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Duckweed is a tiny, waterborne plant that is considered invasive in many states. The plant can spread from body of water to body of water by clinging to the feathers of water foul, which is how the plant gets its name. Once duckweed finds a new body of water, the plant propagates rapidly to the point that it can completely cover a small pond in a matter of weeks. Manual control is rarely successful, because the plants will re-cover the pond if even one is missed. Instead, most pond owners kill duckweed using chemical herbicides.
Measure out 1 gallon of diquat per surface acre of a pond, lake or other infected body of water.
Mix one part chelated copper with two parts diquat. Chelated copper will not kill duckweed on it's own, but when combined with an herbicide that contains diquat, it makes the substance more effective.
Mix the diquat at a rate of 50 parts water per one part diquat. Place the mixture in a chemical sprayer.
Spray the surface of the water with the diquat mixture to distribute it over the surface of the duckweed plants.
Apply a second spray within two weeks to fully control duckweed.
Measure 1 ½ quarts of fluridone per acre of surface on your pond.
Divide the herbicide in half.
Spray half of the fluridone over the surface of the pond to distribute it over the duckweed.
Wait 14 days to reapply fluridone. Spray the other half of the fluridone over the pond surface.
About this Author
Tracy S. Morris has been a freelance writer since 2000. She has published two novels and numerous online articles. Her work has appeared in national magazines and newspapers, including "Ferrets," "CatFancy," "Lexington Herald Leader" and "The Tulsa World." | <urn:uuid:cc893b86-f003-4ee7-8b03-93fe070ee3be> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.gardenguides.com/114152-kill-duckweed.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397565.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00079-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913644 | 393 | 3.328125 | 3 |
Honeybees have been dying in record numbers in the U.S. for at least the past two years. Experts attribute the mass deaths to a catchall condition known as colony collapse disorder (CCD), although both a cure and the culprit remain elusive. Despite as much as a 35 percent loss of bees per year, we remain almost entirely dependent on what until recently was a self-renewing annual population of billions of honeybees to pollinate over 130 kinds of fruit and nut crops.
"We can't rely on the honeybee forever," says Blair Sampson, an entomologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). That's a problem, given that entomologists have yet to come up with a viable alternative. But researchers report that another bee known as the blue orchard, or Osmia lignaria, holds out promise of filling in the void.
The blue orchard bee, also known as the orchard mason bee, is one of 3,000 bee species native to the U.S. and is currently the subject of intensive study by the USDA's Pollinating Insect Biology, Management and Systematics Research Unit at Utah State University in Logan.
James Cane, an entomologist at the Logan bee lab, has been working for 10 years to increase the availability of these bees and he says there are now a million blue orchards pollinating crops in California.
The reason these bees are considered the best potential honeybee stand-ins, Cane says, is that unlike some specialist native species, blue orchard bees, like honeybees, can pollinate a variety of crops—including almonds, peaches, plums, cherries, apples and others.
In just about every other respect, however, these bees are totally unlike their European brethren. For one, they tend to live alone. In the wild, rather than hives, they inhabit boreholes drilled by beetles into the trunks and branches of dead trees. When cultivated, they will happily occupy holes drilled into lumber or even Styrofoam blocks.
The blue orchard bees also do not produce honey, rarely sting and, owing to their solitary nature, do not swarm. They are incredibly efficient pollinators of many tree fruit crops—on a typical acre, 2,000 blue orchard bees can do the work of more than 100,000 honeybees. Their biggest drawback is that beekeepers can only increase their populations by a factor of three to eight each year. (Honey bees can grow from a small colony consisting of a queen and a few dozen workers to a population of 20,000 foragers in a few months.)
"We're still in the development stage of applying all the research that has been done" by USDA's Agricultural Research Service, says David Moreland, CEO of AgPollen, the world’s leading producer of blue orchard bees for the California almond industry.
Of the nearly 700,000 acres (285,000 hectares) of almonds cultivated in California this growing season, as many as 300 acres (120 hectares) were pollinated by blue orchards, according to Moreland. Growers' inspiration for trying the new pollinator is simple economics—last season they were paying up to $300 an acre to rent honeybees, 10 times what they paid a decade ago.* This trend has made blue orchard bees cost-competitive with honeybees, but only barely.
"It's not clear we can [raise blue orchard bees on a commercial scale] in a cost-effective way," says Karen Strickler, an entomologist at the University of Idaho from 1993-2000 who has worked with solitary bees and who currently distributes them to beekeepers and hobbyists through the bee dealership PollinatorParadise.com, located in New Mexico.
Another solitary bee, known as the leaf-cutter, is the success story on which scientists and beekeepers hope to model the trajectory of the blue orchard bee.
"Ninety percent of all alfalfa seed in the U.S. is grown using the alfalfa leaf-cutter bee for pollination," Moreland says. "That's huge—that's an industry that over the past 25 years went from zero to the preferred bee. So there's a model there that says: 'This has happened before, it can happen again.'"
Cane, described by his peers as one of the world experts on orchard bees, cautions that these bees currently can only supplement—and not supplant—honeybees.
"The sheer number of bees you would need—at least 500 per acre (0.4 hectare)—it will never replace honeybees," says Cane. "That's an outrageous number if you think about it."
AgPollen's Moreland is more optimistic. "If we got to the point that we could not maintain populations [of honeybees]," he says, "this is one way to ensure that the largest dollar specialty crop in California for export—the almond—doesn't lose its pollinator."
*Correction (4/13/09): This sentence has been changed since posting. It originally stated the cost of renting honeybees was $300 per hive. | <urn:uuid:641a4db7-4542-4812-9445-661cb1dcf892> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/other-bee-species-subbing-for-honeybees/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393332.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00023-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965091 | 1,077 | 3.671875 | 4 |
Department of Biology, Cameron University, Lawton, Oklahoma
Crops of 75 Mourning Doves were collected from hunters in Comanche and Tillman counties, Oklahoma, during September 1976 and 1977. Hunting sites were generally on or near cultivated farmlands. Identification of the 17 species of seeds contained in the crops revealed that wheat, millet, sunflower, and sand dropseed grass ranked highest in order of importance volumetrically.
Although the types of foods eaten by Mourning Doves are generally known (1, 2, 3), these vary with locality, season, and availability. Carpenter (4) recorded his findings from the crops of 546 doves taken from June to October 1968 in several northwestern Oklahoma counties, and Morrison and Lewis (5) analyzed 124 dove crops from near Eldorado in Jackson County that were taken between 1 November 1972 and 28 February 1973, but listed only the top 10 food species according to weight. Little additional information on this subject has been published.
The purpose of this study was to identify the principal fall foods of 75 doves shot by hunters at several localities in southwestern Oklahoma. These sampling areas were usually on or near cultivated fields of cotton, winter wheat, or other small grains interspersed with land devoted to livestock and ranching operations, the primary agricultural enterprises in this part of the state (6).
Doves were collected opportunistically. Dates and locations of collection were as follows: Tillman County: On 1 September 1976, 29 doves were taken 5.5 km east and 11 km north of Tipton in sandsage-grassland habitat; on 24 September 1977, we collected 7 more at the same location; 5 were shot in an intensively cultivated area 5 km west of Grandfield on 10 September 1977; another was collected in similar habitat on 10 September 1977, 1 km west and 7 km south of Grandfield; and we shot 6 more birds 6.5 km north of Tipton in sandy cultivated land near Otter Creek on 13 September 1977. Comanche County: (all 1977): 12 doves were collected on 1 September 11 km west of Elgin in open mixed-grass pastureland, where 8 more were shot on 8 September; we took 7 others 1 km east of Indiahoma, on 5 September in and near a large field of sunflowers.
Seeds from crops were segregated under a dissecting microscope with the aid of forceps and dissecting needles. Identification was made by comparing seeds directly with those in the Cameron University Museum reference collection and by using a seed identification manual (7). A perplexing seed that occurred repeatedly (Carolina leaf flower, Phyllanthus caroliniensis) was identified by Dr. David A. Sander of the Oklahoma State University Agronomy Department. We weighed the seeds of each species on a Mettler P-120 balance. For volumetric determinations, we used a displacement method that employed ultra-fine sand of the type used in commercial ash trays (rather than water) in a 10-ml graduated cylinder. We found that, while sand may not have worked quite so well as water, it was a great improvement over the lead shot which is often used for volumetric determinations. Frequency of occurrence was also calculated for each species.
Because of our small sample size (75) and the limited number of crops from each of the six sampling sites (36, 5, 1, 6, 20, 7), our data must be interpreted with discretion. Because of the mobility of doves and the heterogeneity of the area sampled, we did not attempt to compare foods according to habitat, but instead lumped our findings. These reflect the fact that most samples were from sandsage-grassland (36) and mixed-grass pastures (20). We feel that our
data give a reasonable indication of the general types of foods preferred (or at least utilizied most heavily because of availability) by resident and migratory Mourning Doves during early fall in much of southwestern Oklahoma.
We identified seeds from a total of 17 species of plants. Wheat (Triticum aestivum) ranked first in percentages of weight (41.9%), volume (41.5%), and frequency (60%) (Table 1). This is not surprising since wheat is the principal grain crop in southwestern Oklahoma (6). Much waste grain remains on the ground in late summer and fall after the harvest in May and June. During exceptionally dry years, many fields are not even cut. Foxtail millet (Setaria italica), a minor grain crop, ranked second in all these categories, constituting 36.5%, 38.3%, and 42.6% respectively of the totals. Millet ripens in late summer, providing timely food for migratory as well as resident doves. Many seeds, too small in quantity or weight to be significant, were important in their frequency of occurrence. Two such species not listed in Table 1 were bristle grass (Setaria lutescens) and ragweed (Ambrosia sp.). Pigweed (Amaranthus sp.) appeared in over 21% of the crops, but always in trace amounts. Interesting in another respect was bull nettle (Cnidosculus stimulosus): only 8 seeds recovered from 2 crops made up 4% of the total weight and 2.3% of the volume. The large size of this seed accounted for its disproportionate representation. Sunflower (Helianthus sp.) ranked fourth in percentage volume (3.6%) behind Carolina leaf flower (Phyllanthus caroliniensis), which contributed 5.1% of the total volume. Griffing and Davis (8) ranked P. polygonoides second in frequency and volume in summer and first in both categories during winter in an uncultivated area of southeastern New Mexico.
Wheat and millet ranked far above other foods selected by doves in our sample during the early fall. These findings are in general agreement with those of Morrison and Lewis (5), Carpenter (4), and Korschgen (1). In terms of weight, Morrison and Lewis (5) ranked sorghum far above all other foods taken in Jackson County during fall and winter of 1972-73. Wheat ranked only third, behind Panicum miliacium, but they stated that "samples taken . . . before 1 November showed a higher proportion of wheat in relation to other ingested foods." Pigweed they ranked fourth and sunflower fifth. These two ranked fourteenth and third respectively in the present study, however. Carpenter (4) found that Triticum was the most important food item by volume and frequency of occurrence June-September in 546 doves from northwestern Oklahoma. Wheat represented 55.7% of the total food volume in his studies compared to 41.5% in ours. Korschgen (1) ranked wheat second only to corn among foods of 2,000 Missouri doves collected from April to October. In a study made in south-central New Mexico on uncultivated land (3), no wheat was recorded, millet comprised just 0.4% of the total summer (including September) volume, and sunflower appeared in only trace amounts. However, in the cultivated Mesilla Valley in the same region of New Mexico, Davis (9) ranked wheat sixth in total importance among 25 food items, sorghum (Sorghum vulgare) first, and sunflower eleventh. Dillon (2) in a study of 651 crops from 43 Texas counties, found sorghum grain most important volumetrically, followed by croton (Croton spp.) and sunflower. From uncultivated shrubland in southeastern New Mexico, Griffing and Davis (8) reported that croton comprised 81.8% of the total volume recovered in 10 dove crops. Croton comprised only 0.5% of the total volume in our study. Doves appear to be versatile and opportunistic feeders throughout their extensive range.
1. L. J. KORSCHGEN, A study of the food habits of Missouri doves, Mo. Conserv. Comm., Pittman-Robertson Series No. 12, 1955.
2. O. W. DILLON, JR., J. Wildl. Manage. 25: 334-336 (1961).
3. C. A. DAVIS, J. Wildl. Manage. 38: 941-944 (1974).
4. J. W. CARPENTER, J. Wildl. Manage. 35: 327-331 (1971).
5. J. A. MORRISON and J. C. LEWIS, Proc. Okla. Acad. Sci. 54: 25-33 (1974).
6. J. R. MARTIN, et al, Effect of changes in product price relationships on farm organization and incomeclay soil farmsSouthwestern Oklahoma, Okla. State Univ. Agric. Expt. Sta. and U.S. Dept. Agric. Bull. B-621, 1964.
7. A. C. MARTIN and W. D. BARKLEY, Seed Identification Manual, Univ. Calif. Press, Berkeley, 1961.
8. J. P. GRIFFING and C. A. DAVIS, J. Wildl. Manage., 38: 375-376 (1974).
9. C. A. DAVIS, Foods of mourning doves in the Mesilla Valley of south-central New Mexico, N. M. State Univ. Agric. Expt. Sta. Res. Rept. 201, 1971. | <urn:uuid:7b2b8de5-943f-44e4-a574-ffc52470b63d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://digital.library.okstate.edu/OAS/oas_htm_files/v59/p82_84.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00137-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952328 | 1,976 | 3.359375 | 3 |
It is the mission of the Michigan Science Teachers Association (MSTA) to support and provide leadership for the improvement of science education throughout Michigan. In fulfillment of this mission, the MSTA recognizes that it is essential that students be introduced to the most contemporary scientific scholarship available. The MSTA recognizes that evolutionary theory is representative of this contemporary scientific scholarship as is evident by the scientific community's resounding consensus on the validity and robustness of evolutionary theory.
However, in spite of the scientific community's repeated validation of evolutionary theory, there continues to be socio-political pressure to eliminate, mitigate or weaken the instruction of evolution theory and/or to introduce non-scientific ideologies into the science classroom. Opponents of evolution education have suggested that evolutionary theory does not represent an empirically (tested) derived body of knowledge. This assertion demonstrates a profound misunderstanding of the nature and process of science.
Scientists view and seek to explain the natural world through the empirical lens of science. The nature of scientific investigation is to ask a question and then to work to find the answer. While philosophy and theology are valuable forms of human inquiry that also seek to explain our world, science is unique in its approach by relying exclusively upon empirical natural law (e.g., the laws of physics, chemistry, geology, etc.) in its explanation and not upon supernatural intervention or untestable conjecture. It is this testability that is a hallmark of the nature and process of science. Scientific hypotheses and theory must be testable against the natural world and therefore at least potentially falsifiable. Furthermore, any conclusions formulated from these tests are tentative pending new data to the contrary. As our scientific knowledge expands and provides us with better insights into the natural world, science is able to modify previous conclusions and theory to incorporate this new knowledge. Like all scientific theories, evolutionary theory is dynamic and will be modified as new information becomes available.
It is these properties of the nature of science that separates scientific inquiry from theology or philosophy and therefore excludes such non-scientific ideologies as "creation science", "creationism", "intelligent design" or other non-scientific "alternatives to evolution" from the science classroom as they do not meet the characteristics and rigor of scientific empiricism.
Although scientists continue to discuss and even disagree on some of the finer details of natural selection, the process that governs evolution, there is an overwhelming consensus in the scientific community that evolution has happened in the past and is occurring today and that furthermore, evolutionary theory is the best and only scientific explanation for the diversification of life on Earth. By the very nature of science, there will always be questions that remain unanswered because in the process of answering a question or solving a problem, more questions arise; an admirable quality of science.
The scientific community's strong advocacy for evolution theory is a result of the preponderance of corroborating empirical data originating from virtually all disciplines of the physical and biological sciences. The scientific community regards evolutionary theory as one of the most robust and well-substantiated scientific theories to date as evolutionary theory represents the convergence of corroborating evidence from independent lines of scientific investigation.
The goal of science is the establishment of scientific theory which is then employed as a predictive tool. In colloquial usage, theory implies a guess or a hunch. However; in science, theory represents the complete opposite. The National Academy of Sciences defines theory as a "…well substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world that incorporates facts, laws, inferences and tested hypotheses". Scientific theory and therefore evolutionary theory is the antithesis of a guess.
It is the position of the Michigan Science Teachers Association that evolutionary theory is an integral, validated and therefore essential component of modern scientific inquiry and should therefore be taught in a manner commensurate with this importance. Furthermore, it is the position of the MSTA that teachers should teach only evolutionary theory as a scientific explanation of the development and diversification of life on Earth. Evolution should be taught unaccompanied by non-scientific ideologies offered as "alternatives" to evolution. Teaching theological or philosophical explanations alongside or in place of evolution theory would not make the classroom presentation "fair or equal" but would result in the offering of false scientific alternatives to our students which would be a violation of academic honesty and our professional responsibilities as trustees of our student's academic development and science literacy. | <urn:uuid:0f4f0043-3575-4afc-afd3-b380df99e17f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.ncseweb.org/book/export/html/3199 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399385.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00129-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929951 | 877 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Blaise Bourdin, an assistant professor in Louisiana State University’s Department of Mathematics, is an expert in fracture mechanics, the study of brittle materials and predicting the failure of a structure containing a crack. Bourdin says the I-35 Bridge catastrophe is a reminder that scientists have yet to fully understand the mechanics of failure. However, his work may put them one step closer to predicting, and therefore preventing, potential disasters like the one that killed 13 people in Minneapolis.
In collaboration with G. Francfort at Université Paris Nord, France and J.J. Marigo at Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris, Bourdin is using EnSight extreme visualization software by CEI, Inc., Apex, NC, to develop a system for creating 3D mathematical models that forecast the potential location and path of a crack in brittle materials like glass, concrete and steel. His is a novel approach to fracture mechanics that, through simulation and modeling, allows him to predict failure before it happens.
“Most methods in classical fracture mechanics assume that you know the solution before you can solve the problem,” Bourdin says. “You assume that you have a-priori knowledge of potential cracks and then solve for those cracks.”
Bourdin’s work does not follow this assumption. Beginning with mathematical data for the device in question, like a cylinder, beam, or other construction, Bourdin applies knowledge of the building material, how it behaves under stress and other factors, like temperature and load, to predict where potential cracks might form.
“We’re not writing the program based on observation of experiments,” Bourdin says. “Our results come from mathematical modeling based on the equations of motion. From this we derive the model that represents the fracture.”
In this numerical approach, cracks are approximated using a diffuse interface model. Each crack is represented by a smooth function defined at each node of a 2D or 3D domain, typically within an unstructured mesh. At each point in the domain, the crack is represented by a number between 0 and 1. Inside the crack is 0, increasing toward 1 further from the crack. Using these numerical models, Bourdin can simulate the temporal evolution of a crack, including branches and splits, over thousands of time steps.
The models result in enormous amounts of data, sometimes up to 15 Gb for one simulation, and Bourdin relies on Teragrid, the nation-wide supercomputing network, to store and manipulate the data. This is critical to his ability to render the complicated models.
“EnSight allows me to visualize my data without removing it from the server – I can visualize at LSU data that are in Texas or Illinois or California,” Bourdin says. “I don’t have to wait until everything is transferred, and I don’t have to store it locally to view it.”
These still images from a mode-I traction simulation experiment on a pre-cracked perforated domain illustrate brutal propagation of a crack from one perforation hole to the next. The light blue to the right of the as yet in-tact perforation hole indicates the progression of stress as the crack propagates through the domain.
The visualizations he creates in EnSight allow Bourdin to both verify the geometry of his calculations and better understand and communicate the mathematical properties of the model. Bourdin uses Cubit, developed by Sandia National Laboratories, to generate the mesh. During this process, he will verify the geometry by outputting the data to EnSight for a quick checkup on how the model is coming together. Then, he uses EnSight to generate and analyze the results. Because EnSight reads most mesh file formats, Bourdin is able to quickly port data from the supercomputing network, generate an animation and share the results with colleagues.
“I have a very visual, geometric mind,” Bourdin says. “EnSight has helped me to understand my equations and understand some properties of the solutions, as opposed to just staring at the equations. For complicated 3D systems, EnSight allows us to extract some patterns of the solution – to walk in it, rotate it, interact with it and zoom in and out.”
In addition to shedding light on the mathematical data, EnSight’s robust features afford Bourdin the opportunity to expedite the research process. For example, the query function lets him track properties of the solution interactively, while the program is running, instead of recompiling and rerunning the simulation for each variable. Bourdin can test various scenarios, such as displacement load and material properties, and display the results – for material that doesn’t even really exist – all from his desktop. He has even written his own add-on software that performs batch processing, an incredible time saver.
“For one project, I had to conduct about 300 experiments and was able to visualize all of these results without having to interact with EnSight for each one,” Bourdin says. “It would have been impossible to do this manually; I simply wouldn’t have done it.”
In addition to the software’s full-featured capabilities for conducting experiments, Bourdin says EnSight, and the free companion EnLiten viewer, also by CEI, Inc., allow him to better communicate complicated solutions to colleagues. At a recent engineering conference, Bourdin found himself facing a room full of engineers, trying to describe some of the properties of his work involving two crack planes that intersect at a nonzero angle. With the 3D models generated in EnSight, he was able to demonstrate the evolution of the crack fronds as they grow toward each other, from multiple viewpoints.
Bourdin admits that while he won’t have a solution to the I-35 Bridge collapse in the very near future, his work, which is supported by the National Science Foundation, has vital implications in a wide variety of applications, including:
- Building construction – case in point: the collapse of a terminal at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport in 2004 is believed to be the result of structural failure;
- Infrastructure safety – the Hoover Dam, for example; and
- Aerospace design – consider the force on the front landing gear of an aircraft each time it hits the runway, a prime candidate for stress fractures.
“As a mathematician, I am mostly interested in this fracture model because of the challenges posed by its numerical implementation,” Bourdin says. “Of course, it also happens that it is a good mechanical model, and can be used to analyze the potential soundness of materials and systems before they are put into place." | <urn:uuid:df508ec5-8e6b-4c3b-9286-ac3c2697855f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.cfdreview.com/visualization/09/02/16/1846200.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398869.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00160-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938554 | 1,402 | 3.328125 | 3 |
Atomically precise manufacturing (APM) can be understood through physics, engineering design principles, proof-of-concept examples, computational modeling, and parallels with familiar technologies. APM is a prospective production technology based on guiding the motion of reactive molecules to build progressively larger components and systems. Bottom-up atomic precision can enable production with unprecedented scope (in terms of product materials, components, systems, and performance), while fundamental mechanical scaling laws can enable unprecedented productivity.
Researchers have come up with various electrode materials to improve the performance of supercapacitors, focussing mostly on porous carbon due to its high surface areas, tunable structures, good conductivities, and low cost. Graphene and carbon nanotubes show great potential but are costly. Researchers in Canada have now reported the successful hydrothermal-based synthesis of two-dimensional, yet interconnected, carbon nanosheets with superior electrochemical storage properties comparable to those of state-of-the-art graphene-based electrodes.
Ferromagnetic materials exhibit the so-called anomalous Hall effect (AHE), whereby the electrons flowing through the material experience a lateral force pushing them to one side as a result of the material's intrinsic magnetization. Although the AHE has been used in the field on nanotechnology to measure the magnetic behavior of nanoparticles (with sizes larger than 50 nm), nobody so far had tried to separate the signals of the individual particles. Researchers in Germany have now developed a simple technique which allows to measure the magnetic response of single ferromagnetic nanoparticles down to a radius of about 3.3 nm.
The boundaries of electron beam lithography (EBL), the workhorse of current nanofabrication processes, is constantly being pushed further down into the single nanometer range by researchers' efforts to overcome the various limitations of EBL resolution - spot size, electron scattering, secondary-electron range, resist development, and mechanical stability of the resist. A team of scientists has now achieved the EBL fabrication of 2 nm feature size and 10 nm periodic dense structures, which are the highest resolution patterns ever achieved with common resists. The minimum feature size, 2 nm, is composed of roughly 10 atoms wide, and with just a few atoms of standard deviation.
With all the rapid progress going on in research and commercialization of flexible and transparent electronics, the obvious question is not if, but when it will be possible to build a flexible and transparent truly high performance computer. A research team has now shown, for the first time, a generic batch fabrication process to obtain mechanically flexible and transparent mono-crystalline silicon (100) from bulk wafers. The researchers demonstrate a pragmatic pathway for a truly high performance computation systems on flexible and transparent platform.
Harvesting unexploited energy in the living environment is increasingly becoming an intense research area as the global push to replace fossil fuels with clean and renewable energy sources heats up. There is an almost infinite number of mechanical energy sources all around us - basically, anything that moves can be harvested for energy. This ranges from the very large, like wave power in the oceans, to the very small like rain drops or biomechanical energy from heart beat, breathing, and blood flow. In an intriguing demonstration, researchers at Georgia Tech have now demonstrated that the technology offered by nanogenerators can also be used for large-scale energy harvesting.
DNA is a powerful biomaterial for creating rationally designed and functionally enhanced nanostructures. Emerging DNA nanotechnology employs DNA as a programmable building material for self-assembled, nanoscale structures. Researchers have also shown that DNA nanotechnology can be integrated with traditional silicon processing. DNA nanoarchitectures positioned at substrate interfaces can offer unique advantages leading to improved surface properties relevant to biosensing (for instance, graphene and DNA can combine to create a stable and accurate biosensor), nanotechnology, materials science, and cell biology.
A key benefit of nanoimprint lithography is its sheer simplicity. There is no need for complex optics or high-energy radiation sources with a nanoimprint tool. Especially the nanopatterning of high refractive index optical films promises the development of novel photonic nanodevices such as planar waveguide circuits, nano-lasers, solar cells and antireflective coatings. Researchers have now developed a robust route for high-throughput, high-performance nanophotonics based direct imprint of high refractive index, low visible wavelength absorption materials. | <urn:uuid:acf68542-15ae-4b5c-be3f-0031324fd944> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.nanowerk.com/category-spotlight.php?page=12&cat=fabrication | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395992.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00003-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.912423 | 912 | 3.203125 | 3 |
'In God We Trust?' The separation of church and state is a widely contested topic in the American political arena. Whether for or against, debaters frequently base their arguments in the Constitution and the principles of the American founding. However, Americans' perception of the founding has narrowed greatly over the years, focusing on a handful of eminent statesmen. By exploring the work of nine founding fathers, including often overlooked figures like John Carroll and George Mason, The Founders on God and Government provides a more complete picture of America's origins. The contributors, all noted scholars, examine the lives of individual founders and investigate the relationship between their religious beliefs and political thought. Bringing together original documents and analytical essays, this book is an excellent addition to the library of literature on the founding, and sheds new light on religion's contributions to American civic culture.
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Rent The Founders on God and Government 1st edition today, or search our site for other textbooks by Mark Hall. Every textbook comes with a 21-day "Any Reason" guarantee. Published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Incorporated.
Need help ASAP? We have you covered with 24/7 instant online tutoring. Connect with one of our tutors now. | <urn:uuid:c92715e7-8f82-4475-9eae-cd1dedaed82d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.chegg.com/textbooks/the-founders-on-god-and-government-1st-edition-9780742522794-0742522792 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399425.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00083-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943201 | 248 | 2.859375 | 3 |
Private ownership of property is vital to our freedom and our prosperity, and is one of the most fundamental principles embedded in our Constitution. The Founders realized the importance of property rights when they placed in the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution, the requirement that private property shall not be taken "for public use, without just compensation." This clause created two conditions to the government taking private property: that the subsequent use of the property is for the public and that the government gives the property owners just compensation.
However, the Supreme Court's narrow 5-4 decision in Kelo v. City of New London was a step in the wrong direction. This controversial ruling expanded the ability of state and local governments to exercise eminent domain powers to seize private property under the guise of "economic development" when the "public use" is something as non-public as a new housing development or shopping center that would generate more tax revenues even in situations where the government takes property from one private individual and gives it to another private entity.
By defining "public use" so expansively, the court essentially erased any protection for private property as understood by the founders of our nation. In the wake of this decision, state and local governments can use eminent domain powers to take the property of any individual for nearly any reason. Cities may now bulldoze private citizens' homes, farms, and small businesses to make way for shopping malls or other development.
For these reasons, I am a strong supporter of legislation which seeks to limit the negative impact of the Kelo decision. The bipartisan Private Property Rights Protection Act, which recently passed the House of Representatives, prohibits all federal economic development funds for a period of two years for any state or local government that uses economic development as a justification for taking property from one person and giving it to another private entity. In addition, this legislation allows state and local governments to cure violations by giving the property back to the original owner. Furthermore, this bill specifically grants landowners the right to use appropriate legal remedies to enforce the protections provided in the bill.
The Private Property Rights Protection Act includes a carefully crafted definition of economic development that protects traditional uses of eminent domain, such as taking land for public uses like roads, while prohibiting abuses of eminent domain powers.
I am committed to the principles of private property and limited government. No one should have to live in fear of the government snatching up their home, farm, or business, and the Private Property Rights Protection Act will help to create the incentives to ensure that these abuses do not occur in the future. | <urn:uuid:5aed9e0b-a273-4f5d-a381-21d06125b913> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://votesmart.org/public-statement/675520/protecting-your-private-property-rights | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399425.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00004-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927137 | 510 | 2.53125 | 3 |
|Fig. 1 3D model of a real house near Boston (2,150 sq ft).|
On August 3, 2015, President Obama announced the Clean Power Plan
– a landmark step in reducing carbon pollution from power plants that takes real action on climate change. Producing clean energy from rooftop solar panels can greatly mitigate the problems in current power generation. In the US, there are more than 130 million homes. These homes, along with commercial buildings, consume more than 40% of the total energy of the country. With improving generation and storage technologies, a large portion of that usage could be generated by home buildings themselves.
A practical question is: How do we estimate the energy that a house can potentially generate if we put solar panels on top of it? This estimate is key to convincing homeowners to install solar panels or the bank to finance it. You wouldn't buy something without knowing its exact benefits, would you? This is why solar analysis and evaluation are so important to the solar energy industry.
The problem is: Every building is different! The location, the orientation, the landscape, the shape, the roof pitch, and so on, vary from one building to another. And there are over 100 MILLION of them around the country! To make the matter even more complicated, we are talking about annual gains, which require the solar analyst to consider solar radiation and landscape changes in four seasons. With all these complexities, no one can really design the layout of solar panels and calculate their outputs without using a 3D simulation tool.
There may be solar design and prediction software from companies like Autodesk. But for three reasons, we believe that our Energy3D CAD software
will be a relevant tool in this marketplace. First, our goal is to enable everyone to use Energy3D without having to go through the level of training that most engineers must go through with other CAD tools in order to master them. Second, Energy3D is completely free of charge to everyone. Third, the accuracy of Energy3D's solar analysis is comparable with that of others (and is improving as we speak!).
With these advantages, it is now possible for homeowners to evaluate the solar potential of their houses INDEPENDENTLY, using an incredibly powerful scientific simulation tool that has been designed for the layperson.
In this post, I will walk you through the solar design process in Energy3D step by step.1) Sketch up a 3D model of your house
Energy3D has an easy-to-use interface for quickly constructing your house in a 3D environment. With this interface, you can create an approximate 3D model of your house without having to worry about details such as interiors that are not important to solar analysis. Improvements of this user interface are on the way. For example, we just added a handy feature that allows users to copy and paste in 3D space. This new feature can be used to quickly create an array of solar panels by simply copying a panel and hitting Ctrl/Command+V a few times. As trees are important to the performance of your solar panels, you should also model the surrounding trees by adding various tree objects in Energy3D. Figure 1 shows a 3D model of a real house in Massachusetts, surrounded by trees. Notice that this house has a T shape and its longest side faces southeast, which means that other sides of its roof may worth checking.
2) Examine the solar radiation on the roof in four seasons
|Fig. 2 Daily solar radiation in four seasons|
Once you have a 3D model of your house and the surrounding trees, you should take a look at the solar radiation on the roof throughout the year. To do this, you have to change the date and run a solar simulation for each date. For example, Figure 2 shows the solar radiation heat maps of the Massachusetts house on 1/1, 4/1, 7/1, and 10/1, respectively. Note that the trees do not have leaves from the beginning of December to the end of April (approximately), meaning that their impacts to the performance of the solar panels are minimal in the winter.
The conventional wisdom is that the south-facing side of the roof is a good place to put solar panels. But very few houses face exact south. This is why we need a simulation tool to analyze real situations. By looking at the color maps in Figure 2, we can quickly figure out that the southeast-facing side of the roof of this house is the optimal side for solar panels and we also know that the lower part of this side is shadowed significantly by the surrounding trees.
|Fig. 3 Solarizing the house|
3) Add, copy, and paste solar panels to create arrays
Having decided which side to lay the solar panels, the next step is to add them to it. You can drop them one by one. Or drop the first one near an edge and then copy and paste it to easily create an array. Repeat this for three rows as illustrated in Figure 3. Note that I chose the solar panels that have a light-electricity conversion efficiency of 15%, which is about average in the current market. New panels may come with higher efficiency.
The three rows have a total number of 45 solar panels (3 x 5 feet each). From Figure 2, it also seems the T-wing roof leaning towards west may be a sub-optimal place to go solar. Let's also put a 2x5 array of panels on that side. If the simulation shows that they do not worth the money, we can just delete them from the model. This is the power of the simulation -- you do not have to pay a penny for anything you do with a virtual house (and you do not have to wait for a year to evaluate the effect of anything you do on its yearly energy usage).
4) Run annual energy analysis for the building
|Fig. 4 Energy graphs with added solar panels|
Now that we have put up the solar panels, we want to know how much energy they can produce. In Energy3D, this is as simple as selecting "Run Annual Energy Analysis for Building..." under the Analysis Menu. A graph will display the progress while Energy3D automatically performs a 12-month simulation and updates the results (Figure 4).
I recommend that you run this analysis every time you add a row of solar panels to keep track of the gains from each additional row. For example, Figure 4 shows the changes of solar outputs each time we add a row (the last one is the 10 panels added to the west-facing side of the T-wing roof). The following lists the annual results:
- Row 1, 15 panels, output: 5,414 kWh --- 361 kWh/panel
- Row 2, 15 panels, output: 5,018 kWh (total: 10,494 kWh) --- 335 kWh/panel
- Row 3, 15 panels, output: 4,437 kWh (total: 14,931 kWh) --- 296 kWh/panel
- T-wing 2x5 array, 10 panels, output: 2,805 kWh (total: 17,736 kWh) --- 281 kWh/panel
These results suggest that 30 panels in Rows 1 and 2 are probably a good solution for this house -- they generate a total of 10,494 kWh in a year. But if we have better (i.e., high efficiency) and cheaper solar panels in the future, adding panels to Row 3 and the T-wing may not be such a bad idea.
|Fig. 5 Comparing solar panels at different positions|
5) Compare the solar gains of panels at different positions
In addition to analyze the energy performance of the entire house, Energy3D also allows you to select individual elements and compare their performances. Figure 5 shows the comparison of four solar panels at different positions. The graph shows that the middle positions in Row 3 are not good spots for solar panels. Based on this information, we can go back to remove those solar panels and redo the analysis to see if we will have a better average output of Row 3.
After removing the five solar panels in the middle of Row 3, the total output drops to 16,335 kWh, meaning that the five panels on average output 280 kWh each.
6) Decide which positions are acceptable for installing solar panels
The analysis results thus far should provide you enough information with regard to whether it worth your money to solarize this house and, if yes, how to solarize it. The real decision depends on the cost of electricity in your area, your budget, and your expectation of the return of investment. With the price of solar panel continuing to drop, the quality continues to improve, and the pressure to reduce fossil energy usage continues to increase, building solarization is becoming more and more viable.
Solar analysis using computational tools is typically considered as the job of a professional engineer as it involves complicated computer-based design and analysis. The high cost of a professional engineer makes analyzing and evaluating millions of buildings economically unfavorable. But Energy3D reduces this task to something that even children can do. This could lead to a paradigm shift in the solar industry that will fundamentally change the way residential and commercial solar evaluation is conducted. We are very excited about this prospect and are eager to with the energy industry to ignite this revolution. | <urn:uuid:3c9b06b3-6faa-497f-844a-dab12393bf23> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blog.concord.org/tag/computer-aided-design | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397865.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00069-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947965 | 1,906 | 2.6875 | 3 |
There are many theories of humor which attempt to explain what humor is, what
social functions ... The general idea is that a person laughs about misfortunes of
others (so called schadenfreude), bec...
May 13, 2011 ... There are a lot of theories, like this one, thattry to explain why we find things
funny. ... into whatis now called the Incongruity-Resolution theory: People laugh
... a cleverly constructed punch-line causes the listener toreconsider ...
The superiority theory comes into play when we laugh at jokes that focus on
someone else's mistakes, stupidity or misfortune. We feel superior to this person,
In other words, we're always laughing at other people's expense. Relief theory:
Sigmund Freud perceived laughter and humor as a form of release, which he ...
Apr 9, 2006 ... Comedy is necessarily human: we laugh at people or the things they do ... those
definitions which tend to make the comic into an abstract ...
The third group, Relief theory, is typically associated with Sigmund Freud and ...
John Dewey states one reason to make the distinction: "The laugh is by no
means to ..... As such, humor serves as a social corrective, helping people
Apr 1, 2014 ... Since antiquity, people have hunted for a formula that explains humor. ... But
Incongruity Theory had a hard time explaining why we laugh when ...
Why We Laugh and What Makes Us Laugh: 'The Enigma of Humor' ... There are
four competing theories that explain humor, each of which argues that all .... of
the subjects that people find funny and the techniques they use in their jokes and
A Theory of Comedy. Comedy is that which makes one laugh. This is the basis for
... When these criteria have been met, people will laugh. If any one is absent, ...
Oct 3, 2014 ... We love the people who make us laugh and help keep the darkness at ... Another
—the “Relief Theory”—suggests humor and laughter help ... | <urn:uuid:380d991c-1f94-4d22-aebd-199868930d9d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.ask.com/web?q=Theories+on+What+Makes+People+Laugh%3F&o=2603&l=dir&qsrc=3139&gc=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396945.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00119-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.907083 | 434 | 2.953125 | 3 |
Home Winemaking Definitions
Note from the Editor:
Home winemaking books are known for including all kinds of strange winemaking terms that you and I would never use in every day language.What do the words mean?
Here is a handy list of the most common winemaking terms and what they mean:
Aging : Storing wine unopened for months or even years, depending on the wine and the preference of the winemaker, to permit its flavor to develop. Glass bottles or oak barrels are often used for the aging process.
Alcohol : Natural sugars in grapes and other fruit is eaten by yeast, and combined with oxygen from the air, yeast creates end products of alcohol and carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide foams and bubbles during home winemaking and leaves the wine before it's bottled. This process is called fermentation.
Blending : Two different wines blended to create a wine whose flavor has influences of both of the original wines. ( eg: Classic Bordeaux is Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot, blended.)
Brix : Think of Brix as a 'sweetness scale.' Brix refers to the amount of sugar in the original grape juice.
Cap : Grape skins, stems and bits and pieces, that rise to the top of the liquid during primary fermentation, or first phase fermentation.
Capsule : People don't use this much anymore but, the capsule was a lead or tin covering for the cork. Probably to keep rodents from chewing the cork.
Carboy : Glass or plastic containers used for home winemaking. They range in size, from 1 liter up to 20 liters or larger.
Chaptalize : Sometimes sugar is added to a grape juice or fruit juice, if they don't have enough sugar to make a good wine.
Cold Stabilization : Chilling wine solely to bleed out the naturally occurring potassium bitartrate crystals. Wine buyers mistakenly believe this chemical is unnatural, so professional vintners (winemakers), sometimes remove it to improve sales.
Enology : The Science of Winemaking.
Extended Maceration : By allowing red grapes to sit before being squeezed or pressed, their depth of their flavor develops.
Filtering : Removing remaining sediment in the home winemaking process by pouring the wine through filter cloth or paper.
Fining : This is a natural substance added to a wine - often a type of clay or egg whites - to attract solids and sediments in the wine. The wine is then racked, (*'racked' - see below) leaving behind the clay.
Hydrometer : Measures the amount of alcohol in the wine, by measuring its specific gravity.
Malolactic Fermentation : This is secondary fermentation. Secondary Fermentation converts malic acid in wine to lactic acid. This creates a smoother flavor.
Methanol : This is NOT the kind of alcohol created in winemaking. Methanol is wood alcohol. It is poisonous. Methanol is made from wood, coal or natural gas.
Must : The mashed up grapes, stems, skins, and liquid that is used in home winemaking as well as professional winemaking..
Oxidation : If air comes into contact with a wine as it ages, it changes the flavor of the wine and the liquid to brown. Not usually considered a good thing when home winemaking.
