server-load/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-31/segments/1627046154158.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20210801030158-20210801060158-00542.warc.gz | en | 0.937578 | 704 | 3.265625 | 3 | {
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Crisp autumn air signals shrimp, flounder migrations
The breakfast rush was on as an outgoing tide aided by the light but steady north wind behind an early November cold front bore a seafood buffet down a narrow channel that snaked through the salt marsh and emptied into East Galveston Bay.
As the trolling motor eased the boat within casting range, we could see swirls and boils and pops on the surface just beyond where the purling current flowing from the marsh spent itself into the bay. Some were large and audible, like a liquid slap. Others were smaller but sharper - little aqueous explosions as if someone had lit a mini-firecracker and tossed it into the water. Sometimes from those swirls and snaps, translucent or silvery forms about the size of a little finger or smaller leapt and skittered along the surface until they disappeared in one of those swirls or were snatched from the air by a member of the gang of gulls and terns hovering overhead.
The crisp air had the pungent smell, so much like a freshly opened watermelon, that signals feeding fish.
The water oozing out of the marsh carried with it appetizers of small mullet, bay anchovies, silversides, the occasional small blue crab, killifish and small clusters of thumb-size menhaden.
White shrimp, though, were the main course. They were young-of-the-year, having spent most of their lives in the marshy estuary, growing from larvae pushed there in early summer by tides and the season's prevailing southerly wind, feeding in the nutrient-rich broth and using the grassy shallows as a sanctuary against the hungry mouths of almost everything larger than they.
Just like clockwork
But, each autumn, pulled by some physiological/environmental combination of hard-wired biological imperative, tidal velocity, salinity levels, changes in water temperature and photoperiod and who-knows-what, those young white shrimp began a journey from the shallow, marsh estuaries, across the open bays and through passes and channels into the Gulf of Mexico where, as adults, they would spend the winter in nearshore waters until spawning in late spring and send their larvae back into the bays to begin the cycle anew.
The first challenge was getting past the mouth of the little marsh bayou.
Even before we could make a cast to the mouth of the marsh drain, we saw the first fish. It was a speckled trout, a blur of silver and purple and yellow as it came greyhounding out of the water, each low arc bringing it closer to the fleeing shrimp frantically skittering and snapping across the surface.
My companion fired a cast to the swirl made by the disappearing trout, and the jig/soft-plastic lure was immediately grabbed by a speck that shot to the surface and we could hear its gill rakers rattling as it did that head-shaking thing trout so often do when trying to dislodge a hook.
A half-dozen other fish quickly followed that first trout - three more trout, two keeper-size redfish and a huge croaker.
Sticking to the bottom
This was great, but not the fish we were really after. The first one of those came when we began casting the soft-plastic lures near the shoreline and slowly crawling them along the bottom on the flats either side of where the channel met the bay.
The "take" felt like the "tick" you feel through the line when a largemouth bass grabs a plastic worm. I sat the hook and immediately knew what it was by the way it fought, or didn't fight - kind of like a slightly animated floor mat, staying near bottom, making short runs to the left and right and sometimes coming straight at the boat so that it almost felt as though the fish had thrown the hook.
It was, as suspected and hoped, a flounder - a thick-bodied beast, big enough there was no question it made the 14-inch legal minimum length, that spewed a gob of half-digested shrimp and silversides as it flapped on the boat's front deck.
Fall finds flounder and white shrimp traveling similar paths, both triggered by the change of season.
As with white shrimp, adult flounder begin a fall migration from bay to Gulf when water temperature falls below about 75 degrees. That flounder migration happens mostly in fits and starts, with the fish generally hopscotching along shorelines. They will gather, sometimes in considerable concentrations, in areas offering them plenty to eat or just hang out, waiting for the next cool front, bright moon, change of tide or whatever triggers their next hop toward the Gulf - places such as the mouths of bayous and other drains where foragers such as white shrimp are pouring from estuaries; "staging" areas such as shallow, hard-bottomed flats near channels leading to the Gulf; or the relatively narrow funnels of the channels and passes connecting bay to Gulf.
Just as their fall migration increases white shrimps' exposure to predation, flounders' autumn behavior exponentially increases their vulnerability to anglers. Anglers finding a fall concentration of flounder can plunder the flatfish.
Numbers on the rise
Flounder catches by Texas recreational anglers peak in autumn, with as much as 60 percent of the annual flounder landings occurring Oct.1-Dec. 31. The peak of the autumn flounder migration occurs in November; most years, a full 25 percent of the annual flounder landings come in that month, according to 30-plus years of data gathered by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department surveys.