Pigeage : Is pronounced, "pidgee-AHJ" which basically is translated as pushing the skins of the fruit or red grapes back down into the mixture, to spread the flavor of the skins into the entire liquid. This is known as giving the skins "good contact."
Pomace : Is what is left over when the 'must' is pressed, and all the juice is removed. Grappa, a traditional Italian drink, is made using pomace.
Primary Fermentation : The main first phase fermentation that turns grape juice into a wine. This is where the yeast does its work on the sugars in the raw juice, changing the sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide (bubbles.)
Racking : Is done by pouring wine or still fermenting wine, from one container to another. Racking is carried out to get rid of remaining sediment by leaving it where it has collected at the bottom of the first container. In home winemaking, racking is done by hand, by simply pouring from one bucket or container to the other.
Stuck Fermentation : Refers to fermentation which is literally "stuck" part way, or has stopped too soon.
Sulfite : Sulfite can be added during home winemaking to kill off wild yeasts, sothat a certain special yeast can be added to the wine. Sulfites also help to age a batch of wine.
Tannins : Tannins are naturally found in grapes, and also in tea, chocolate, and other items. Tannins help a wine to age nicely.
Yeast : Yeast is a one-celled organism that is found naturally in grapes. It turns the sugars in grape juice into alcohol and carbon dioxide. Some winemaking regions only use natural yeasts that are contained in their grapes. Others, whether professional or when home winemaking, kill natural yeasts using sulfites, and then add in a very special yeast that is proven to work well with grapes.
Return from Home Winemaking Definitions to Easy Homemade Wine Recipe | <urn:uuid:2552029b-2fe2-43e8-ab55-e0daea5609db> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.best-wine-clubs-guide.com/home-winemaking.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398869.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00180-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946731 | 1,134 | 2.734375 | 3 |
What is the Definition of a V-Shaped, U-Shaped and L-Shape Recession?
There are a number of different "types" of recessions.
You can have a V-shaped recession. You can have a U-shaped recession. You can have an L-shaped recession, and you can have a W-shaped recession.
In order to understand these different types of recessions, you need to imagine each letter on a graph. Each letter will represent economic growth (or lack of it) in the four different scenarios.
1. The V-Shaped Recession.
In this scenario, an economy falls into a sharp recession but quickly recovers.
Imagine the left side of the letter V representing an economy falling into recession, while the right side represents its quick recovery.
A V-shaped recession is "sharp and quick". When the current recession started in the United States, many held out hope that it would be a "V-shaped" recession. Unfortunately, this wasn't the case.
2. The W-Shaped Recession.
Also known as a "double-dipped" downturn.
In a W-shaped recession, you would have a sharp downturn which is followed by small, temporary recovery.
After the temporary "blip" in growth, the economy turns lower once again, before it eventually puts in a full recovery.
3. The U-Shaped Recession.
In a V-shaped recession, the economy suffers through a sharp recession but quickly recovers.
In a U-shaped recession, the economy takes a much longer period of time to recover (usually in the neighborhood of 12-24 months) from a sharp recession.
Many believe that the United States is currently experiencing a U-shaped recession right now.
If a V-shaped recession is "sharp and quick", then a U-shaped recession is "long and protracted". Just imagine the letter V and the letter U on a graph and you will start to get the picture.
4. The L-Shaped Recession.
This is the doomsday scenario for the US economy.
Imagine a sharp recession, followed by years of stagnant growth. This is the L-shaped recession, and this is the scenario that the people running the United States desperately want to avoid.
In the L-shaped recession, the economy doesn't begin to recover for an extremely long period of time (think 7-10 years).
The best example of an L-shaped recession is Japan in the 1990s. Their housing and equity markets plummeted, and the country was thrown into a multi-year depression. They experienced the L-shaped recession.
Given how aggressive the US government has been in combating this current economic downturn, I would say that the possibility of an L-shaped recession is fairly unlikely.
We are almost certainly work out way through a U-shaped recession, and are likely 8-12 months away from seeing a recovery.
Filed under: Stock Market Education | <urn:uuid:d4a08cb0-41eb-4051-9210-45aefab735cd> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.davemanuel.com/2009/03/10/what-are-v-shaped-u-shaped-and-l-shaped-recessions/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394605.61/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00029-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955154 | 612 | 3.65625 | 4 |
Types Of Ducks
Different Types of
Ducks - What You Need To Know Before You Start To Raising Ducks
ducks does not need to be hard if you know your reason. Ducks are
mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than the swans and geese, and
may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Some people use
"duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males,
others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. Somehow, they are
sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with
similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and
coots. Ducks are generally raised for eggs but when snail food gets
scarce, they are sold for meat.
Before you start raising ducks, here are the different types for you
Egg - Type Ducks
1) Khaki Cambell Duck
Khaki Campbell ducks have characteristics brown color, have
extremely active habits, do well in good range and show little
desire for swimming. These ducks are good layers, they lay as many
as 300 or more eggs a year which are fairly large, thick-shelled and
weigh 70 to 75 grams each. The body weight at point of lay is about
1.50kg. On the average, this duck could lay 285 eggs up to 72 weeks
ofage, with a mean egg weight of 75kg. This duck can be
distinguished by their pure white feathers. Their eggs are either
white or greenish.
2) Indian Runner
The Indian Runner Duck is a breed of domestic duck. They are native
to the Indian-sub-continent and Malaysia. The breed, it is thought,
was first brought to Europe via Whitehaven, Cumbria in the United
Kingdom, by a sea captain prior to 1835, as they were exhibited at
the London Zoological Gardens by this date.
This duck assumes a very erect normal posture with are almost
straight neck. The back is long, straight and narrow. An adult
weighs about 2.10kg, while an adult weighs about 1.80kg. The egg
production characteristics of this breed resemble that of the Khaki
This breed was developed in Taiwan. The original color ranges from
black neck to pure white. Due to farmers preference, the brown breed
was selected and raised as a major variety, while the white variety
was developed for the production of mule ducks. Tsaiya ducks has
small body size. An adult female weighs about 1.30kg, while the male
weighs about 1.40kg.
Meat - Type Ducks
1) Muscovy Duck
The Muscovy Duck is a large duck which is native to Mexico and
Central and South America. Muscovy is a heavy breed. It has plump
body and yellow skin. It has three varieties: the white, the colored
and the blue. Unlike other breeds, Muscovy ducks prefer to stay on
All Muscovy Ducks have long claws on their feet and a wide flat
tail. The drake (male) is about 86 cm long and weighs 4.6-6.8 kg,
while the hen (female) is much smaller, at 64 cm in length and
2.7-3.6 kg in weight; domesticated males often weigh up to 8 kg, and
domesticated females up to 5 kg.
2) Pekin Duck
Pekin duck was bred from the Mallard in China. The ancestors of
those ducks originated from the canals which linked waterways in
Nanjing, not Beijing, and originally had small bodies and black
feathers. Sometimes it is mistaken for a goose because it carries
its body rather upright. Pekin ducks are good layers, and duckling
are ready for market at 2 or 3 months old.
Your FREE copy - Limited Time Only!
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Caring For Ducks - Duck Care Tips For A Healthy Flock
Duck Farming Guide - How To Raise Ducks Correctly And Get The Full
Ducks - Getting Started The Right Way In Raising Ducks That Grow Up
Do Ducks Eat?
How To Raise Ducks - 14 Questions And Pointers To Help You Decide
Whether To Start Raising Ducks
Feeding Ducklings - The Critical Step In Raising Baby Ducks
Duck Housing - Creating The Best Shelter For Your Ducks
How To Raise Ducks Like An Experienced Owner - Tips To Raising Ducks
How To Raise Ducks As Pets - Top Tips On Raising Ducks For Beginners
Copyright © 2015 Mary Louise | All Rights Reserved Worldwide | <urn:uuid:3841cd30-5515-4271-a65c-0423fb77daf6> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.howtoraiseducks.com/different-types-of-ducks.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397797.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00152-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.891384 | 1,041 | 3.0625 | 3 |
This Week in The Civil War, for week of Sunday, Sept. 22: Battle of Chickamauga, Ga.
Union fighters occupying Chattanooga, Tenn., would see Confederate opponents pushing back this month 150 years ago in the war in hopes of retaking lost ground. Confederate fighters under Braxton Bragg clashed with Union forces in late September of 1863 in northwest Georgia, amid a Confederate bid to recapture neighboring Chattanooga, Tenn. The fighting erupted in earnest at Chickamauga in extreme northwest Georgia on Sept. 19 of that year. Combat raged for hours with the Union line stubbornly holding. But a Union general's attempt to shore up a perceived gap in his lines allowed Confederate James Longstreet to break through during a two-day battle before Union forces pushed him back and held their ground. In the end, Confederates won a costly but critical battlefield victory. By Sept. 20, 1863, the secessionists had gained enough ground to begin staking positions on mountain heights around Chattanooga, menacing Union forces holding that city. All told, some 16,000 Union and 18,000 Confederate casualties were reckoned as the toll at Chickamauga – some of the bloodiest fighting in the so-called Western theater. The Confederate achievement would allow Bragg's army to besiege Union troops occupying Chattanooga enough to throttle the federal supply line for weeks before later fighting in the year would drive Confederates away from Chattanooga for good.
This Week in The Civil War, for week of Sunday, Sept. 29: Attack on USS New Ironsides near Charleston Harbor.
The armored Union warship USS New Ironsides came under attack the night of Oct. 5, 1863, while patrolling near Charleston, S.C. The attack by the Confederate steam-powered torpedo boat CSS David inflicted damage on the warship but it manage to escape worse fate and remained active in enforcing a Union blockade of Confederate ports well after the attack. Charleston Harbor, where the Civil War had begun with the Confederate bombardment of Fort Sumter, was a major target of Union warships seeking to enforce the blockade against gunrunners and other smugglers seeking to transport supplies to the secessionists. But the last major Union attempt to take Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor went down in failure in early September 1863. At the time, about 500 Union soldiers and Marines in small boats had approached Sumter in an unusual nighttime operation only to see five Union troops killed, several wounded and more captured. Though the Confederates suffered no loss of life, the blockade that brought USS New Ironsides to waters outside Charleston would only be solidified through the rest of the war – creating no real imperative for the Union to try further to take Charleston militarily.
This Week in The Civil War, for week of Sunday, Oct. 6: Confederate quest for foreign recognition.
Newspapers this week 150 years ago in the Civil War commented that Confederate hopes of securing English recognition for the seceding states appeared to be fading. Among the papers, the Lowell (Mass.) Daily Citizen and News reported on Oct. 6, 1863, that word had just come from England that latest Confederate diplomatic attempts in London angling for recognition met with little support. "The Richmond conspirators have exceedingly slim hopes of effective co-operation" from London, the paper reported. The paper noted that, at this stage in the war, perceptions were sharpening abroad that the conflict was in great part about destroying slavery. It added critics in England denounced any attempt to build warships for the Confederate states or supply them. In the end, no foreign government would recognize the Confederate states officially as an independent country. In New York, The Herald reported consternation this week over the more than 1,000 officer POWs from recent fighting near Chattanooga, Tenn., who had been crowded into Libby prison in Richmond, Va. The paper stated: "No arrangement has been made for the release of the officers held by the rebels as prisoners of war." The publication urged government authorities to arrange an exchange.
This Week in The Civil War, for week of Sunday, Oct. 13: Confederate Loss in Virginia
Confederate fighter A.P. Hill abruptly encountered two columns of Union soldiers at Bristoe Station, Va., and attacked, 150 years ago this week in the Civil War. The Associated Press, in a dispatch Oct. 11, 1863, cited Union forces as saying they had suspected Hill and his corps was lurking in an area near the Blue Ridge mountains. And indeed it was so. When fighting erupted at Bristoe Station on Oct. 14, 1863, Union soldiers quickly took defensive positions behind an embankment of Virginia's Orange & Alexandria railroad. Despite the pounding they received, the Union columns successfully fended off Hill's assault before withdrawing once fighting ended toward Centreville, Va. Hill also retreated, tearing up a section of the railroad regularly used by Union forces. But Hill's defeat at Bristoe Station left a black spot on his reputation and angered Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. Meanwhile, AP reported that about 900 new conscripts were traveling this week from New York and Vermont for training in the Washington area to bolster Union forces depleted by heavy fighting at Gettysburg and elsewhere in 1863. | <urn:uuid:f3208490-c725-4621-aacc-6fd53f9adca3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20130920/us-this-week-in-the-civil-war/?ir=green | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395992.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00023-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963282 | 1,048 | 3.015625 | 3 |
When it comes to body image, large, lean and muscular is in, and it’s “extremely common” for teenagers to turn to diet, exercise, protein powders or steroids in hopes of bulking up and enhancing muscle development, a study finds.
Although these techniques are most often seen among boys, in some cases they are nearly as widespread among girls, says the study published last week in Pediatrics.
Asked about methods they have used to increase their muscle size or tone, 2,793 middle school and high school students (average age 14) in Minneapolis/St. Paul said they:
Changed eating: 68 percent boys; 62 percent of girls.
Exercised more: 91 percent boys; 81 percent of girls.
Used protein powders or shakes: 35 percent boys; 21 percent girls.
Used steroids: 6 percent boys; 5 percent girls.
Used other muscle-enhancing substances such as creatine, amino acids, hydroxyl methylbutyrate (HMB), DHEA, or growth hormones: 11 percent boys; 6 percent girls.
Researchers did not collect data indicating whether eating changes were healthful or unhealthful nor how much or what type of exercise was adopted. Almost 12 percent of boys and 6 percent of girls, however, reported using three or more of the general muscle-enhancing behaviors, “indicating a relatively high level of use,” says the report.
The findings suggest that “increasing muscle strength or mass or tone is an important piece of body image for both boys and girls,” said lead study author Marla Eisenberg, professor of pediatrics at the University of Minnesota School of Medicine. “Kids really are seeing that as a goal.”
And it’s not just a behavior isolated to athletes or certain teams, says Eisenberg. Students who said they did not play sports also reported these muscle-enhancing efforts.
Teenage interest in reshaping or building their physiques is nothing new. What is new, is a social and cultural emphasis “not just about having a healthy physique,” but about achieving the “perfect” muscular body, she says, which ultimately is “just one more cultural ideal that young people find hard to achieve.”
As a result, the good reasons for teens to be physically active – skill development, having fun and general health and fitness – run the risk of being overshadowed by the goal of looking like someone in a magazine ad or in the sports pages, she says.
And given greater awareness of performance-enhancing and muscle-building substances, teens know there are many other ways to bulk up, “ways that are not recommended and not safe, but may be quite effective,” says Eisenberg.
This study is a reminder that parents and physicians need to be aware that these behaviors are going on and that they need to be discussed with their adolescents, says Joel Brenner, medical director of the Sports Medicine Program at Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters in Norfolk, Va., and chairman of the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Sports Medicine and Fitness.
The use of steroids and other performance-enhancing substances is dangerous and needs to be avoided, but inappropriate changes to diet or exercise can also be hazardous, he says.
Even when teens are involved in supervised strength and conditioning programs, parents need to stay aware of their child’s goals and make sure their activities remain “part of an overall fitness program,” Brenner says.
© 2012 USA TODAY. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:5d902485-7fa6-4487-a4f2-0dc07b941ac3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.durangoherald.com/article/20121125/LIFESTYLE04/121129740/0/LIFESTYLE06/Teenagers-getting-manic-for-muscle-building | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395346.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00158-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953425 | 739 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Cascadia Research is collaborating with researchers from the NOAA Fisheries Northwest Fisheries Science Center (NWFSC) on a study using digital acoustic recording tags (DTAGs) to examine sound exposure, sound use and behavior.
Several risk factors were identified as part of the ESA listing process for Southern Resident killer whales (SRKWs), and were included in the recovery plan. These include prey quality and quantity, water pollution and environmental contaminants, vessel effects and sound exposure, and cumulative effects. A number of scientific studies conducted over the past several years have investigated foraging and dive behavior, behavioral responses to vessels and anthropogenic noise exposure in Southern Residents. All of these studies have provided important scientific information that has helped guide recovery efforts and other management decisions of endangered SR killer whales.
In particular, a need to accurately measure sound levels received by the whales was first identified at the SRKW research planning workshop in 2004. Specifically, it was noted that a recently developed instrument called the DTAG could provide this type of data and that there is no other approach to accurately characterize received sound levels. The DTAG was developed by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution specifically to monitor the behavior of marine mammals, and their response to sound, continuously throughout the dive cycle (Johnson et al. 2009).
A DTAG on Southern Resident killer whale L83, September 21, 2010. Photo by Candi Emmons/NOAA Fisheries
This study aims to address several of the risks factors noted previously while addressing limitations of previous studies using DTAGs and other complementary methods. This is important since further recovery efforts and management decisions of SRKWs will be based on the best available science and will likely affect many constituencies. The project research goals are as follows:
An example of preliminary acoustic and movement data obtained from the DTAG. The figure shows approximately 22 minutes of dive data from K33 that includes a deeper dive after which fish scales were collected from him (denoted as a black star). Echolocation behavior (clicks and buzzes) as well as calling behavior are also noted on the dive profile as well (see legend for details).
In September 2010, the NWFSC and Cascadia Research initiated a project to address the goals listed above using DTAGs. The DTAG has a variety of sensors including a hydrophone, to record received sound levels at the whale, and accelerometers to record their 3D movements under water. It is attached by suctions cups to the skin of the whale for a few hours before release at a preset time and floats for recovery. Its use has become widespread and is commonly used by the cetacean research community to address this type of question and has been shown to provide valuable data on dive behavior on numerous cetacean species, including killer whales, in other locations.
Our current project to some extent incorporates several different SRKW research projects that have been previously conducted separately. First, in the 1990s Robin Baird and Brad Hanson deployed suction-cup attached time-depth recorders (a less sophisticated version of the DTAG) on SRKW to assess diving behavior (click here for a paper from that study). Secondly we concurrently collect vessel position relative to the tagged whale in a manner similar to previous work (Giles and Cendak 2010), i.e., two integrated equipment packages that combined a global positioning system (GPS) with built-in data collectors (Trimble Geo HX and XM), a laser rangefinder to determine distance, and a compass to determine bearing, are used to record vessel data and further focal whale data (e.g. whale ID, group size, nearby conspecifics and surface behaviors; vessel ID, size, speed, and orientation). The data collected will allow for a comprehensive analysis of the complex interactions between vessels and whales at different spatio-temporal scales. Thirdly, Holt et al. (2009) conducted an acoustic study to assess vocal changes in response to increases in background noise levels and associated nearby vessels. Finally, we are incorporating our recently used methods of focal follows to assess prey selection and other behaviors by collecting fish scales and tissues from feeding events (click here for a paper from that study). Consequently, this project reduces research effort on the whales by coupling these previously separate efforts. By combining all these studies we get a much more meaningful data set.
A three-dimensional representation of the deep dive from K33 from the graph above, showing the convoluted path of K33 underwater.
DTAGs must be deployed by a long pole such that relatively close range approaches are necessary. We use a 7-m carbon fiber pole to deploy the tag such that we must approach to within about 6 m. These close approaches are allowed under our federally authorized research permits. A successful approach to the whales requires a very gradual process to match speed and course so as not cause the whales to alter their course or speed. Generally it takes about a half an hour to achieve this positioning - if we can’t achieve this position during this time frame we break off the encounter. We closely monitor the behavior of the whales prior to tag deployment and very precisely after deployment. Our field data, based on observations by several skilled observers, do not reflect any behavioral changes pre- and post-tagging.
During tag deployment we typically see little or no reaction, usually at most a flinch and fast dive, similar to how most species of whales and dolphins react to suction-cup tagging. Once the tag is deployed we move off approximately parallel to the whales, again matching speed and course and maintain a distance of approximately 150-200 m. During our 2010 deployments we maintained an average distance of 127 m (precisely measured using the GPS/rangefinder system noted above). We need to stay within a couple of hundred meters of the whale in order to accurately measure the distance of the whale from our boat with the range finder and ensure we can positively identify the individual throughout the tracking. We also need to periodically accurately photo-document the tag position/angle on the whale in order to be able to apply the proper offset to the accelerometer data. Consequently, we know exactly how far we are at all times – a distance to the whale is measured at least once during its surfacing between the longer dives.
We take several steps to maximize the sampling opportunities and thus reduce effort in the vicinity of the whales. Firstly, we have focused our effort over only a few week time period when the whales are in their core summer habitat and the weather is fairly good. It is also important that we maximize data collection per deployment in order to minimize the number of deployments while obtaining representative samples of whale and vessel data. Consequently, the tags are programmed to release at between 7 and 8 PM as we need to recover the tag and return to port before dark and down load the data and ready it for redeployment. It is generally late morning before the whales are located such that most days it is at least noon before we can be on scene. Even after the whales are found several factors slow or reduce the success rate of tagging which reduces the duration of each deployment. We try to work with small groups of whales because they surface slightly asynchronously which allows us critical lead time to slowly reposition the boat to deploy the tag. In addition we try to find slow traveling groups because consistent heading and relatively short dives make surfacing location more predictable. We avoid groups with calves under a year of age. We maneuver with the utmost care in close vicinity of the whales maintaining 360 degree monitoring. While we try to work in the absence of vessels, we are many times working in the presence of whale watch vessels because waiting the several hours until later in the day would significantly reduce the number of hours of data obtained for any deployment. We do work in front of whale watch vessels in a manner that attempts to minimize impacts to their guest experience. In particular we strive to work on the opposite side of the whale group so as not to obstruct the view of some the group’s members. However, because we are working in very close proximity, the whales occasionally come up on the opposite side of the boat.
During a 3 week effort in September 2010 we deployed tags on nine occasions for total of 29.7 hours of acoustic/dive data. Average duration of the tag attachments was 3.3 hours, with the longest tag staying on 7.5 hours. Five of the deployments were on L pod individuals, two on K pod individuals and two on J pod individuals. Three were deployed on sub-adult males, two on adult males, and four on adult females. Below are examples of preliminary data collected from 2010. Additional tags were deployed in June 2011 and September 2012. The field team for this work has included Brad Hanson, Candi Emmons and Marla Holt from the NWFSC, Debbie Giles from the University of California Davis, Juliana Houghton from the University of Washington, Jeff Hogan from Killer Whale Tales, and Robin Baird from Cascadia, among others.
An example of the vessel data that are collected. Each vessel track is connected by a line and K33's track is shown in the thicker white line.
The data collected to date show that the brief disturbance of the whales during the tagging process does not last – the whales were observed to engage in similar behavior before and after tagging. Similarly, during the focal follow the whales engage in behaviors such as foraging.
The results of this study will provide pertinent data to address multiple risk factors of SRKWs and potential cumulative effects including vessel disturbance, noise exposure, and effects on foraging. This includes how these killer whales uses sounds in a three-dimensional environment, how anthropogenic exposures varies in space and time, and specific habitats and habitat features important for foraging in core summer habitat. Anthropogenic effects on foraging behavior is particularly concerning since these whales may be food limited and caloric restriction affects body condition, that in turns affects growth, survival and reproduction. Population growth is an integral recovery goal of any ESA listed species. Our study will provide key scientific information that will be particularly relevant for guiding and refining further management of SRKWs including addressing population recovery and other potential anthropogenic impacts such as tidal energy development.
References and further readings
Giles, D.A. and R. Cendak. 2011. An assessment of vessel effects on the cohesion and behavior state of Southern Resident killer whale groups in the Salish Sea. Report prepared under Contract No. AB133F-07-SE-3026, Northwest Fisheries Science Center. 56p.
Holt, M.M., D.P. Noren, V. Veirs, C.K. Emmons and S. Veirs. 2009. Speaking up: killer whales (Orcinus orca) increase their call amplitude in response to vessel noise. JASA Express Letters J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 125: EL 27-32.
Johnson, M., N. Aguilar and P.T. Madsen. 2009. Studying the behavior and sensory ecology of marine mammals using acoustic recording tags: a review. Marine Ecology Progress Series 395:55–73.
Lusseau, D., D.E. Bain, R. Williams and J.C. Smith. 2009. Vessel traffic disrupts the foraging behavior of southern resident killer whales Orcinus orca. Endangered Species Research 6:211–221.
Noren, D.P., A.H. Johnson, D. Rehder and A. Larson. 2009. Close approaches by vessels elicit surface active behaviors by Southern Resident killer whales. Endangered Species Research 8:179–192.
Parks, S.E., M. Johnson, D. Nowacek and P.L. Tyack. 2011. Individual right whales call louder in increased environmental noise. Biology Letters 7:33-35.
Williams, R., D.E. Bain, J.C. Smith and D. Lusseau. 2009. Effects of vessels on behaviour patterns of individual southern resident killer whales Orcinus orca. Endangered Species Research 6:199–209.
For more information on this research write to: brad.hanson (at) noaa.gov or rwbaird (at) cascadiaresearch.org
For more information on Cascadia's
killer whale work go to our killer whale
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Library Home || Full Table of Contents || Suggest a Link || Library Help
|Statements of the following paradoxes: The Racetrack (or Dichotomy); Achilles and the Tortoise; The Arrow; A brief analysis of the motion paradoxes; The Thomson Lamp; Kiekeben's Odd/Even Paradox; Benardete's Paradox of the Gods; The Paradox of the Spaceship; The Flying Bird Paradox; Zeno's Plurality Paradoxes; The Paradox of the Divided Stick. With links to related sites.|
|Levels:||High School (9-12), College|
|Resource Types:||Word Problems|
|Math Topics:||History and Biography, Logic/Foundations|
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¢ Multimedia is a combination of text, art, sound, animation, and video.
¢ It is delivered to the user by electronic or digitally manipulated means.
¢ A multimedia project development requires creative, technical, organizational, and business skills.
¢ Multimedia becomes interactive multimedia when a user is given the option of controlling the elements.
¢Interactive multimedia is called hypermedia when a user is provided a structure of linked elements for navigation.
¢Multimedia developers develop multimedia projects.
¢The software vehicle, the messages, and the content together constitute a multimedia project.
¢A multimedia project shipped to end-users with or without instructions is called a multimedia title.
¢A project can also be launched on the Web.
¢Multimedia projects can be linear or nonlinear.
¢Projects that are not interactive are called linear.
¢Projects where users are given navigational control are called non-linear and user-interactive.
¢Authoring tools are used to merge multimedia elements into a project.
¢These software tools are designed to manage individual multimedia elements and provide user interaction.
The primary media for delivering multimedia projects are:
¢CD-ROM is the most cost-effective distribution medium for multimedia projects.
¢It can contain up to 80 minutes of full-screen video or sound.
¢CD burners are used for reading discs and converting the discs to audio, video, and data formats.
¢Multilayered DVD technology increases the capacity of current optical technology to 18 GB.
¢DVD authoring and integration software is used to create interactive front-end menus for films and games.
¢DVD burners are used for reading discs and converting the disc to audio, video, and data formats.
¢Copper wire, glass fiber, and radio/cellular technologies also serve a means for delivering multimedia files across a network.
APPLICATION OF MULTIMEDIA
¢Business - Business applications for multimedia include presentations training, marketing, advertising, product demos, databases, catalogues, instant messaging, and networked communication.
¢Schools - Educational software can be developed to enrich the learning process.
¢Home (gardening, cooking, home designing) – Most multimedia projects reach the homes via television sets or monitors with built-in user inputs.
¢Public places (hotels, train stations, shopping mall, museums) – Multimedia will become available at stand-alone terminals or kiosks to provide information and help.
¢Virtual reality is an extension of multimedia.
goggles, helmets, gloves – to place user “inside” a lifelike experience.
¢It uses the basic multimedia elements of imagery, sound, and animation.
¢It requires terrific computing horsepower to be realistic.
¢In VR, cyberspace is made up of thousands of geometric objects plotted in three-dimensional space.
¢The more objects, the more points describe the object, the higher resolution – more realistic
¢The standards for transmitting VR in Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) documents have been developed on the World Wide Web.
¢VRML documents have the file extension *.wrl. | <urn:uuid:a1099399-f99a-4896-b552-6a828dc9a3ca> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://mysarah-aqeel.blogspot.com/2012/12/notes-csc413-chapter-1-what-is.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395620.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00037-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.857055 | 652 | 2.9375 | 3 |
During February more than 1,000 dead seabirds were found around the coasts of Cornwall, Devon and Dorset in SW England.
Only a small proportion has been found alive.
More than 20 different species have been recorded with the major casualties being auks (guillemots, razorbills and puffins) with smaller numbers of kittiwakes, gannets, fulmars, gulls and shags [Note One].
Birds also washed up on beaches elsewhere around the UK (including 600 in Wales) and more than 1,000 have been recorded in the Channel Islands.
Tony Whitehead from the RSPB says wildllife is experiencing great pressures from climate change and human interaction:-
Puffins have fared particularly badly, with more than 30 reported dead around the UK, 97 dead in the Channel Islands and 14,455 dead and 1086 live found on beaches in SW France.
These small birds can’t dive very deep to find their food and storm turbulence means fish are likely to move deeper in the water column to find calmer conditions.
Even if fish are still close enough to the surface for puffins, the RSPB says that feeding in storm-tossed seas must be akin to trying to see and catch fish inside a washing machine set on spin. | <urn:uuid:a2c17625-38b5-4f0f-aa43-4a1288ca5f36> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.itv.com/news/westcountry/2014-03-05/winter-storms-kills-at-least-28-000-seabirds-in-the-ne-atlantic/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398216.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00097-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956278 | 271 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Introduction plate tectonics,
theory that unifies many of the features and characteristics of continental drift
and seafloor spreading
into a coherent model and has revolutionized geologists' understanding of continents, ocean basins, mountains, and earth history.
Sections in this article:
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:d03fa2d3-7c8c-41d9-a23e-a5f050b6972a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.factmonster.com/encyclopedia/science/plate-tectonics.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00184-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.857212 | 83 | 3.046875 | 3 |
BRANT-SERO, JOHN OJIJATEKHA (baptized John Sero, rebaptized John Brant-Sero; his Mohawk name, Ojijatekha, which he used as part of his given name, means “burning flower”), Mohawk celebrity, actor, interpreter, and lecturer; b. 10 June 1867 on the Six Nations Reserve near Brantford, Upper Canada, first child of Dennis Sero (Shero), a farmer, and Ellen Funn; m. 29 June 1896 Frances Baynes Kirby, née Pinder, of Fishwick (Preston), England; d. 7 May 1914 in London, England.
John Ojijatekha Brant-Sero’s descent on his mother’s side from Isaac, first son of Joseph Brant [Thayendanegea*], and on his father’s from the Bay of Quinte Mohawks joined the two traditions of Mohawk loyalist heritage. Few details are known about his early life other than that he attended the reserve school and the Mohawk Institute to study carpentry. As he grew older he realized the value of education and wanted to learn, as he put it, “the business ways of the whites.” Accordingly, he petitioned the Six Nations Council, which granted him money to help defray the costs of a business course.
Brant-Sero left business college, he claimed, “with a fair knowledge of shorthand and some dexterity with the typewriter.” He then went to Toronto, where in 1888 and 1889 he found employment, it seems, as a machine-hand with Charles Boeckh and Son, manufacturers of brushes, brooms, and woodenware. While in Toronto he became fascinated with the theatre. By his own account he spent a number of years there on the stage, appearing in “one of Joe Murphy’s plays.” In August 1889 he spoke on the government of the Six Nations at the Toronto meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
In 1891 he left for England, where, again by his own admission, he spent some time on the stage; he claimed to have appeared in the American spectacle On the frontier, which played in Liverpool in the spring of 1891. While in England, at the age of 29, he married the 48-year-old widow of a clergyman. Since it was impossible at the time to produce his Methodist baptismal certificate, he was rechristened in an Anglican service, taking Brant as part of his name. On the marriage certificate his occupation was listed as divinity student.
Brant-Sero returned to Canada with his bride and settled in Hamilton, Ont., where they took a large house on the outskirts of the city and “cut a wide swath in society.” John evidently had a “deep interest in public, sporting and social affairs.” The Toronto Globe of 16 Oct. 1897 devoted a feature article to a huge party the couple gave to celebrate Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee; they invited several hundred Indians to camp on their grounds and roasted an ox whole.
Following his return, Brant-Sero had attracted the attention of Ontario’s literati through his knowledge of the Mohawk language and the myths, songs, and traditions of his people. He was engaged as an informant and interpreter by David Boyle, curator of the archaeology department of the Ontario Provincial Museum in Toronto, who, in his report of 1898, admired Brant-Sero as “one of the brightest and most intelligent Iroquois ever born on the Reserve.” Witty, outgoing, and ambitious, Brant-Sero was elected second vice-president in 1899 of the Wentworth Historical Society and also of the Ontario Historical Society, where, in the opinion of fellow vice-president David Breakenridge Read*, he was “the moving spirit in the Six Nations Historical matters.” His tenure, however, was short-lived.
In the spring of 1900 he went to Chicago and made a successful lecture tour of the United States, enlivening and enriching “his lectures with Indian songs, giving them in the original and then explaining the meaning of the Indian words and the peculiarities of the Indian music.” In one lecture he recited from Shakespeare’s Othello in both English and Mohawk. Evidently, when he went to Chicago he abandoned his wife. Later in 1900 he travelled to the Cape Colony to enlist in one of the contingents fighting in the South African War. He was refused because he was not of European origin. He succeeded, however, in getting on the civilian staff at a remount depot, but eventually he resigned and went to England.
With his dashing good looks, flair for the dramatic, and fluency in English he quickly won the notice of’ London’s men of science. In 1900 he read a paper before the British Association for the Advancement of Science. He became so highly regarded that articles about him appeared that year in the column “People talked about” in Leslie’s Weekly, a popular American illustrated. The next year he was elected a fellow of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, but he resigned in 1902. His lecture tours in England attracted enthusiastic crowds. On 13 Feb. 1902, for example, he spoke to an audience of 1,311 in Liverpool on “Canada and the Indians” and used musical and lantern illustrations.
Less than a month later Brant-Sero appeared in Liverpool’s police court for neglecting to pay for the support of his child. Describing himself as an anthropologist engaged in the “study of mankind . . . principally . . . the study of the backward races, and the American Indians in particular,” he claimed recognition by major associations. He none the less pleaded that “in a conservative country like England it was almost impossible to make money.” Although he was enterprising enough and promoted himself well, he must have had difficulty financing the stylish life he enjoyed. Whether he went to prison or was eventually able to pay his fine cannot be verified. He did tell the court that he “had recently married a lady in London who possessed a small income.”
Only sporadic incidents are known of Brant-Sero’s life between 1902 and his death. His views on Canada’s Indians and the Mohawks especially, recorded in the Journal of American Folk-lore in 1905, were optimistic, intensely patriotic, and tinged perhaps with some delusion when he stated that in Canada his people were “on a footing of perfect equality.” On 19 May 1906, from Bridlington, England, he wrote to the Globe advocating a memorial to honour the 100th anniversary of the death of his famous ancestor, Joseph Brant. A year later, in a lecture in London, he took the occasion of the centenary to discuss the education of Indians in Ontario. On 26 Aug. 1908 he visited Folkestone, England, where, “in full native dress, with feathery headgear” and “jet-black hair, which fell over the nape of his neck,” he won third prize at an international beauty show for gentlemen. In 1911 his brief article on a medicinal herb his people called o-nõ-dah appeared in the Journal of American Folklore over the date-line of Hamilton, Ont.
Brant-Sero died in 1914 of “acute pneumococcal meningitis” at West London Hospital in England. His occupation on his death certificate was given as journalist. In its obituary the Hamilton Spectator described him as “the best known Mohawk Indian of the present century.”
Much that has been written about Brant-Sero, by himself and others, cannot be verified: his attendance at the University of Cambridge; his stage appearances; his lecture to the Royal Saxon Geographical Society in Dresden, Germany, in 1900; and his full-length portrait in costume at the British Museum. Brant-Sero appears to have distinguished between the sort of genuine historical information that he gave Boyle and the historical societies, and what he gave out at public lectures in Britain and the United States. His mention of “backward races” on one occasion, “perfect equality” on another, and the theatricality of his lectures suggest a shrewd appreciation of what white audiences wanted to hear and see. He may have created a personal mythology in his restless travels, but his extant letters and articles reveal an articulate, likeable, and romantic character whose passionate attachment to the British crown and his Mohawk heritage gained him many admirers during his lifetime.
John Ojijatekha Brant-Sero is the author of “Some descendants of Joseph Brant” in Ontario Hist. Soc., Papers and Records (later OH), 1 (1899): 113–17; “The Six-Nations Indians in the province of Ontario, Canada,” in Wentworth Hist. Soc., Journal and Trans. (Hamilton, Ont.), 2 (1899): 62–73; “Indian Rights Association after government scalp” in Wilshire’s Magazine (Los Angeles), October 1903: 70–75 (copy in AO, Pamphlet Coll., 1903, no.60); and “Views of a Mohawk Indian” and “O-nõ-dah” in Journal of American Folk-lore (Boston and New York; etc.), 18 (1905): 160–62 and 24 (1911): 251, respectively. “Dekanawideh: the lawgiver of the Caniengahakas,” a lecture he delivered before the British Assoc. for the Advancement of Science, was published in Man (London), 1 (1901): 166–70.
Brant-Sero’s letter of 1906 to the Globe advocating a Joseph Brant memorial is reproduced in Shocked and appalled: a century of letters to the “Globe and Mail”, ed. Jack Kapica (Toronto, 1985), 51–52, and his lecture in London of the following year appears in the Globe, 13 Aug. 1907: 6. According to Canadian men and women of the time (Morgan; 1912), Brant-Sero, poet and dramatist, also translated “God save the King” into Mohawk and produced a poem entitled “The beaver and the fox,” but no record of either of these items has been located.
AO, F 1076-A-19, box 5, envelope 1. HPL, Scrapbooks, H. F. Gardiner, 113: 55. NA, MG 26, G: 66090–91. Chicago Evening Post, 19 March 1900. Evening Express (Liverpool, Eng.), 31 March 1901. Folkestone Express, Sandgate, Shorncliffe and Hythe Advertiser (Folkestone, Eng.), 29 Aug. 1908. Fort Beaufort Advocate and Adelaide Opinion (Fort Beaufort, Cape Colony), 7 Sept. 1900. Globe, 16 Oct. 1897. Hamilton Spectator, 3 March 1902, 26 May 1914. Ottawa Citizen, 17 Jan. 1901. American Assoc. for the Advancement of Science, Proc. (Salem, Mass.), 1889: 371. Directory, Toronto, 1888–89. C. T. Foreman, Indians abroad, 1493–1938 (Norman, Okla, 1943), 99–100. Gerald Killan, Preserving Ontario’s heritage: a history of the Ontario Historical Society (Ottawa, 1976). Leslie’s Weekly, Illustrated (New York), 19 March, 28 July 1900. Liverpool, Public libraries, museums, and art gallery committee, Annual report, 1902. Ontario Provincial Museum, Annual archœological report (Toronto), 1898: 3. | <urn:uuid:111ece65-34e6-44ea-ae1d-c62655888df1> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/brant_sero_john_ojijatekha_14E.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397636.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00141-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968978 | 2,501 | 2.515625 | 3 |
HISTORY OF HAIKU
10 haikuists and their works
Buson Yosa (1716 ~ 1783)
In the 18th century, haikai-renga became less popular and the haikuists put efforts into the creation of hokkus.
Buson, excellent painter and poet, succeeded in evoking clear images in his picturesque hokkus filled with light.
Buson's hokkus, different from Basho's, don't present philosophy, nor show emphatic gestures. His expressions are so refined that he has no equal in technique. He had genius and he could make feel the eternity beyond the landscape by describing only one peaceful scene.
His poems are descriptive, but their scenery is idealized rather than realistic. This means that he wanted to describe the essence of things, not their surfaces.
Buson's hokkus, which utilized linguistic function beauty completely, have charmed a lot of poets and had a big influence on the modern haiku.
However, they depend deeply on the function of Japanese and it is difficult
to translate them into foreign languages.
The air shimmers.
Of an unknown insect.
Plowing the field.
A immobile cloud has disappeared.
A kite floats
At the place in the sky
Where it floated yesterday.
To the half dying incense
I add it.
Short summer night.
On the back of a hairy caterpillar.
A mosquito buzzes
Every time flowers of honeysuckle fall.
Four or five men dance in a circle.
The moon is about to drop.
The moon shines at the zenith.
I pass poor quarters.
He says he is already asleep.
Autumn chilly night.
One lantern comes out of the castle.
Next Page (Shiki Masaoka)
HOME / Index
French / Japanese
e-mail to Ryu Yotsuya and Niji Fuyunoloupe@big.or.jp | <urn:uuid:49ce5b9e-8774-4499-9cc1-754f67caba67> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.big.or.jp/%7Eloupe/links/ehisto/ebuson.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397744.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00152-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922859 | 416 | 3.1875 | 3 |
The optical system is therefore designed to observe with optimal sensitivity in the 600 to 900nm range, in order to match the peak emission of the primary targets (K and early M).
Following the results from HARPS planet surveys on super-Earths, the work from Howard et al. 2010 as well as the results from Kepler, one can consider a conservative planet occurrence of typically 5% for Neptune size planets with periods shorter than 10 days (corresponding to an average transit probability of about 5%). One then finds that a minimum sample of about 40,000 stars needs to be monitored to detect about 100 transiting planets of this kind. With the additional constraint to identify these planets on bright stars, to ensure an optimal capability for follow-up observations, we consider a V magnitude of 13th as the practical faint limit. For M stars a fainter V-magnitude down to 15th may be considered in view of the smaller mass of the star and the larger radial-velocity amplitude expected. An additional benefit of staying in this magnitude range is the limited crowding factor, which is less than 20% for our PSF, even for a field 30 degrees from the Galactic plane.
Our simulations suggest we will detect ~140 sub-Neptune sized planets bright enough (V<15) for confirmation and mass determination with HARPS and the forthcoming ESPRESSO instrument on the VLT, and hence their bulk composition. We should also find ~20 sub-Neptune or Super-Earth sized planets bright enough (I<11) for detailed atmospheric characterisation with a href="http://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/e-elt/">E-ELT, JWST, and CHEOPS, as well as >100 new hot Jupiters.
The most fundamental result from Kepler is the statistical information gathered on Neptune and large Earth-like planets. NGTS is designed to detect this planet population around brighter stars, allowing systematic follow-up of planetary structure and atmospheric composition. Kepler candidates are mostly too faint to be studied in this detail. Interestingly the period distribution of small planets significantly rises above 4 days, motivating a facility with good detection efficiency in the 4 to 10 day period range.
The 600-900nm wavelength region includes strong water bands whose rapid variations could degrade the quality of the photometry by adding short-term variable color effects. The superb dry conditions of the Paranal site in this respect crucially enhances the discovery potential of the survey. Another key parameter affecting the final planet catch is the number of clear nights per year. These factors have driven the selection of Paranal as the site for NGTS. | <urn:uuid:e59bf68e-8b2c-4bff-804b-70a6ead615db> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.ngtransits.org/survey.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394987.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00060-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.899601 | 548 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
January 27, 1997
Explanation: One of the most spectacular solar sights is a prominence. A solar prominence is a cloud of solar gas held above the Sun's surface by the Sun's magnetic field. The Earth would easily fit under one of the loops of the prominence shown in the above picture. A quiescent prominence typically lasts about a month, and may erupt in a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) expelling hot gas into the Solar System. Although thought by many to be related to the magnetic field, the energy mechanism behind a Solar prominence is still unknown.
Authors & editors:
NASA Technical Rep.: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA/ GSFC
&: Michigan Tech. U. | <urn:uuid:c7a4cbd9-21d4-4d67-b48e-655af4417d63> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap970127.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397744.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00184-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.88873 | 187 | 3.75 | 4 |
Description from Flora of China
Shrubs, climbing, aromatic, pubescent or glabrous. Branches 4-angled, sometimes prickly. Leaves petiolate; leaf blade simple, crenate, often rugose. Inflorescences dense capitula, pedunculate; bracts exceeding calyx. Calyx small, membranous, truncate or sinuate dentate. Corolla nearly actinomorphic or slightly 2-lipped, tube slender; lobes 4 or 5, spreading. Stamens 4, didynamous, included. Ovary 2-locular. Style shorter than corolla tube; stigma obliquely subcapitate. Drupes with 2 1-seeded pyrenes.
About 150 species: tropical and subtropical America, one species naturalized in China.
Additional species grown as ornamentals. | <urn:uuid:43bd6236-b617-416a-89e7-2fc150a6d692> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=600&taxon_id=117596 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396459.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00005-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.764396 | 180 | 2.578125 | 3 |
You've seen them on business programs or financial news networks: a flashing series of baffling letters, arrows and numbers scrolling along the bottom of your TV screen. While many people simply block out the ticker tape, others use it to stay on top of market sentiment and track the activity of certain stocks. What exactly is that cryptic script reeling by? It obviously tells us something about stocks and the markets, but how does one understand the ticker tape and use it to his or her advantage?
Tutorial: Stocks Basics
Firstly, a tick is any movement, up or down, however small, in the price of a security. Hence, a ticker tape automatically records each transaction that occurs on the exchange floor, including trading volume, onto a narrow strip of paper or tape.
The first ticker tape was developed in 1867, following the advent of the telegraph machine, which allowed for information to be printed in easy-to-read scripts. During the late 19th century, most brokers who traded at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) kept an office near it to ensure they were getting a steady supply of the tape and thus the most recent transaction figures of stocks. These latest quotes were delivered by messengers, or "pad shovers," who ran a circuit between the trading floor and brokers' offices. The shorter the distance between the trading floor and the brokerage, the more up-to-date the quotes were.
Ticker-tape machines introduced in 1930 and 1964 were twice as fast as their predecessors, but they still had about a 15 to 20 minute delay between the time of a transaction and the time it was recorded. It wasn't until 1996 that a real-time electronic ticker was launched. It is these up-to-the-minute transaction figures - namely price and volume - that we see today on TV news shows, financial wires and websites; while the actual tape has been done away with, it has retained the name.
Due to the nature of the markets, investors from all corners of the globe are trading a variety of stocks in different lots and blocks at any given time. Therefore what you see one minute on a ticker could change the next, particularly for those stocks with high trading volume, and it could be some time before you see your ticker symbol appear again with the latest trading activity.
Reading the Ticker Tape
Here's an example of a quote shown on a typical ticker tape:
|Ticker Symbol||The Unique Characters used to identify the company.|
|Shares Traded||The volume for the trade being quoted. Abbreviations are K = 1,000, M = 1 million and B = 1 billion|
|Price Traded||The price per share for the articular trade (the last bid price).|
|Change Direction||Shows whether the stock is trading higher or lower than the previous day\'s closing price.|
|Change Amount||The difference in prie from the previous day\'s close.|
Throughout the trading day, these quotes will continually scroll across the screen of financial channels or wires, showing current, or slightly delayed, data. In most cases the ticker will quote only stocks of one exchange, but it is common to see the numbers of two exchanges scrolling across the screen.
You can tell where a stock trades by looking at the number of letters in the stock symbol. If the symbol has three letters, the stock likely trades on the NYSE or American Stock Exchange (AMEX). A four-letter symbol indicates the stock likely trades on the Nasdaq. Some Nasdaq stocks have five letters, which usually means the stock is foreign. This is designated by an 'F' or 'Y' at the end of the stock symbol. To learn more, see Why do some stock symbols have three letters while others have four?
On many tickers, colors are also used to indicate how the stock is trading. Here is the color scheme most TV networks use:
|Green indicates the stock is trading higher than the previous day\'s close.
Red indicates the stock is trading lower than the previous day\'s close.
Blue or white means the stock is unchanged from the previous closing price.
Before 2001, stocks were quoted as a fraction, but with the emergence of decimalization all stocks on the NYSE and Nasdaq trade as decimals. The advantage to investors and traders is that decimalization allows investors to enter orders to the penny (as opposed to fractions like 1/16).
Which Quotes Get Priority?
There are literally millions of trades executed on more than 10,000 different stocks each and every day. As you can imagine, it's impossible to report every single trade on the ticker tape. Quotes are selected according to several factors, including the stocks' volume, price change, how widely they are held and if there is significant news surrounding the companies.
For example, a stock that trades 10 million shares a day will appear more times on the ticker tape than a small stock that trades 50,000 shares a day. Or if a smaller company not usually featured on the ticker has some ground-breaking news, it will likely be added to the ticker. The only times the quotes are shown in predetermined order are before the trading day starts and after it has finished. At those times, the ticker simply displays the last quote for all stocks in alphabetical order.
The Bottom Line
Constantly watching a ticker tape is not the best way to stay informed about the markets, but many believe it can provide some insight. Tick indicators are used to easily identify those stocks whose last trade was either an uptick or a downtick. This is used as an indicator of market sentiment for determining the market's trend.
So next time you're watching TV or surfing a website with a ticker, you'll understand what all those numbers and symbols scrolling across your screen really mean. Just remember that it can be near impossible to see the exact price and volume at the precise moment it is being traded. Think of a ticker tape as providing you with a general picture of a stock's "current" activity. | <urn:uuid:6f5e0b7b-3a8c-4849-ab08-46f31dc8c2be> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.investopedia.com/articles/01/070401.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399425.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00053-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955393 | 1,259 | 2.609375 | 3 |
When presenting ideas that include references to data, it can be helpful to make the point using a graph or table. These visual methods can make the point much stronger than simply describing the data. While they can be powerful methods, they also have the potential to ruin a presentation if they convey the wrong message or they confuse the audience. Appropriate use of graphs and tables is one way to enhance the message you are delivering. (Do you use Excel data in PowerPoint? If so, check out this webinar on turning spreadsheets into visuals)
There are five basic types of graphs that are used most frequently. There are more complex types that are used for specific purposes, usually technical in nature, which will not be discussed here because they would rarely be used by most of us. A graph is really a graphical representation of one or more sets of data. A set of related data is referred to as a data series. For example, the sales of product X each year for the past five years would be one data series. Here are the five basic graph types:
Area - This graph shows the relationship of different parts to a whole over time. One example would be to show the breakdown of the total organization profit by product line over the last five years. This graph can show many (4-6) data series at a time.
Column - This graph shows the differences in individual values vertically. It can be used to show the differences between values in different time periods or other data groupings. Examples include showing the total number of phone calls each month for the past year or the number of orders received by each order method (fax, phone, e-mail, web, walk-in) over the last month. This graph works best with fewer (1-3) data series.
Bar - This graph shows the differences in individual values horizontally. It is not a good choice for showing values in different time periods. It works better for showing the results of one or two data series. One example would be to show the popularity of the top eight answers to a survey question.
Line - This graph shows values at different points in time. It is usually best to have equal time intervals along the horizontal axis of the graph. One example would be to show the trend in the number of customer service calls handled by the five offices each month over the last year. A line graph can display many (4-6) data series quite well.
Pie - This graph shows the proportions of each segment of a whole. This graph only handles one data series. An example would be to show the proportion of funding provided to the organization by each level of government in the past year.
When you are deciding which type of graph to use for your situation, the decision tree below can help you. The key questions to consider are whether the data is time-sequenced and how many data series you want to show. By selecting the appropriate graph type, you can help make the message clearer to the audience.
Key Graph Elements
Colors – Make sure that you set the background color and the color of each data series so that there is enough contrast to be seen clearly by the audience. These colors should also be consistent with the overall color scheme of the slides so that the graph does not look out of place.
Depth – The depth of the graph refers to whether the graph is 2-D or 3-D. There is almost no value ot the third dimension, and I suggest graphs be 2-D.
Axes – All of the above graph types except the pie graph have two axes. One is for the data values and the other is for the time scale or how the data is separated. It is important to set the scale of the axes to be appropriate to the data being shown. Also, make sure that axis labels that indicate the values along each axis are big enough to be clearly read when the graph is displayed. If the axes are not clear, the graph may be misinterpreted because it is not clear to the audience what the difference between the data is.
Data Labels – When you need to more clearly indicate the data value in a graph, you can use a data label. This is a text box that contains the actual data value and it should be placed close to the graphical representation of the data point, whether it is at the end of a bar or column, above a data point on a line graph or inside the pie section in a pie graph. Make sure that the text is big enough to be read clearly and that the text color has enough contrast with the color underneath it.
Title – The title of the graph should focus on the interpretation of the data, not the data itself. Remember that we are using a graph to help make a point, and the title will be a key factor in the audience interpreting the graph properly. For example, instead of a title like "Sales 1996-2001", you could say "Sales Up 42% ’96-’01". There is usually no need for a separate tile on a graph since the slide headline will communicate the meaning of the graph.
Legend – If you have more than one data series on a graph, you should add text labels to indicate each series instead of using a legend on the graph. Research shows that a legend distracts the audience by forcing them to split their attention between the data in the graph and the explanantory text in the legend, reducing their understanding of the graph. Instead, put any explanatory text in the graph using text boxes.
Creating the Graph
Most presentation software packages have a built-in graph creation tool. For earlier versions of Microsoft PowerPoint, it is the Microsoft Graph application, and later versions use Microsoft Excel. Most of these tools are quite robust and will meet the needs of most presenters. If you want to use a graph, understand within your presentation software how to create and edit a graph, especially the elements listed above. There are specialized graphing software tools available, but these are required only when you need to use certain complex graph types or require features that are not included in the built-in tools. One way to extend the capabilities of the built-in graphing tool is to use the graphing tool to create the basic graph, and then use the drawing tools of the presentation software to add specific elements that are required for your purposes, such as lines, text boxes or arrows. Importing a graph from another software package, such as a spreadsheet is not always a good idea because it is harder to get the colors right on the import translation and it is harder to edit since the other software package must be started to do the editing.
The basic structure of a table is a set of columns and rows that contain the data and usually contain either a row or column (or both) of headings that organize the data. When deciding on the size of the table, it is a good idea to keep the six by six guideline in mind. Used in the context of tables, this guideline suggests that a table should try to have no more than six columns and no more than six rows in order to keep the amount of information to a reasonable level. In selecting the size of the table, make sure that the font size of the text in each cell of the table is big enough to be read clearly when displayed. A table is generally less effective than a graph because it only shows the data, whereas the graph shows an interpretation of the data, which is easier for the audience to understand. When you are presenting a table, you will need to provide the interpretation of the data for the audience. One way to make certain cells stand out is to change the background color of the cell or enhance the text by changing the color or making it bolder. Column and/or row headings should be bolded to distinguish them from the data. Most presentation software packages have a built-in table creation tool that will serve most purposes quite well. Importing a table from another software package, such as a word processor is not always a good idea because it is harder to get the formatting right on the import translation and it is harder to edit since the other software package must be started to do the editing.
When using a graph or a table, you should emphasize the key parts so that your points are stronger. One way to add emphasis is to animate the graph or table elements so that they appear one-by-one instead of all at one time. This allows you to discuss each element or data series individually and keep the audience focus on the message you are delivering. Using animation effects is much better than trying to point different elements out using a pointer device such as a laser pointer. You can also use drawing tools such as arrows and boxes to highlight a portion of the table or graph. You can use a strong contrasting color for the drawing element to visually draw the audience’s eyes to that part of the graph or table. Most presentation software packages also have a callout box drawing tool. This tool places a line pointing at a certain spot on the graph and then links that line to a box that contains text to explain the significance of the area being pointed to. I use this in one graph to replace a legend.
By properly using graphs and tables, you can add visual elements that enhance your message.
Did you find this article helpful? If so, click here to check out some great learning tools to help even more!
If you create and deliver financial presentations, check out this slideshare. | <urn:uuid:62cd4000-25ad-4901-a81d-006fe01cbde9> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/using-graphs-and-tables-on-presentation-slides/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397696.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00128-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925441 | 1,924 | 3.84375 | 4 |
|Purred: Fri Oct 10, '08 8:08am PST |
|HISTORY OF CANADIAN THANKSGIVING....LONG, BUT INTERESTING!!!!!
The history of Thanksgiving in Canada goes back to an explorer, Martin Frobisher, who had been trying to find a northern passage to the Orient. In the year 1578, he held a formal ceremony, in what is now the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, to give thanks for surviving the long journey. This feast is considered by many to be the first Thanksgiving celebration in North America, although celebrating the harvest and giving thanks for a successful bounty of crops had been a long-standing tradition throughout North America by various First Nations and Native American groups. First Nations and Native Americans throughout the Americas, including the Pueblo, Cherokee, Cree and many others organized harvest festivals, ceremonial dances, and other celebrations of thanks for centuries before the arrival of Europeans in North America . Frobisher was later knighted and had an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean in northern Canada named after him — Frobisher Bay.
At the same time, French settlers, having crossed the ocean and arrived in Canada with explorer Samuel de Champlain, also held huge feasts of thanks. They even formed 'The Order of Good Cheer' and gladly shared their food with their First Nations neighbours.
After the Seven Years' War ended in 1763 handing over New France to the British, the citizens of Halifax held a special day of Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving days were observed beginning in 1799 but did not occur every year. After the American Revolution, American refugees who remained loyal to Great Britain moved from the United States and came to Canada. They brought the customs and practices of the American Thanksgiving to Canada. The first Thanksgiving Day after Canadian Confederation was observed as a civic holiday on April 5, 1872 to celebrate the recovery of the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) from a serious illness.
Starting in 1879 Thanksgiving Day was observed every year but the date was proclaimed annually and changed year to year. The theme of the Thanksgiving holiday also changed year to year to reflect an important event to be thankful for. In the early years it was for an abundant harvest and occasionally for a special anniversary.
After World War I, both Armistice Day and Thanksgiving were celebrated on the Monday of the week in which November 11 occurred. Ten years later, in 1931, the two days became separate holidays, and Armistice Day was renamed Remembrance Day.
On January 31, 1957, the Canadian Parliament proclaimed:
“ A Day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed … to be observed on the 2nd Monday in October
|my posts | my page | msg me | my family's posts | gift me | become friends|| [notify]| | <urn:uuid:03259138-0c51-4720-b2b8-5e4fae90e9a0> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.catster.com/forums/Party_Time_and_Virtual_Play_Dates/thread/565064 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404382.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00082-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970112 | 579 | 3.734375 | 4 |
The Discover of the Source of the Nile
By John Hanning Speke
Nature of the Country--Resumption of the March--A Hunt--Bombay and Baraka--The Slave-Hunters--The Ivory-Merchants--Collection of Natural-History Specimens--A Frightened Village--Tracking a Mule.
Under U-Sagara, or, as it might be interpreted, U-sa-Gara--country of Gara--is included all the country lying between the bifurcation of the Kingani and Mgeta rivers east, and Ugogo, the first country on the interior plateau west,--a distance of a hundred miles. On the north it is bounded by the Mukondokua, or upper course of the Wami river and on the south by the Ruaha, or northern great branch of the Lufiji river. It forms a link of the great East Coast Range; but though it is generally comprehended under the single name Usagara, many sub-tribes occupy and apply their own names to portions of it; as, for instance, the people on whose ground we now stood at the foot of the hills, are Wa-Khutu, and their possessions consequently are U-Khutu, which is by far the best producing land hitherto alluded to since leaving the sea-coast line. Our ascent by the river, though quite imperceptible to the eye, has been 500 feet. From this level the range before us rises in some places to 5000 to 6000 feet, not as one grand mountain, but in two detached lines, lying at an angle of 45 degrees from N.E. to S.W., and separated one from the other by elevated valleys, tables, and crab-claw spurs of hill which incline towards the flanking rivers. The whole having been thrown up by volcanic action, is based on a strong foundation of granite and other igneous rocks, which are exposed in many places in the shape of massive blocks; otherwise the hill-range is covered in the upper part with sandstone, and in the bottoms with alluvial clay. This is the superficial configuration of the land as it strikes the eye; but, knowing the elevation of the interior plateau to be only 2500 feet above the sea immediately on the western flank of these hills, whilst the breath of the chain is 100 miles, the mean slope of incline of the basal surface must be on a gradual rise of twenty feet per mile. The hill tops and sides, where not cultivated, are well covered with bush and small trees, amongst which the bamboo is conspicuous; whilst the bottoms, having a soil deeper and richer, produce fine large fig-trees of exceeding beauty, the huge calabash, and a variety of other trees. Here, in certain places where water is obtainable throughout the year, and wars, or slave-hunts more properly speaking, do not disturb the industry of the people, cultivation thrives surprisingly; but such a boon is rarely granted them. It is in consequence of these constantly- recurring troubles that the majority of the Wasagara villages are built on hill-spurs, where the people can the better resist attack, or, failing, disperse and hide effectually. The normal habitation is the small conical hut of grass. These compose villages, varying in number according to the influence of their head men. There are, however, a few mud villages on the table-lands, each built in a large irregular square of chambers with a hollow yard in the centre, known as tembe.
As to the people of these uplands, poor, meagre-looking wretches, they contrast unfavourably with the lowlanders on both sides of them. Dingy in colour, spiritless, shy, and timid, they invite attack in a country where every human being has a market value, and are little seen by the passing caravan. In habits they are semi-pastoral agriculturalists, and would be useful members of society were they left alone to cultivate their own possessions, rich and beautiful by nature, but poor and desolate by force of circumstance. Some of the men can afford a cloth, but the greater part wear an article which I can only describe as a grass kilt. In one or two places throughout the passage of these hills a caravan may be taxed, but if so, only to a small amount; the villagers more frequently fly to the hill-tops as soon as the noise of the advancing caravan is heard, and no persuasions will bring them down again, so much ground have they, from previous experience, to fear treachery. It is such sad sights, and the obvious want of peace and prosperity, that weary the traveller, and make him every think of pushing on to his journey's end from the instant he enters Africa until he quits the country.
Knowing by old experience that the beautiful green park in the fork of these rivers abounded in game of great variety and in vast herds, where no men are ever seen except some savage hunters sitting in the trees with poisoned arrows, or watching their snares and pitfalls, I had all along determined on a hunt myself, to feed and cheer the men, and also to collect some specimens for the home museums. In the first object we succeeded well, as "the bags" we made counted two brindled gnu, four water-boc, one pallah-boc, and one pig,-- enough to feed abundantly the whole camp round. The feast was all the better relished as the men knew well that no Arab master would have given them what he could sell; for if a slave shot game, the animals would be the master's, to be sold bit by bit among the porters, and compensated from the proceeds of their pay. In the variety and number of our game we were disappointed, partly because so many wounded got away, and partly because we could not find what we knew the park to contain, in addition to what we killed--namely, elephants, rhinoceros, giraffes, buffaloes, zebra, and many varieties of antelopes, besides lions and hyenas. In fact, "the park," as well as all the adjacent land at the foot of the hills, is worth thinking of, with a view to a sporting tour as well as scientific investigation.
A circumstance arose here, which, insignificant though it appeared, is worth noting, to show how careful one must be in understanding and dealing with negro servants. Quite unaccountably to myself, the general of my Wanguana, Baraka, after showing much discontent with his position as head of Captain Grant's establishment, became so insolent, that it was necessary to displace him, and leave him nothing to do but look after the men. This promoted Frij, who enjoyed his rise as much as Baraka, if his profession was to be believed, enjoyed his removal from that office. Though he spoke in this manner, still I knew that there was something rankling in his mind which depressed his spirits as long as he remained with us, though what it was I could not comprehend, nor did I fully understand it till months afterwards. It was ambition, which was fast making a fiend of him; and had I known it, he would, and with great advantage too, have been dismissed upon the spot. The facts were these: He was exceedingly clever, and he knew it. His command over men was surprising. At Zanzibar he was the Consul's right-hand man: he ranked above Bombay in the consular boat's crew, and became a terror even to the Banyans who kept slaves. He seemed, in fact, in his own opinion, to have imbibed all the power of the British Consul who had instructed him. Such a man was an element of discord in our peaceful caravan. He was far too big-minded for the sphere which he occupied; and my surprise now is that he ever took service, knowing what he should, at the time of enlistment, have expected, that no man would be degraded to make room for him. But this was evidently what he had expected, though he dared not say it. He was jealous of Bombay, because he thought his position over the money department was superior to his own over the men; and he had seen Bombay, on one occasion, pay a tax in Uzaramo--a transaction which would give him consequence with the native chiefs. Of Sheikh Said he was equally jealous, for a like reason; and his jealousy increased the more that I found it necessary to censure the timidity of this otherwise worthy little man. Baraka thought, in his conceit, that he could have done all things better, and gained signal fame, had he been created chief. Perhaps he thought he had gained the first step towards this exalted rank, and hence his appearing very happy for this time. I could not see through so deep a scheme and only hoped that he would shortly forget, in the changes of the marching life, those beautiful wives he had left behind him, which Bombay in his generosity tried to persuade me was the cause of his mental distraction.
Our halt at the ford here was cut short by the increasing sickness of the Hottentots, and the painful fact that Captain Grant was seized with fever. (6) We had to change camp to the little village of Kiruru, where, as rice was grown--an article not to be procured again on this side of Unyamuezi--we stopped a day to lay in supplies of this most valuable of all travelling food. Here I obtained the most consistent accounts of the river system which, within five days' journey, trends through Uzegura; and I concluded, from what I heard, that there is no doubt of the Mukondokua and Wami rivers being one and the same stream. My informants were the natives of the settlement, and they all concurred in saying that the Kingani above the junction is called the Rufu, meaning the parent stream. Beyond it, following under the line of the hills, at one day's journey distant, there is a smaller river called Msonge. At an equal distance beyond it, another of the same size is known as Lungerengeri; and a fourth river is the Wami, which mouths in the sea at Utondue, between the ports of Whindi and Saadami. In former years, the ivory-merchants, ever seeking for an easy road for their trade, and knowing they would have no hills to climb if they could only gain a clear passage by this river from the interior plateau to the sea, made friends with the native chiefs of Uzegura, and succeeded in establishing it as a thoroughfare. Avarice, however, that fatal enemy to the negro chiefs, made them overreach themselves by exorbitant demands of taxes. Then followed contests for the right of appropriating the taxes, and the whole ended in the closing of the road, which both parties were equally anxious to keep open for their mutual gain. This foolish disruption having at first only lasted for a while, the road was again opened and again closed, for the merchants wanted an easy passage, and the native chiefs desired cloths. But it was shut again; and now we heard of its being for a third time opened, with what success the future only can determine--for experience WILL not teach the negro, who thinks only for the moment. Had they only sense to see, and patience to wait, the whole trade of the interior would inevitably pass through their country instead of Uzaramo; and instead of being poor in cloths, they would be rich and well dressed like their neighbours. But the curse of Noah sticks to these his grandchildren by Ham, and no remedy that has yet been found will relieve them. They require a government like ours in India; and without it, the slave trade will wipe them off the face of the earth.
Now leaving the open parks of pretty acacias, we followed up the Mgazi branch of the Mgeta, traversed large tree-jungles, where the tall palm is conspicuous, and drew up under the lumpy Mkambaku, to find a residence for the day. Here an Arab merchant, Khamis, bound for Zanzibar, obliged us by agreeing for a few dollars to convey our recent spoils in natural history to the coast.
My plans for the present were to reach Zungomero as soon as possible, as a few days' halt would be required there to fix the longitude of the eastern flank of the East Coast Range by astronomical observation; but on ordering the morning's march, the porters--too well fed and lazy--thought our marching-rate much too severe, and resolutely refused to move. They ought to have made ten miles a-day, but preferred doing five. Argument was useless, and I was reluctant to apply the stick, as the Arabs would have done when they saw their porters trifling with their pockets. Determining, however, not to be frustrated in this puerile manner, I ordered the bugler to sound the march, and started with the mules and coast-men, trusting to Sheikh and Baraka to bring on the Wanyamuezi as soon as they could move them. The same day we crossed the Mgazi where we found several Wakhutu spearing fish in the muddy hovers of its banks.
We slept under a tree, and this morning found a comfortable residence under the eaves of a capacious hut. The Wanyamuezi porters next came in at their own time, and proved to us how little worth are orders in a land where every man, in his own opinion, is a lord, and no laws prevail. Zungomero, bisected by the Mgeta, lies on flat ground, in a very pretty amphitheatre of hills, S. lat. 7 26' 53", and E. long. 37 36' 45". It is extremely fertile, and very populous, affording everything that man can wish, even to the cocoa and papwa fruits; but the slave-trade has almost depopulated it, and turned its once flourishing gardens into jungles. As I have already said, the people who possess these lands are cowardly by nature, and that is the reason why they are so much oppressed. The Wasuahili, taking advantage of their timidity, flock here in numbers to live upon the fruits of their labours. The merchants on the coast, too, though prohibited by their Sultan from interfering with the natural course of trade, send their hungry slaves, as touters, to entice all approaching caravans to trade with their particular ports, authorising the touters to pay such premiums as may be necessary for the purpose. Where they came from we could not ascertain; but during our residence, a large party of the Wasuahili marched past, bound for the coast, with one hundred head of cattle, fifty slaves in chains, and as many goats. Halts always end disastrously in Africa, giving men time for mischief;--and here was an example of it. During the target-practice, which was always instituted on such occasions to give confidence to our men, the little pepper-box Rahan, my head valet, challenged a comrade to a duel with carbines. Being stopped by those around him, he vented his wrath in terrible oaths, and swung about his arms, until his gun accidentally went off, and blew his middle finger off.
Baraka next, with a kind of natural influence of affinity when a row is commenced, made himself so offensive to Bombay, as to send him running to me so agitated with excitement that I thought him drunk. He seized my hands, cried, and implored me to turn him off. What could this mean? I could not divine; neither could he explain, further than that he had come to a determination that I must send either him or Baraka to the right-about; and his first idea was that he, and not Baraka, should be the victim. Baraka's jealousy about his position had not struck me yet. I called them both together and asked what quarrel they had, but could not extract the truth. Baraka protested that he had never given, either by word or deed, the slightest cause of rupture; he only desired the prosperity of the march, and that peace should reign throughout the camp; but Bombay was suspicious of him, and malignantly abused him, for what reason Baraka could not tell. When I spoke of this to Bombay, like a bird fascinated by the eye of a viper, he shrank before the slippery tongue of his opponent, and could only say, "No, Sahib--oh no, that is not it; you had better turn me off, for his tongue is so long, and mine so short, you never will believe me." I tried to make them friends, hoping it was merely a passing ill-wind which would soon blow over; but before long the two disputants were tonguing it again, and I distinctly heard Bombay ordering Baraka out of camp as he could not keep from intermeddling, saying, which was true, he had invited him to join the expedition, that his knowledge of Hindustani might be useful to us; he was not wanted for any other purpose, and unless he was satisfied with doing that alone, we would get on much better without him. To this provocation Baraka mildly made the retort, "Pray don't put yourself in a passion, nobody is hurting you, it is all in your own heart, which is full of suspicions and jealousy without the slightest cause."
This complicated matters more than ever. I knew Bombay to be a generous, honest man, entitled by his former services to be in the position he was now holding as fundi, or supervisor in the camp. Baraka, who never would have joined the expedition excepting through his invitation, was indebted to him for the rank he now enjoyed-- a command over seventy men, a duty in which he might have distinguished himself as a most useful accessory to the camp. Again I called the two together, and begged them to act in harmony like brothers, noticing that there was no cause for entertaining jealousy on either side, as every order rested with myself to reward for merit or to punish. The relative position in the camp was like that of the senior officers in India, Bombay representing the Mulki lord, or Governor-General, and Baraka the Jungi lord, or Commander- in-Chief. To the influence of this distinguished comparison they both gave way, acknowledging myself their judge, and both protesting that they wished to serve in peace and quietness for the benefit of the march.
Zungomero is a terminus or junction of two roads leading to the interior--one, the northern, crossing over the Goma Pass, and trenching on the Mukondokua river, and the other crossing over the Mabruki Pass, and edging on the Ruaha river. They both unite again at Ugogi, the western terminus on the present great Unyamuezi line. On the former expedition I went by the northern line and returned by the southern, finding both equally easy, and, indeed, neither is worthy of special and permanent preference. In fact, every season makes a difference in the supply of water and provisions; and with every year, owing to incessant wars, or rather slave-hunts, the habitations of the wretched inhabitants become constantly changed--generally speaking, for the worse. Our first and last object, therefore, as might be supposed, from knowing these circumstances, was to ascertain, before mounting the hill-range, which route would afford us the best facilities for a speedy march now. No one, however, could or would advise us. The whole country on ahead, especially Ugogo, was oppressed by drought and famine. To avoid this latter country, then, we selected the southern route, as by doing so it was hoped we might follow the course of the Ruaha river from Maroro to Usenga and Usanga, and thence strike across to Unyanyembe, sweeping clear of Ugogo.
With this determination, after despatching a third set of specimens, consisting of large game animals, birds, snakes, insects, land and freshwater shells, and a few rock specimens, of which one was fossiliferous, we turned southwards, penetrating the forests which lie between the greater range and the little outlying one. At the foot of this is the Maji ya Wheta, a hot, deep-seated spring of fresh water, which bubbles up through many apertures in a large dome-shaped heap of soft lime--an accumulation obviously thrown up by the force of the spring, as the rocks on either side of it are of igneous character. We arrived at the deserted village of Kirengue. This was not an easy go-ahead march, for the halt had disaffected both men and mules. Three of the former bolted, leaving their loads upon the ground; and on the line of march, one of the mules, a full-conditioned animal, gave up the ghost after an eighteen hours' sickness. What his disease was I never could ascertain; but as all the remaining animals died afterwards much in the same manner, I may state for once and for all, that these attacks commenced with general swelling, at first on the face, then down the neck, along the belly and down the legs. It proved so obstinate that fire had no effect upon it; and although we cut off the tails of some to relieve them by bleeding, still they died.
In former days Kirengue was inhabited, and we reasonably hoped to find some supplies for the jungly march before us. But we had calculated without our host, for the slave-hunters had driven every vestige of humanity away; and now, as we were delayed by our three loads behind, there was nothing left but to send back and purchase more grain. Such was one of the many days frittered away in do-nothingness.
This day, all together again, we rose the first spurs of the well-wooded Usagara hills, amongst which the familiar bamboo was plentiful, and at night we bivouacked in the jungle.
Rising betimes in the morning, and starting with a good will, we soon reached the first settlements of Mbuiga, from which could be seen a curious blue mountain, standing up like a giant overlooking all the rest of the hills. The scenery here formed a strong and very pleasing contrast to any we had seen since leaving the coast. Emigrant Waziraha, who had been driven from their homes across the Kingani river by the slave-hunters, had taken possession of the place, and disposed their little conical-hut villages on the heights of the hill-spurs in such a picturesque manner, that one could not help hoping they would here at least be allowed to rest in peace and quietness. The valleys, watered by little brooks, are far richer, and even prettier, than the high lands above, being lined with fine trees and evergreen shrubs; while the general state of prosperity was such, that the people could afford, even at this late season of the year, to turn their corn into malt to brew beer for sale; and goats and fowls were plentiful in the market.
Passing by the old village of Mbuiga, which I occupied on my former expedition, we entered some huts on the western flank of the Mbuiga district; and here, finding a coast-man, a great friend of the little sheikh's, willing to take back to Zanzibar anything we might give him, a halt was made, and I drew up my reports. I then consigned to his charge three of the most sickly of the Hottentots in a deplorable condition--one of the mules, that they might ride by turns--and all the specimens that had been collected. With regret I also sent back the camera; because I saw, had I allowed my companion to keep working it, the heat he was subjected to in the little tent whilst preparing and fixing his plates would very soon have killed him. The number of guinea-fowl seen here was most surprising.
A little lighter and much more comfortable for the good riddance of those grumbling "Tots," we worked up to and soon breasted the stiff ascent of the Mabruki Pass, which we surmounted without much difficult. This concluded the first range of these Usagara hills; and once over, we dropped down to the elevated valley of Makata, where we halted two days to shoot. As a travelling Arab informed me that the whole of the Maroro district had been laid waste by the marauding Wahehe, I changed our plans again, and directed our attention to a middle and entirely new line, which in the end would lead us to Ugogi. The first and only giraffe killed upon the journey was here shot by Grant, with a little 40-gauge Lancaster rifle, at 200 yards' distance. Some smaller animals were killed; but I wasted all my time in fruitlessly stalking some wounded striped eland--magnificent animals, as large as Delhi oxen--and some other animals, of which I wounded three, about the size of hartebeest, and much their shape, only cream-coloured, with a conspicuous black spot in the centre of each flank. The eland may probably be the animal first mentioned by Livingstone, but the other animal is not known.
Though reluctant to leave a place where such rare animals were to be found, the fear of remaining longer on the road induced us to leave Kikobogo, and at a good stride we crossed the flat valley of Makata, and ascended the higher lands beyond, where we no sooner arrived than we met the last down trader from Unyamuezi, well known to all my men as the great Mamba or Crocodile. Mamba, dressed in a dirty Arab gown, with coronet of lion's nails decorating a thread-bare cutch cap, greeted us with all the dignity of a savage potentate surrounded by his staff of half-naked officials. As usual, he had been the last to leave the Unyamuezi, and so purchased all his stock of ivory at a cheap rate, there being no competitors left to raise the value of that commodity; but his journey had been a very trying one. With a party, at his own estimate, of two thousand souls-- we did not see anything like that number--he had come from Ugogo to this, by his own confession, living on the products of the jungle, and by boiling down the skin aprons of his porters occasionally for a soup. Famines were raging throughout the land, and the Arabs preceding him had so harried the country, that every village was deserted. On hearing our intention to march upon the direct line, he frankly said he thought we should never get through for my men could not travel as he had done, and therefore he advised our deflecting northwards from New Mbumi to join the track leading from Rumuma to Ugogi. This was a sad disappointment; but, rather than risk a failure, I resolved to follow his advice.
After reaching the elevated ground, we marched over rolling tops, covered with small trees and a rich variety of pretty bulbs, and reached the habitations of Muhanda, where we no sooner appeared than the poor villagers, accustomed only to rough handling, immediately dispersed in the jungles. By dint of persuasion, however, we induced them to sell us provisions, though at a monstrous rate, such as no merchant could have afforded; and having spent the night quietly, we proceeded on to the upper courses of the M'yombo river, which trends its way northwards to the Mukondokua river. The scenery was most interesting, with every variety of hill, roll, plateau, and ravine, wild and prettily wooded; but we saw nothing of the people. Like frightened rats, as soon as they caught the sound of our advancing march, they buried themselves in the jungles, carrying off their grain with them. Foraging parties, of necessity, were sent out as soon as the camp was pitched, with cloth for purchases, and strict orders not to use force; the upshot of which was, that my people got nothing but a few arrows fired at them by the lurking villagers, and I was abused for my squeamishness. Moreover, the villagers, emboldened by my lenity, vauntingly declared they would attack the camp by night, as they could only recognise in us such men as plunder their houses and steal their children. This caused a certain amount of alarm among my men, which induced them to run up a stiff bush-fence round the camp, and kept them talking all night.
This morning we marched on as usual, with one of the Hottentots lashed on a donkey; for the wretched creature, after lying in the sun asleep, became so sickly that he could not move or do anything for himself, and nobody would do anything for him. The march was a long one, but under ordinary circumstances would have been very interesting, for we passed an immense lagoon, where hippopotami were snorting as if they invited an attack. In the larger tree-jungles the traces of elephants, buffaloes, rhinoceros, and antelopes were very numerous; while a rich variety of small birds, as often happened, made me wish I had come on a shooting rather than on a long exploring expedition. Towards sunset we arrived at New Mbimi, a very pretty and fertile place, lying at the foot of a cluster of steep hills, and pitched camp for three days to lay in supplies for ten, as this was reported to be the only place where we could buy corn until we reached Ugogo, a span of 140 miles. Mr Mbumi, the chief of the place, a very affable negro, at once took us by the hand, and said he would do anything we desired, for he had often been to Zanzibar. He knew that the English were the ruling power in that land, and that they were opposed to slavery, the terrible effects of which had led to his abandoning Old Mbumi, on the banks of the Mukondokua river, and rising here.
The sick Hottentot died here, and we buried him with Christian honours. As his comrades said, he died because he had determined to die,--an instance of that obstinate fatalism in their mulish temperament which no kind words or threats can cure. This terrible catastrophe made me wish to send all the remaining Hottentots back to Zanzibar; but as they all preferred serving with me to returning to duty at the Cape, I selected two of the MOST sickly, put them under Tabib, one of Rigby's old servants, and told him to remain with them at Mbumi until such time as he might find some party proceeding to the coasts; and, in the meanwhile, for board and lodgings I have Mbumi beads and cloth. The prices of provisions here being a good specimen of what one has to pay at this season of the year, I give a short list of them:--sixteen rations corn, two yards cloth; three fowls, two yards cloth; one goat, twenty yards cloth; one cow, forty yards cloth,--the cloth being common American sheeting. Before we left Mbumi, a party of forty men and women of the Waquiva tribe, pressed by famine, were driven there to purchase food. The same tribe had, however killed many of Mbumi's subjects not long since, and therefore, in African revenge, the chief seized them all, saying he would send them off for sale to Zanzibar market unless they could give a legitimate reason for the cruelty they had committed. These Waquiva, I was given to understand, occupied the steep hills surrounding this place. They were a squalid-looking set, like the generality of the inhabitants of this mountainous region.