That morning in East Bay a couple of years ago illustrated that point. Once we figured where the flounder were holding, we caught perhaps two-dozen - we didn't count. What we did count was what we put in the ice chest: four flounder, two apiece, all the law allows.
In 2009, facing a long-term plummeting of flounder populations that reached its nadir in 2007, Texas fisheries officials imposed strict - some claimed draconian - new regulations governing recreational and commercial harvest of flounder. The recreational daily bag limit was cut from 10 to five flounder for 11 months of the year, and reduced to two flounder during November. Also, gigging flounder, either recreational or commercial, was banned during November.
The move was aimed at increasing the number of adult female flounder that survived the autumn gauntlet, made it into the Gulf and successfully spawned. The fish needed help. Between the early 1980s and 2008, the relative abundance of flounder in Texas bays, as gauged by TPWD gill net surveys (which track adult fish) and bag seines (which track abundance of juvenile flounder) declined by half.
The change, along with some help from nature, seems to have worked. Flounder populations in Texas bays and the number of flounder landed by anglers has significantly increased over the past four years.
"Flounder abundance, statewide, is four times higher now than it was in 2007," Mark Fisher, science director for TPWD's coastal fisheries division, said of the results of the agency's gill net surveys. Catches are up, too. Texas anglers this past year landed and kept more flounder than they had the year before, even under the restrictive limits.
Conditions near perfect
One thing hasn't changed, though: November still is the top month for catching flounder along the Texas coast. And anglers can bet that when white shrimp are pouring from the marshes, there will be flounder somewhere nearby, waiting in ambush.
The start of the "big push" of the fall flounder and white shrimp migration happens when water temperature falls below 70 degrees, Fisher said.
In bays along the upper coast, especially Sabine Lake and Galveston Bay, which hold the state's largest populations of flounder and white shrimp, water temperature is hovering right at the magic 70 degrees.
The next cold front should do the trick. Figure the first week of November. | <urn:uuid:46b7e9f3-e609-44c5-ad74-33bf22864a3b> | CC-MAIN-2019-04 | https://www.chron.com/sports/outdoors/article/Crisp-autumn-air-signals-shrimp-flounder-4929244.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-04/segments/1547583658981.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20190117123059-20190117145059-00258.warc.gz | en | 0.968428 | 1,706 | 2.671875 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 2.7664992809295654,
"reasoning_level": 3,
"interpretation": "Strong reasoning"
} | Sports & Fitness |
For many parents, raising a child who listens can be one of the most challenging — and important — lessons in life.
Not only is the ability to listen critical to a child’s early development — enabling them to learn and keep safe from harm — but it is also vital for building relationships and achieving professional success later in life.
Still, so often it can feel as though a child is unable — or unwilling — to listen, leading to arguments and tantrums, with parent and child miles apart in their positions.
However, it needn’t be like that, according to parenting expert and authorized “Language of Listening” coach, Camilla Miller. Describing the U.S.-founded, three-step framework as the “missing step in parenting,” Miller said it can help reframe any conflict and allow a child to reach their goals within a parent’s boundaries.
“You get what you want and they get what they want. It’s win-win,” Miller, founder of U.K.-based website and coaching business Keep your cool parenting, told CNBC Make It.
Here are the three steps for getting your child to listen, according to Miller.
1. Say what you see
The first step in the “Language of Listening” is simple: Say what you see. Rather than imposing your judgement on your child’s behavior, resist the urge to react and quite literally vocalize what you see.
For example, you may think your child is not sharing, and you wish that they were, but, in their eyes, they are busy playing. Say as much: “You’re busy playing with that toy.” Equally, you may think they are giving you attitude, when, in their mind, they are feeling frustrated. Acknowledge that: “You’re feeling frustrated about this situation.”
“Your child needs to feel heard before they can listen to you,” Miller said. “When your child feels unheard, they feel like you’re dismissing their wants and needs, they think you are telling them how they feel is wrong.”
That doesn’t mean that you need to give in to their demands. But it gives you an opportunity to step into their shoes and figure out the root cause of their behavior.
“So often as parents we go in with a demand or a request, and we haven’t acknowledged what our kids want first,” said Miller. “If you don’t care about what they want, they won’t care about what you want.”
2. Offer a can-do
Once you have understood and empathized with your child’s behavior, you will be in a better position to help them move forward and find a solution.
If they are displaying a behavior you don’t like, help them redirect that energy toward something you do like.
For instance, they may be jumping on the sofa and you would prefer they didn’t. Acknowledge their desire to jump around and blow off steam, but help them direct that energy to a different space like the floor or a trampoline. Alternatively, they may be demanding a new toy and their birthday has just passed. Help them think of some ways they can purchase it for themselves, such as by earning extra pocket money.
“It’s about looking at the need behind the behavior and helping them to meet that need in a way that is acceptable to you,” said Miller.
If, though, they are demonstrating a behavior you do like, acknowledge and enable it to help reinforce such behaviors in future.
3. Finish off with a strength
When you have deescalated the situation and reached a compromise, conclude the discussion by highlighting a strength your child has displayed.
Avoid structuring the feedback with yourself at the center, however, i.e. “I’m so happy you did that.” Rather, make them the focus, for example by saying: “You’re such a problem solver, you found a way to fix that.”
That way, they will recognize themselves as an active participant in the situation and one with strong decision-making capabilities, which are more likely to be repeated over time.
“By adopting the child’s inner voice, it helps them reinforce those behaviors and build their self-esteem,” Miller said.
Changing your own reaction
While the “Language of Listening” framework is structured principally for children, it’s one that can also be applied to other age groups and situations, including teenagers, colleagues and romantic relationships, according to Miller.
In the case of teenagers, for instance, saying what you see can help them better understand themselves when they may be behaving in unusual ways, while simultaneously opening up the channels of communication with you as a parent.
“Generally, the reason people act out or shout is because of their need for power,” said Miller, noting the need to respect that desire.
Meanwhile, truly listening to and being understanding of other people’s perspectives can help you be more considerate and compassionate as a person, too.
“It’s actually understanding your own behavior as well,” continued Miller. “The quickest way to change our reaction is to change how we see things.”
Image Source: Pixabay | <urn:uuid:94e0477f-0467-4a5e-ab55-0dc16a5455e6> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://blog.msbm.org.uk/liberia/9359/3-ways-to-talk-to-your-kids-so-they-will-actually-listen | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571150.88/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810070501-20220810100501-00266.warc.gz | en | 0.964747 | 1,148 | 2.625 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 2.7995834350585938,
"reasoning_level": 3,
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} | Social Life |
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Originally posted by Off_The_Street
You want fast, bubba? I'll give you fast:
"Based on the views of Jim McCanney and Tom Beardon, I think we're spending too much money on things we don't need. like science education programs."
Originally posted by cryptorsa1001
The report does indicate that the warming of the earth will have different climatic changes to different regions of the earth. When I lived in Juneau, alaska in 1991 we had the record for maximum rainfall at 85.15 inches, the average is 54 inches per year. Here in Ohio the last 3 years have been in the top 10 wettest years in recorded history. We have had 10 plus inches of rain in January already.
In June of 1999 the latest ice core data from the Vostok site in Antarctica were published by Petit et al in the British journal Nature. These new data extended the historical record of temperature variations and atmospheric concentrations of CO2, methane and other greenhouse trace gases (GTG) back to 420,000 years before present (BP).
Given all the new ice core data, what changes can we anticipate for our climate? If CO2 has increased over the past 150 years as much as it normally increases over thousands of years leading up to an interglacial phase (about 80 ppmv), then we could expect as much as a corresponding 10-12C increase in temperature. But if half the historical temperature increases have been due to orbital forcing and other factors, then we should expect an increase of "only" about 5-6C, or 9-11F.
Most computer models don't predict either of these magnitudes of temperature change for the new century. They typically cite evidence indicating that overall global temperatures have not changed as much as polar temperatures, where the ice cores were taken, and that increases of only 2-3C should be anticipated. Unfortunately, new evidence from high-elevation tropical ice cores indicates that this is not really the case. The latest data show that the amplitude of sub-polar temperature changes has been in the range of 8-12C, which is not all that different from the 10-12C found at the poles. | <urn:uuid:a29edbce-09e5-4e6c-87a2-4a64a5d0094f> | CC-MAIN-2016-30 | http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread112518/pg2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-30/segments/1469257826759.85/warc/CC-MAIN-20160723071026-00068-ip-10-185-27-174.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952316 | 505 | 2.859375 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 2.764627695083618,
"reasoning_level": 3,
"interpretation": "Strong reasoning"
} | Science & Tech. |
Office of Planning, Environment, & Realty (HEP)
This report showcases approaches to visualization that are used in the Congestion Management Processes (CMP) conducted by metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs). This report has been prepared as one of the inputs to the development of an updated guidebook on the CMP for the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and Federal Transit Administration (FTA). It highlights effective visualization practices that are currently in use by MPOs, noting examples of these practices, and the purpose, primary audience, and data and analysis requirements of the visualizations.