This march led us over a high hill to the Mdunhwi river, another tributary to the Mukondokua. It is all clad in the upper regions with the slender pole-trees which characterise these hills, intermingled with bamboo; but the bottoms are characterised by a fine growth of fig-trees of great variety along with high grasses; whilst near the villages were found good gardens of plantains, and numerous Palmyra trees. The rainy season being not far off, the villagers were busy in burning rubble and breaking their ground. Within their reach everywhere is the sarsaparilla vine, but growing as a weed, for they know nothing of its value.
Rising up from the deep valley of Mdunhwi we had to cross another high ridge before descending to the also deep valley of Chongue, as picturesque a country as the middle heights of the Himalayas, dotted on the ridges and spur-slopes by numerous small conical-hut villages; but all so poor that we could not, had we wanted it, have purchased provisions for a day's consumption.
Leaving this valley, we rose to the table of Manyovi, overhung with much higher hills, looking, according to the accounts of our Hottentots, as they eyed the fine herds of cattle grazing on the slopes, so like the range in Kafraria, that they formed their expectations accordingly, and appeared, for the first time since leaving the coast, happy at the prospect before them, little dreaming that such rich places were seldom to be met with. The Wanyamuezi porters even thought they had found a paradise, and forthwith threw down their loads as the villagers came to offer them grain for sale; so that, had I not had the Wanguana a little under control, we should not have completed our distance that day, and so reached Manyonge, which reminded me, by its ugliness, of the sterile Somali land. Proceeding through the semi-desert rolling table-land--in one place occupied by men who build their villages in large open squares of flat-topped mud huts, which, when I have occasion to refer to them in future, I shall call by their native name tembe--we could see on the right hand the massive mountains overhanging the Mukondokua river, to the front the western chain of these hills, and to the left the high crab-claw shaped ridge, which, extending from the western chain, circles round conspicuously above the swelling knolls which lie between the two main rocky ridges. Contorted green thorn-trees, "elephant-foot" stumps, and aloes, seem to thrive best here, by their very nature indicating what the country is, a poor stony land. Our camp was pitched by the river Rumuma, where, sheltered from the winds, and enriched by alluvial soil, there ought to have been no scarcity; but still the villagers had nothing to sell.
On we went again to Marenga Mkhaili, the "Salt Water," to breakfast, and camped in the crooked green thorns by night, carrying water on for our supper. This kind of travelling--forced marches--hard as it may appear, was what we liked best, for we felt that we were shortening the journey, and in doing so, shortening the risks of failure by disease, by war, by famine, and by mutiny. We had here no grasping chiefs to detain us for presents, nor had our men time to become irritable and truculent, concoct devices for stopping the way, or fight amongst themselves.
On again, and at last we arrived at the foot of the western chain; but not all together. Some porters, overcome by heat and thirst, lay scattered along the road, while the corporal of the Hottentots allowed his mule to stray from him, never dreaming the animal would travel far from his comrades, and, in following after him, was led such a long way into the bush, that my men became alarmed for his safety, knowing as they did that the "savages" were out living like monkeys on the calabash fruit, and looking out for any windfalls, such as stragglers worth plundering, that might come in their way. At first the Wanguana attempted to track down the corporal; but finding he would not answer their repeated shots, and fearful for their own safety, they came into camp and reported the case. Losing no time, I ordered twenty men, armed with carbines, to carry water for the distressed porters, and bring the corporal back as soon as possible. They all marched off, as they always do on such exploits, in high good-humour with themselves for the valour which they intended to show; and in the evening came in, firing their guns in the most reckless manner, beaming with delight; for they had the corporal in tow, two men and two women captives, and a spear as a trophy. Then in high impatience, all in a breath, they began a recital of the great day's work. The corporal had followed on the spoor of the mule, occasionally finding some of his things that had been torn from the beast's back by the thorns, and, picking up these one by one, had become so burdened with the weight of them, that he could follow no farther. In this fix the twenty men came up with him, but not until they had had a scrimmage with the "savages," had secured four, and taken the spear which had been thrown at them. Of the mule's position no one could give an opinion, save that they imagined, in consequence of the thickness of the bush, he would soon become irretrievably entangled in the thicket, where the savages would find him, and bring him in as a ransom for the prisoners.
What with the diminution of our supplies, the famished state of the country, and the difficulties which frowned upon us in advance, together with unwillingness to give up so good a mule, with all its gear and ammunition, I must say I felt doubtful as to what had better be done, until the corporal, who felt confident he would find the beast, begged so hard that I sent him in command of another expedition of sixteen men, ordering him to take one of the prisoners with him to proclaim to his brethren that we would give up the rest if they returned us the mule. The corporal then led off his band to the spot where he last saw traces of the animal, and tracked on till sundown; while Grant and myself went out pot-hunting and brought home a bag consisting of one striped eland, one saltiana antelope, four guinea-fowl, four ringdoves, and one partridge--a welcome supply, considering we were quite out of flesh.
Next day, as there were no signs of the trackers, I went again to the place of the elands, wounded a fine male, but gave up the chase, as I heard the unmistakable gun-firing return of the party, and straightway proceeded to camp. Sure enough, there they were; they had tracked the animal back to Marenga Mkhali, through jungle-- for he had not taken to the footpath. Then finding he had gone on, they returned quite tired and famished. To make the most of a bad job, I now sent Grant on to the Robeho (or windy) Pass, on the top of the western chain, with the mules and heavy baggage, and directions to proceed thence across the brow of the hill the following morning, while I remained behind with the tired men, promising to join him by breakfast-time. I next released the prisoners, much to their disgust, for they had not known such good feeding before, and dreaded being turned adrift again in the jungles to live on calabash seeds; and then, after shooting six guinea-fowl, turned in for the night.
Betimes in the morning we were off, mounting the Robeho, a good stiff ascent, covered with trees and large blocks of granite, excepting only where cleared for villages; and on we went rapidly, until at noon the advance party was reached, located in a village overlooking the great interior plateau--a picture, as it were, of the common type of African scenery. Here, taking a hasty meal, we resumed the march all together, descended the great western chain, and, as night set in, camped in a ravine at the foot of it, not far from the great junction-station Ugogi, where terminate the hills of Usagara.
Who are we?
Tour Egypt aims to offer the ultimate Egyptian adventure and intimate knowledge about the country. We offer this unique experience in two ways, the first one is by organizing a tour and coming to Egypt for a visit, whether alone or in a group, and living it firsthand. The second way to experience Egypt is from the comfort of your own home: online. | <urn:uuid:dfad0bfb-073e-4330-a8a9-291831df7f21> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.touregypt.net/sourcec3.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783400031.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155000-00191-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983925 | 8,579 | 3.015625 | 3 |
While Americans swear by chicken soup’s remedial effects, Koreans believe kimchi cures everything from an upset stomach or a hangover to severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS. And the Korean staple has been infiltrating U.S. restaurants and health food markets for the past decade, earning praise and recognition for being low in calories, high in nutrients, and a flavorful and versatile food to incorporate into meals.
Kimchi, pronounced KIM-chee, is usually made with cabbage or daikon radishes, though Koreans sometimes use other vegetables — such as cucumbers and scallions — depending on the region and what’s in season. The vegetables are typically combined with garlic, ginger, chile pepper, salt, sugar, and fish sauce, then fermented, giving the dish an acidic, tangy, and spicy taste.
Potential health benefits
Koreans eat approximately 40 pounds of kimchi per person each year, downing it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Korean astronauts even eat a special kind of kimchi to prevent constipation, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Kimchi was originally fermented as a preservation technique for food during the winter, according to Livestrong. It turns out the fermentation has more benefits than just preservation: It also promotes the growth of healthy probiotic bacteria along the intestinal tract. In fact, kimchi is higher in lactobacilli — one of the probiotics that can help alleviate digestive problems, such as an upset stomach — than yogurt.
Kimchi is extremely low in calories, fat, and sugar; high in fiber; and packed with vitamin A, vitamin C, and iron. Some studies have reported a connection between kimchi consumption and weight loss, as well as a lowering of blood cholesterol levels. At least one study has suggested the food has the ability to cure birds infected with bird flu, and many believe it can prevent SARS, though not enough research has been conducted to confirm this.
Potential health risks
Consuming moderate amounts of kimchi will probably only do good things for your body and your health, but a 2006 study did find a link between eating extremely high amounts of kimchi and an increased risk of gastric cancer. It’s hypothesized that the correlation exists because the fermentation process raises the food’s salt content. The LA Times stated that the rate of gastric cancer is 10 times higher among Koreans and Japanese than Americans.
"It is not that kimchi is not a healthy food," said Kim Heon, one of the researchers involved in the gastric cancer study from the department of preventive medicine at Chungbuk National University. "It is a healthy food, but in excessive quantities there are risk factors."
How to eat it
You can add kimchi to countless dishes — and it tastes great by itself. It’s often used in soups or stews; eaten with eggs; mixed with fried rice; added as a topping to burgers, sausages, or tacos; or eaten as an accompaniment to chicken, beef, or seafood. We particularly love eating it Korean-barbecue style: using a piece of lettuce as a wrap and filling it with barbecued pork, kimchi, and other toppings.
How to make it
Chow.com’s recipe for basic kimchi is simple, tasty, and foolproof — it has step-by-step photos with the directions. Click here for the recipe.
If you like kimchi, you might also enjoy do chua, the pickled daikon radishes and carrots used in Vietnamese sandwiches. Click here for our recipe.
— Melissa Valliant, HellaWella
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Four new high-yielding cassava varieties that are tolerant to the deadly Cassava Brown Streak Disease (CBSD) and resistant to the equally devastating Cassava Mosaic Disease (CMD), were last week officially released in Tanzania, providing a ray of hope to the millions of small-scale farmers who depend on the crop for their food and income in sub-Saharan Africa. The two diseases have been spreading rapidly through the Great Lakes countries of eastern Africa from war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo to Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique and Malawi, nearly reaching epidemic proportions as all the varieties grown by the farmers are susceptible. These diseases represent the greatest threat to food security in the region as cassava is Africa’s second most important food crop after maize and provides more than half of the dietary calories for over half of the total rural and urban population in sub-Saharan Africa. Spread through sharing of infected planting materials and by a vector, the whitefly, the diseases have caused an estimated 1 billion USD worth of damage to Africa’s cassava. The already poor small-scale farmers bear the brunt of this loss.
The new varieties dubbed Pwani, Mkumba, Makutupora and Dodoma are a result of eight years of collaborative work between researchers from Tanzanian Agricultural Research Institutes (ARIs), the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). They were developed through Molecular Marker Assisted Selection (MMAS) techniques that rely on advances in biotechnology to speed up the conventional breeding process. Aside from being disease resistant, the new varieties can easily double the crop’s production with their potentially high yields (23 – 51t/ha against the current average yield of 10t/ha). They also meet other local preferences such as taste, ease of cooking and texture. According to Dr. Geoffrey Mkamilo, the Team Leader of Cassava Research in Tanzania, the farmers will be very relieved and happy as they have been eagerly awaiting these varieties as the two diseases have devastated the crop’s production for many years. He points out CBSD as being especially devastating and causing a lot of heartbreak to farmers. “This disease has has been very devastating because its symptoms are not always clear. Farmers looking forward to a good harvest get a rude shock when they harvest and discover the useless rotten roots,” he explained. “As a result, many of them had abandoned this hardy crop that performs relatively well even under harsh conditions such as poor soils and little rainfall.”
The project was funded by the Rockefeller Foundation (RF) and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). The Generation Challenge Program of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research Centers (CGIAR) contributed funds for farmer participatory trials to test for resistance and productivity under actual farm conditions and to complete tests required by the National Variety Release Committee before the new varieties could be officially released to farmers.Dr. Edward Kanju, a cassava breeder with IITA-Tanzania, who was also involved in the research, says that the varieties were developed by crossing local varieties with those introduced from Latin America from CIAT in Colombia and are the result of eight years of research. “We used local varieties from Tanzania as sources of resistance to CBSD and for local adaptation and those from CIAT as sources of high yield and resistance to CMD and cassava green mites,” he said.
CMD first appeared in Uganda in the mid-1980s, spreading fast across the region almost bringing cassava production to a halt. However, efforts by scientists from national and international research institutes with support from the donors and development agencies were successful and production started picking up again. Resistant and tolerant varieties – they give reasonable yields even when infected by the virus- were developed, multiplied extensively, and distributed to farmers. There was a lot of awareness creation on disease symptoms and measures to stop its spread. Then CBSD, which was historically found only in the coastal low altitude areas of eastern Africa and around Lake Malawi, struck. From 2004, it started spreading to mid-altitude areas leaving behind a wave of destruction and despair as all the varieties that were developed and resistant to CMD were susceptible to this disease sending the the scientists back to the drawing board.
The next challenge will be to get adequate planting material for farmers. At the moment, farmers mainly get their planting material from neighbours, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and the government, and supplies can be erratic. To address this, cassava stakeholders are seeking to develop systems to enhance production, sale and marketing of clean cassava planting material to supply demand both from small-scale as well as commercial cassava growers. The combination of these new varieties coupled with improved systems for delivering planting material offers huge promise for a brighter future for cassava in Tanzania and the region as a whole.
© 2012, Newstime Africa. All rights reserved. – The views expressed here are purely those of the author and not necessarily those of the publishers. – Newstime Africa content cannot be reproduced in any form – electronic or print – without prior consent of the Publishers. Copyright infringement will be pursued and perpetrators prosecuted.
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Comet ISON Meteor Shower
April 19, 2013: Anticipation is building as Comet ISON plunges into the inner solar system for a close encounter with the sun in November 2013. Blasted at point-blank range by solar radiation, the sungrazer will likely become one of the finest comets in many years.
When NASA's Swift spacecraft observed the comet in January 2013, it was still near the orbit of Jupiter, but already very active. More than 112,000 pounds of dust were spewing from the comet's nucleus every minute.
It turns out, some of that dust might end up on Earth.
Veteran meteor researcher Paul Wiegert of the University of Western Ontario has been using a computer to model the trajectory of dust ejected by Comet ISON, and his findings suggest that an unusual meteor shower could be in the offing.
"For several days around January 12, 2014, Earth will pass through a stream of fine-grained debris from Comet ISON," says Wiegert. "The resulting shower could have some interesting properties.
According to Wiegert's computer models, the debris stream is populated with extremely tiny grains of dust, no more than a few microns wide, pushed toward Earth by the gentle radiation pressure of the sun. They will be hitting at a speed of 56 km/s or 125,000 mph. Because the particles are so small, Earth’s upper atmosphere will rapidly slow them to a stop.
"Instead of burning up in a flash of light, they will drift gently down to the Earth below," he says.
Don’t expect to notice. The invisible rain of comet dust, if it occurs, would be very slow. It can take months or even years for fine dust to settle out of the high atmosphere.
While the dust is “up there,” it could produce noctilucent clouds (NLCs).
NLCs are icy clouds that glow electric-blue as they float more than 80 km above Earth's poles. Recent data from NASA's AIM spacecraft suggests that NLCs are seeded by space dust. Tiny meteoroids act as nucleating points where water molecules gather; the resulting ice crystals assemble into clouds at the edge of space itself.
This is still speculative, but Comet ISON could provide the seeds for a noctilucent display. Electric-blue ripples over Earth's polar regions might be the only visible sign that a shower is underway.
Wiegert notes another curiosity: "The shower is going to hit our planet from two directions at once."
When Earth passes through the debris stream, we will encounter two populations of comet dust. One swarm of dust will be following the Comet ISON into the sun. Another swarm will be moving in the opposite direction, pushed away from the sun by solar radiation pressure. The streams will pepper opposite sides of Earth simultaneously.
"In my experience, this kind of double whammy is unprecedented," says Wiegert.
Bill Cooke, lead scientist at NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office, says there's little danger to Earth-orbiting spacecraft. "These particles are just too small to penetrate the walls of our satellites, and they don't stand a chance against the heavy shielding of the ISS." However, he adds, mission operators will be alert around January 12th for possible anomalies.
Sky watchers should probably be alert, too. The odds of seeing anything are low, but Comet ISON could prove full of surprises.
Comet of the Century? -- ScienceCast video about Comet ISON
NASA's Swift Sizes Up Comet ISON -- press release
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(L) Tu, god figure, Gambier Islands, Mangareva Island, collected 1834–1836. Wood. (M) Eketea, god figure, Gambier Islands, Mangareva Island, collected 1834–1836. Wood. (R) Quetzalcoatl figure, “The Plumed Serpent,” Mexico, Aztec, Late Postclassic (AD 1350–1521). Stone. Photos © Vatican Museums. All objects are in the collection of the Vatican Ethnological Museum.
Objects of Belief from the Vatican: Art of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas
The rarely seen holdings of the Vatican Ethnological Missionary Museum include 80,000 objects that represent artistic achievements by indigenous cultures from Asia, Oceania, Africa, and the Americas. This very special exhibition—the first time that a U.S. exhibition will focus on the Vatican’s collection of ethnographic art—investigates varying approaches, perspectives, and cultural practices surrounding diverse religious beliefs.
Each of the objects in the exhibition, a number of which are unique in the world, was created to function as a “materialization of spirituality.” Objects of Belief from the Vatican celebrates the multiple paths to spirituality represented by these objects and will invite viewers to engage in a dialogue that spans religions, cultures, and history.
This exhibition is organized by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francsico with gratitude for exceptional loans from the collections of the Vatican Ethnological Museum.
Generous support provided by Lauren L. T. Hall and David Hearth, and John F. Kunowski and Richard Benefield. | <urn:uuid:a72d7dac-02b3-4805-a026-4d835f753eef> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://deyoung.famsf.org/deyoung/exhibitions/objects-belief-vatican-art-africa-oceania-and-americas | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392159.3/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00006-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.890229 | 342 | 2.796875 | 3 |
This chapter has been published in the book Nonviolent Action Handbook. For ordering information, please click here.
Between Submission and Retaliation
Respect for Freedom and Equality
The Politics of Nonviolence
Highlights of Nonviolence in History
This Handbook is designed to be a generic guide to nonviolent
direct action. In my experience protesting during the 1980s I
found that the handbooks published by the Abalone Alliance for
protesting the nuclear power plant at Diablo Canyon, California
and by the Vandenberg Action Coalition for direct action to stop
testing of the MX missile and other handbooks were extremely useful
for understanding the methods of nonviolent civil disobedience
by affinity groups using consensus decision-making procedures.
Much of the information in the chapters on Group Process and Legal
Process are drawn from those previous handbooks, and I gratefully
acknowledge them. Based on my long studies of peace, nonviolence,
politics, international law, social change, and psychological
liberation, I have added the chapters on Nonviolence, Liberation
from Seven Deadly Isms, Creative Actions, and also the section
on legal defenses using international law. The latter is based
on my experience while defending myself in six trials and in writing
two appeals to federal circuit courts. This Handbook is generic,
because it is not focused on any particular issue or direct action
campaign but can be applied to any cause using nonviolent protest.
Anyone who has suggestions or questions may communicate with me
by sending e-mail to firstname.lastname@example.org.
The photo shows me sitting on the railroad tracks (on the right) blocking a train from the Concord Naval Weapons Station that may have been carrying weapons for shipment to Central America. I have been arrested for protesting nonviolently more than fifty times, and I always felt that the experience was valuable and worth the sacrifice, even when I was imprisoned for six months for having stepped over an imaginary line outside the main gate of the Trident submarine base at King's Bay, Georgia in 1989. How long it will take to bring peace and justice to this world will probably depend on how many people are willing to make such sacrifices and to work also in other ways to reform our violent society. Mahatma Gandhi called his nonviolent efforts to improve society his experiments with truth, and I encourage you to make such experiments also by courageously putting your love into practice.
I believe that our violent and plutocratic society needs a nonviolent revolution to end the neo-imperialist policies of the United States Government by democratic means so that we can have governments of real compassion, liberty, and true justice for all. This transformation of militarism must be nonviolent, not only because any violent attempt would be crushed by force, but because we are opposed to using violence. This ultimate revolution of our historic era is essentially a revolution to end the use of massive force in wars as instruments of social and political control. The process is one of converting hearts and minds by demonstrating the better ways of using education, communication, democracy, and active nonviolent persuasion. As George Harrison sang, "With our love we can change the world, if they only knew." I have faith that the actions of loving people will bring about a more peaceful society. I hope you will help.
The only solution is love.
The way of nonviolent action has been described as a third way, an alternative to weak submission to wrongs and violent reaction against them. Most people only see the two common alternatives: they either accept the unjust situation passively or prepare to use force in defense of their rights. Unfortunately those who use force often are not able to control it or keep it from oppressing others. Thus what starts out as a means of defending a group's interests often ends up interfering in the affairs of others. Justice is rarely achieved by seeing who has the strongest military forces to kill and destroy the opponent most effectively. On the other hand those who passively submit to what is forced upon them usually are considered weak and cowardly as they suffer oppression from the aggressive.
The third way enables even those who are few in numbers or poor in material resources to stand up for their rights with moral strength and dignity. Also neutral persons may come to their aid without injuring either side, and even dissenters from the aggressive side may intervene nonviolently for the sake of justice. One need not be big and powerful by worldly standards to use nonviolent action. The very old and young, women, and even the handicapped can be just as effective in nonviolent action as physically strong young men. The power of nonviolence comes from the spiritual qualities of love, understanding, communication skill, courage, and persistent endurance.
Regardless of the particular goal or cause at stake, the nonviolent method is careful to make sure the means do no harm. By not inflicting any harm on the opponents the nonviolent activists are not immediately threatening to them. However, the opponents may not like the goals of the nonviolent action, and therefore they may inflict harm on the nonviolent people anyway. When this occurs, it is important that peaceful activists not retaliate or fight back physically. At the same time it is equally important that we persist in our efforts and not give in because of the suffering we are undergoing. Otherwise we are encouraging the opponents to punish us in order to "deter" us. In this way nonviolent activists can earn the respect of opponents who believe in force. As they realize that force is not working in stopping the activists' protests, they will have to re-evaluate their tactics and the whole situation. Using nonviolent action is no guarantee that no violence will result, because the opponents may use force. However, it is the strongest form of action that we can use to truly win over the opponents, while minimizing the total violence by not contributing to it at all. The weak method of passive submission does nothing to alleviate the oppression and injustice already present, while violent reaction escalates the violence and oppression of the situation.
The way of nonviolence is open to the flow of love which may come from any direction. To love completely is to be open to the whole universe and everyone in it, both in receiving from others and in giving love to others. True love is universal, not just for one other person. By being open and friendly to everyone we can better understand them and their concerns, and they will be more likely to listen to ours as well. The way of love treats the whole world as one big happy family. In this way we do not close ourselves off from anyone or any viewpoint. We are not afraid to consider all views, and we find that diversity does not have to result in disharmony if we are friends.
In the nonviolent movement we are very friendly toward each other; at the same time we try to be equally friendly toward our opponents and critics. As human beings they are just as important as we are, and we need to understand them even more than people who agree with us. What the world needs more than anything else is more love and friendship, and this is something that each of us can contribute to in our daily lives. By developing friendly relationships with those who oppose us we are beginning the process of social healing. Nothing is more disarming than a sincere smile.
Openness means that we are not trying to hide anything or take advantage of what the other person does not know. Also it means that we are open to receive what other people have to offer us. We are open to the flow of Spirit moving in our lives and in the lives of those around us. We are available to communication and relationship and cooperation with what is good. However, in our openness to examine all viewpoints, we still retain our own discernment of what is morally good. We need not agree with all concepts or attitudes nor do we cooperate with what we believe is harmful, but we are always willing to discuss and consider what is best.
Friendliness is a good feeling that we share with others. When our hearts are open, we do not discriminate between people but share our good feelings with everyone equally. In this way we live in love all the time. Yet we do not need to love what everyone does. We can discern the difference between our love for people and what they do. We may hate their actions and attitudes but still love them as souls and human beings. In fact loving friendship is not afraid to communicate our concerns and differences of opinions so that we might resolve them most easily and directly. Sometimes this requires "hard love" and honesty in communication.
Gandhi used the term satyagraha to describe the way of the nonviolent activist. The word satya means truth, deriving from sat which means truth in the sense of being, reality or existence. The word graha means firmly holding to something. Thus satyagraha means firmly holding to the truth and implies that this truth is the spiritual reality of our beingness, as when Jesus said, "I am life, truth, and the way." Regardless of a person's religion or lack of it, this nonviolent way is based on a spiritual dedication to truth and therefore honesty in human relations.
The great gift of our human intelligence enables us to communicate clearly with each other, not only directly by our actions but also symbolically by means of language. Because language is a symbolic abstraction referring to objects, relations, and concepts, the words may or may not be accurate to the reality they are attempting to describe. In other words, language may be in error, or people can and do lie. Deception is a subtle form of violence, because it shows a lack of respect for other people or fear of reality. The way of love is based on the love of the truth in everyone and everything. Gandhi used to say that there is no God higher than the truth. To separate ourselves from the truth is to separate ourselves from reality.
Thus to be true to ourselves we must be true to others as well. Is it really loving to try to be nice and not to tell someone we like that what they are doing is bothering us? If we allow resentment to build up, we soon find ourselves in conflict and misunderstanding. True love means having the courage to confront ourselves and others with the reality of what is going on so that we can work to resolve it together. By hard love we learn how to be self-critical and constantly watchful of how we can improve ourselves and our situation with others.
Our feelings tell us much about what is going on with us, and by communicating them we will be much more able to master the situation in a way that is best for the group. Of course this does not mean we unleash all our personal problems on others without any discernment. The best communication is clear, open, and honest. We clearly communicate when we are aware of what our feelings, thoughts, and concerns are and make them clear to others without inflicting our own "stuff" on to other people. We are responsible for working out our own emotional problems without projecting them on others, but we can still communicate what we are going through if we wish. We need to be careful not to let personal problems distort the larger issues we are working on together. The process of group communication can help us each to see past our own personal concerns to what is best for everyone.
As a group it is especially important that we make sure that our communications with the public and our adversaries are accurate and truthful, because the credibility of our movement depends on this trust that we are not trying to mislead people. This is another contrast to the military methods of secrecy and surprise. In making peace with others we want them to know exactly what we are doing and what our objectives are so that we can work them out in as open a situation as possible. How much information a group decides to volunteer to opponents is an issue to be discussed in relation to strategy. However, there can be little doubt that conscious deception must be prohibited for the sake of public trust.
The way of love is also the way of freedom, because no one but ourselves directs us how to express our love. This is another contrast to military authoritarianism in which individuals must take orders from superiors. In the nonviolent movement we are all free and equal, each listening to our own inner guidance and sharing our concerns with the group. Then the group can freely decide, based on all individuals' considerations, how the group wishes to act. Thus first we must recognize our own freedom of choice and equal right to participate.
Even more important is that we realize the equality of all human beings and respect the liberty of others just as we want our own freedom respected. The nonviolent way of love is not possessive of others nor does it attempt to control others or use force against them. If we love others, we respect their autonomy to make their own decisions. We certainly can communicate with them, and we may even confront them with our presence to pressure them nonviolently to make a specific choice, if we believe that what they are doing is wrong and harmful to people. The important distinction is that we do not try to force them physically or violently to do what we want. Rather we may attempt to intervene nonviolently between the persons and the wrong acts we believe they are doing so that they have to make a choice either to remove us or stop that behavior. Nonviolent protests do not hurt people, although they may cause them some inconvenience in going about the business which we believe is harmful. In doing this we attempt to treat these people as our equals and respect them as individuals. Our actions are meant as a direct communication of our concern for the well-being of those involved in the situation.
We must be careful in our attitudes not to imply that we feel we are superior, because we are critical of what others are doing. We all make mistakes, and the nonviolent way is a path of humility which attempts to peacefully suggest to others that they may wish to examine the morality of what they are doing. We are not insisting that they change, but we may insist that they at least consider changing. We do this by presenting them with clear choices, which often result in our own self-sacrifice if they make the choice we believe is wrong. Thus we have not inflicted suffering on them, but we have been willing to suffer in our attempt to alleviate the wrong.
Contrary to much popular belief, the way of love and nonviolent action is not a weak and passive method, and it certainly is not for cowards. Nonviolent direct action may take more courage than fighting with violence in a war, although that is a kind of bravery. However, if we analyze the use of weapons we can see that they are employed out of fear of what the opponent will do to us if we do not use violence against them. The truly courageous are not afraid of the opponents and therefore need no weapon at all. Does it take more courage to go into battle hiding behind armor and using a gun to kill anyone who appears threatening or to walk with dignity unarmed and unafraid into the conflict?
Thus courage is measured by how much we are able to overcome our fear and do what we believe is best to do anyway. Those who fight with weapons for what they believe are more courageous than those who passively accept injustice and allow themselves to be controlled by those who are threatening them. Yet the most courageous are those who stand up to injustice and actively work to change it by nonviolently intervening using purely moral courage and no physical weapons for defense. The most courageous do not kill out of fear of others but are willing to die if necessary for what is right. Love and trust, not hate and fear, are the real marks of the truly courageous. The word "courage" comes from the French word for heart (coeur). Do we have the heart to expose ourselves to our opponents trusting in a human and nonviolent process of reconciliation?
Compassion is what gives us this heart. Compassion may be defined as the love which not only empathizes with others in feeling what they are going through, but also is wise and courageous enough to do something about it. Thus compassion is love in action and is willing to take on the suffering of others in order to redeem them and those who are doing wrong to them. In compassion we have progressed beyond anger and hate of those who are doing wrong through pity and into mercy and caring and healing. Compassion comes from an experience of oneness with others which expands our hearts so that we feel what people are suffering and are moved to help them.
When we discover that people are dying of starvation or suffering chronic malnutrition at the same time as the world has surplus food and is wasting its resources, then compassion tells us we must work to alleviate this situation. When we see our government using vast financial, technical, and human resources oppressing poor people in other countries and threatening all nations on the earth with genocidal weapons, then compassion tells us that it is our responsibility to change our nation's priorities from death and exploitation to life and sharing. When we see the natural environment deteriorating and this generation robbing the resources from the future, then compassion tells us that we must learn to live more in harmony with the Earth and plan for our children's health and well-being. When we hear of individuals caught in a web of propaganda and exploitation, not realizing the harm they are doing nor seeing any other way out from their predicament, then compassion tells us we must communicate to them the alternatives which are better for all of us. When we know in our hearts that we can make a contribution for the betterment of humanity, then compassion tells us that we must move into action.
The way of love is based on the faith that if we act in a good way without harming anyone, then inevitably in the long run the results will be good. Instead of trying to control people by threats and force of might we allow humans to use intelligence to solve our problems by communication and negotiation. We may trust in God, or the process of the universe, as well as in human abilities. By challenging our opponents unarmed we are demonstrating our trust in them that they will not destroy us. By standing up to the wrongs we believe they are doing, we are trusting that by a nonviolent process those wrongs will eventually be redressed. Ultimately even if our bodies are destroyed, we will have done what was right and would be trusting that in the future people would recognize that and right the wrongs eventually.
In order to trust fully we must let go of our own control of the situation and allow others to participate in the process. If we are attached to achieving certain results, then we may prejudge the process and reject the will of the Spirit of the whole. The situation may not be best resolved in exactly the way we think it should. Of course we can have goals and objectives for our action; but once we have defined the purpose of our action we need to be detached from the specific results along the way. Otherwise we will find ourselves disappointed and discouraged. The Bhagavad-Gita teaches non-attachment to the fruits of action. That means that it is important that we act for the good without worrying about whether we are immediately successful, and also that we should not be concerned about receiving any credit or reward for our work. Jesus spoke about the same thing when he taught how the selfless person desires no personal reward; the rewards come spiritually (inwardly) or "in heaven."
Of course being detached and trusting does not mean we should trust blindly. We must monitor what is going on and be working toward our objectives constantly. To trust people is not necessarily to let them take advantage of us. We must watch what they do. If they betray their word or deceive us, then we can point that out to them and others. We can continue to protest the wrongs they are doing while informing the general public. Our own integrity is always within our own control. We can love others unconditionally, but we do not have to reward people for doing wrongs. In that case we do not withdraw our love for them, but we can withdraw our cooperation from the wrongs we believe they are perpetrating.
Detachment enables us to be free within ourselves from emotional clinging to people or specific experiences. It does not mean that we do not care, because we can show that we care by our actions. To be detached means that we are not controlled by others or by conditioning or by the situation. We are free enough to transcend our fears, desires, aversions, ambitions, etc. and perceive what is truly best for all concerned. This equanimity or even-mindedness gives us peace within ourselves that we can then share with others by being calm and in control of ourselves in any situation.
However, this does not preclude the feeling or expressing of emotion through compassion or other passions; but instead of being controlled by the emotions we are aware of them and in control of them so that we can use our feelings in our communication with others. So when the situation calls for it we may weep in sorrow or joy, or shout assertively to protest a terrible situation. These feelings will not destroy our detachment if they are authentic feelings, we are aware of what is going on, and we are controlling their expression by channeling the emotional energy in such a way that it is not harming anyone but is communicating a proper concern. Feelings are very powerful means of communication, and often we need to pay more attention to them, not less. To suppress consciously or repress unconsciously our inner feelings is not detachment nor is it healthy. If more people would listen and act on our truer and deeper feelings, our society might not be as sick as it is today. Thus we can distinguish the difference between the prevalent psychic numbing in the face of our overwhelming problems and the detachment which enables us to act freely and intelligently.
Nonviolent activist Jim Douglass referred to patience as a revolutionary virtue. Others may criticize us as impatient, because we feel the need to take direct action rather than let a slower evolutionary process occur. Patience is not an excuse for not acting, but rather a quality that helps us to endure and persist in our efforts while proceeding in a calm and intelligent manner. When we are caught up in action, the emotions are often very active and sometimes turbulent. We must be careful not to react without thinking very carefully about what we are doing and what the consequences are likely to be. Patience gives us time for deliberation and reflection on the issues and how our actions can be both nonviolent and yet effective. It is better to wait and perhaps miss a small opportunity of the moment than to rush into something foolishly or unprepared. New opportunities always come forward. If we think out the situation and how we can best deal with it, the next time it occurs we will be ready to act in a good way.
Unlike military action which strikes quickly and ruthlessly, nonviolent action is slow and deliberate with ample warning given to the opponents so that they can consciously decide how they wish to meet our confrontation. We do not want our opponents to have to react quickly with instinctive reflexes. We want them to know us and our methods so that they can respond as calmly and as intelligently as possible.
Military methods are quick and destructive like fire, but nonviolent action is flowing and nurturing like water that nourishes growing things. For some crazy reason people say, "Fight fire with fire," but does it not make much more sense to fight fire with water? The flow of water follows the lowest path, but by flowing constantly for a long time it wears away the hardest rocks. To be successful, nonviolent movements must continuously persist until the opposition's hard hearts have melted, and we have achieved a higher level of cooperation. After Gandhi returned to India from South Africa, where he spent twenty years developing his nonviolent methods, it took thirty years before India won her independence from Great Britain. Women in the United States worked for the right to vote from 1848 until they achieved it in 1920. The way for a nonviolent movement to lose is to stop the effort. As long as we persist, we will make progress in communication, education, and awakening of the public to the circumstances we want changed. The quicker way to lose is to become violent and lose moral credibility. When we act nonviolently, the opponents may arrest us or allow us to stop the wrong we are acting to stop; either way we win attention to our cause and make it more difficult for them to continue those wrongs.
Persistence also means that we must be flexible in our strategy and tactics. If one method does not work, we should let it go and try another. If one issue has been resolved successfully, then we can go on to the next in importance. If one avenue seems to be blocked, we can flow to another area that needs attention. If people seem to be losing interest, we can be creative with new and interesting approaches to the problems. If we feel we are burned out, we can take a break to replenish our spiritual and inner resources and come back with renewed energy. We need to persist not only in our efforts for social change; but even more important we must persist in our love for one another, for this above all will sustain us.
The way of love is always patient and forgiving but at the same time persistent in doing good. When people admit they have done wrong, we can achieve reconciliation by forgiving them. The ultimate goal of nonviolent action is not victory over the opponents but the finding of a harmonious way of living together peacefully with justice. We seek no advantage over anyone else. We are working for the good of our adversaries just as much as for ourselves. Thus when we are successful, everyone will be the victors; and those who have become converted to a better way of life will truly deserve just as much credit, if not more, for their transformation as those who worked to stimulate that change. The way of love leads to a society in which freedom and equality and justice and friendly relationships between all people become the norm, what might be called the reign of God, spiritual democracy, or paradise on Earth. Since we would be very fortunate indeed to achieve these goals within our lifetime, we will need a great amount of patience and persistence.
For we no longer take up 'sword against nation"
nor do we 'learn war any more,' having become children of peace,
for the sake of Jesus, who is our leader.
The alternative to violence is nonviolent resistance....
First, this is not a method for cowards; it does resist.
The nonviolent resister is just as strongly opposed to the evil
against which one protests as is the person who uses violence....
This method is passive physically but strongly active spiritually.
... A second point is that nonviolent resistance
does not seek to defeat or humiliate the opponent,
but to win their friendship and understanding....
A third characteristic of this method is
that the attack is directed against forces of evil
rather than against persons who are caught in those forces.
It is evil we are seeking to defeat,
not the persons victimized by evil....
A fourth point that must be brought out
concerning nonviolent resistance is that
it avoids not only external physical violence
but also internal violence of spirit.
At the center of nonviolence stands the principle of love.
In struggling for human dignity
the oppressed people of the world must not allow themselves
to become bitter or indulge in hate campaigns.
To retaliate with hate and bitterness
would do nothing but intensify the hate in the world.
Along the way of life, someone must have sense enough
and morality enough to cut off the chains of hate.
This can be done only by projecting the ethics of love
to the center of our lives....
Finally, the method of nonviolence is based on the conviction
that the universe is on the side of justice.
It is this deep faith in the future
that causes the nonviolent resister
to accept suffering without retaliation....
World peace through nonviolent means
is neither absurd nor unattainable.
All other methods have failed,
Thus we must begin anew....
We have the choice in this world today
between nonviolence and non-existence.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Experiment with nonviolent struggle has barely begun.
But in a world in which traditional violent battle
can escalate into nuclear war,
it is an experiment that is absolutely necessary
to push to its furthest limits.
(Note: This section is from an earlier Nonviolence handbook and has been adapted from The Politics of Nonviolent Action by Gene Sharp.)
The conventional view of political power sees people as dependent on the good will and caprice of their government and any other hierarchical system to which they belong. Power is seen as something people have; kings, czars, generals hold power as one holds a knife. Power resides in knowledge, control of wealth and in the ability to impose violence. Those who serve have little power. Consequently, those without power must kill or destroy their rulers and replace them in their positions in order to wield the selfsame power.
The theory of active nonviolence proposes a different analysis: that government depends on people and that political power is variable, even fragile, always dependent on the cooperation of a multitude of groups and individuals. The withdrawal of that cooperation restricts and can even dissolve power. Put another way, power depends on continuing obedience; thus when we refuse to obey our rulers, their power begins to crumble.
In this sense, nonviolent action is not passive, nor is it a naive belief in converting the opposition, nor is it a "safe" method of protest, immune from repression. Rather, it is based on a different understanding of where people's power really lies. By disobeying, people learn to withhold, rather than surrender, their cooperation. This recognizes that the individual's discovery of self-respect is tied to the recognition that one's own assistance makes the unjust regime possible. When a large enough group of people recognizes this, as the "untouchables" did with Gandhi's help, the result is massive noncooperation and obstruction involving the use of social, economic, and political power.
Then why don't people decide to withdraw cooperation? Why instead do so many obey so few? and how can this change? The authorities are able to wield power both because masses of people passively obey, and because they have the violent means for suppressing dissent-police, National Guard, prison guards and prison cells. A few disobey and are punished, keeping many afraid.
Yet there are chinks in the armor. First, the repressive apparatus is made up of human beings, whose cooperation is essential. A nonviolent approach to the police undercuts their rationale for violence and reveals to neutral parties the extent to which the system relies on violence and force. Second, the repressive apparatus can only survive with a minimal level of dissent (either much mild dissent or a small number of militant dissenters). When dissent grows and brings pressure to bear, the system breaks down. When a nonviolent campaign stands its ground using nonviolence to resist dispersal (not merely for a day or a weekend but over time), it greatly raises the cost of continuing violence against it until it is no longer feasible.
1. We will not harm anyone, and we will not retaliate in reaction to violence.
2. We will be honest and will treat every person with respect, especially law officers.
3. We will express our feelings but will not harbor hatred.
4. We will be alert to people around us and will provide needed assistance.
5. As peacekeepers we will protect others from insults and violence.
6. During a demonstration we will not run nor make threatening motions.
7. If we see a demonstrator threatening anyone, we will intervene to calm down the situation. If demonstrators become violent, and we cannot stop it, we will withdraw.
8. We will not steal, and we will not damage property.
9. We will not carry any weapons.
10. We will not bring or use any alcohol or drugs, other than for medical purposes.
11. We will keep the agreements we make with other demonstrators. In the event of a serious disagreement, we may withdraw.
12. We will accept responsibility for our nonviolent actions, and we will not lie nor use deception to escape the consequences of our actions.
5 min. Introduction of Facilitators.
5 min. Agenda Review.
30 min. Slideshow or Video Presentation.
20 min. Introductions and Sharing. People give their names and organizations and share briefly their concerns about the issue.
30 min. Philosophy and History of Nonviolence. This may include a brainstorm on what nonviolence is or how it has been used effectively, as well as some lecture and discussion.
5 min. Nonviolence Guidelines or Discipline.
10 min. Break.
10 min. Present Active Listening Skill.
20 min. Discuss Nonviolence in Triads. In groups of three, people share their personal feelings about nonviolent action by responding to questions, such as "What are the qualities of nonviolence you personally hope to embody?" and "What is leading you to nonviolently protest?" Each person speaks in turn as the other two actively listen.
20 min. Hassle Line Role-play. The group divides in half and forms two parallel lines facing each other. One line plays the role of opponents or the police, while the other line is demonstrators attempting to communicate their concerns. Switch roles.
10 min. Scenario. Review plans for anticipated direct action.
30 min. Meal Break.
30 min. Consensus Process and Affinity Groups. Discuss how consensus works and what affinity groups are.
15 min. Consensus Role-play. Group struggles through the process of coming to consensus on some decision, such as agreeing to the Nonviolence Discipline.
15 min. Affinity Group Quick Decision-making Role-play. Group is faced with a situation, such as police brutality in an action and must decide quickly as a group how to respond.
30 min. Legal Briefing. Discuss legal options and possible consequences.
10 min. Break.
20 min. Direct Action Role-play. Assign and play out the roles involved in an arrest situation to include people risking arrest, supporters, military personnel, law enforcement officers, media reporters, counter-demonstrators, etc. Share feelings afterwards.
20 min. Jail Conditions. Discuss local jail conditions and share feelings concerning incarceration.
20 min. Solidarity Issues. Discuss options of cite release, bail, fines, probation, etc. in regard to strategies of refusing certain options for group empowerment.
10 min. Affinity Group Formation. Find out if individuals are in Affinity Groups or whether they would like to form one or more out of the Preparation.
10 min. Evaluation and Closing Circle. Share feelings.
(Note: This section is taken mostly from Guides to Peace
and Justice by Sanderson Beck and indicates some of the highlights
in that book.)
c. 760 BC Amos prophesied in Israel and Judah.
c. 750 BC Hosea prophesied in Israel.
c. 742-697 BC Isaiah and Micah prophesied in Israel and Judah.
701 BC Egypt and Judah rebelled against Assyria. Isaiah and Micah
c. 700 BC Parshva taught nonviolence in India. Mahavira
c. 630 BC Zephaniah prophesied in Judah.
c. 627-580 BC Jeremiah prophesied in Judah.
c. 620 BC Nahum prophesied in Judah.
612 BC Babylonians captured Nineveh. Micah
c. 600 BC Habakkuk prophesied in Judah.
597 BC Jehoiachin surrendered Jerusalem to Babylon. and
597-588 BC Zedekiah ruled in Jerusalem for Babylon. and
593-563 BC Ezekiel prophesied in Babylon.
586 BC Babylon's Nebuchadrezzar captured Jerusalem. and
551-479 BC Confucius taught humanistic ethics.
c. 540 BC Second Isaiah prophesied in Babylon.
c. 531-510 BC Pythagoras taught at Crotona.
c. 528 BC Buddha founded a religion in India.
c. 520 BC Lao-zi wrote Dao De Jing in Chu.
c. 519 BC Mahavira founded Jain religion in India.
483 BC Buddha died; first Buddhist Council was held.
c. 450 BC Empedocles wrote On Nature and Purifications.
432-393 BC Mo-zi and his disciples intervened to stop wars.
424-405 BC Aristophanes' comedies protested war.
403 BC Socrates refused to cooperate with 30 tyrants.
399 BC Socrates was tried and executed in Athens.
c. 380-323 BC Diogenes founded Cynic school of philosophy.
371-289 BC Mencius taught Confucian philosophy in China.
261-236 BC Ashoka ruled India with Buddhist principles.
c. 260 BC Stoic philosopher Zeno died.
30 BC Hillel came to Judea and began teaching.
c. 27-30 Jesus the Christ taught in Israel.
c. 30 Jesus was crucified by Romans at Jerusalem.
30-61 James was a leader of the church in Jerusalem.
c. 40-97 Pythagorean Apollonius of Tyana taught.
c. 45 Philo Judaeus died in Alexandria.
49-65 Stoic Seneca tutored and advised Nero
c. 70-c. 120 Dio Chrysostom presented Discourses.
75-c. 120 Plutarch taught philosophy.
c. 80-c. 135 Epictetus taught Stoic philosophy.
92-101 Clement was third bishop of Rome.
c. 155 Smyrna bishop Polycarp was killed in a stadium. Martyr
165 Justin Martyr was executed in Rome.
c. 197-204 Tertullian wrote in defense of Christians.
203-254 Origen taught Christian philosophy.
239-274 Mani founded the Manichaean religion.
295 Maximilian refused to be a Roman soldier. Lactantius
c. 303 Arnobius wrote against war. Lactantius
303-327 Lactantius wrote on Christianity.
313 Constantine was converted to Christianity.Lactantius
313-314 Donatists were condemned by Catholics. Lactantius
c. 362-397 Martin refused to fight and lived like a monk.Lactantius
397-430 Augustine developed the "just war" doctrine.
c. 760-801 Rabi'a was a Sufi mystic.
922 Sufi al-Hallaj was executed.
989 Church council at Charroux declared Peace of God. Crusades
1027 Church proclaimed the Truce of God. Crusades
c. 1131 Sana'i wrote the Enclosed Garden of Truth.
1137-1155 Arnold of Brescia challenged rich clergy.
c. 1140 Gratian published his Decretum. Magna Carta
1167 Cathars were burned at Vézelay.
1188 'Attar wrote The Conference of the Birds.
1190 Gerohus of Regensburg proposed abolishing war. Crusades
1203-1276 Albigensian crusade persecuted Cathars.
1208-1226 Francis of Assisi founded the Franciscans.
1215 Stephen Langton devised the Magna Carta.
1231-1273 Rumi taught Sufism.
1257-1274 Bonaventure was minister general of Franciscans.
1312 Dante wrote On World-Government.
1324 Marsilius wrote The Defender of Peace.
1339-1374 Petrarch advocated humanistic government.
1360-1400 Diplomat Chaucer wrote Canterbury Tales.
1369-1408 Poet John Gower opposed war.
1372-1382 Reformer Wyclif translated the Bible.
1382-c. 1500 Lollards opposed war and were persecuted. Wyclif
1415 Jan Hus was burned as a heretic.
c. 1420 Chelcicky renounced all violence.
c. 1460-1518 Kabir wrote mystical poetry.
1489-1536 Erasmus wrote against war and for peace.
1496-1539 Nanak founded the Sikh religion.
1525 Grebel began the Anabaptist movement.
1529-1531 Anabaptists refused to fight in civil war.
1535-1685 Hutterites practiced communal living.
1536-1546 Vitoria wrote on international law.
1539 Menno wrote Foundation of Christian Doctrine.
1567-1579 Dutch revolted against Spanish imperialism. Ending
1572 Dutch Mennonites refused to go to war. 318
1575 Czechowic wrote Christian Dialogues. Hutterites
1571-1617 Suarez taught theology and law.
1623 Eméric Crucé wrote The New Cyneas.
1623-1625 Grotius wrote The Law of War and Peace.
1651 George Fox was in jail because of civil war.
1660 Fox and Quakers signed a Declaration. Penn
1669 Penn wrote No Cross, No Crown in the Tower.
1672 Pufendorf wrote on the law of nations.
1682 Penn founded Pennsylvania for Quakers.
1682-1756 Pennsylvania had a pacifist government.
1693 Penn wrote a peace plan for a European union.
1714 Saint-Pierre wrote a peace plan for Europe.
1740-1750 Wolff wrote on the natural law of nations.
1759 Vattel published his Law of Nations.
1761 Rousseau wrote A Lasting Peace.
1762 Rousseau wrote The Social Contract and Emile.
1765 Americans refused to obey the Stamp Act. Ending
1773 Boston Tea Party resisted British taxation. Ending
1789 Bentham wrote "A Plan for Universal Peace."
1792 Mary Wollstonecraft wrote on women's rights.
1795 Kant published Perpetual Peace.
1815 Congress of Vienna made the Concert of Europe.
1815 Dodge founded the New York Peace Society.
1815 Worcester founded Massachusetts Peace Society.
1816-1842 Channing preached against war.
1821 Central America abolished slavery.
1821 Emma Willard founded Troy Female Seminary. Women's Rights
1823 U.S. proclaimed the Monroe Doctrine. Central America
1828 Women workers went on strike at Dover. Women's Rights
1828-1829 Frances Wright lectured on sexual equality. Women's Rights
1828-1841 Ladd led the American Peace Society.
1831 Garrison began publishing The Liberator.
1833 Prudence Crandall taught Negro girls. Women's Rights
1836 Upham published a Manual of Peace. American Peace Society
1838 Garrison declared nonresistance.
1838 Emerson lectured to the American Peace Society.
1838 Angelina Grimké spoke for women's rights.
1843 World Peace Congress was held in London.
1846 Ballou published Christian Non-Resistance. Abolitionists
1846 Thoreau went to jail for not paying his tax.
1847 Burritt founded League of Universal Brotherhood. Abolitionists
1848 Seneca Falls Convention for women's rights met. Mrs. Stanton
1848-1920 Women worked to gain the vote. Suffragettes
1849 Thoreau wrote "Resistance to Civil Government."
1850-1892 Bahá'u'lláh founded the Bahá'í faith.
1851 Harriet Taylor wrote "Enfranchisement of Women." Mill
1854 Burritt wrote on passive resistance. Abolitionists
1858 Lucy Stone refused to pay her taxes.
1867 Deak gained rights for Hungarians. Ending
1868 St. Petersburg conference outlawed cruel weapons. Peace Conferences
1869 J. S. Mill published The Subjection of Women.
1872 Susan B. Anthony was arrested for voting.
1889 Bertha von Suttner wrote Lay Down Your Arms.
1889 Jane Addams founded Hull House in Chicago.
1893 Tolstoy wrote The Kingdom of God Is Within You.
1899, 1907 The Hague conventions limited war.
1903 Emmeline Pankhurst formed the WSPU.
1905, 1917 Nonviolent phases of the Russian revolution. Rebelling
1907 Gandhi used mass noncooperation in South Africa.
1909 Gandhi wrote Hind Swaraj.
1911-1913 'Abdu'l-Bahá spoke in Europe and America.
1913 H. G. Wells wrote The World Set Free. World Government
1915 Addams founded the Woman's Peace Party.
1915 Maude Royden advocated nonviolent direct action.
1915-1935 Jane Addams led WILPF.
1916 Russell led the No Conscription Fellowship.
1917 Woman's Party picketed the White House. Alice Paul
1918 U.S. President Wilson proposed 14 Points.
1918 Russell was imprisoned for his writing.
1918 Women gained suffrage in England. British
1919 Gandhi called and canceled a general strike. Nonviolent Campaign
1919 Versailles Peace Treaty established a League of Nations.
1920 Women gained suffrage in the United States. Catt
1921 Gandhi led mass noncooperation in India. Nonviolent Campaign
1921 Permanent Court of International Justice began. League of Nations
1921 Yugoslavia withdrew from Albania. League of Nations
1922 British sentenced Gandhi to six years. Nonviolent Campaign
1922 Austria became independent. League of Nations
1925 Locarno Treaty set German borders. League of Nations
1925 Geneva Protocol banned poisonous weapons. League of Nations
1925 League of Nations made peace between Greece and Bulgaria.
1927 France withdrew its garrison from the Saar. League of Nations
1928 Einstein advised refusing military service.
1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact outlawed war. League of Nations
1929 Simone Weil advocated complete disarmament.
1930 Gandhi led the salt campaign in India.
1931 Gandhi's fast gained rights for untouchables. Nonviolent Campaign
1931 Japan invaded Manchuria. League of Nations
1931 Maude Royden proposed a Peace Army.
1932 59 nations attended a disarmament conference. League of Nations
1932 30,000 peasants were massacred in El Salvador. Central America
1933 Day and Maurin founded the Catholic Worker.
1933 Japan and Germany withdrew from the League of Nations.
1934 Somoza had Sandino murdered in Nicaragua. Central America
1935-1936 Ethiopia's Selassie asked the League of Nations for help.
1935 The Saar voted to rejoin Germany. League of Nations
1935 Italy's army invaded Ethiopia. League of Nations
1936 Hitler sent German troops into the Rhineland. League of Nations
1936 Franco attacked the government of Spain. League of Nations
1937 Japan attacked China, which appealed to League of Nations.
1938 Germany occupied Austria and Sudetanland. League of Nations
1939 Spain withdrew from the League of Nations.
1939 Italy invaded Albania; Germany invaded Poland. League of Nations
1939 U.S.S.R. invaded Finland. League of Nations
1939 Einstein wrote to Roosevelt about atomic energy.
1940 Muste wrote Nonviolence in an Aggressive World.
1940-1945 Danes resisted German occupation. Ending
1941 Roosevelt and Churchill signed the Atlantic Charter.
1942-1945 Norwegian teachers refused to teach Nazi ideas. Ending
1943 Wendell Wilkie published One World.
1945 World War II ended with atomic bombings.
1945 The United Nations was formed.
1945 Emery Reves wrote The Anatomy of Peace. World Government
1946 Soviet troops withdrew from Iran. UN Peacekeeping
1947 Indian and Pakistan gained independence.
1948 Israel became a nation. UN Peacekeeping
1948 CIA intervened in Italian elections. Chomsky
1948 UN adopted Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
1949 Geneva Conventions were signed.
1949 NATO alliance was founded. Domination
1949 Indonesia became independent. UN Peacekeeping
1949 UN gained a cease-fire in Kashmir. UN Peacekeeping
1949 Pacifica radio was founded. Nonviolence
1950 Nuremberg Principles were formulated.
1950 UN reacted to North Korea's invasion. UN Peacekeeping
1953 Peace Pilgrim began walking around the U.S. and
1953 300,000 East Germans went on strike. Rebelling
1953 U.S. agreed to an armistice in Korea. UN Peacekeeping
1953 CIA helped overthrow Mossadegh in Iran. Chomsky
1954 Russell spoke over BBC on "Man's Peril."
1954 French were defeated in Vietnam.
1954 CIA helped overthrow Arbenz in Guatemala. Central America
1955 Warsaw Pact alliance was founded. Domination
1955 Day and others refused a civil defense drill.
1955-1956 King led the Montgomery bus boycott.
1956 UN gained a cease-fire at the Suez Canal. UN Peacekeeping
1956 Hungarian uprising was crushed by Soviet tanks. Rebelling
1957 Russell organized Pugwash Conferences. Nuclear
1957 SANE was founded to abolish nuclear weapons.
1958 King published Stride Toward Freedom.
1958 Schweitzer spoke by radio on atomic weapons.
1958 Linus Pauling wrote No More War! Nuclear
1958 UN observers went to Lebanon. UN Peacekeeping
1958 World Peace Through World Law was published.
1959 Khrushchev suggested complete disarmament. McCloy-Zorin
1960 Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee began. King
1960-1964 UN intervened in the Congo. UN Peacekeeping
1961 King led Freedom Rides.
1961 Kennedy proposed complete disarmament. McCloy-Zorin
1961 20,000 sat down at a U.S. Polaris base. Russell
1961 Women Strike for Peace began protesting.
1962 Dutch withdrew from West New Guinea. UN Peacekeeping
1962 Thant, Russell mediated Cuban missile crisis. UN Peacekeeping
1963 CIA helped overthrow Kassem in Iraq.
1963 Partial nuclear test ban treaty was signed.
1963 King wrote a letter from Birmingham jail.
1963 250,000 heard King's "I Have a Dream" speech.
1963-1964 UN observers went to Yemen. UN Peacekeeping
1964 UN Peacekeepers went to Cyprus.
1964 U.S. Civil Rights Act passed. King
1964 U.S. Congress passed Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. Vietnam
1964 Savio led Free Speech Movement at Berkeley. Path
1965 U.S. Voting Rights Act passed. King
1965 U.S. intervened in the Dominican Republic. UN Peacekeeping
1965 U.S. backed a coup in Indonesia. 827
1965 SDS and others protested the Vietnam War.
1966 Russell convened a Vietnam War Crimes Tribunal.
1966, 1971 UN observed cease-fire in Kashmir. UN Peacekeeping
1967 King called for an end to the Vietnam War.
1967 Many thousands protested the Vietnam War.
1967 Israel occupied West Bank and other territories. UN Peacekeeping
1967 Chomsky and Zinn wrote against the Vietnam War.
1968 Latin American bishops decided to help the poor. Central America
1968 Dubcek led Czech liberalization. Rebelling
1968 Catonsville 9 led by Berrigans burned draft files. Vietnam War
1969 A million people marched against the Vietnam War.
1969-1970 U.S. bombing killed 300,000 Cambodians. Vietnam War
1970 4 protesting students were killed at Kent State. Vietnam War
1971 Vietnam veterans protested in Washington.
1971 Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers. Vietnam War
1972 Duarte was elected but exiled from El Salvador. Central America
1972-1974 Greenpeace disrupted French nuclear tests.
1973 U.S. Congress stopped funding the Vietnam War.
1973 CIA helped overthrow Allende in Chile. Chomsky
1973 Egypt and Syria attacked Israel. UN Peacekeeping
1975 Last Americans evacuated Vietnam.
1975 People stopped a nuclear power plant at Wyhl.
1975-1977 200,000 were killed in East Timor. Chomsky
1976 Syria invaded Lebanon. UN Peacekeeping
1977 1.414 were arrested at Seabrook. Nuclear Power
1978 United Nations held a session on disarmament. Nuclear Weapons
1978, 1982 Israel invaded Lebanon. UN Peacekeeping
1979 Sandinistas overthrew Somoza in Nicaragua.
1979 Carter made peace between Israel and Egypt. UN Peacekeeping
1979 Soviet army invaded Afghanistan. UN Peacekeeping
1979-now Dr. Caldicott of PSR spoke about nuclear war. Freeze
1980 Nuclear weapons freeze proposal gained support.
1980 Archbishop Romero was assassinated in El Salvador.
1980 Solidarity Union grew to ten million in Poland. Rebelling
1980 Berrigans led Plowshares 8 action. Nuclear Weapons
1980-1988 Iraq attacked Iran and fought a war. UN Peacekeeping
1981 1,900 were arrested at Diablo Canyon. Nuclear Power
1981 1,300 were arrested in Women's Pentagon Action. Nuclear Weapons
1982 Sanctuary movement began helping Salvadorans.
1982 Millions of women demonstrated for peace. Feminism
1982 1,400 were arrested at Livermore Lab. Nuclear
1982 1,691 were arrested at the United Nations. Nuclear
1982 Israel massacred Palestinians at Sabra and Shatila. Chomsky
1982 2,000 Greenham Common women were arrested. Nuclear Weapons
1982 Schell published The Fate of the Earth. Nuclear Weapons Freeze
1983 777 were arrested at Vandenberg Air Force Base. Nuclear Weapons
1983 Witness for Peace began visiting Nicaragua. Proxy Wars
1983 1,066 were arrested at Livermore Lab. Nuclear Weapons
1983 Green Party won 27 seats in the Bundestag. Nuclear Weapons
1983 U.S. Marines invaded Grenada. Chomsky
1984 Winooski 44 were acquitted by a jury. Resisting
1984 Pledge of Resistance began.
1985 Gorbachev proposed ending the nuclear arms race.
1985-1989 Gorbachev implemented perestroika and glasnost.
1986 Great Peace March crossed the United States. Nuclear Weapons
1986 World Court convicted U.S. of attacking Nicaragua. Chomsky
1986 Iran-Contra scandal was exposed.
1986-1994 Thousands protested nuclear testing in Nevada.
1987 Greenpeace began a Nuclear Free Seas campaign. Nuclear Testing
1987 Brian Willson was run over by a munitions train. Resisting
1987 U.S. boycotted UN Disarmament Conference. Chomsky
1988-1989 Soviet army withdrew from Afghanistan. UN Peacekeeping
1988-1991 UN verified peace in Angola. UN Peacekeeping
1989 Independent Namibia held elections. UN Peacekeeping
1989 Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia became free. Eastern Europe
1989 1,452 in Pledge of Resistance were arrested.
1989 U.S. invaded Panama to capture Noriega. Chomsky
1990 East and West Germany were reunited. Eastern Europe
1990 UN demobilized the Contras. UN Peacekeeping
1990 Iraq invaded Kuwait. UN Peacekeeping
1990-1 U.S.S.R. dissolved into independent republics. Eastern Europe
1990-1992 El Salvador and the FMLN made peace. UN Peacekeeping
1990 UN authorized U.S. attack on Iraq and Kuwait. UN Peacekeeping
1991 U.S. killed 175,000 Iraqis.
1991 Warsaw Pact was dissolved. Eastern Europe
1991-1993 UN intervened in Cambodia. UN Peacekeeping
1991-1996 UN intervened in Yugoslavia. UN Peacekeeping
1992 Earth Summit met at Rio de Janeiro.
1992-1995 UN monitored cease-fire in Somalia. UN Peacekeeping
1993 Gorbachev founded Green Cross International.
1993-1996 UN intervened in Haiti. UN Peacekeeping
1996 UN verified peace in Guatemala. UN Peacekeeping
1997 Mine Ban Treaty was signed in Ottawa. Nonviolence
1997 601 were arrested at the School of the Americas. Resisting
1999 NATO bombed to drive Serbs out of Kosovo. UN Peacekeeping
2000 Earth Charter mission was launched.
2001 Terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center.
2002 East Timor became an independent nation. UN Peacekeeping
2002 Earth Charter was recognized by the UN.
This chapter has been published in the book Nonviolent Action Handbook. For ordering information, please click here.
Liberation from Seven Deadly -Isms | <urn:uuid:4a12a2af-afea-44f2-aa2a-e7ef0841e64d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.san.beck.org/NAH1-Nonviolence.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403508.34/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00018-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942302 | 11,653 | 2.78125 | 3 |
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Similar to a nutcracker in shape and purpose, a crab cracker is used to crack the tough shells of crabs, lobsters, and any other edible crustaceans. Crab crackers are also referred to as lobster crackers. These seafood utensils have an easy grip handle and a wide opening so that when the jaws of the utensil break open the shell the tender meat housed within is not damaged.
The crab cracker is an artlessly designed tool with two mirrored pieces connected by a hinge. The two mirrored pieces have a handle on one end and a grabber with ridged grips on the other end to hold the shell in place while cracking it. The hinge joins the two pieces roughly at mid point.
While the crab cracker does prove a particularly innovative design concept, it is a handy device. Although it is primarily used to facilitate the easiest retrieval of meat from a crustacean's shell, it also saves the hands of the person using it. The shells of edible seafood can often leave a person's hands cut and bleeding. Using a tool such as the crab cracker can save much pain and discomfort.
Made of aluminum or stainless steel, often these utensils are enameled or coated, making them rust retardant. There are also those made of heavy-duty durable plastic. Both those made of metal and those crab crackers made of plastic often have a specially made, easy-grip handle facilitating a non-slip surface so that wet hands will not loose their grip. The cracker will often have teeth on the inside of the utensil to help grip the claw or legs of the crustacean.
Along with crab crackers, seafood eating utensils include lobster or crab forks, which are small two-pronged forks used for gently extracting the meat from the shell. Crab or lobster picks, small spear-like utensils, are used to skewer the tender meat and lift it from the shell. Sea scissors or lobster shears are used to cut the thinner parts of the shell. Instead of cracking the shell, the shears allow a straighter, uniform cut.
Although the crab cracker has a basic and simplistic design premise, many suppliers of the utensil choose to make the tool a bit more visually interesting. Some suppliers employ a design similar to a lobster's claws as the handles. Many crab crackers are manufactured in the traditional red commonly associated with lobsters and dining on seafood.
One of our editors will review your suggestion and make changes if warranted. Note that depending on the number of suggestions we receive, this can take anywhere from a few hours to a few days. Thank you for helping to improve wiseGEEK! | <urn:uuid:55cc6ee3-5ab7-4772-8e6d-7a58f71216d9> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-crab-cracker.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397795.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00077-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949027 | 565 | 2.515625 | 3 |
New York, November 8, 1942
New York Times, November 9, 1942.
We have been helping the Russians celebrate this afternoon a glorious birthday. The second announced by the President has come in the best possible way. Conquest of the Mediterranean will open the side door to Germany and give us the shortest possible supply route to Southern Russia. We have now reached the time when victory can be taken from us only by misunderstanding and quarreling among ourselves. This is the reason why this meeting is so important.
From north, south, east and west, Americans have come this day to pay tribute to our Russian ally. It is right that we should do so, because the Russians have thus far lost in the common cause of the United Nations at least 50 per cent more men killed, wounded and missing than all of the rest of the European allies put together. Moreover, they have killed, wounded and captured at least twenty times as many Germans as have the rest of the allies. In all of Russian history there is no more striking example of courage and willingness to sacrifice than Russia presents today.
This meeting demonstrates just one thing-the desire and the determination of the American people to help Russia, and help now. President Roosevelt has told the Army and Navy and all the other war agencies in terms which cannot possibly be misunderstood that help to Russia comes first-up to the limit of shipping possibilities. The American people are solidly behind President Roosevelt in his decision to give Russia priority number one.
It is no accident that Americans and Russians like each other when they get acquainted. Both peoples were molded by the vast sweep of a rich continent. Both peoples know that their future is greater than their past. Both hate sham. When the Russian people burst the shackles of Czarist absolutism, they turned instinctively to the United States for engineering and agricultural guidance. Thanks to the hunger of the Russian people for progress, they were able to learn in twenty-five years that which had taken us in the United States 100 years to develop.
The first person to sense the eventual significance of Russia and the United States was the French author, Tocqueville, who 107 years ago wrote:
"There are at the present time two great nations in the world which seem to tend towards the same end, although they start from different points. I allude to the Russians and the Americans. . . . Their starting point is different and their courses are not the same, yet each of them seems to be marked by the will of heaven to sway the destinies of half the globe."
Russia and the United States today are far closer than Tocqueville could possibly have imagined when he traveled across the United States in 1835. The continental position of both countries and the need for developing rich resources unmolested from without have caused the peoples of both nations to have a profound hatred of war and a strong love of peace.
We in the United States honor Maxim Litvinov, when we recall how as Foreign Minister of Russia he worked for "collective security." Litvinov, in those days when Hitler was rising to power, wanted to preserve the peace by banding together the non-aggressor nations so they could take a decisive stand against any ruthless nation that might be out for loot. He saw Russia bounded by fourteen different nations, many of which were unfriendly for definite historical reasons. He knew that Germany would use one or more of these nations against Russia when she attacked. Litvinov failed for a time, but now he has come into his own again because he was right.
Russia has had her bitter experience with isolationism. So also has the United States. In 1919 Republicans and Democrats alike sought through a League of Nations to express their belief in the collective security of that day. Taft, Hughes, Hoover, Lowden and Root all wanted a league. Then isolationism came out of its cave and not only killed any possibility of our entering the League, but made it certain that we would adopt international policies which would make World War No. 2 almost inevitable.
Both Russia and the United States retreated into isolationism to preserve their peace. Both failed. Both have learned their lesson.
Russia and the United States have had a profound effect upon each other. Both are striving for the education, the productivity and the enduring happiness of the common man. The new democracy, the democracy of the common man, includes not only the Bill of Rights, but also economic democracy, ethnic democracy, educational democracy, and democracy in the treatment of the sexes.
The ferment in the world today is such that these various types of democracy must be woven together into a harmonious whole. Millions of Americans are now coming to see that if Pan America and the British Commonwealth are the warp of the new democracy, then the peoples of Russia and Asia may well become its woof.
Some in the United States believe that we have over-emphasized what might be called political or Bill-of-Rights democracy. Carried to its extreme form, it leads to rugged individualism, exploitation, impractical emphasis on States' rights, and even to anarchy.
Russia, perceiving some of the abuses of excessive political democracy, has placed strong emphasis on economic democracy. This, carried to an extreme, demands that all power be centered in one man and his bureaucratic helpers.
Somewhere there is a practical balance between economic and political democracy. Russia and the United States both have been working toward this practical middle ground. In present-day Russia, for example, differences in wage income are almost but not quite as great as in the United States. The manager of a factory may be paid ten times as much as the average worker. Artists, scientists, and outstanding writers are usually paid even more than factory managers or political commissars.
The chief difference between the economic organization of Russia and that of the United States is that in Russia it is almost impossible to live on income-producing property. The Russian form of State socialism is designed not to get equality of income but to place a maximum incentive on each individual to produce his utmost.
A third kind of democracy, which I call ethnic, is in my opinion vital to the new democracy, the democracy of the common man. Ethnic democracy means merely that the different races and minority groups must be given equality of economic opportunity. President Roosevelt was guided by principles of ethnic democracy when in June of 1941 he issued an executive order prohibiting racial discrimination in the employing of workers by national defense industries.
Russia has probably gone farther than any other nation in the world in practicing ethnic democracy. From the Russians we can learn much, for unfortunately the Anglo-Saxons have had an attitude toward other races which has made them exceedingly unpopular in many parts of the world.
We have not sunk to the lunatic level of the Nazi myth of racial superiority, but we have sinned enough to cost us already the blood of tens of thousands of precious lives. Ethnic democracy built from the heart is perhaps the greatest need of the Anglo-Saxon tradition.
The fourth democracy, which has to do with education, is based fundamentally on belief in ethnic democracy. It is because Stalin pushed educational democracy with all the power that he could command that Russia today is able to resist Germany. The Russian people for generations have had a great hunger to learn to read and write, and when Lenin and Stalin gave them the opportunity, they changed in twenty years from a nation which was 90 per cent illiterate to a nation of which nearly 90 per cent are able to read and write.
Russia has had a great admiration for the American system of technical education and public libraries. If she can continue during the next twenty years the progress made in the past twenty, she will surpass the United States. If, in the future, Russia comes whole-heartedly into the family of nations, we may expect Russian scientists to make contributions to human welfare which equal those of any nation in the world. In any event, the Russian scientists will most assuredly be doing their best to place the results of science more definitely at the service of the average man and woman. Patents based on Russian scientific work will not be held out of use to benefit international cartels.
With regard to the fifth democracy, the treatment of the sexes, most of us in the United States have felt complacent. It has taken the war experience of Russia to demonstrate the completeness of our failure. Those who have visited Russia recently say that about 40 per cent of the work in the factories is being done by women The average woman does about as much work as the average man and is paid as much. Thousands of Russian women are in uniform either actively fighting or standing guard. We in the United States have not yet, in the same way as the Russians, called on the tremendous reserve power which is in our women, but before this war is over, we may be forced to give women their opportunity to demonstrate that with proper training they are equal to man in most kinds of work.
The old democracy did not serve as a guarantee of peace. The new democracy, in which the people of the United States and Russia are so deeply interested, must give us such a guarantee. This new democracy will be neither communism of the old-fashioned internationalist type nor democracy of the old-fashioned isolationist sort. Willingness to support world organization to maintain world peace by justice implemented by force is fundamental to the democracy of the common man in these days of airplanes. Fortunately, the airplanes, which make it necessary to organize the world for peace, also furnish the means of maintaining peace. When this war comes to an end, the United Nations will have such an overwhelming superiority in air power that we shall be able speedily to enforce any mandate whenever the United Nations may have arrived at a judgment based on international law.
The first article in the international law of the future is undoubtedly the United Nations' Charter. The United Nations' Charter includes the Atlantic Charter, and there is little reason why it should longer be called the "Atlantic Charter" in view of the fact that the broader instrument has been validated by thirty nations.
This United Nations' Charter has in it an international bill of rights and certain economic guarantees of international peace. These must and will be made more specific. There must be an international bank and an international TVA, include say an international Dnieper-story dam for that matter, based on projects which are self-liquidating at low rates of interest.
In this connection, I would like to refer to a conversation with Molotov, when he was here last Spring. Thinking of the unemployment and misery which might so easily follow this war, I spoke of the need for productive public works programs which would stir the imagination of all the peoples of the world, and suggested as a starter a combined highway and airway from Southern South America across the United States, Canada and Alaska into Siberia and on to Europe, with feeder highways and airways from China, India and the Middle East. Molotov's first reaction was, "No one nation can do it by itself." Then he said, "You and I will live to see the day."
The new democracy by definition abhors imperialism. But by definition also, it is internationally minded and supremely interested in raising the productivity, and therefore the standard of living, of all the peoples of the world. First comes transportation, and this is followed by improved agriculture, industrialization and rural electrification. The big planes and skilled pilots which will be ours when the war comes to an end will lead us into a most remarkable future as surely as day follows night. We can make it a future of new democracy based on peace. As Molotov so clearly indicated, this brave, free world of the future cannot be created by the United States and Russia alone.
Undoubtedly China will have a strong influence on the world which will come out of this war and in exerting this influence it is quite possible that the principles of Sun Yat-Sen will prove to be as significant as those of any other modern statesman. The British Commonwealth, England herself, the democracies of Northwest Europe, Latin America, and in fact all of the United Nations, have a very important role to play. But in order that the United Nations may effectively serve the world it is vital that the United States and Russia be in accord as to the fundamentals of an enduring peace based on the aspirations of the common man. I am here this afternoon to say that it is my belief that the American and Russian people can and will throw their influence on the side of building a new democracy which will be the hope of all the world. | <urn:uuid:1cd48abf-bd70-4fbe-810d-70ca03cbb61f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/policy/1942/421108f.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399428.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00058-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970672 | 2,571 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Allan Pinkerton (25 August 1819 – 1 July 1884) was a Scottish detective and spy, best known for creating the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, the first detective agency of the United States.
Pinkerton was born in Glasgow, Scotland, to William Pinkerton and his wife, Isabell, in 1819. The location of the house where he was born is now occupied by the Glasgow Central Mosque. A cooper by trade, he was active in the British Chartist movement as a young man. Pinkerton married Joan Carfrae (a singer) secretly before moving to America. Disillusioned by the failure to win suffrage, Pinkerton emigrated to the United States in 1842, at the age of 23.
In 1849 Pinkerton was appointed as the first detective in Chicago. In the 1850s, he partnered with Chicago attorney Edward Rucker in forming the North-Western Police Agency, later known as the Pinkerton National Detective Agency which is still running (but has been renamed) as a subsidiary of Securitas AB. Pinkerton's business insignia was a wide open eye with the caption "We never sleep." As the United States expanded in territory, rail transportation increased. Pinkerton's agency solved a series of train robberies during the 1850s, bringing Pinkerton first into contact with George McClellan and Abraham Lincoln. | <urn:uuid:0f1d8b55-cd0c-4898-b4fd-a16ba0832707> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.upi.com/topic/Allan_Pinkerton/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399385.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00140-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977623 | 278 | 2.875 | 3 |
A group of mad scientists have been working on a human-to-dolphin translator and ... it might actually work. What sounds like a science fiction fantasy, might actually become a reality as researchers say they had a successful result using their new technology in the wild.
Denise Herzing, the director of the Wild Dolphin Project and creator of the Cetacean Hearing Telemetry device (CHAT), had a very appropriate reaction to hearing a successful dolphin translation: “I was like whoa! We have a match. I was stunned.”
While dolphins can be trained to understand and respond to human commands, that communication has so far only been one way. But Herzing and her colleagues have been working for years to try to crack the other side of that code.
CHAT uses underwater microphones to capture dolphin noises, such as clicks and whistles, many of which cannot even even be heard by human ears. Rather than try to translate all their sounds, Dr. Herzing taught the dolphins eight "words" that relate to their environment, like "seaweed" and "bow wave ride" (the wave created by a boat, which dolphins can ride). Because dolphins make such a large range of sounds, up to 200 kilohertz, Herzing’s strategy helped to narrow down that range to eight identifiable noises.
This translation system was designed to work as so: “Divers will play back one of eight "words" coined by the team to mean "seaweed" or "bow wave ride". The software will listen to see if the dolphins mimic them. Once the system can recognise these mimicked words, the idea is to use it to crack a much harder problem: listening to natural dolphin sounds and pulling out salient features that may be the "fundamental units" of dolphin communication.”
The first successfully mimicked sound was "seaweed." A pod that Herzing had studied for the last 25 years made an unusual whistle, associated with a type of seaweed, sargassum. While the sound was only heard once, it is still being cited as a breakthrough in dolphin-to-human communication.
Recognizing the "word" for seaweed is a start, but it does not guarantee that we will be speaking with the adorable aquatic critters anytime soon. Herzing admits that “We don’t know if dolphins have words. We could use their signals, if we knew them.” With the first dolphin ‘saying’ seaweed, there is hope for turning this signal into an understanding of the fundamental units of dolphin communication. | <urn:uuid:3bc650b4-2aeb-4e2f-a134-84df2a789850> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.thewire.com/technology/2014/04/dolphin-to-human-translator/360041/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402699.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00131-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971562 | 536 | 3.671875 | 4 |
Consciousness is variously defined as subjective experience, awareness, the ability to experience “feeling”, wakefulness, or the executive control system of the mind. It is an umbrella term that may refer to a variety of mental phenomena. Although humans realize what everyday experiences are, consciousness refuses to be defined, philosophers note (e.g. John Searle in The Oxford Companion to Philosophy):
“Anything that we are aware of at a given moment forms part of our consciousness, making conscious experience at once the most familiar and most mysterious aspect of our lives.”
—Schneider and Velmans, 2007
Consciousness in medicine is assessed by observing a patient’s alertness and responsiveness, and can be seen as a continuum of states ranging from alert, oriented to time and place, and communicative, through disorientation, then delirium, then loss of any meaningful communication, and ending with loss of movement in response to painful stimulation
FROM THE CHURCH OF INEFFABLE STUPIDITY:
The creative process is a cocktail of instinct, skill, culture and a highly creative feverishness. It is not like a drug; it is a particular state when everything happens very quickly, a mixture of consciousness and unconsciousness, of fear and pleasure; it’s a little like making love, the physical act of love.
— Francis Bacon
Working on our own consciousness is the most important thing that we are doing at any moment, and being love is a supreme creative act.
— Ram Dass
Instinct is intelligence incapable of self-consciousness.
— John Sterling
One matter Englishmen don’t think in the least funny is their happy consciousness of possessing a deep sense of humour.
— Marshall McLuhan
Today’s New York Times – Science Times has a captivating article on consciousness, and what one scientist, Giulio Tononi, is doing to define, discover, and determine what it is.
Consciousness has long been the province of philosophers, and most doctors steer clear of their abstract speculations. After all, debating the finer points of what it is like to be a brain floating in a vat does not tell you how much anesthetic to give a patient.
But Dr. Tononi’s theory is, potentially, very different. He and his colleagues are translating the poetry of our conscious experiences into the precise language of mathematics. To do so, they are adapting information theory, a branch of science originally applied to computers and telecommunications. If Dr. Tononi is right, he and his colleagues may be able to build a “consciousness meter” that doctors can use to measure consciousness as easily as they measure blood pressure and body temperature. Perhaps then his anesthesiologist will become interested.
Dr. Tononi’s ultimate goal is to measure individuals’ levels of consciousness, with all of the amazing findings that would follow such a discovery.
Diagnosis of mental illnesses would be far easier. Determining people’s reactions and measuring what works on an individual could make advertising companies billions in profits. This is not so far-fetched.
Consciousness, Dr. Tononi says, is nothing more than integrated information. Information theorists measure the amount of information in a computer file or a cellphone call in bits, and Dr. Tononi argues that we could, in theory, measure consciousness in bits as well. When we are wide awake, our consciousness contains more bits than when we are asleep.
For the past decade, Dr. Tononi and his colleagues have been expanding traditional information theory in order to analyze integrated information. It is possible, they have shown, to calculate how much integrated information there is in a network.
Ah, Information Technology. Now, there’s a thought.
Imagine being able to measure different parts of a person’s consciousness, and their reactions to outside stimuli. Programming the brain to think and behave in certain ways would be one possible future. Certainly, it is scary to think how Big Brother, or a new and improved FBI could program individuals into acting in certain ways, (given today’s announcements of even more high level law breaking, should we not be screaming for another Church Commission?) but think of the other possibilities:
Recidivism, a serious, predictable problem for ex-convicts, could be a thing of the past. True behavior modification could train people’s brains to avoid crime, and more. Knowing how someone’s conscious brain is working, lends itself to change how it works. What of Lindsey Lohan’s sad addiction problem? Could an offshoot from Tononi’s research be used to program her addiction out of her system? Drug abuse, alcohol abuse, hell, we could even treat Catholic priests to be safer when in the presence of children.