The use of visualizations to display information about the congestion of transportation systems is evolving, and may occur both within and outside of the CMP. Applications of the evolving techniques to CMPs can lead to an improved understanding of congestion issues by transportation planning staff preparing the CMP, to more informed decision making by the appointed and elected officials, and finally to the implementation of more effective congestion management solutions.
Clear, concise visuals—such as annotated maps, graphs, photos, illustrations, and videos—can allow the audience to quickly understand an important topic more effectively than through statistics and numerical tables. Consequently, visualization can be a very effective tool for presenting transportation performance data and information in ways that can be understood and absorbed by various audiences, including technical staff, transportation decision-makers, and the general public.
Visualization serves three essential functions within an MPO’s CMP, from the information gathering that occurs at the beginning of the process to the dissemination of information at the end. Visualization:
These three functions are related, but differentiated primarily by the intended use (helping with the detailed technical analysis, developing a staff consensus, or decision-support and public education). Many CMPs have visualizations with components of each of these broad purposes. Typically information needs drive analysis and data-and in the reverse, the availability of data, analysis methods, and display techniques impact the information available for decision making.
Several MPOs develop materials that are intended to present the information collected and analyzed through the CMP to the public, and disseminate these either through reports or websites. While these materials are generally broad in scope, they often include visuals such as maps of congested locations or bar graphs of changes in transportation system use over time, which are intended to convey a simple message about congestion in the area, and how it relates to other parts of the planning process. For example, if a major project was recently implemented in an effort to mitigate congestion in an area, a before-and-after visualization (such as a color-coded map of level of service, a graph of vehicle delay, or a series of photographs of actual conditions) could be used to convey the impact the project had. Similarly, if one location within an MPO stood out as a result of the CMP analysis as an area most in need of congestion mitigation, a visual could be used to express that to the public. The primary concern in developing visualizations for the public is to ensure that they are easy to understand and that the intended message is clear.
Visualizations, especially map-based, can also serve as a valuable tool in organizing data and making it easier to analyze on a technical level. Some visualizations are more schematic in their representations of data patterns, or blend schematic with map-based formats. The fact that much of the data collected for the CMP is geographically-based (tied either to an area, a corridor or a spot location) makes mapping especially important for practitioners, both within an MPO and at partner agencies outside the MPO. Mapping can be done on paper, through a GIS program, or through an online mapping service, depending on the data and the MPO’s capabilities. Graphs and photographs can also be effective tools in helping practitioners analyze and apply the large volumes of data that are often collected or gathered as part of a CMP effort. If kept relatively simple and easy to read, these display maps of technical data with concise annotations can also be an effective tool for reaching the general public.
MPOs create visualizations geared specifically toward different audiences. These visualizations are accessible to everyone, but may be most useful for specific sectors of the population. Some visualizations are more technical and are most practical for internal use as opposed to public consumption. For instance, visualizations depicting detailed level-of-service likely are most valuable for decision-makers and planners in determining where to focus congestion management efforts. For example, Puget Sound Regional Council uses a geodatabase with shapefiles showing land use attributes, congestion and level-of-service at points in the region in order to help planners better identify regional needs based on multiple factors.
Conversely, visualizations that show "before and after" alternatives are constructive for the public and stakeholders without expertise in transportation planning or analysis, since these visualizations clearly and visually lay out the results of different congestion management options. Scenario development can also be used to educate the public on the impacts of different land use decisions on transportation needs in a region. MPOs such as the Wilmington Area Planning Council house interactive maps developed using Google Maps, which allow viewers to pan and zoom so they can see the data on either a regional or a detailed scale. For example, people can zoom to the street level within their community or neighborhood to find the specific data for that area. The Atlanta Regional Council uses "travel time shed" diagrams to show policymakers how long it takes to travel from the downtown area outward.
There are no cut-and-dried rules for determining which visualization types are most useful for specific audience types. However, it is clearly necessary to consider the intended audience and use in determining the best visualization approach to use. | <urn:uuid:6979facd-5233-4fb7-b743-0e79546458d4> | CC-MAIN-2014-15 | http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/planning/congestion_management_process/cmp_visualization_tools/chap01.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-15/segments/1397609536300.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20140416005216-00319-ip-10-147-4-33.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928937 | 1,173 | 2.671875 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 2.957987070083618,
"reasoning_level": 3,
"interpretation": "Strong reasoning"
} | Transportation |
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