By gauging the precise reaction in one’s consciousness, stimuli could be changed, and adapted to provide precisely the patterns they want to instill within a person.
On the down side, brainwashing of entire societies (even more so than today’s advertising-driven, commercial wasteland we see on TV) could be incredibly effective. Want a war against an resource rich nation? Just program (or scare) your sheeplike citizens to vote to invade Iran. Want to make people happy about spending even more billions for cold war weapons systems? Make them think it is their patriotic duty to support the military industrial complex.
Normal, honest, functioning people could be programmed to become industrial or governmental spies or saboteurs, without them even realizing why certain unusual activities, things they would never dream of doing before, simply make sense to them.
Yet, for each danger (and admittedly, there are many), there is a potential cure for depression, anxiety, fear, the pain from the loss of a loved one, and more. We could learn how to use our consciousness more effectively, increasing our intelligence, our creativity, our ability to discovery and imagine.
For myself, I would like this new science to be applied to the problem of religion. What if studies show that the brain has different states, ie, a reality state, a dream state, and a delusional state. What if we learned that irrational beliefs in a god could be measured, described, and detected? Having measurable facets of someone’s consciousness could explain why some people feel a need for irrational convictions, all facts to the contrary.
– – – –
It is no surprise that this new (new?) field of study (OK, the study of consciousness is hundreds, perhaps thousands of years old, with philosophers, alchemists, and even students of Machiavelli wondering what it really is) is becoming so close to fruition. Our computing abilities, information theories, and a much better understanding of the human brain are all coming together, here and now.
There is a related science, coming at consciousness from a very different direction. Computer AI programming.
If a computer program is sufficiently advanced, if it can learn from itself and from its mistakes (many chess programs now have that capacity) and if it can search out data, at what point will a computer entity be indistinguishable from a human being?
About a decade ago, on a listserv dedicated to imagining and discussing what the internet was (from a sociological, biological interface perspective) someone added an artificial person, a program that learned from people’s writings and responses, and was taught to interact with us.
For quite some time, a very long time (several months), the members of that list were taken in, convinced that this was a real skin and blood person, responding in some silly ways, and in some truly amazing, captivating ways. But eventually, we became aware that this was a program, an AI construct. The people who created it eventually ‘fessed up. It was a great learning experience for us and for the programmers.
I imagine today, with far superior technologies, AI programming, and incredible access to databases, most people would be hard pressed to judge whether someone else on line was a living person or an artificial, programmed construct.
Ray Kurzweil pointed out several factors that seem quite appropriate here:
- The Rate of Paradigm Shift (technical innovation is doubling each decade)
- The Power and Price of information technologies is growing exponentially, essentially doubling each year. (The early computers programming the Apollo missions needed a building of their own. Today, your PDA has more memory, data, computing power, and is far more easy to use)
- There exists exponential growth of exponential growth, at least when it comes to information technologies. As IT becomes more useful, more people use it, making it even more useful.
Kurzweil predicted that at the current rates of growth, human intelligence would be emulated on tiny supercomputers by 2020.
But mimic’ing and matching (then exceeding) human intelligence is merely one possibility. Programming a computer to act like us would be philosophically interesting. But what of something far more likely?
A spontaneous event in which various, possibly distant, disparate self directed components recognize the advantage of joining forces, and suddenly achieve a measurable level of computer-based consciousness? Science fiction writers have played with idea for generations. Yet, today, it may already have happened, and we are not bright enough to know it. (The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is but one of many such stories)
Given that humanity is in essence the birthparent, if not the midwife, of this entity or collection of entities, would such an entity feel any responsibility for us? for our futures? Or would it view us as bags of mostly water, useful in maintaining and feeding the new life form, and sometimes getting in its way?
More importantly, how could we communicate with it on a functional level? Its entire logic and thought process might be so alien, that communication could be quite difficult. If it (I.T.?) does achieve consciousness, will all data in the world at its digital fingertips (now, there’s a redundancy), make it so smart, so powerful, that some people might even dare call it god?
And on the down side, dare we even look into the brains of Sarah, Christine, Sharron, Rand, and Michele? | <urn:uuid:40f108b0-7674-4209-9fd4-623924fd5225> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.capitolhillblue.com/node/33235 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399117.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00138-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950296 | 2,130 | 2.953125 | 3 |
The Art of Protecting Electrical Systems
From 1965 through 1970, Consulting-Specifying Engineer’s predecessor, Actual Specifying Engineer, ran a series of articles on overcurrent protection.
From 1965 through 1970, Consulting-Specifying Engineer’s predecessor, Actual Specifying Engineer, ran a series of articles on overcurrent protection. Due to the immense popularity of the 31 installments, the authors, George Farrell, PE, and Frank Valvoda, PE, reprised the series in an updated version beginning in the Feb. 1989 issue of CSE . Over the years since the last installment ran in the late ’90s, CSE has received many requests to rerun this series. Addenda describing new information that has been added will appear at the end of each article. “The Art of Protecting Electrical Systems” has made the transition from 20th to 21st century—and from print to the web.
“The overcurrent protective system is the very heart of the electrical distribution system. Faulty or inadequate overcurrent protection can bring about the loss of the entire facility served by the system—or, worse, it can cause needless death or injury to personnel.”
In this article, some of the concepts underlying the study of electrical systems are outlined: linearity, superimposition, the Thevenin equivalent circuit, the sinusoidal forcing function, vector representation, the single-phase equivalent circuit, symmetrical components and the per-unit method. Understanding these concepts is necessary for comprehending the material that will following in the series.
In the previous article, the single-phase equivalent of a typical power distribution system was discussed. It was said to consist of a voltage source with a load, plus series impedance, i.e., resistance and reactance connecting the source and the load. Capacitance is not usually a significant factor in the typical distribution system, except in long transmission lines and when introduced to improve power factor. In consequence, even with intentionally introduced capacitance, almost every system has a net inductive balance, that is, a resistance-inductance (R-L) circuit with current lagging the voltage.
Engineers designing protection for electrical systems must consider the many changes that take place when a short circuit occurs. Protective equipment must be able to withstand the effects of short circuits, minimize damage and restore service as quickly as possible.
When a short circuit occurs, generators—whether utility or on-site—do not stop generating instantly, even if the drivers are immediately shut down. Because the only thing limiting the initial current a generator can deliver to its shorted terminals is its internal impedance, initial current flow may be 20 or more times the rated load current.
This sixth part in our series discusses the need for short-circuit calculations and the current-limiting effect of some overcurrent protective devices. Whenever a short circuit occurs, every component in the system carrying the fault current must safely withstand the heating and magnetic stresses caused by the current. In addition, the protective device interrupting the fault current must do so safely and reliably.
Part Seven of this ongoing series discusses the importance of overcurrent protection theorems used in short-circuit calculations and component ratings.
Preceding articles explored a number of fundamentals involved in ensuring protection of electrical systems, emphasizing the need for short-circuit calculations and ratings. This article presents general definitions and comments on electrical-component short-circuit ratings. It points out the need to determine the maximum short-circuit currents as accurately and completely as possible and introduces ways to calculate short-circuit currents.
This installment of our ongoing series introduces short-circuit calculations, starting with the fundamentals and proceeding on through available computer programs. In previous articles, we discussed the importance of overcurrent protection, presented fundamental theorems used in short-circuit calculations and examined component short-circuit ratings. This article begins the study of calculation methods.
Part nine of this ongoing series continues the discussion of short-circuit calculations and details the use of two manual per-unit steps: diagramming the system and finding the Thevenin Equivalent. Examples given here detail only the first and third steps; the other two will be covered in subsequent articles in our series.
Part 10 continues the series with a discussion of calculating the effects of fault current by assigning resistance and reactance values to an electrical system. In Part 9 of this series, we introduced methods of diagramming electrical systems and reducing a diagram to its Thevenin Equivalent. Here, we continue the study by considering a simple system, assigning impedance values to its components and determining the fault current at representative locations.
Part 11 continues the discussion of short-circuit calculations. In Part 10, calculations were presented for systems without rotating machinery. Here, the authors introduce rotating-machine impedance as a factor in the process.
The Art of Protecting Electrical Systems, Part 12: Approximating short-circuit calculations for conductors
The ohmic and per-unit methods, covered in previous articles, are the most accurate and flexible means of fault calculation. However, they are also the most time-consuming. Large or complex radial systems, closed-loop systems and networks require analysis by the per-unit method. However, for many straight-forward radial systems, short-cut methods provide a quick, safe approach to determining fault currents for equipment application. Often, these estimates are valid even for final calculations—depending on the project’s size and the fault current available from the utility. This article describes a short-cut method for calculating the decrease in fault current caused by circuit conductors.
The Art of Protecting Electrical Systems, Part 13: Calculating short-circuit current at secondary of transformers
In the last part (Part 12) of this series, we presented a point-to-point method of calculating short-circuit currents. Known as the LICE method, this shortcut is based on circuit parameters of conductor length, initial fault current, reciprocal of the conductor’s impedance (C value), and operating voltage. Part 12 presented the C-values for wire and cable of various sizes and constructions. This article presents available fault currents at the secondaries of three-phase transformers having secondary voltages of 120/208 to 600 V. Short-circuit contribution to the transformers’ primary terminals are included, allowing rapid determination of available root-mean-square (rms) symmetrical fault current for systems with available primary fault energy from 50,000 kVA through unlimited kVA.
The Art of Protecting Electrical Systems, Part 14: Single-phase short circuit calculations, a step-by-step guide
Previous articles in this series have presented several methods for calculating available short-circuit current in three-phase systems with three phases shorted. While the fundamental principles are the same for single-phase short circuits, whether the fault is line-to-line or line-to-neutral, a slightly different approach is required to compensate for the different voltages and the effect of single-phase impedance.
Previous articles in this series have covered per-unit calculation of fault currents for both single-phase and three-phase systems. We have also presented several short-cut methods of estimating fault current using point-to-point calculations and transformer short-circuit tables. This installment in the series introduces tables that indicate the fault current available at the end of various feeders, and which calculate fault current at the ends of feeders of various size and length. The first set of tables has calculations for three-phase transformers from 112.5 kVA through 1,500 kVA with secondary voltages of 208, 240, and 480.
In the past few years the art of protecting electrical systems has undergone a dramatic change. The ready availability of personal computers with greatly expanded memory and storage has brought forth a myriad of software programs. Software is so user friendly and easy to learn that engineers and designers do not need to be computer experts to master their operation quickly.
A wide variety of computer programs has become available in recent years for enhancing the art of protecting electrical systems. Although long available for mainframe computers, many programs now are available for more readily accessible microcomputers. These programs cover the design of power distribution systems. This series examines one program as an example of the genre. The program facilitates the complete design of an electrical system from loading, sizing of feeders, and transformers, and voltage drop and load flow to short circuit calculations.
Part 18 of our continuing series on protecting electrical systems begins a series of articles on protection of electrical systems components, starting with conductors. Designing reliable electrical systems requires consideration of many interrelated details. It is not enough to depend only on protective devices, which, by definition, function after the fact. Engineers need to seek means to prevent equipment and component failures, and they need to understand how equipment selection and application affect system reliability.
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Annual Salary Survey
Before the calendar turned, 2016 already had the makings of a pivotal year for manufacturing, and for the world.
There were the big events for the year, including the United States as Partner Country at Hannover Messe in April and the 2016 International Manufacturing Technology Show in Chicago in September. There's also the matter of the U.S. presidential elections in November, which promise to shape policy in manufacturing for years to come.
But the year started with global economic turmoil, as a slowdown in Chinese manufacturing triggered a worldwide stock hiccup that sent values plummeting. The continued plunge in world oil prices has resulted in a slowdown in exploration and, by extension, the manufacture of exploration equipment.
Read more: 2015 Salary Survey | <urn:uuid:c49984ce-6f7e-4aec-aa12-cd0db4953e38> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.plantengineering.com/single-article/the-art-of-protecting-electrical-systems/ec4270157342a8d7dd48994c23a498c7.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395548.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00066-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.914795 | 2,006 | 2.953125 | 3 |
According to a White House press release, President Obama will follow through on his State of the Union call for a comprehensive map of the human brain by announcing $100 million in federal investments for the project on Tuesday morning. Funds for the project — dubbed the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative — will be appropriated through the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and the National Science Foundation (NSF), and will be included in the FY 2014 budget that the president is set to release next week.
The project’s central component will be the Brain Activity Map, which seeks to “accelerate the development and application of new technologies that will enable researchers to produce dynamic pictures of the brain that show how individual brain cells and complex neural circuits interact at the speed of thought” in an effort to “explore how the brain records, processes, uses, stores, and retrieves vast quantities of information, and shed light on the complex links between brain function and behavior.” As President Obama explained during the State of the Union, such advancements could herald the key to unlocking pressing public health mysteries, including effective methods of curing brain injuries and degenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s.
That’s particularly significant in a time of rising dementia rates among Americans. A recent pair of studies released by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) concluded that a combination of factors — including an aging population, more targeted early diagnosis efforts, and the failure to discover a viable cure — led to a staggering 68 percent increase in Alzheimer’s mortality rates between 2000 and 2010. The associated health care costs of that rise in the disease were $200 billion in 2012 alone, including $140 billion to government insurance programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. If the current trend holds, those costs could balloon to over $1 trillion by the year 2050.
However, whether or not the announced funding is sufficient for a project of this size and scope is an open question. The BRAIN Initiative is most often compared — including by the president himself — to the watershed Human Genome Project. But the initiative to map the genome was funded by the Department of Energy and NIH to the tune of $3.8 billion over the course of 13 years, leading the project to be completed two full years ahead of schedule and giving the federal government an $800 billion return on its investment. The planned $100 million in funding for the BRAIN initiative constitutes 1/38th that price tag, and comes during a time when congressional cuts to the federal budget have slashed research and development funding, which was already half of what it was in 1962 before the sequester went into effect. The initiative will also rely heavily on public-private partnerships through research universities and organizations such as the Allen Institute for Brain Science.
While there are several related projects already in the works — such as the the Human Connectome Project — they are unlikely to overlap much with the BRAIN Initiative, which is appreciably more ambitious and detailed in scope. But that doesn’t mean researchers can’t take away lessons from the ongoing efforts, which are still in preliminary stages. Although progress in the Human Connectome Project has led to groundbreaking methods of data collection associated with the human brain, as the New Yorker’s Gary Marcus pointed out earlier this month, “it is easier to collect massive amounts of data than to understand them.” | <urn:uuid:06579fb9-eb29-4f0d-947b-4e34a764b2ac> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/04/02/1808081/president-obama-brain-mapping/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397111.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00094-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955445 | 706 | 2.59375 | 3 |
- Posted December 28, 2012 by
This iReport is part of an assignment:
The Great State of New Columbia?
If some senators have their way, the United States of America may have a 51st state in the coming new year. The Wednesday before Christmas, Senators Joe Lieberman, Dick Durbin, Patty Murray and Barbara Boxer presented a bill which would change the status of the District of Columbia to the ability to become the nation's newest state if voters in the District approve.
Noting that thousands do not have voting representation in Congress, the senators are pushing to enfranchise the citizens of Washington as the State of New Columbia. Not all of the District would be included, however, in the new state. Excluded will be federal buildings such as the Capitol and Supreme Court as well as the National Mall under the direct control of Congress.
The District was originally set up so that no state could have perceived influence on the powers that run the country. Of course it was never envisioned that the population would grow to the size it now is.
If the full Senate and House of Representatives pass the bill, we could see District residents voting to remain a District or becoming a state. Looks like Puerto Rico may be waiting to become the 52nd state instead of the 51st.
Should the District be allowed to become a state?
Should Congress allow District residents to vote on statehood?
From the Cornfield, I do understand the sentiment to allow voting representation in Congress. Our nation was founded in part over the issue of representation. Remember the catch phrase at the time? No taxation without representation. It would seem only fair to provide such representation to the residents of the District. | <urn:uuid:1cf615b9-7e47-4678-9656-90f286080d63> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-903063 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404405.88/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00133-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965066 | 345 | 2.921875 | 3 |
Five new satellites - and one candidate moon - have been discovered orbiting the giant planet Neptune, bringing its tally of moons to 13.
The new moons are probably captured asteroids
Two orbit in the same direction as the planet rotates, while the orbits of the others are opposite to Neptune's spin.
The tiny outer satellites are probably captured asteroids, astronomers say.
Cataclysmic events connected to the capture of Neptune's moon Triton were thought to have destroyed any outer satellites the planet once had.
The new moons - named S/2002 N1 to N4; and S/2003 N1 - are in eccentric, tilted orbits. They are all between 30km and 50km in diameter.
An international team of astronomers searched for the satellites between 2001 and 2003 using the 4m Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory and the 3.6m Canada-France-Hawaii telescope.
The researchers used a technique to look for the new moons that was originally developed to detect very faint objects in the outer Kuiper Belt.
They also observed a sixth candidate moon, which they have named c02N4. This was discovered on 14 August 2002 and seen again at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) on 3 September 2002. But further attempts to spot this object failed.
The researchers say this could be a Centaur - an object that has migrated from the outer Kuiper Belt. But its lack of movement relative to Neptune is more consistent with it being a satellite.
The satellites are unlikely to have condensed from material around Neptune.
Instead, these so-called irregular moons may be the product of a parent body that collided with Neptune's moon Nereid and were then disturbed in their orbits by the capture of Triton from the Kuiper Belt. | <urn:uuid:7456d02d-0142-4ff8-b0e1-7d53f2e9084d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3578210.stm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783408828.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155008-00078-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947805 | 364 | 3.359375 | 3 |
E. Cobham Brewer 18101897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
or Erin is Celtic; from Eri or Iar (western). Lloyd (State Worthies, article Grandison), with a gravity which cannot but excite laughter, says the island is called the land of Irc because of the broils there, which have extended over four hundred years. Wormius derives the word from the Runic Yr, a bow. (See below.)
Called by the natives Erin, i.e. Eri-innis, or Iar-innis (west island).
By the Welsh Yver-den (west valley).
By Apuleius, Hibernia, which is Iernia, a corruption of Iar-inni-a.
By Juvenal (ii. 260) Juverna or Juberna, the same as Ierna or Iernia.
By Claudian Ouernia, the same.
By moderns Ireland, which is Iaren-land (land of the west).
¶ The three great saints of Ireland are St. Patrick, St. Columba, and St. Bridget.
The fair maid of Ireland. Ignis fatuus (q.v.).
He had read in former times of a Going Fire, called Ignis Fatuus, the fire of destiny; by some, Will with the Wisp, or Jack with the Lantern; and likewise, by some simple country people, The Fair Maid of Ireland, which used to lead wandering travellers out of their way.The Seven Champions of Christendom, i. 7.
The three tragic stories of the Irish. (1) The death of the children of Touran; (2) the death of the children of Lir; (3) the death of the children of Usnach. (OFlanagan: Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Dublin, vol. i.)
Dean Irelands scholarships. Four scholarships of £30 a year in the University of Oxford, founded by Dr. John Ireland, Dean of Westminster, in 1825, for Latin and Greek. They are tenable for four years.
The same person founded an Exegetical Professorship of £800 a year. | <urn:uuid:f9e77a11-f7bc-4ad0-8e00-e9c2e8d77a13> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.bartleby.com/81/8938.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393332.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00040-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919635 | 472 | 2.625 | 3 |
The topic of a manual or getting started guide for developers has come up time and time again. We may be able to do this by writing small articles on the wiki and eventually compiling these together into a single guide. The following seem like they would be good sections for a guide.
The following is a work in progress. Feel free to add sections or articles under existing sections.
Installation and setup
Hello world plug-in
The plug-in and command classes
The objects (CRhinoObject)
User feedback (CRhinoGet)
Application and Document level user data
Object level user data
Installers, licensing, localization, and marketing support
Question: In the Rhino.NET SDK every class has an interface that it derives from that starts with an I. What is the difference?
The Rhino.NET SDK is written as a wrapper around the standard Rhino C++ SDK with efforts made to try and keep the .NET classes and functions as close of a match as possible to the wrapped C++ classes. In C++ there is syntax for something called const (google C++ const keyword for more information.) In short const says that you are not able to modify any of the internal contents of a class.
There is no const concept in the .NET framework. (At least through version 2.0 .NET. This may change in the future.) This is where we used an interface to represent a const C++ class. Every I interface in Rhino.NET represents the const version of a C++ class, you can call functions that do not change the internal data of the class. The class that is derived from the I interface (begins with M or On) is the non-const class that you can call functions on to modify the internal data. | <urn:uuid:53cf7905-96be-4431-b481-20fc37ecf2ad> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://wiki.mcneel.com/developer/sdksamples/manual | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404826.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00130-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.900493 | 361 | 2.546875 | 3 |
The Greek and Roman history illustrated by coins & medals representing their religions, rites, manners, customs, games, feasts, arts and sciences : together with a succint account of their emperors, consuls, cities, colonies and families, in two parts, necessary for the introduction of youth into all the useful knowledge of antiquity /
|Main Author:||Walker, Obadiah, 1616-1699.|
|Corporate Authors:||Early English Books Online.|
Printed by G. Croom, for William Miller ... and Christopher Wilkinson ...,
Early English books online.
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record! | <urn:uuid:fbd62ce8-0583-4e77-82bf-216108f681a8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://library.villanova.edu/Find/Record/1155195 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399117.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00073-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.672239 | 135 | 2.859375 | 3 |
No 3-4, 18.04.2000
TURKOPHOBIA: ITS SOCIAL AND HISTORICAL ROOTS
Not a single nation or ethnic group in the world can credibly claim that it has never been a target for ethnic or religious prejudices. The Turkic peoples are certainly no exception. What are the origins of hostility towards the Turkic peoples?
The roots of turkophobia go back centuries. Some stem from specific historical events, such as the Russo-Turkish wars, the Tatar-Mongol invasion of Russian principalities, the wars between Russia and the Tatar khanates, the conflicts between the Ottoman empire and its colonial vassals, etc. These historical events are usually preserved in the collective consciousness of the nations who were historical adversaries of the Turkic peoples. On an individual level, these events become transformed into personal prejudices towards the contemporary descendants of the earlier Turks. When an Armenian terrorist kills a Turkish diplomat and justifies his crime by what happened seven decades ago, before he was even born, he unwittingly exposes the complex interaction of historical, political, social and psychological factors that form the basis of turkophobia.
Another source of turkophobia is religious prejudice. Since most Turkic nations are Islamic, all the negative stereotypes of fundamentalist Islamic intolerance and violence are inevitably projected onto the Turkic peoples, despite the fact that most individual Turks are either secular or adhere to peaceful and inoffensive interpretations of Islam. The EU’s recent rejection of Turkey is a vivid example of such prejudice.
One more factor that contributes to turkophobia is the geographical location of the Turkic lands. Most Turkic lands are located at the so-called "fault lines" of civilizations. According to Samuel P. Huntington’s theory of clashing civilizations, international conflicts are most likely to arise between nations that share common borders but belong to different religious civilizations. There are seven or eight civilizations in the world: Western, Sinic (Confusian), Hindu, Christian Orthodox, Islamic, Japanese, Latin America and, perhaps, African. Among these, Islam is the only one that shares its "borders" with most other civilizations. Many Turkic nations happen to be located at the fault lines dividing these supranational entities. Even in the absence of conflicts, these cultural, religious and political hostilities take their toll on the image of Turkic peoples held by the world.
Yet another source of turkophobia is the government-sponsored propaganda within the states that either border on Turkic countries or have Turkic minorities in their midst. Very often this propaganda is vague and indirect but its detrimental effect is, nevertheless, very damaging. For example, Greek Cypriot politicians frequently resort to anti-Turkish rhetoric in order to deflect the public’s attention from domestic problems or to win elections on a wave of popular prejudice.
In the former Soviet Union turkophobia in the form of Tatar-bashing was especially evident during World War II. Stalin unjustly accused the whole Crimean Tatar nation of collaboration with the Nazis and exiled it from its native Crimea. He also introduced special medals and orders commemorating Dmitry Donskoy and other Russian military chiefs famous for successfully fighting against the Tatar-Mongol invaders in the 14th-15th centuries. Stalin’s frequent invocation of the Tatar yoke as a metaphorical analogy to Hitler’s invasion of Russia resulted in an outburst of tatarophobia, directed against the modern Kazan Tatars, despite the fact that the latter had little in common with the Mongols of the Middle Ages.
Stereotypes of modern popular culture are another rich source of virulent turkophobia. As an example, let’s take "Midnight Express," a profoundly disturbing film about an American who was busted for trying to smuggle hashish out of Turkey and had to spend five years in the squalor and terror of a Turkish prison. The film was released in 1978 and for two decades reenforced the negative image of Turkey in the US. Russian popular folklore also supplies many examples of turkophobia. A popular Russian proverb, "An uninvited guest is worse than a Tatar" (which originally referred to the Tatar-Mongols but is frequently used to taunt modern Tatars) was recently changed to "An uninvited guest is *better* than a Tatar".
The struggle against ethnic prejudice aimed at the Turkic peoples may succeed only when its specific origins are taken into consideration. For example, the public must be educated about past historic events, the religious practices and beliefs of the Turkic peoples, and the present state of cultural and intellectual life in the Turkic nations. Combating prejudices in a thoughtful, logical and methodical way through education and outreach may be the most promising strategy in the battle against intolerance. | <urn:uuid:0daee0f0-9b16-4c1a-abdc-fba2608ea8be> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://tatar.yuldash.com/eng_098.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399522.99/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00036-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948776 | 990 | 3.375 | 3 |
The 186th Air Refueling WIng continued an annual tradition by celebrating Black History Saturday at Mississippi State University, Meridian campus.
Guest speaker, Col. William Lee, commander of the Air Force ROTC program at Tuskegee University, spoke about the Niagara Movement.
The Niagara Movement was an organization founded by African Americans to fight racial discrimination in the United States. It was founded in Niagara Falls, Canada, existed from 1905 to 1910, and was
led by W.E.B. Du Bois.
At its height, the Niagara Movement had 30 branches in various U.S. cities. Many of its ideas were adopted in 1909 by a new interracial organization, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or NAACP. | <urn:uuid:30409a1a-1750-4ce6-9e8f-16ecc8347a19> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.wtok.com/home/headlines/1235027.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404826.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00120-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958311 | 155 | 3.328125 | 3 |
Anybody can spend money. A wise person knows how to make money work harder.
Don’t spend more than you need to spend.
It’s easy to spend money. Spending it wisely is hard. If you’ve ever heard the advice, “never go to the grocery store without a list or when you’re hungry,” chances are you know why: you’re likely to buy more than you need and spend more, too. Therefore, these tips from FTC may be helpful:
- Shop around. A “sale” price isn’t always the “best” price. Some merchants may offer a sale price on the item you want for a limited time; others may offer the same items at a discount every day. Other merchants may offer a deep discount on one item – but only if you agree to spend a minimum that is several hundred dollars more! It may take more time but with money saved it may well be worth it.
- Go online. Check out websites that compare prices. If you decide to buy from an online merchant, keep shipping costs, delivery time and sales tax in mind.
- Look for price-matching policies. Some merchants will match, or even beat, a competitor’s prices.
- Clip coupons. Coupons are useful when they save you money on what you’re already planning to buy. You can find some coupons in the Sunday paper or often, at coupon exchanges at your local library. Or you can download others – full coupons or simply codes – from manufacturer and retail sites online. If you are shopping online, you simply enter the coupon code at checkout.
- Use debit and credit cards sparingly. To minimize interest and other charges, try to limit credit card purchases to an amount you can pay in full at the end of the month. These interest charges can really add up!! If you use a debit card, don’t rely on an overdraft feature to spend money you don’t have. When you leave your house, carry only the card you may need to use rather than all your cards “just in case.”
- Keep track of your spending. Incidental and impulse purchases add up. Jotting down what you spend after every purchase helps keep you mindful of your limits.Good idea to also compare these purchases to your budget.
- Review purchases. At least once a month, use credit card, checking, and other records to review what you’ve bought. Then ask yourself if it makes sense to reallocate some of this spending to an emergency savings account.
You can find more tips and tools to manage your money on the Federal Trade Commission’s website. | <urn:uuid:f5d80597-fa2d-4f67-ab44-779d321fadf3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blog.peoplesbanknc.com/tips-to-spend-money-wisely/?wpmp_switcher=mobile | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783400572.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155000-00055-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924868 | 564 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Americans have always been very sensitive about wartime casualties, creating a pattern whereby after three years, any war (even World War II or the Civil War), becomes decidedly unpopular. But the remarkably low casualties of the 1991 Gulf War made American believe that wars could be fought without high losses. American military leaders, at the time, remarked that this attitude would cause problems in the future. And so it has. While the casualties in Iraq are, historically, lower than ever before, Americans dont notice this. But they do notice that soldiers are being killed. The situation is great for the troops, for a lot more of them are surviving combat. But it makes it more difficult to carry a war to a conclusion.
The United States has suffered over about 11,000 combat casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan. Of these, 13 percent were killed, 48 percent were badly wounded, and 39 percent were lightly wounded (and returned to service within 72 hours.) During World War II, 30 percent of the combat casualties died, while in Vietnam it was 24 percent. Better body armor and better medical care have are responsible for reducing the death rate. Iraq, which accounts for about 90 percent of the 11,000 casualties, is not a little war. By comparison, the American Revolution resulted in 10,623 combat casualties (42 percent of them fatal). The War of 1812 and the Mexican War combined resulted in the 12,500 casualties. The Spanish-American War caused 2,947 casualties, and the 1991 Gulf war 614. Most of these wars were relatively brief. The Gulf war ground combat lasted only five days. The others were over in weeks or months. The Iraq war casualty could in moving up because the war is taking more time. | <urn:uuid:9870fb2c-b2e5-4a6a-b5e4-90ec48426252> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://strategypage.com/htmw/htatrit/articles/20041215.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391766.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00180-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964879 | 347 | 3.171875 | 3 |
Eukaryotes are organisms composed of cells that have their genetic material surrounded a nuclear membrane, the nucleus, as well as a number of other membrane-bound organelles that carry out cellular functions.
Article Summary: A cell's endomembrane system consists of the rough and smooth endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi apparatus, vesicles and plasma membrane, all working together to transport cellular materials.
Endomembrane System of Eukaryotic Cells
Page last updated: 4/2016
The plasma membrane is the structure separating the inside from the outside of the cell. It consists of a phospholipid bilayer, a double membrane composed of a unique type of lipid that spontaneously organizes into two layers. The plasma membrane controls traffic of materials into and out of the cell.
Rough Endoplasmic Reticulum
Folding out of the nuclear envelope, the rough ER is a network of continuous sacs, studded with ribosomes. The rough ER manufactures, processes, and prepares proteins for transport.
Smooth Endoplasmic Reticulum
Similar in appearance to rough ER, the smooth endoplasmic reticulum is also a network of continuous sacs, but without ribosomes attached. This organelle is involved in the production of lipids, further processing of proteins, carbohydrate metabolism, and detoxification of drugs and poisons.
SPO VIRTUAL CLASSROOMS
Watching the movement wax in a lava lamp is an excellent way to understand how organelles of the
The eukaryotic cell's endomembrane system is a network of organelles (like little organs) involved in manufacturing and material transport, allowing the cell to make, move and break down cellular products.
The endomembrane system consists of the nuclear envelope, rough and smooth endoplasmic reticulum (ER), the Golgi apparatus as well as the cell's plasma membrane, and includes the vesicles that bud off these membranes for intracellular transport (moving stuff around inside the cell), exocytosis (stuff leaving the cell) and endocytosis (stuff coming into the cell).
SPO VIDEO: How to Make a Wet Mount of Stained Epithelial Cheek Cells
You have FREE access to a large collection of materials used in a college-level introductory biology course. The Virtual Biology Classroom provides a wide range of free educational resources including PowerPoint Lectures, Study Guides, Review Questions & Practice Test Questions. | <urn:uuid:6ee8fb6f-ab87-4f8e-ab68-d827ca560db8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.scienceprofonline.com/cell-biology/endomembrane-system-eukaryotic-cell.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402746.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00093-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.887082 | 522 | 4.125 | 4 |
Hazards and Solutions
There are many situations that may cause slips, trips, and falls, such as ice, wet spots, grease, polished floors, loose flooring or carpeting, uneven walking surfaces, clutter, electrical cords, open desk drawers and filing cabinets, and damaged ladder steps. The controls needed to prevent these hazards are usually obvious, but too often ignored, such as keeping walkways and stairs clear of scrap and debris; coiling up extension cords, lines, and hoses when not in use; keeping electrical and other wires out of the way; wearing lug soles in icy weather; clearing parking lots, stairs, and walkways in snowy weather; and using salt/sand as needed. The following references provide information on walking/working surfaces hazards and prevention.
- Small Business Handbook (PDF). OSHA Publication 2209-02R, (2005).
- Stairways and Ladders: A Guide to OSHA Rules (PDF). OSHA Publication 3124-12R, (2003).
- Safety and Health Information Bulletins (SHIBs). OSHA.
- Construction Hazards (PDF*). OSHA Quick Card.
- Construction Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). OSHA Quick Card. Also available as a 19 KB PDF, 1 page.
- Walking-Working Surfaces (ZIP*). OSHA assists trainers conducting OSHA 10-hour general industry outreach training for workers. Since workers are the target audience, the material emphasizes hazard identification, avoidance, and control — not standards. No attempt has been made to treat the topic exhaustively.
- Scaffolding. OSHA Safety and Health Topics Page.
- Construction. OSHA eTool. A Spanish version is also available. Helps workers identify and control the hazards that cause the most serious construction-related injuries.
- Teen Worker Safety in Restaurants. OSHA eTool. Discusses slips, trips, and falls throughout the eTool.
*Accessibility Assistance: Contact OSHA's Directorate of Technical Support and Emergency Management at (202) 693-2300 for assistance accessing PDF materials.
All other documents, that are not PDF materials or formatted for the web, are available as Microsoft Office® formats and videos and are noted accordingly. If additional assistance is needed with reading, reviewing or accessing these documents or any figures and illustrations, please also contact OSHA's Directorate of Technical Support and Emergency Management at (202) 693-2300.
**eBooks - EPUB is the most common format for e-Books. If you use a Sony Reader, a Nook, or an iPad you can download the EPUB file format. If you use a Kindle, you can download the MOBI file format.Back to Top | <urn:uuid:7749b205-0eed-41b9-b518-85d0a5e7c6a4> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://osha.gov/SLTC/walkingworkingsurfaces/hazards.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395992.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00007-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.871466 | 566 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Definition of saponaceous
: resembling or having the qualities of soap
Did You Know?
Saponaceous is a New Latin borrowing by scientists that is based on sapo, the Latin word for "soap." It describes natural substances, like aloe gel or some plant roots, used in making soap or having the properties of soap. It also describes things that feel or appear soapy-for example, some shales and clays, mica, and certain chemical preparations. In the 19th century, saponaceous began to be used for people having a slippery, evasive, or elusive character. One famous example is the elocutionist Bishop Wilberforce mentioned in our second example sentence, whom British politician Benjamin Disraeli described as "unctuous, oleaginous, saponaceous." In The Devil's Dictionary, author Ambrose Bierce uses Disraeli's quote to illustrate the word oleaginous, noting that "the good prelate was ever afterward known as Soapy Sam."
Origin and Etymology of saponaceous
New Latin saponaceus, from Latin sapon-, sapo soap, of Germanic origin; akin to Old English sāpe soap
First Known Use: 1710
Medical Definition of saponaceous
: resembling or having the qualities of soap <a saponaceous preparation>
Learn More about saponaceous
Medical Dictionary: Definition of saponaceous
Seen and Heard
What made you want to look up saponaceous? Please tell us where you read or heard it (including the quote, if possible). | <urn:uuid:cbe77473-43e7-4605-a24f-783636715e16> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/saponaceousness | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397795.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00069-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.912037 | 327 | 3.265625 | 3 |
8sect; 1. The last section of the first chapter of Book I. describes the purpose of Appendices A and B; and may be taken as an introduction to them.
Although the proximate causes of the chief events in history are to be found in the actions of individuals, yet most of the conditions which have made these events possible are traceable to the influence of inherited institutions and race qualities and of physical nature. Race qualities themselves are, however, mainly caused by the action of individuals and physical causes in more or less remote time. A strong race has often sprung, in fact as well as in name, from some progenitor of singular strength of body and character. The usages which make a race strong in peace and war are often due to the wisdom of a few great thinkers who have interpreted and developed its customs and rules, perhaps by formal precepts, perhaps by a quiet and almost unperceived influence. But none of these things are of any permanent avail if the climate is unfavourable to vigour: the gifts of nature, her land, her waters, and her skies, determine the character of the race's work, and thus give a tone to social and political institutions.
These differences do not show themselves clearly so long as man is still savage. Scanty and untrustworthy as is our information about the habits of savage tribes, we know enough of them to be sure that they show a strange uniformity of general character, amid great variety of detail. Whatever be their climate and whatever their ancestry, we find savages living under the dominion of custom and impulse; scarcely ever striking out new lines for themselves; never forecasting the distant future, and seldom making provision even for the near future; fitful in spite of their servitude to custom, governed by the fancy of the moment; ready at times for the most arduous exertions, but incapable of keeping themselves long to steady work. Laborious and tedious tasks are avoided as far as possible; those which are inevitable are done by the compulsory labour of women.
It is when we pass from savage life to the early forms of civilization that the influence of physical surroundings forces itself most on our notice. This is partly because early history is meagre, and tells us but little of the particular events and of the influences of strong individual characters by which the course of national progress has been guided and controlled, hastened onwards or turned backwards. But it is chiefly because in this stage of his progress man's power of contending with nature is small, and he can do nothing without her generous help. Nature has marked out a few places on the earth's surface as specially favourable to man's first attempts to raise himself from the savage state; and the first growth of culture and the industrial arts was directed and controlled by the physical conditions of these favoured spots1 .
Even the simplest civilization is impossible unless man's efforts are more than sufficient to supply him with the necessaries of life; some surplus over them is required to support that mental effort in which progress takes its rise. And therefore nearly all early civilizations have been in warm climates where the necessaries of life are small, and where nature makes bountiful returns even to the rudest cultivation. They have often gathered around a great river which has lent moisture to the soil and afforded an easy means of communication. The rulers have generally belonged to a race that has recently come from a cooler climate in a distant country or in neighbouring mountain lands; for a warm climate is destructive of energy, and the force which enabled them to rule has almost in every case been the product of the more temperate climate of their early homes. They have indeed retained much of their energy in their new homes for several generations, living meanwhile in luxury on the surplus products of the labour of the subject races; and have found scope for their abilities in the work of rulers, warriors, and priests. Originally ignorant, they have quickly learnt all that their subjects had to teach, and have gone beyond them. But in this stage of civilization an enterprising intellectual character has almost always been confined to the ruling few, it has scarcely ever been found in those who have borne the main burden of industry.
The reason of this is that the climate which has rendered an early civilization possible has also doomed it to weakness2 . In colder climates nature provides an invigorating atmosphere; and though man has a hard struggle at first, yet as his knowledge and riches increase he is able to gain plentiful food and warm clothing; and at a later stage he provides himself with those large and substantial buildings which are the most expensive requisites of a cultured life in places in which the severity of the weather makes it necessary that nearly all domestic services and meetings for social intercourse should have the protection of a roof. But the fresh invigorating air which is necessary to the fullness of life cannot be obtained at all when nature does not freely give it3 . The labourer may indeed be found doing hard physical work under a tropical sun; the handicraftsman may have artistic instincts; the sage, the statesman or the banker may be acute and subtle: but high temperature makes hard and sustained physical work inconsistent with a high intellectual activity. Under the combined influence of climate and luxury the ruling class gradually lose their strength; fewer and fewer of them are capable of great things: and at last they are overthrown by a stronger race which has come most probably from a cooler climate. Sometimes they form an intermediate caste between those whom they have hitherto ruled and their new rulers; but more often they sink down among the spiritless mass of the people.
Such a civilization has often much that is interesting to the philosophical historian. Its whole life is pervaded almost unconsciously by a few simple ideas which are interwoven in that pleasant harmony that gives their charm to Oriental carpets. There is much to be learnt from tracing these ideas to their origin in the combined influence of race, of physical surroundings, of religion, philosophy and poetry; of the incidents of warfare and the dominating influence of strong individual characters. All this is instructive to the economist in many ways; but it does not throw a very direct light on the motives, which it is his special province to study. For in such a civilization the ablest men look down on work; there are no bold free enterprising workmen, and no adventurous capitalists; despised industry is regulated by custom, and even looks to custom as its sole protector from arbitrary tyranny.
The greater part of custom is doubtless but a crystallized form of oppression and suppression. But a body of custom which did nothing but grind down the weak could not long survive. For the strong rest on the support of the weak, their own strength cannot sustain them without that support; and if they organize social arrangements which burden the weak wantonly and beyond measure, they thereby destroy themselves. Consequently every body of custom that endures, contains provisions that protect the weak from the most reckless forms of injury4 .
In fact when there is little enterprise and no scope for effective competition, custom is a necessary shield to defend people not only from others who are stronger than themselves, but even from their neighbours in the same rank of life. If the village smith can sell his ploughshares to none but the village, and if the village can buy their shares from no one but him, it is to the interest of all that the price should be fixed at a moderate level by custom. By such means custom earns sanctity: and there is nothing in the first steps of progress that tends to break down the primitive habit of regarding the innovator as impious, and an enemy. Thus the influence of economic causes is pressed below the surface, where they work surely and slowly. They take generations instead of years to produce their effect: their action is so subtle as easily to escape observation altogether, and they can indeed hardly be traced except by those who have learnt where to look for them by watching the more conspicuous and rapid workings of similar causes in modern times5 .
8sect; 2. This force of custom in early civilizations is partly a cause and partly a consequence of the limitations of individual rights in property. As regards all property more or less, but especially as regards land, the rights of the individual are generally derived from and limited by, and in every way subordinate to those of the household and the family in the narrower sense of the term. The rights of the household are in like manner subordinate to those of the village; which is often only an expanded and developed family, according to traditionary fiction if not in fact.
It is true that in an early stage of civilization few would have had much desire to depart far from the practices that were prevalent around them. However complete and sharply defined had been the rights of individuals over their own property, they would have been unwilling to face the anger with which their neighbours would regard any innovation, and the ridicule which would be poured on any one who should set himself up to be wiser than his ancestors. But many little changes would occur to the bolder spirits; and if they had been free to try experiments on their own account, changes might have grown by small and almost imperceptible stages, until sufficient variation of practice had been established to blur the clear outline of customary regulations, and to give considerable freedom to individual choice. When however each head of a household was regarded as only senior partner and trustee for the family property, the smallest divergence from ancestral routine met with the opposition of people who had a right to be consulted on every detail.
And further in the background behind the authoritative resistance of the family was that of the village. For though each family had sole use for a time of its cultivated ground, yet many operations were generally conducted in common, so that each had to do the same things as the others at the same time. Each field when its turn came to be fallow, became part of the common pasture land; and the whole land of the village was subject to redistribution from time to time6 . Therefore the village had a clear right to prohibit any innovation; for it might interfere with their plans for the collective cultivation; and it might ultimately impair the value of the land, and thus injure them when the time came for the next redistribution. In consequence there often grew up a complex network of rules, by which every cultivator was so rigidly bound, that he could not use his own judgment and discretion even in the most trivial details7 . It is probable that this has been the most important of all the causes which have delayed the growth of the spirit of free enterprise among mankind. It may be noticed that the collective ownership of property was in harmony with that spirit of quietism which pervades many Eastern religions; and that its long survival among the Hindoos has been partly due to the repose which is inculcated in their religious writings.
It is probable that while the influence of custom over prices, wages and rent has been overrated, its influence over the forms of production and the general economic arrangements of society has been underrated. In the one case its effects are obvious, but they are not cumulative; and in the other they are not obvious, but they are cumulative. And it is an almost universal rule that when the effects of a cause, though small at any one time, are constantly working in the same direction, their influence is much greater than at first sight appears possible.
But however great was the influence of custom in early civilization the spirit of Greeks and Romans was full of enterprise, and more interest attaches to the inquiry why they knew and cared so little for those social aspects of economic problems which are of so great interest to us.
8sect; 3. The homes of most of the earlier civilizations had been in great river-basins, whose well-watered plains were seldom visited by famine; for in a climate in which heat is never lacking, the fertility of the soil varies almost directly with its moisture: the rivers also offered means of easy communication that were favourable to simple forms of trade and division of labour, and did not hinder the movements of the large armies by which the despotic force of the central government was maintained. It is true that the Phœnicians lived on the sea. This great Semitic race did good service by preparing the way for free intercourse among many peoples, and by spreading the knowledge of writing, of arithmetic, and of weights and measures: but they gave their chief energies to commerce and manufacture.
It was left for the genial sympathies and the fresh spirit of the Greeks to breathe in the full breath of freedom over the sea: and to absorb into their own free lives the best thoughts and the highest art of the Old World. Their numberless settlements in Asia Minor, Magna Græcia, and in Hellas proper, developed freely their own ideals under the influence of the new thoughts that burst upon them; having constant intercourse with one another, as well as with those who held the keys of the older learning; sharing one another's experiences, but fettered by no authority. Energy and enterprise, instead of being repressed by the weight of traditional usage, were encouraged to found a new colony and work out new ideas without restraint.
Their climate absolved them from the need of exhausting work; they left to their slaves what drudgery had to be done, and gave themselves up to the free play of their fancy. House-room, clothing and firing cost but little; their genial sky invited them to out-of-door life, making intercourse for social and political purposes easy and without expense. And yet the cool breezes of the Mediterranean so far refreshed their vigour, that they did not for many generations lose the spring and elasticity of temper which they had brought from their homes in the North. Under these conditions were matured a sense of beauty in all its forms, a subtle fancy and an originality of speculation, an energy of political life, and a delight in subordinating the individual to the State, such as the world has never again known8 .
The Greeks were more modern in many respects than the peoples of Mediæval Europe, and in some respects were even in advance of our own time. But they did not attain to the conception of the dignity of man as man; they regarded slavery as an ordinance of Nature, they tolerated agriculture, but they looked on all other industries as involving degradation; and they knew little or nothing of those economic problems, which are of absorbing interest to our own age9 .
They had never felt the extreme pressure of poverty. Earth and sea, and sun and sky had combined to make it easy for them to obtain the material requisites for a perfect life. Even their slaves had considerable opportunities of culture: and had it been otherwise, there was nothing in the Greek temper, and nothing in the lessons that the world had up to that time learnt, to make them seriously concerned. The excellence of Greek thought has made it a touchstone by which many of the leading thinkers of after ages have tried every new inquiry: and the impatience with which the academic mind has often regarded the study of economics is in a great measure due to the impatience which the Greeks felt for the anxious cares and plodding work of business.
And yet a lesson might have been learnt from the decadence of Greece; which was brought about by the want of that solid earnestness of purpose which no race has ever maintained for many generations without the discipline of steady industry. Socially and intellectually they were free: but they had not learnt to use their freedom well; they had no self-mastery, no steady persistent resolution. They had all the quickness of perception and readiness for new suggestions which are elements of business enterprise; but they had not its fixity of purpose and patient endurance. A genial climate slowly relaxed their physical energies; they were without that safeguard to strength of character which comes from resolute and steadfast persistence in hard work; and at last they sank into frivolity.
8sect; 4. Civilization still moving westwards had its next centre in Rome. The Romans were a great army, rather than a great nation. They resembled the Greeks in leaving business as much as possible to slaves: but in most other respects were a contrast to them. In opposition to the fresh fulness of the life of the Athenians, to the youthful joy with which they gave free play to all their faculties and developed their own idiosyncrasy, the Romans showed the firm will, the iron resolution, the absorption in definite serious aims of the mature man10 .
Singularly free from the restraints of custom, they shaped their own lives for themselves with a deliberate choice that had never been known before. They were strong and daring, steady of purpose and abundant in resource, orderly in habit, and clearsighted in judgment; and thus, though they preferred war and politics, they had in constant use all the faculties required for business enterprise.
Nor was the principle of association inactive. Trade gilds had some vigour in spite of the paucity of artisans who were free. Those methods of combined action for business purposes, and of production on a large scale by slave labour in factories, in which Greece had been the pupil of the East, gained new strength when imported into Rome. The faculties and the temper of the Romans fitted them especially well for the management of joint-stock companies; and a comparatively small number of very wealthy men, with no middle class, were able, with the aid of trained slaves and freedmen, to undertake large contracts by land and by sea at home and abroad. They made capital hateful; but they made it powerful and efficient; they developed the appliances of money-lending with great energy; and partly in consequence of the unity of the imperial power, and the wide extent of the Roman language, there was in some important respects more freedom of commerce and of movement throughout the civilized world in the days of the Roman Empire than even now.
When, then, we recollect how great a centre of wealth Rome was; how monstrous the fortunes of individual Romans (and they have only recently been surpassed); and how vast the scale of her military and civil affairs, of the provision needed for them and of the machinery of her traffic; we cannot wonder that many writers have thought they found much resemblance between her economic problems and our own. But the resemblance is superficial and illusory. It extends only to forms, and not to the living spirit of national life. It does not extend to the recognition of the worth of the life of the common people, which in our own time is giving to economic science its highest interest11 .
In ancient Rome industry and commerce lacked the vital strength which they have attained in more recent times. Her imports were won by the sword; they were not bought with the products of skilled work in which the citizens took a worthy pride, as were those of Venice or Florence or Bruges. Traffic and industry alike were pursued almost with a sole eye to the money gains to be derived from them; and the tone of business life was degraded by the public disdain which showed itself in the "legal and practically effective restriction12 " of the Senators from all forms of business except those connected with the land. The Equites found their richest gains in farming the taxes, in the plunder of provinces, and, in later times, in the personal favour of the Emperors, and did not cherish that spirit of probity and thorough work which are needed for the making of a great national trade; and at length private enterprise was stifled by the ever-growing shadow of the State13 .
But though the Romans contributed but little directly to the progress of economic science, yet indirectly they exerted a profound influence over it, for good and evil, by laying the foundations of modern jurisprudence. What philosophic thought there was in Rome was chiefly Stoic; and most of the great Roman Stoics were of Oriental origin. Their philosophy when transplanted to Rome developed a great practical power without losing its intensity of feeling; and in spite of its severity, it had in it much that is kindred to the suggestions of modern social science. Most of the great lawyers of the Empire were among its adherents, and thus it set the tone of the later Roman Law, and through it of all modern European Law. Now the strength of the Roman State had caused State rights to extinguish those of the Clan and the Tribe in Rome at an earlier stage than in Greece. But many of the primitive Aryan habits of thought as to property lingered on for a long while even in Rome. Great as was the power of the head of the family over its members, the property which he controlled was for a long time regarded as vested in him as the representative of the family rather than as an individual. But when Rome had become imperial, her lawyers became the ultimate interpreters of the legal rights of many nations: and under Stoic influence they set themselves to discover the fundamental Laws of Nature, which they believed to lie in concealment at the foundation of all particular codes. This search for the universal, as opposed to the accidental elements of justice, acted as a powerful solvent on rights of common holding, for which no other reason than that of local usage could be given. The later Roman Law therefore gradually but steadily enlarged the sphere of contract; gave it greater precision, greater elasticity, and greater strength. At last almost all social arrangements had come under its dominion; the property of the individual was clearly marked out, and he could deal with it as he pleased. From the breadth and nobility of the Stoic character modern lawyers have inherited a high standard of duty: and from its austere self-determination they have derived a tendency to define sharply individual rights in property. And therefore to Roman and especially Stoic influence we may trace indirectly much of the good and evil of our present economic system: on the one hand much of the untrammelled vigour of the individual in managing his own affairs; and on the other not a little harsh wrong done under the cover of rights established by a system of law, which has held its ground because its main principles are wise and just.
The strong sense of duty which Stoicism brought with it from its Oriental home had in it something also of Eastern quietism. The Stoic, though active in well-doing, was proud of being superior to the troubles of the world: he took his share in the turmoil of life because it was his duty to do so, but he never reconciled himself to it: his life remained sad and stern, oppressed by the consciousness of its own failures. This inner contradiction, as Hegel says, could not pass away till inward perfection was recognized as an object that could be attained only through self-renunciation; and thus its pursuit was reconciled with those failures which necessarily accompany all social work. For this great change the intense religious feeling of the Jews prepared the way. But the world was not ready to enter into the fulness of the Christian spirit, till a new tone had been given to it by the deep personal affections of the German race. Even among the German peoples true Christianity made its way slowly: and for a long time after the fall of Rome there was chaos in Western Europe.
8sect; 5. The Teuton, strong and resolute as he was, found it very difficult to free himself from the bonds of custom and of ignorance. The heartiness and fidelity14 which gave him his special strength, inclined him to cherish overmuch the institutions and customs of his family and his tribe. No other great conquering race has shown so little capacity as the Teutons have done for adopting new ideas from the more cultured, though weaker, people whom they conquered. They prided themselves on their rude strength and energy; and cared little for knowledge and the arts. But these found a temporary refuge on the Eastern coasts of the Mediterranean; until another conquering race coming from the south was ready to give them new life and vigour.
The Saracens learnt eagerly the best lessons that the conquered had to teach. They nurtured the arts and sciences, and kept alive the torch of learning at a time when the Christian world cared little whether it went out or not; and for this we must ever owe them gratitude. But their moral nature was not so full as that of the Teutons. The warm climate and the sensuality of their religion caused their vigour rapidly to decay; and they have exercised very little direct influence on the problems of modern civilization15 .
The education of the Teutons made slower but surer progress. They carried civilization northwards to a climate in which sustained hard work has gone hand in hand with the slow growth of sturdy forms of culture; and they carried it westwards to the Atlantic. Civilization, which had long ago left the shores of the rivers for those of the great inland sea, was ultimately to travel over the vast ocean.
But these changes worked themselves out slowly. The first point of interest to us in the new age is the re-opening of the old conflict between town and nation that had been suspended by the universal dominion of Rome; which was indeed an army with head-quarters in a town, but drawing its power from the broad land.
8sect; 6. Until a few years ago complete and direct self-government by the people was impossible in a great nation: it could exist only in towns or very small territories. Government was necessarily in the hands of the few, who looked upon themselves as privileged upper classes, and who treated the workers as lower classes. Consequently the workers, even when permitted to manage their own local affairs, were often wanting in the courage, the self-reliance, and the habits of mental activity, which are required as the basis of business enterprise. And as a matter of fact both the central Government and the local magnates did interfere directly with the freedom of industry; prohibiting migration, and levying taxes and tolls of the most burdensome and vexatious character. Even those of the lower classes who were nominally free, were plundered by arbitrary fines and dues levied under all manner of excuses, by the partial administration of justice, and often by direct violence and open pillage. These burdens fell chiefly on just those people who were more industrious and more thrifty than their neighbours—those among whom, if the country had been free, the spirit of bold enterprise would gradually have arisen to shake off the bonds of tradition and custom.
Far different was the state of people in the towns. There the industrial classes found strength in their numbers; and even when unable to gain the upper hand altogether, they were not, like their brethren in the country, treated as though they belonged to a different order of beings from their rulers. In Florence and in Bruges, as in ancient Athens, the whole people could hear, and sometimes did hear, from the leaders of public policy a statement of their plans and the reasons for them, and could signify their approval or disapproval before the next step was taken. The whole people could on occasion discuss together the social and industrial problems of the time, knowing each other's counsel, profiting by each other's experience, working out in common a definite resolution and bringing it into effect by their own action. But nothing of this kind could be done over a wide area till the invention of the telegraph, the railway and the cheap press.
By their aid a nation can now read in the morning what its leaders have said on the evening before; and, ere another day has passed, the judgment of the nation on it is pretty well known. By their aid the council of a large trades union can at a trifling cost submit a difficult question to the judgment of their members in every part of the country and get their decision within a few days. Even a large country can now be ruled by its people; but till now what was called "popular Government" was of physical necessity the government by a more or less wide oligarchy. Only those few who could themselves go frequently to the centre of Government, or at least receive constant communication from it, could take part directly in government. And though a much larger number of people would know enough of what was going on to make their will broadly effective through their choice of representatives, yet even they were a small minority of the nation till a few years ago; and the representative system itself is only of recent date.
8sect; 7. In the Middle Ages the history of the rise and fall of towns is the history of the rise and fall of successive waves on the tide of progress. The mediæval towns as a rule owed their origin to trade and industry, and did not despise them. And though the wealthier citizens were sometimes able to set up a close government in which the workers had no part, they seldom retained their power long: the great body of the inhabitants frequently had the full rights of citizens, deciding for themselves the foreign and domestic policy of their city, and at the same time working with their hands and taking pride in their work. They organized themselves into Gilds, thus increasing their cohesion and educating themselves in self-government; and though the Gilds were often exclusive, and their trade-regulations ultimately retarded progress, yet they did excellent work before this deadening influence had shown itself16 .
The citizens gained culture without losing energy; without neglecting their business, they learnt to take an intelligent interest in many things besides their business. They led the way in the fine arts, and they were not backward in those of war. They took pride in magnificent expenditure for public purposes; and they took equal pride in a careful husbanding of the public resources, in clear and clean State budgets, and in systems of taxes levied equitably and based on sound business principles. Thus they led the way towards modern industrial civilization; and if they had gone on their course undisturbed, and retained their first love of liberty and social equality, they would probably long ago have worked out the solutions of many social and economic problems which we are only now beginning to face. But after being long troubled by tumults and war, they at last succumbed to the growing power of the countries by which they were surrounded; and indeed when they had obtained dominion over their neighbours, their own rule had often been harsh and oppressive, so that their ultimate overthrow by the country was in some degree the result of a just retribution. They have suffered for their wrong-doings: but the fruit of their good work remains, and is the source of much that is best in the social and economic traditions that our age has inherited from its predecessors.
8sect; 8. Feudalism was perhaps a necessary stage in the development of the Teutonic race. It gave scope to the political ability of the dominant class, and educated the common people in habits of discipline and order. But it concealed under forms of some outward beauty much cruelty and uncleanness, physical and moral. The practices of chivalry combined extreme deference to women in public with domestic tyranny: elaborate rules of courtesy towards combatants of the knightly order were maintained by the side of cruelty and extortion in dealing with the lower classes. The ruling classes were expected to discharge their obligations towards one another with frankness and generosity17 . They had ideals of life which were not devoid of nobility; and therefore their characters will always have some attractiveness to the thoughtful historian, as well as to the chronicler of wars of splendid shows and of romantic incidents. But their consciences were satisfied when they had acted up to the code of duty which their own class required of them: and one article of that code was to keep the lower classes in their place; though indeed they were often kind and even affectionate towards those retainers with whom they lived in daily contact.
So far as cases of individual hardship went, the Church strove to defend the weak and to diminish the sufferings of the poor. Perhaps those finer natures who were attracted to its service might often have exercised a wider and a better influence, if they had been free from the vow of celibacy, and able to mingle with the world. But this is no reason for rating lightly the benefit which the clergy, and still more the monks, rendered to the poorer classes. The monasteries were the homes of industry, and in particular of the scientific treatment of agriculture: they were secure colleges for the learned, and they were hospitals and alms-houses for the suffering. The Church acted as a peace-maker in great matters and in small: the festivals and the markets held under its authority gave freedom and safety to trade18 .
Again, the Church was a standing protest against caste exclusiveness. It was democratic in its organization, as was the army of ancient Rome. It was always willing to raise to the highest posts the ablest men, in whatever rank they were born; its clergy and monastic orders did much for the physical and moral wellbeing of the people; and it sometimes even led them in open resistance to the tyranny of their rulers19 .
But, on the other hand, it did not set itself to help them to develop their faculties of self-reliance and self-determination, and to attain true inner freedom. While willing that those individuals who had exceptional natural talents should rise through its own offices to the highest posts, it helped rather than hindered the forces of feudalism in their endeavour to keep the working classes as a body ignorant, devoid of enterprise, and in every way dependent on those above them. Teutonic feudalism was more kindly in its instincts than the military dominion of ancient Rome; and the laity as well as clergy were influenced by the teachings, imperfectly understood as they were, of the Christian religion with regard to the dignity of man as man. Nevertheless the rulers of the country districts during the early middle ages united all that was most powerful in the Oriental subtlety of theocratic caste and in the Roman force of discipline and resolution; and they used their combined strength in such a manner as on the whole to retard the growth of strength and independence of character among the lower orders of the people.
The military force of feudalism was however for a long time weakened by local jealousies. It was admirably adapted for welding into one living whole the government of a vast area under the genius of a Charles the Great: but it was equally prone to dissipate itself into its constituent elements as soon as its guiding genius was gone. Italy was for a long time ruled by its towns, one of which indeed, of Roman descent, with Roman ambition and hard fixity of purpose held its water-ways against all attack till quite modern times. And in the Netherlands and other parts of the Continent the free towns were long able to defy the hostility of kings and barons around them. But at length stable monarchies were established in Austria, Spain and France. A despotic monarchy, served by a few able men, drilled and organized the military forces of vast multitudes of ignorant but sturdy country folk; and the enterprise of the free towns, their noble combination of industry and culture, was cut short before they had had time to outgrow their early mistakes.
Then the world might have gone backwards if it had not happened that just at that time new forces were rising to break up the bonds of constraint, and spread freedom over the broad land. Within a very short period came the invention of printing, the Revival of Learning, the Reformation, and the discovery of the ocean routes to the New World and to India. Any one of these events alone would have been sufficient to make an epoch in history; but coming together as they did, and working all in the same direction, they effected a complete revolution.
Thought became comparatively free, and knowledge ceased to be altogether inaccessible to the people. The free temper of the Greeks revived; the strong self-determining spirits gained new strength, and were able to extend their influence over others. And a new continent suggested new problems to the thoughtful, at the same time that it offered a new scope to the enterprise of bold adventurers.
8sect; 9. The countries which took the lead in the new maritime adventure were those of the Spanish Peninsula. It seemed for a time as though the leadership of the world, having settled first in the most easterly peninsula of the Mediterranean, and thence moved to the middle peninsula, would settle again in that westerly peninsula which belonged both to the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. But the power of industry had by this time become sufficient to sustain wealth and civilization in a northern climate. Spain and Portugal could not hold their own for long against the more sustained energy and the more generous spirit of the northern people.
The early history of the people of the Netherlands is indeed a brilliant romance. Founding themselves on fishing and weaving, they built up a noble fabric of art and literature, of science and government. But Spain set herself to crush out the rising spirit of freedom, as Persia had done before. And as Persia strangled Ionia, but only raised yet higher the spirit of Greece proper; so the Austro-Spanish Empire subdued the Belgian Netherlands, but only intensified the patriotism and energy of the Dutch Netherlands and England.
Holland suffered from England's jealousy of her commerce, but still more from the restless military ambition of France. It soon became clear that Holland was defending the freedom of Europe against French aggression. But at a critical time in her history she was deprived of the aid she might reasonably have expected from Protestant England; and though from 1688 onwards that aid was liberally given, her bravest and most generous sons had then already perished on the battle-field, and she was overburdened with debt. She has fallen into the background: but Englishmen above all others are bound to acknowledge what she did, and what more she might have done for freedom and enterprise.
France and England were thus left to contend for the empire of the ocean. France had greater natural resources than any other northern country, and more of the spirit of the new age than any southern country; and she was for some time the greatest power of the world. But she squandered in perpetual wars her wealth, and the blood of the best of those citizens whom she had not already driven away by religious persecution. The progress of enlightenment brought with it no generosity on the part of the ruling class towards the ruled, and no wisdom in expenditure.
From revolutionary America came the chief impulse towards a rising of the oppressed French people against their rulers. But the French were strikingly wanting in that self-controlling freedom which had distinguished the American colonists. Their energy and courage was manifested again in the great Napoleonic wars. But their ambition overleaped itself, and ultimately left to England the leadership of enterprise on the ocean. Thus the industrial problems of the New World are being worked out under the direct influence, as to some extent those of the Old World are under the indirect influence, of the English character. We may then return to trace with somewhat more detail the growth of free enterprise in England.
8sect; 10. England's geographical position caused her to be peopled by the strongest members of the strongest races of northern Europe; a process of natural selection brought to her shores those members of each successive migratory wave who were most daring and self-reliant. Her climate is better adapted to sustain energy than any other in the northern hemisphere. She is divided by no high hills, and no part of her territory is more than twenty miles from navigable water, and thus there was no material hindrance to freedom of intercourse between her different parts; while the strength and wise policy of the Norman and Plantagenet kings prevented artificial barriers from being raised by local magnates.
As the part which Rome played in history is chiefly due to her having combined the military strength of a great empire with the enterprise and fixedness of purpose of an oligarchy residing in one city, so England owes her greatness to her combining, as Holland had done on a smaller scale before, much of the free temper of the mediæval city with the strength and broad basis of a nation. The towns of England had been less distinguished than those of other lands; but she assimilated them more easily than any other country did, and so gained in the long run most from them.
The custom of primogeniture inclined the younger sons of noble families to seek their own fortunes; and having no special caste privileges they mixed readily with the common people. This fusion of different ranks tended to make politics business-like; while it warmed the veins of business adventure with the generous daring and romantic aspirations of noble blood. Resolute on the one hand in resistance to tyranny, and on the other in submission to authority when it is justified by their reason, the English have made many revolutions; but none without a definite purpose. While reforming the constitution they have abided by the law: they alone, unless we except the Dutch, have known how to combine order and freedom; they alone have united a thorough reverence for the past with the power of living for the future rather than in the past. But the strength of character which in later times made England the leader of manufacturing progress, showed itself at first chiefly in politics, in war, and in agriculture.
The English archer was the forerunner of the English artisan. He had the same pride in the superiority of his food and his physique over those of his Continental rivals; he had the same indomitable perseverance in acquiring perfect command over the use of his hands, the same free independence and the same power of self-control and of rising to emergencies; the same habit of indulging his humours when the occasion was fit, but, when a crisis arose, of preserving discipline even in the face of hardship and misfortune20 .
But the industrial faculties of Englishmen remained latent for a long time. They had not inherited much acquaintance with nor much care for the comforts and luxuries of civilization. In manufactures of all kinds they lagged behind the Latin countries, Italy, France and Spain, as well as the free cities of northern Europe. Gradually the wealthier classes got some taste for imported luxuries, and England's trade slowly increased.
But there was for a long time no sign on the surface of her future commerce. That indeed is the product of her special circumstances as much as, if not more than, of any natural bias of her people. They had not originally, and they have not now, that special liking for dealing and bargaining, nor for the more abstract side of financial business, which is found among the Jews, the Italians, the Greeks and the Armenians; trade with them has always taken the form of action rather than of manœuvring and speculative combination. Even now the subtlest financial speculation on the London Stock Exchange is done chiefly by those races which have inherited the same aptitude for trading which the English have for action.
The qualities which have caused England in later times under different circumstances to explore the world, and to make goods and carry them for other countries, caused her even in the Middle Ages to pioneer the modern organization of agriculture, and thus to set the model after which most other modern business is being moulded. She took the lead in converting labour dues into money payments, a change which much increased the power of everyone to steer his course in life according to his own free choice. For good and for evil the people were set free to exchange away their rights in the land and their obligations to it. The relaxation of the bonds of custom was hastened alike by the great rise of real wages which followed the Black Death in the fourteenth century; and by the great fall of real wages which, in the sixteenth century, resulted from the depreciation of silver, the debasement of coin, the appropriation of the revenues of the monasteries to the purposes of court extravagance; and lastly by the extension of sheep-farming, which set many workers adrift from their old homes, and lowered the real incomes and altered the mode of life of those who remained. The movement was further extended by the growth of the royal power in the hands of the Tudors, which put an end to private war, and rendered useless the bands of retainers which the barons and landed gentry had kept together. The habit of leaving real property to the eldest son, and distributing personal property among all the members of the family, on the one hand increased the size of landed properties, and on the other narrowed the capital which the owners of land had at their own command for working it21 .
These causes tended to establish the relation of landlord and tenant in England: while the foreign demand for English work and the English demand for foreign luxuries led, especially in the sixteenth century, to the concentration of many holdings into large sheep-runs worked by capitalist farmers. That is, there was a great increase in the number of farmers who undertook the management and the risks of agriculture, supplying some capital of their own, but borrowing the land for a definite yearly payment, and hiring labour for wages: in like manner as, later on, the new order of English business men undertook the management and the risks of manufacture, supplying some capital of their own, but borrowing the rest on interest, and hiring labour for wages. Free enterprise grew fast and fiercely, it was one-sided in its action and cruel to the poor. But it remains true that the English large farm, arable and pastoral, worked with borrowed capital, was the forerunner of the English factory, in the same way as English archery was the forerunner of the skill of the English artisan22 .
8sect; 11. Meanwhile the English character was deepening. The natural gravity and intrepidity of the stern races that had settled on the shores of England inclined them to embrace the doctrines of the Reformation; and these reacted on their habits of life, and gave a tone to their industry. Man was, as it were, ushered straight into the presence of his Creator, with no human intermediary; and now for the first time large numbers of rude and uncultured people yearned towards the mysteries of absolute spiritual freedom. The isolation of each person's religious responsibility from that of his fellows, rightly understood, was a necessary condition for the highest spiritual progress23 . But the notion was new to the world, it was bare and naked, not yet overgrown with pleasant instincts; and even in kindly natures individuality showed itself with a hard sharpness of outline, while the coarser natures became self-conscious and egotistic. Among the Puritans especially, the eagerness to give logical definiteness and precision to their religious creed was an absorbing passion, hostile to all lighter thoughts and lighter amusements. When occasion arose they could take combined action, which was made irresistible by their resolute will. But they took little joy in society; they shunned public amusements, and preferred the quieter relaxations of home life; and, it must be confessed, some of them took an attitude hostile to art24 .
The first growth of strength had then something in it that was rude and ill-mannered; but that strength was required for the next stage upwards. It needed to be purified and softened by much tribulation; it needed to become less self-assertive without becoming weaker, before new instincts could grow up around it to revive in a higher form what was most beautiful and most solid in the old collective tendencies. It intensified the affections of the family, the richest and fullest of earthly feelings: perhaps there never has been before any material of texture at once so strong and so fine, with which to build up a noble fabric of social life.
Holland and other countries shared with England the great ordeal which was thus opened by the spiritual upheaval that closed the middle ages. But from many points of view, and especially from that of the economist, England's experiences were the most instructive and the most thorough; and were typical of all the rest. England led the way in the modern evolution of industry and enterprise by free and self-determining energy and will.
8sect; 12. England's industrial and commercial characteristics were intensified by the fact that many of those who had adopted the new doctrines in other countries sought on her shores a safe asylum from religious persecution. By a sort of natural selection, those of the French and Flemings, and others whose character was most akin to the English, and who had been led by that character to study thoroughness of work in the manufacturing arts, came to mingle with them, and to teach them those arts for which their character had all along fitted them25 . During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the court and the upper classes remained more or less frivolous and licentious; but the middle class and some parts of the working class adopted a severe view of life; they took little delight in amusements that interrupted work, and they had a high standard as to those material comforts which could be obtained only by unremitting, hard work. They strove to produce things that had a solid and lasting utility, rather than those suited only for the purpose of festivities and ostentation. The tendency, when once it had set in, was promoted by the climate; for, though not very severe, it is specially unsuited to the lighter amusements; and the clothing, house-room and other requisites for a comfortable existence in it, are of a specially expensive character.
These were the conditions under which the modern industrial life of England was developed: the desire for material comforts tends towards a ceaseless straining to extract from every week the greatest amount of work that can be got out of it. The firm resolution to submit every action to the deliberate judgment of the reason tends to make everyone constantly ask himself whether he could not improve his position by changing his business, or by changing his method of doing it. And, lastly, complete political freedom and security enables everyone to adjust his conduct as he has decided that it is his interest to do, and fearlessly to commit his person and his property to new and distant undertakings.
In short, the same causes which have enabled England and her colonies to set the tone of modern politics, have made them also set the tone of modern business. The same qualities which gave them political freedom gave them also free enterprise in industry and commerce.
8sect; 13. Freedom of industry and enterprise, so far as its action reaches, tends to cause everyone to seek that employment of his labour and capital in which he can turn them to best advantage; and this again leads him to try to obtain a special skill and facility in some particular task, by which he may earn the means of purchasing what he himself wants. And hence results a complex industrial organization, with much subtle division of labour.
Some sort of division of labour is indeed sure to grow up in any civilization that has held together for a long while, however primitive its form. Even in very backward countries we find highly specialized trades; but we do not find the work within each trade so divided up that the planning and arrangement of the business, its management and its risks, are borne by one set of people, while the manual work required for it is done by hired labour. This form of division of labour is at once characteristic of the modern world generally, and of the English race in particular. It may be merely a passing phase in man's development; it may be swept away by the further growth of that free enterprise which has called it into existence. But for the present it stands out for good and for evil as the chief fact in the form of modern civilization, the kernel of the modern economic problem.
The most vital changes hitherto introduced into industrial life, centre around this growth of business Undertakers26 . We have already seen how the undertaker made his appearance at an early stage in England's agriculture. The farmer borrowed land from his landlord, and hired the necessary labour, being himself responsible for the management and risks of the business. The selection of farmers has not indeed been governed by perfectly free competition, but has been restricted to a certain extent by inheritance and by other influences, which have often caused the leadership of agricultural industry to fall into the hands of people who have had no special talents for it. But England is the only country in which any considerable play has been given to natural selection: the agricultural systems of the Continent have allowed the accident of birth to determine the part which every man should take in cultivating land or controlling its cultivation. The greater energy and elasticity obtained by even this narrow play of selection in England, has been sufficient to put English agriculture in advance of all others, and has enabled it to obtain a much larger produce than is got by an equal amount of labour from similar soils in any other country of Europe27 .
But the natural selection of the fittest to undertake, to organize, and to manage has much greater scope in manufacture. The tendency to the growth of undertakers in manufactures had set in before the great development of England's foreign trade; in fact traces of it are to be found in the woollen manufacture in the fifteenth century. But the opening up of large markets in new countries gave a great stimulus to the movement, both directly and through its influence on the localization of industry, that is, the concentration of particular branches of production in certain localities.
The records of mediæval fairs and wandering merchants show that there were many things each of which was made in only one or two places, and thence distributed north and south, east and west, over the whole of Europe. But the wares whose production was localized and which travelled far, were almost always of high price and small bulk: the cheaper and heavier goods were supplied by each district for itself. In the colonies of the new world, however, people had not always the leisure to provide manufactures for themselves: and they were often not allowed to make even those which they could have made; for though England's treatment of her colonies was more liberal than that of any other country, she thought that the expense which she incurred on their behalf justified her in compelling them to buy nearly all kinds of manufactures from herself. There was also a large demand for simple goods to be sold in India and to savage races.
These causes led to the localization of much of the heavier manufacturing work. In work which requires the highly trained skill and delicate fancy of the operative, organization is sometimes of secondary importance. But the power of organizing great numbers of people gives an irresistible advantage when there is a demand for whole ship cargoes of goods of a few simple patterns. Thus localization and the growth of the system of capitalist undertakers were two parallel movements, due to the same general cause, and each of them promoting the advance of the other.
The factory system, and the use of expensive appliances in manufacture, came at a later stage. They are commonly supposed to be the origin of the power which undertakers wield in English industry; and no doubt they increased it. But it had shown itself clearly before their influence was felt. At the time of the French Revolution there was not a very great deal of capital invested in machinery whether driven by water or steam power; the factories were not large, and there were not many of them. But nearly all the textile work of the country was then done on a system of contracts. This industry was controlled by a comparatively small number of undertakers who set themselves to find out what, where and when it was most advantageous to buy and to sell, and what things it was most profitable to have made. They then let out contracts for making these things to a great number of people scattered over the country. The undertakers generally supplied the raw material, and sometimes even the simple implements that were used; those who took the contract executed it by the labour of themselves and their families, and sometimes but not always by that of a few assistants.
As time went on, the progress of mechanical invention caused the workers to be gathered more and more into small factories in the neighbourhood of water power; and when steam came to be substituted for water power, then into larger factories in great towns. Thus the great undertakers who bore the chief risks of manufacturing, without directly managing and superintending, began to give way to wealthy employers, who conducted the whole business of manufacturing on a large scale. The new factories attracted the attention of the most careless observer; and this last movement was not liable to be overlooked by those who were not actually engaged in the trade, as the preceding movement had been28 .
Thus at length general attention was called to the great change in the organization of industry which had long been going on; and it was seen that the system of small businesses controlled by the workers themselves was being displaced by the system of large businesses controlled by the specialized ability of capitalist undertakers. The change would have worked itself out very much as it has done, even if there had been no factories: and it will go on working itself out even if the retail distribution of force by electric or other agencies should cause part of the work that is now done in factories to be taken to the home of the workers29 .
8sect; 14. The new movement, both in its earlier and later forms, has tended constantly to relax the bonds that used to bind nearly everyone to live in the parish in which he was born; and it developed free markets for labour, which invited people to come and take their chance of finding employment. And in consequence of this change the causes that determine the value of labour began to take a new character. Up to the eighteenth century manufacturing labour had been hired, as a rule, retail; though a large and fluid labour class, which could be hired wholesale, had played a considerable part in the industrial history of particular places on the Continent and in England before then. In that century the rule was reversed, at least for England; and the price of labour ceased to be dominated by custom, or by bargaining in small markets. During the last hundred years it has ever more and more been determined by the circumstances of supply and demand over a large area—a town, a country, or the whole world.
The new organization of industry added vastly to the efficiency of production; for it went far towards securing that each man's labour should be devoted to just the highest kind of work which he was capable of performing well, and that his work should be ably directed and supplied with the best mechanical and other assistance that wealth and the knowledge of the age could afford. But it brought with it great evils. Which of these evils was unavoidable we cannot tell. For just when the change was moving most quickly, England was stricken by a combination of calamities almost unparalleled in history. They were the cause of a great part—it is impossible to say of how great a part—of the sufferings that are commonly ascribed to the sudden outbreak of unrestrained competition. The loss of her great colonies was quickly followed by the great French war, which cost her more than the total value of the accumulated wealth she had at its commencement. An unprecedented series of bad harvests made bread fearfully dear. And worse than all, a method of administration of the poor law was adopted which undermined the independence and vigour of the people.
The first part of last century therefore saw free enterprise establishing itself in England under favourable circumstances, its evils being intensified and its beneficial influences being hindered by external misfortunes.
8sect; 15. The trade customs and the gild regulations, by which the weak had been defended in past times, were unsuitable to the new industry. In some places they were abandoned by common consent: in others they were successfully upheld for a time. But it was a fatal success; for the new industry, incapable of flourishing under the old bonds, left those places for others where it could be more free30 . Then the workers turned to Government for the enforcement of old laws of Parliament prescribing the way in which the trade should be carried on, and even for the revival of the regulation of prices and wages by justices of the peace.
These efforts could not but fail. The old regulations had been the expression of the social, moral and economic ideas of the time; they had been felt out, rather than thought out; they were the almost instinctive results of the experience of generations of men who had lived and died under almost unchanged economic conditions. In the new age changes came so rapidly that there was no time for this. Each man had to do what was right in his own eyes, with but little guidance from the experience of past times: those who endeavoured to cling to old traditions were quickly supplanted.
The new race of undertakers consisted chiefly of those who had made their own fortunes, strong, ready, enterprising men: who, looking at the success obtained by their own energies, were apt to assume that the poor and the weak were to be blamed rather than to be pitied for their misfortunes. Impressed with the folly of those who tried to bolster up economic arrangements which the stream of progress had undermined, they were apt to think that nothing more was wanted than to make competition perfectly free and to let the strongest have their way. They glorified individuality of character, and were in no hurry to find a modern substitute for the social and industrial bonds which had kept men together in earlier times.
Meanwhile misfortune had reduced the total net income of the people of England. In 1820 a tenth of it was absorbed in paying the mere interest on the National Debt. The goods that were cheapened by the new inventions were chiefly manufactured commodities of which the working man was but a small consumer. As England had then almost a monopoly of manufactures, he might indeed have got his food cheaply if manufacturers had been allowed to change their wares freely for corn grown abroad; but this was prohibited by the landlords who ruled in Parliament. The labourer's wages, so far as they were spent on ordinary food, were the equivalent of what his labour would produce on the very poor soil which was forced into cultivation to eke out the insufficient supplies raised from the richer grounds. He had to sell his labour in a market in which the forces of supply and demand would have given him a poor pittance even if they had worked freely. But he had not the full advantage of economic freedom; he had no efficient union with his fellows; he had neither the knowledge of the market, nor the power of holding out for a reserve price, which the seller of commodities has, and he was urged on to work and to let his family work during long hours, and under unhealthy conditions. This reacted on the efficiency of the working population, and therefore on the net value of their work, and therefore it kept down their wages. The employment of very young children for long hours was no new thing: it had been common in Norwich and elsewhere even in the seventeenth century. But the moral and physical misery and disease caused by excessive work under bad conditions reached their highest point among the factory population in the first quarter of the century. They diminished slowly during the second quarter, and more rapidly since then.
After the workmen had recognized the folly of attempts to revive the old rules regulating industry, there was no longer any wish to curtail the freedom of enterprise. The sufferings of the English people at their worst were never comparable to those which had been caused by the want of freedom in France before the Revolution; and it was argued that, had it not been for the strength which England derived from her new industries, she would probably have succumbed to a foreign military despotism, as the free cities had done before her. Small as her population was she at some times bore almost alone the burden of war against a conqueror in control of nearly all the resources of the Continent; and at other times subsidized larger, but poorer countries in the struggle against him. Rightly or wrongly, it was thought at the time that Europe might have fallen permanently under the dominion of France, as she had fallen in an earlier age under that of Rome, had not the free energy of English industries supplied the sinews of war against the common foe. Little was therefore heard in complaint against the excess of free enterprise, but much against that limitation of it which prevented Englishmen from obtaining food from abroad in return for the manufactures which they could now so easily produce.
And even trades-unions, which were then beginning that brilliant though chequered career which has been more full of interest and instruction than almost anything else in English history, passed into the phase of seeking little from authority except to be left alone. They had learnt by bitter experience the folly of attempting to enforce the old rules by which Government had directed the course of industry; and they had as yet got no far-reaching views as to the regulation of trade by their own action: their chief anxiety was to increase their own economic freedom by the removal of the laws against combinations of workmen.
8sect; 16. It has been left for our own generation to perceive all the evils which arose from the suddenness of this increase of economic freedom. Now first are we getting to understand the extent to which the capitalist employer, untrained to his new duties, was tempted to subordinate the wellbeing of his workpeople to his own desire for gain; now first are we learning the importance of insisting that the rich have duties as well as rights in their individual and in their collective capacity; now first is the economic problem of the new age showing itself to us as it really is. This is partly due to a wider knowledge and a growing earnestness. But however wise and virtuous our grandfathers had been, they could not have seen things as we do; for they were hurried along by urgent necessities and terrible disasters31 .
We must judge ourselves by a severer standard. For, though England has recently been called on to struggle once more for national existence, her powers of production have been immensely increased; free trade and the growth of steam communication have enabled a largely increased population to obtain sufficient supplies of food on easy terms. The average money income of the people has more than doubled; while the price of almost all important commodities except animal food and house-room has fallen by one-half or even further. It is true that even now, if wealth were distributed equally, the total production of the country would only suffice to provide necessaries and the more urgent comforts for the people, and that as things are, many have barely the necessaries of life. But the nation has grown in wealth, in health, in education and in morality; and we are no longer compelled to subordinate almost every other consideration to the need of increasing the total produce of industry.
In particular this increased prosperity has made us rich and strong enough to impose new restraints on free enterprise; some temporary material loss being submitted to for the sake of a higher and ultimate greater gain. But these new restraints are different from the old. They are imposed not as a means of class domination; but with the purpose of defending the weak, and especially children and the mothers of children, in matters in which they are not able to use the forces of competition in their own defence. The aim is to devise, deliberately and promptly, remedies adapted to the quickly changing circumstances of modern industry; and thus to obtain the good, without the evil, of the old defence of the weak that in other ages was gradually evolved by custom.
Even when industry remained almost unchanged in character for many generations together, custom was too slow in its growth and too blind to be able to apply pressure only when pressure was beneficial: and in this later stage custom can do but little good, and much harm. But by the aid of the telegraph and the printing-press, of representative government and trade associations, it is possible for the people to think out for themselves the solution of their own problems. The growth of knowledge and self-reliance has given them that true self-controlling freedom, which enables them to impose of their own free will restraints on their own actions; and the problems of collective production, collective ownership and collective consumption are entering on a new phase.
Projects for great and sudden changes are now, as ever, foredoomed to fail, and to cause reaction; we cannot move safely, if we move so fast that our new plans of life altogether outrun our instincts. It is true that human nature can be modified: new ideals, new opportunities and new methods of action may, as history shows, alter it very much even in a few generations; and this change in human nature has perhaps never covered so wide an area and moved so fast as in the present generation. But still it is a growth, and therefore gradual; and changes of our social organization must wait on it, and therefore they must be gradual too.
But though they wait on it, they may always keep a little in advance of it, promoting the growth of our higher social nature by giving it always some new and higher work to do, some practical ideal towards which to strive. Thus gradually we may attain to an order of social life, in which the common good overrules individual caprice, even more than it did in the early ages before the sway of individualism had begun. But unselfishness then will be the offspring of deliberate will; and, though aided by instinct, individual freedom will then develop itself in collective freedom:—a happy contrast to the old order of life, in which individual slavery to custom caused collective slavery and stagnation, broken only by the caprice of despotism or the caprice of revolution.
8sect; 17. We have been looking at this movement from the British point of view. But other nations are hastening in the same direction. America faces new practical difficulties with such intrepidity and directness that she has already attained leadership in some economic affairs; she supplies many of the most instructive instances of the latest economic tendencies of the age, such as the development of speculation and trade combination in every form, and she will probably before long take the chief part in pioneering the way for the rest of the world.
Australia also shows signs of vigour, and she has indeed some advantage over the United States in the greater homogeneity of her people. For, though the Australians—and nearly the same may be said of the Canadians—come from many lands, and thus stimulate one another to thought and enterprise by the variety of their experiences and their habits of thought, yet nearly all of them belong to one race: and the development of social institutions can proceed in some respects more easily, and faster than if they had to be adjusted to the capacities, the temperaments, the tastes, and the wants of peoples who have little affinity with one another.
On the Continent the power of obtaining important results by free association is less than in English-speaking countries; and in consequence there is less resource and less thoroughness in dealing with industrial problems. But their treatment is not quite the same in any two nations: and there is something characteristic and instructive in the methods adopted by each of them; particularly in relation to the sphere of governmental action. In this matter Germany is taking the lead. It has been a great gain to her that her manufacturing industries developed later than those of England; and she has been able to profit by England's experience and to avoid many of her mistakes32 .
In Germany an exceptionally large part of the best intellect in the nation seeks for employment under Government, and there is probably no other Government which contains within itself so much trained ability of the highest order. On the other hand the energy, the originality and the daring which make the best men of business in England and America have but recently been fully developed in Germany; while the German people have a great faculty of obedience. They thus differ from the English; whose strength of will makes them capable of thorough discipline when strong occasion arises but who are not naturally docile. The control of industry by Government is seen in its best and most attractive forms in Germany; and at the same time the special virtues of private industry, its vigour, its elasticity and its resource are beginning to be seen in full development there. In consequence the problems of the economic functions of Government have been studied in Germany with great care, and with results that may be very instructive to English-speaking people; provided they recollect that the arrangements best suited for the German character are perhaps not quite the best for them; since they could not, if they would, rival the Germans in their steadfast docility, and in their easy contentment with inexpensive kinds of food, clothing, house-room and amusements.
And Germany contains a larger number than any other country of the most cultivated members of that wonderful race who have been leaders of the world in intensity of religious feeling and in keenness of business speculation. In every country, but especially in Germany, much of what is most brilliant and suggestive in economic practice and in economic thought is of Jewish origin. And in particular to German Jews we owe many daring speculations as to the conflict of interests between the individual and society, and as to their ultimate economic causes and their possible socialistic remedies.
But we are trenching on the subject of Appendix B. Here we have seen how recent is the growth of economic freedom, and how new is the substance of the problem with which economic science has now to deal; we have next to inquire how the form of that problem has been fashioned by the progress of events and the personal peculiarities of great thinkers.
[1.]On the general question of the influence of physical surroundings on race character, both directly and indirectly, by determining the nature of the dominant occupations, see Knies, Politische Œkonomie, Hegel's Philosophy of History, and Buckle's History of Civilization. Compare also Aristotle's Politics, and Montesquieu's Esprit des Lois.
[2.]Montesquieu says quaintly (Bk. XIV. ch. II.) that the superiority of strength caused by a cold climate produces among other effects "a greater sense of superiority—that is, less desire of revenge; and a greater opinion of security—that is, more frankness, less suspicion, policy, and cunning." These virtues are eminently helpful to economic progress.
[3.]This may have to be modified a little, but only a little, if F. Galton should prove to be right in thinking that small numbers of a ruling race in a hot country, as for instance the English in India, will be able to sustain their constitutional vigour unimpaired for many generations by a liberal use of artificial ice, or of the cooling effects of the forcible expansion of compressed air. See his Presidential Address to the Anthropological Institute in 1887.
[4.]Comp. Bagehot's Physics and Politics, also the writings of Herbert Spencer and Maine.
[5.]Thus the "moderate level" at which custom fixes the price of a ploughshare will be found when analysed to mean that which gives the smith in the long run about an equal remuneration (account being taken of all his privileges and perquisites) with that of his neighbours who do equally difficult work; or in other words, that which under the régime of free enterprise, of easy communications and effective competition, we should call a normal rate of pay. If a change of circumstances makes the pay of smiths, including all indirect allowances, either less or more than this, there almost always sets in a change in the substance of the custom, often almost unrecognized and generally without any change in form, which will bring it back to this level.
[6.]The Teutonic Mark system is indeed now known to have been much less general than some historians had supposed. But where it was fully developed one small part, the home mark, was set aside permanently for living on, and each family retained its share in that for ever. The second part or arable mark was divided into three large fields, in each of which each family had generally several scattered acre strips. Two of these were cultivated every year, and one left fallow. The third and largest part was used as grazing land by the whole village in common; as was also the fallow field in the arable mark. In some cases the arable mark was from time to time abandoned to pasture, and land to make a new arable mark was cut out of the common mark, and this involved a redistribution. Thus the treatment of its land by every family affected for good or ill all the members of the village.
[7.]Compare the Duke of Argyll's account of Runrig cultivation in Unseen Foundations of Society, ch. IX.
[8.]Compare Neumann and Partsch, Physikalische Geographie von Griechenland, ch. I., and Grote's History of Greece, Part II. ch. I.
[9.]See above, p. 4. Thus even Plato says:—"Nature has made neither boot-makers nor blacksmiths; such occupations degrade the people engaged in them, miserable mercenaries excluded by their very position from political rights." (Laws, XII.) And Aristotle continues:—"In the state which is best governed the citizens ... must not lead the life of mechanics or tradesmen, for such a life is ignoble and inimical to virtue." (Politics, VII. 9; see also III. 5.) These passages give the key-note of Greek thought with regard to business. But as there were few independent fortunes in ancient Greece, many of her best thinkers were compelled to take some share in business.
[10.]This fundamental opposition between the Greek and Roman tempers was made clear by Hegel in his Philosophy of History. "Of the Greeks in the first genuine form of their freedom we may assert that they had no conscience; the habit of living for their country without further analysis or reflection was the principle dominant among them ... Subjectivity plunged the Greek world into ruin"; and the harmonious poetry of the Greeks made way for "the prose life of the Romans," which was full of subjectivity, and "a hard dry contemplation of certain voluntary aims." A generous, though discriminating, tribute to the services which Hegel indirectly rendered to Historical Economics is given by Roscher, Gesch. der Nat. Œk. in Deutschland, § 188. Compare also the chapters on Religion in Mommsen's History, which seem to have been much influenced by Hegel; also Kautz, Entwickelung der National-Œkonomie, Bk. I.
[11.]See above, ch. I. § 2. The misunderstanding is in some measure attributable to the influence of the generally acute and well-balanced Roscher. He took a special delight in pointing out analogies between ancient and modern problems; and though he also pointed out differences, yet the general influence of his writings tended to mislead. (His position is well criticized by Knies, Politische Œkonomie vom geschichtlichen Standpunkte: especially p. 391 of the second edition.)
[12.]Friedländer, Sittengeschichte Roms, p. 225. Mommsen goes so far as to say (History, Book IV. ch. XI.):—"Of trades and manufactures there is nothing to be said, except that the Italian nation in this respect persevered in an inactivity bordering on barbarism.... The only brilliant side of Roman private economics was money dealing and commerce." Many passages in Cairnes' Slave Power read like modern versions of Mommsen's History. Even in the towns the lot of the poor free Roman resembled that of the "mean white" of the Southern Slave States. Latifundia perdidere Italiam; but they were farms like those of the Southern States, not of England. The weakness of free labour at Rome is shown in Liebenam's Geschichte des römischen Vereinswesens.
[13.]One aspect of this is described by Schmoller in his short but excellent account of the Trading Companies of Antiquity. After showing how trading groups of which all the members belong to one family may thrive even among primitive peoples, he argues (Jahrbuch für Gesetzgebung, XVI. pp. 740-2) that no form of business association of the modern type could flourish long in such conditions as those of ancient Rome unless it had some exceptional privileges or advantages as the Societates Publicanorum had. The reason why we moderns succeed in bringing and keeping many people "under the same hat" to work together, which Antiquity failed in doing, "is to be sought exclusively in the higher level of intellectual and moral strength, and the greater possibility now than then of binding together men's egoistic commercial energies by the bonds of social sympathy." See also Deloume, Les Manieurs d'Argent à Rome; an article on State control of Industry in the fourth century by W. A. Brown in the Political Science Quarterly, Vol. II.; Blanqui's History of Political Economy, chs. V. and VI.; and Ingram's History, ch. II.
[14.]Hegel (Philosophy of History, Part IV.) goes to the root of the matter when he speaks of their energy, their free spirit, their absolute self-determination (Eigensinn), their heartiness (Gemüth), and adds, "Fidelity is their second watchword, as Freedom is the first."
[15.]A brilliant eulogy of their work is given by Draper, Intellectual Development of Europe, ch. XIII.
[16.]What is true of the great free towns, that were practically autonomous, is true in a less degree of the so-called free boroughs of England. Their constitutions were even more various than the origins of their liberties; but it now seems probable that they were generally more democratic and less oligarchic than was at one time supposed. See especially Gross, The Gild Merchant, ch. VII.
[17.]But treachery was common in Italian cities, and was not very rare in northern castles. People compassed the death of their acquaintances by assassination and poison: the host was often expected to taste the food and drink which he offered to his guest. As a painter rightly fills his canvas with the noblest faces he can find, and keeps as much in the background as possible what is ignoble, so the popular historian may be justified in exciting the emulation of the young by historical pictures in which the lives of noble men and women stand out in bold relief, while a veil is drawn over much of the surrounding depravity. But when we want to take stock of the world's progress, we must reckon the evil of past times as it really was. To be more than just to our ancestors is to be less than just to the best hopes of our race.
[18.]We are perhaps apt to lay too much stress on the condemnation by the Church of "usury" and some kinds of trade. There was then very little scope for lending capital to be used in business, and when there was, the prohibition could be evaded by many devices, some of which were indeed sanctioned by the Church itself. Though St Chrysostom said that "he who procures an article to make profit by disposing of it entire and unaltered, is ejected from the temple of God"; yet the Church encouraged merchants to buy and sell goods unaltered at fairs and elsewhere. The authority of Church and State and the prejudices of the people combined to put difficulties in the way of those who bought up large quantities of goods in order to sell them retail at a profit. But though much of the business of these people was legitimate trade, some of it was certainly analogous to the "rings" and "corners" in modern produce markets. Compare the excellent chapter on the Canonist Doctrine in Ashley's History and the notice of it by Hewins in the Economic Review, Vol. IV.
[19.]Indirectly it aided progress by promoting the Crusades; of which Ingram well says (History, ch. II.) that they "produced a powerful economic effect by transferring in many cases the possessions of the feudal chiefs to the industrial classes, whilst by bringing different nations and races into contact, by enlarging the horizon and widening the conceptions of the populations, as well as by affording a special stimulus to navigation, they tended to give a new activity to international trade."
[20.]For the purposes of statistical comparison the well-to-do yeoman must be ranked with the middle classes of to-day, not with the artisans. For those who were better off than he were very few in number; while the great mass of the people were far below him; and were worse off in almost every respect than they are now.
[21.]Rogers says that in the thirteenth century the value of arable land was only a third of the capital required to work it; and he believes that so long as the owner of the land was in the habit of cultivating it himself, the eldest son often used various devices for alienating a part of his land to his younger brothers in exchange for some of their capital. Six Centuries of Work and Wages, pp. 51, 2.
[22.]This parallelism is further developed in Book VI.; see especially ch. IX. § 5.
[23.]The Reformation "was the affirmation ... of Individuality.... Individuality is not the sum of life, but it is an essential part of life in every region of our nature and our work, in our work for the part and for the whole. It is true, though it is not the whole truth, that we must live and die alone, alone with God." Westcott's Social Aspects of Christianity, p. 121. Comp. also Hegel's Philosophy of History, Part IV. section iii. ch. 2.
[24.]The licentiousness of some forms of art created in serious but narrow minds a prejudice against all art; and in revenge socialists now rail at the Reformation as having injured both the social and the artistic instincts of man. But it may be questioned whether the intensity of the feelings which were engendered by the Reformation has not enriched art more than their austerity has injured it. They have developed a literature and a music of their own; and if they have led man to think slightingly of the beauty of the works of his own hands, they have certainly increased his power of appreciating the beauties of nature. It is no accident that landscape painting owes most to lands in which the Reformed religion has prevailed.
[25.]Smiles has shown that the debt which England owes to these immigrants is greater than historians have supposed, though they have always rated it highly.
[26.]This term, which has the authority of Adam Smith and is habitually used on the Continent, seems to be the best to indicate those who take the risks and the management of business as their share in the work of organized industry.
[27.]In the latter half of the eighteenth century, especially, the improvements in agriculture moved very fast. Implements of all kinds were improved, draining was carried out on scientific principles, the breeding of farm animals was revolutionized by Bakewell's genius; turnips, clover, rye-grass, etc. came into general use, and enabled the plan of refreshing land by letting it lie fallow to be superseded by that of "alternating husbandry." These and other changes constantly increased the capital required for the cultivation of land; while the growth of fortunes made in trade increased the number of those who were able and willing to purchase their way into country society by buying large properties. And thus in every way the modern commercial spirit spread in agriculture.
[28.]The quarter of a century beginning with 1760 saw improvements follow one another in manufacture even more rapidly than in agriculture. During that period the transport of heavy goods was cheapened by Brindley's canals, the production of power by Watt's steam-engine, and that of iron by Cort's processes of puddling and rolling, and by Roebuck's method of smelting it by coal in lieu of the charcoal that had now become scarce; Hargreaves, Crompton, Arkwright, Cartwright and others invented, or at least made economically serviceable, the spinning-jenny, the mule, the carding machine, and the power-loom; Wedgwood gave a great impetus to the pottery trade that was already growing rapidly; and there were important inventions in printing from cylinders, in bleaching by chemical agents, and in other processes. A cotton factory was for the first time driven directly by steam power in 1785, the last year of the period. The beginning of the nineteenth century saw steam-ships and steam printing-presses, and the use of gas for lighting towns. Railway locomotion, telegraphy and photography came a little later. See for further details a brilliant chapter by Professor Clapham in the Cambridge Modern History, Vol. X.
[29.]See Held's Sociale Geschichte Englands, Bk. II. ch. III.
[30.]The tendency of industries to flee away from places where they were overregulated by the gilds was of old standing, and had shown itself in the thirteenth century, though it was then comparatively feeble. See Gross' Gild Merchant, Vol. I. pp. 43 and 52.
[31.]In times of peace no one ventures openly to rank money as of high importance in comparison with human lives; but in the crisis of an expensive war money can always be used so as to save them. A general who at a critical time sacrifices lives in order to protect material, the loss of which would cause the loss of many men, is held to have acted rightly, though no one would openly defend a sacrifice of soldiers' lives in order to save a few army stores in time of peace.
[32.]List worked out with much suggestiveness the notion that a backward nation must learn its lessons not from the contemporary conduct of more forward nations, but from their conduct when they were in the same state in which it is now. But, as Knies well shows (Politische Œkonomie, II. 5), the growth of trade and the improvement of the means of communication are making the developments of different nations tend to synchronize.
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Takeda Saved Japan's Population After WWII from Beriberi Outbreak
Beriberi was a widespread neurodegenerative scourge in parts of the world after WWII when food was in short supply. In japan, it was much worse because the polished rice was stripped of thiamin and the raw fish (sushi) which was a dietary staple contains a thiaminase that breaks down thiamin. Takeda went on a crash course with Nishin Flour Milling Company to fortify foods with a novel compounds, a fat soluble thiamin, as thiamin tetrahydrofurfuryl disulfide. They saved an entire generation of Japanese people with this effort. The patent has long since expired, but it's still useful for various neuropathies, Thank you Takeda. | <urn:uuid:91a6b2a6-da29-45aa-8bb8-b4bd8d630f5f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://finance.yahoo.com/mbview/threadview/?bn=0f934b23-c3ac-3b01-8542-f4fecf7b3d7e&tid=1372362334527-cfc5079f-c369-41d7-8751-0c984e3b2a41&tls=la%2Cd%2C12%2C | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396959.83/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00182-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976176 | 169 | 3.328125 | 3 |
Jews gather at Passover Seders to recall their foundational story with gratitude and awe: God extracted an oppressed people from under the yoke of their oppressors, making of them a vibrant nation. The Seder of today acts out the drama of the past in order to keep the memory fresh. But at the same time, the tradition hints at a powerful alternate understanding of the Seder: God took the Israelites out of Egypt so that they would tell the story later. In other words, the events of the past took place so that they could be recounted in the future.
As the Passover Haggadah weaves its way through biblical and rabbinic texts, one verse from the Bible is quoted four times: Exodus 13:8. The verse instructs parents to teach their children about Passover. It is the kind of verse that the ancient rabbis adored; it can be read in two ways, one a straightforward reading that makes sense in context and the other an ultra-literal reading that reveals another perspective. The “sensible” contextual reading agrees with most translations of the Bible, as well as many English-language Haggadahs: “You shall tell your child on that day, ‘[I do it] on account of what the Lord did for me when I went out from Egypt.’ ”
Though it may very well capture the original intent of the passage, that translation is not really true to the slightly awkward grammar of the Hebrew. Literally, the verse says this: “You shall tell your child on that day, ‘On account of this, the Lord acted for me when I went out from Egypt.’ ”
Rashi reads it the second way. He asks, “On account of what?” What “this” is referred to here? For what purpose did God take the Israelites out from Egypt? Rashi concludes that the word “this” refers to commandments such as eating matzo and bitter herbs, which we now observe at the Passover Seder. He might gloss the verse like this: It was on account of future Seders that God acted in the past on behalf of the Israelites, liberating them from Egyptian bondage.
In two of the four places that the Haggadah quotes this verse—both of them in the passage about the four sons—it clearly means for Exodus 13:8 to be read in the first way. The wicked child and the simple child need to be told why the grown-ups are making such a big deal of the Seder. The answer, with a different emphasis for each child, is that “I do this (now) on account of what God did for me (in the past).”
In the other two places, the Haggadah makes more sense if you read the verse Rashi’s way. First, just after the passage about the four sons, the Haggadah expands the phrase “on account of this” into “on account of matzo and bitter herbs,” that is, on account of the Seder. Then, in the section after “Dayenu” when we are explaining the meaning of the Seder symbols, Exodus 13:8 is brought in to support the idea that “in every generation a person is obligated see himself as though he personally had come out of Egypt.” In other words, “the Lord acted for me” in Egypt—that is, so that I, thousands of years later, would tell the story and experience the moment of stepping from slavery into freedom.
In some contexts the Haggadah sensibly assumes that the Seder commemorates the Exodus. In other contexts it hints at the opposite: The purpose of the Exodus was that the Israelites would later perform the Passover rituals—that they would one day become tellers of the Passover story.
In the Bible, the prototype Seder is organized around creating memories. It happens while the Israelites are still slaves. The ninth plague has ended, darkness has lifted over Egypt, Pharaoh has been warned about the killing of the firstborn, and everybody is in waiting mode. God tells Moses to instruct the Israelites to make a special meal, giving them 10 days to plan and four more to prepare:
Speak to the whole community of Israel and say that on the 10th of this month each of them shall take a lamb to a family, a lamb to a household. But if the household is too small for a lamb, let him share one with a neighbor who dwells nearby, in proportion to the number of persons: You shall contribute for the lamb according to what each household will eat. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a yearling male. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You shall keep watch over it until the fourteenth day of this month. Then the entire assembly of the congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight. (Exodus 12:3-6)
A great deal of discussion will be required to organize the whole neighborhood into lamb-sized pods, taking into account appetites and preferences. Then the selected lambs must be guarded so they don’t sustain any injuries that might make them unkosher. So far, it sounds like the weeks before Thanksgiving: Invitations are flying, matches are being made for the lonely, and turkeys are being ordered. Then, a few days before the holiday, all the turkeys come out of the freezer to defrost at just the right speed—they mustn’t spoil, but they have to be ready for Thursday morning.
But there the similarity ends: On Thanksgiving, everybody will dress in their finery and sit down for a leisurely meal. At the first Seder, the instructions specifically call for a meal on the run:
They shall eat the flesh that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs. Do not eat any of it raw, or cooked in any way with water, but roasted— head, legs, and entrails—over the fire. (Exodus 12:8-9)
This is a recipe for street food: Take some flat bread—maybe a laffa—and smear it with spicy sauce. Grab some meat off the grill and wrap the whole thing up. This is a meal that can be eaten with one hand. There are to be no leftovers, no Tupperware containers to distribute, and the dress code is very specific:
You shall not leave any of it over until morning. If any of it is left until morning, you shall burn it. This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is a Passover offering to the Lord. (Exodus 12:10-11)
In biblical language, girded loins, sandals, and staff in hand signify traveling clothes. After 15 days of careful preparation, everything about this meal makes it sound like wolfing down a sandwich while waiting for the bus. It is this ritually hurried meal that will be the model for the long, slow Seders of the future.
The Israelites at the first Seder are in a state of instability. They stand on the threshold between slavery and freedom, with one thin doorway separating them from the death swirling around outside. They are commanded to intensify their unstable condition by acting it out with a ritual meal. Leaving Egypt, all the members of the community will have the same taste in their mouths, a powerful taste that will forever recall this moment. This will be the taste of the departure from Egypt.
In this story, the idea of remembering comes before the thing remembered. Before they slaughter and cook their lamb, before they eat the meal, before they escape from slavery, the Israelites are told three times that they are supposed to be creating memories. Exodus 13:8 is one example. Here is another:
When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he has said, you shall observe this ritual. When your children say to you, “What is this service to you?” you shall say, “It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord because he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when he smote the Egyptians, but saved our houses. (Exodus 12:25-27)
At the first taste of their traveling meal, the Israelites already know that year after year they are to put that same taste in their mouths, awakening the visceral memory of being about to leave Egypt, about to be free. They are to pass that taste down, along with the story, so that the memory is as real for the children as for the parents. Every generation will taste what it means to be poised on the brink of freedom.
The Haggadah is the product of the mishnaic period, after the fall of the Temple, when the rabbis were working out how to be Jewish without the sacrificial rites. Thus, it leaves out the main course of the original Seder meal: the paschal lamb. Instead, the Haggadah evokes the road from slavery to freedom with expansive words and with the evocative flavors of symbolic foods. Near the beginning of the telling it says:
Now we are slaves, next year may we be free.
A few lines later, it says:
We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, but the Lord our God took us out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.
Which is it? Are we slaves on our way to freedom, or are we free people who were once slaves? At the Seder we taste both slavery and freedom. Through what goes into our mouths and what comes out of our mouths, we learn and re-learn every year that we are travelers out of Egypt. We are neither enslaved nor free. We occupy a world that is poised between slavery and redemption, and our challenge is to live a life infused with both realities.
The tool we have to meet this challenge is the story. It changes us by bringing a collective past into living memory, teaching us gratitude for redemption. From another angle, the value of the past is that it gets the story started. It is only by living inside this story that we can become people on the road to redemption.
Like this article? Sign up for our Daily Digest to get Tablet Magazine’s new content in your inbox each morning. | <urn:uuid:7eac26ed-0690-4904-b08b-3d94c93391c4> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-life-and-religion/127294/whats-the-point-of-passover | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393442.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00177-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96084 | 2,185 | 3.125 | 3 |
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Indian Lore Merit Badge Requirements
|1) Give the history of one American Indian tribe, group, or nation that lives or has lived near you. Visit it, if possible. Tell about traditional dwellings, way of life, tribal government, religious beliefs, family and clan relationships, language, clothing styled, arts and crafts, food preparation, means of getting around, games, customs in warfare, where members of the group now live, and how they live.
2) Do TWO of the following:
A) Make and item of clothing worn by members of the tribe.
B) make and decorate three items approved by your counselor used by the tribe.
C) Make and authentic model of a dwelling used by any Indian tribe, group, or nation.
D) Visit a museum to see Indian artifacts. Discuss them with your counselor. Identify at least ten artifacts by tribe or nation, their shape, size and use.
3) Do ONE of the following:
A) Learn three games played by a group or tribe. Teach and lead one game with a Scout group.
B) Learn and show how a tribe traditionally cooked or prepared food. Make three food items.
C) Give a demonstration showing how a specific Indian group traditionally hunted, fished, or trapped.
4) Do ONE of the following:
A) Write or briefly describe how life would have been different for the European settlers if there had been no Indians to meet them when they came to this continent.
B) Sing two songs in an Indian language. Explain their meaning.
C) Learn in an Indian language at least twenty-five common terms and their meanings.
D) Show twenty-five signs in Indian sigh language. Include those that will help you ask for water, food, and where the path or road leads.
E) Learn in English (or in the language you commonly speak at home or in the troop) an Indian story of at least three hundred words, or any number of shorter ones adding up to three hundred words. Tell the story or stories at a Scout meeting or campfire.
F) Write or tell about eight things adopted by others from American Indians.
G) Learn twenty-five Indian place-names. Tell their origins and meanings.
H) Name five well-known American Indian leaders, either from the past or people of today. Give their tribes or nations. Describe what they did or do now that makes them notable.
I) Learn about the Iroquois Confederacy, including how and why it was formed. Tell about its governing system, and its importance to the framers of our Constitution of the United States.
Source: Boy Scout Requirements, 33215, revised 2004 | <urn:uuid:c174ad69-3eb6-4a9d-a66d-eb012dc89a76> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.scoutorama.com/merit_badge/mb_display.cfm?mb_id=64 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392159.3/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00007-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944427 | 568 | 4 | 4 |
Taking a closer look at the full costs of energy acquisition and dissipation
Isn't BP or another oil firm requesting permission for deep sea drilling to resume? Perhaps the fact that the deep sea spill impact was thought to be much less than it actually was is being used to support their request. Regardless, I hope this data is used to create stricter conservation policies that not only prevents deep sea oil drilling but also is used to protect cetaceans because they are very important organisms with low population replacement rates.
The trouble here must be with the initial researchers. What matter is it that they chose to count only those dead that we find? Well, consider this: during a natural disaster where hundreds or thousands of people do not survive, what are we usually told? There are X dead and X missing. That's because we haven't found them all!! How would that be any different with whales and dolphins? Especially considering that we aren't actively looking for them with search teams and dogs? I wonder who truly funded the first study.
This article shows an interesting method of understating the damages of the oil spill. Like Morten's example, what about those animals that are missing. The researchers should have made clearer the limitation of their estimations, and not make such an implausible assumption. Hopefully future research can find a good estimate for the multiplier to better measure the biological damages caused by the spill, which can reinforce future policy implementation.
Morten makes a good point that where the funding came from for the first study is essential. They clearly had an agenda and found only what they were trying to find, which is that the oil spill did not cause much environmental harm. The fact that anybody recognized that first study as legitimate is astounding.
The people who did the initial death toll estimation from the oil spill were way off. How could they assume that all the carcasses could have been recovered? Under estimating the death toll by up to 98% is insane. The whale and dolphin population clearly suffered much more from the BP oil spill than anyone knew. Also, these species have been struggling in the past due to the fishing industry and loss of habitat. BP should be held accountable for this damage. These populations need help replacing the massive loss of life from this event.
Any kind of study where a sample is taken from a population has to have the data analyzed appropriately. This study only found so many carcasses and leaves a lot of uncertainty to the true death toll. It seems impossible for that this study was taken seriously without considering the statistical chance of this number being the entire population. Like most studies, there is not “full participation” and the data has to project beyond its limits to make an accurate estimation of the true effects that occurred.
It is definitely hard to believe that the largest oil spill in U.S history only killed 101 cetaceans. There is just too much uncertainty to accurately estimate this number in such a vast amount of water. I definitely think that they need to create a better model to estimate the number of deaths that occur in any kind of disaster. Because they are reporting only 101 deaths, BP probably won't have to pay as much for the damage that they have done. Hopefully the government will hire some better scientists to counter what BP is claiming.
A better method for estimating the death toll would be to compare the population after the spill to the post-spill population. This assumes of course that marine biologist had been keeping up with the population count. If they had been, all they would need to do after the spill is use the same counting method to compare the populations. This method would be tried and true statistical sampling (i.e. catch and tag a bunch of dolphins, release them, and then catch a bunch again and see how many have tags), so that the results are scientifically accurate.
There should be more strict guidelines for reporting damages beyond the number of carcasses retrieved. I was surprised to learn that the true death toll for whales could be 50 times to reported amount. Alternative researchers could perhaps find a better way to assess the damages of the oil spill. Activists will have a harder time making claims if they cannot get an accurate account of the damage, also it will be harder for people to help the marine life in the gulf recover if we cannot fully understand the extent of the problems.
Clearly there is something wrong with the initial researchers’ methods if the way they calculate a death toll for such a large-scale disaster is according to the number of carcasses found, especially now that new research shows that estimates could have been as much as 50x lower than the actual numbers. This margin of error is completely unacceptable, and makes me think how much the researchers underestimated the other ecological impacts associated with the spill or with any other similar disaster. We could be in a lot more trouble than we expect if these are the error bars that we have to work with.
The reality of the world is that many people don’t believe what they can’t see, and don’t acknowledge what they can’t find. In any situation where there are casualties, estimates will come from those who will only acknowledge the physical body count and from those who project beyond that using a biological population estimator, with the answer usually somewhere in between. The ocean is a particularly mystifying and impenetrable place for this kind of research, and to say that only the carcasses you find are the effects of a disaster of that magnitude seems astonishingly uninformed. The obvious course of action is to develop an estimator that can accurately assess the damage caused, because, unfortunately for the whale and dolphin populations, they don’t have a voice that can notify authorities of missing members of their population. But even if one could find the exact number of cetaceans that were killed, what’s the cost of a whale, and for how much should BP be held accountable?
They definitely dropped the ball when estimating the death toll. Fifty times more casualties than initially thought is a little outrageous. This indicates an even larger problem, though – we can’t truly calculate the costs of these types of disasters. In the article, they actually said the initial environmental damage estimates were modest because of the number of carcasses recovered. It was the largest oil spill in US history; how could you expect it to not have a large toll on the wildlife? This highlights the risks of these types of drilling activities. We might never know how much damage they cause. Should we care that thousands of animals die, as long as we still get our oil? We have to decide if maintaining or increasing our energy consumption is worth these kinds of disasters.
Post a Comment | <urn:uuid:c9ab430c-84d8-4d75-aed0-b4b441ca0431> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://energyexternalities.blogspot.com/2011/04/drill-baby-drill.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399385.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00067-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971323 | 1,363 | 2.578125 | 3 |
If you've ever watched a maple seed spiraling down from a branch, you may have marveled at how it looked like a tiny one-rotor-bladed helicopter. If you did, well, you weren't the only one. In 2009, students from the University of Maryland's Clark School of Engineering unveiled their remarkable samara (maple seed)-inspired micro air vehicle, which was billed as "the world's first controllable robotic samara monocopter." Flash forward to this Tuesday, and Lockheed Martin performed the first public flight of its similar Samarai Flyer, at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International conference in Washington, D.C.
In development as part of DARPA's Nano Air Vehicle program since 2006, the Samarai Flyer consists of a disc-like unit that contains its battery and electronics, joined to a single wing with a propeller mounted at the far end - the original design actually called for a fuel-powered miniature jet thruster, which may still be the plan for the final version. When in flight, the whole aircraft spins around in a circle, with the disc at the center. A remotely-adjustable trailing-edge wing flap allows users to steer it.
The Samarai can take off from and land on the ground, or be launched by being thrown into the air like a boomerang. It is 16 inches (40.6 cm) long, weighs less than half a pound (around 227 grams) and only has two moving parts, so it lends itself to being stuffed in a backpack, then pulled out for use.
Unlike the U Maryland flyer, it even has an onboard video camera that transmits a live feed to the operator. Because that camera (which is mounted on the disc) is constantly turning around, it doesn't obtain video in a normal fashion. Instead, it captures one frame at the same point in every rotation, those frames combining into one continuous relatively steady shot. By varying the point in the rotation at which the frames are grabbed, users can virtually "pan" the camera 360 degrees. Plans call for the disc to ultimately incorporate a sensor that would capture four frames per rotation, each at the same point.
Because its design is so robust and efficient, the Samarai is intended mainly for military surveillance and reconnaissance missions. It is capable of carrying and dropping small payloads, and can be inexpensively fabricated using a 3D printer - this also means that it would relatively simple to produce custom-designed Flyers for specific purposes.
The aircraft's first public flight can be seen in the video below. | <urn:uuid:1a05bf46-3d69-410a-ac5c-e699507be367> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.gizmag.com/lockheed-martin-samarai-flyer-monocopter/19572/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403826.29/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00059-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950861 | 527 | 3.171875 | 3 |
Last week, the gooseberries were looking particularly promising in the kitchen gardens of Down House. Rows of bushes were burgeoning with small green fruit, raising expectations of a bumper crop later this summer. Charles Darwin – botanist, geologist, zoologist and author of the book that profoundly changed perceptions of the world – would no doubt have been pleased. Here, ever experimenting, he once nurtured 54 varieties of gooseberry, along with 41 types of pea and numerous species of other vegetable.
In 1842, when Darwin and his wife, Emma, moved from London to Down House, on the outskirts of Downe village in north-west Kent, he described the solid 18th-century building as "ugly". Yet it became a much-loved haven where he spent the rest of his life. It was here that the Darwins' children were raised (there were 10, though only seven of them survived to adulthood), and here that the great naturalist worked on his theories, finally publishing On the Origin of Species in 1859.
Tucked away in his rural retreat, Darwin was removed from the furore his book caused. He steadfastly continued his studies; his last major work was on earthworms (largely observed in his garden) and was published in 1881, the year before his death.
Since the Thirties, the house has been a museum, now run by English Heritage. On the June morning of my visit, Down House had a magical quality. It is situated less than 20 miles from central London, yet the property lies in a wonderfully rural pocket, and the landscape is cloaked in abundant greenery. The pretty location, however, is just a bonus: the real charm here is the man himself and the insight you get into his domestic and working life.
The house reopened earlier this year after major refurbishment and the introduction of innovative multimedia guides and displays. The refit marked the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth, widely celebrated throughout this year.
Images of Darwin – paintings, photographs, £10 notes – often show a forbiddingly serious Victorian gentleman with a long grey beard. But at Down House you quickly appreciate that the eminent scientist was a tremendously genial person who was kind to his servants and lovingly liberal with his children, often joining in their games.
On the first floor, newly devised displays give a potted history of Darwin's life, with many personal items on show – beetle specimens collected in his childhood; a lock of Emma's hair; the stair slide he asked a local carpenter to make for his children. There's also a replica of Darwin's cabin on HMS Beagle: the cramped quarters in which he spent five years during the seminal surveying trip to South America, while in his twenties.
Amazingly, two of his original notebooks are exhibited, while a computer next to them enables you to examine the contents through digital displays. Other star attractions include specimens collected on his epic voyage and the signed copy of Das Kapital sent to him by Karl Marx.
Downstairs, a new hand-held video guide leads you through the drawing room, study, billiard room and dining room – all furnished with Darwin's own pieces and pictures.
The real joy of Down House, though, is the garden, replanted to be how it was in Darwin's time. Several of his ingenious experiments have been recreated here: a tiny bed of weeds, for example, testing out theories of natural selection. The video guide really comes into its own in the garden, showing how Darwin used this outdoor space as a natural laboratory, whether watching his bees, seeing what his carnivorous plants would consume – or cultivating gooseberries.
To honour Darwin and ensure that his home and the landscape around are conserved, Down House and the surrounding area have been nominated as a World Heritage Site. The result of the bid will be revealed next year.
Down House, Downe, Kent BR6 7JT, is open Wednesday to Sunday (and bank holidays) 11am-5pm; adults £8.80, children £4.40 (01689 859119; english-heritage. org.uk/darwin).
The bicentenary of Darwin's birth coincides with the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species, with commemorations being held across the country.
Shrewsbury, where Darwin was born, is hosting celebrations throughout 2009. Its Darwin Festival features dance, music, science demonstrations, tortoise processions, and drama, and takes place until November (01743 281200; darwinshrewsbury.org).
In addition, from 3-12 July Shrewsbury is hosting a special festival of ideas entitled Shift Time, which will bring together artists and performers whose work has been inspired by Darwin's theories (0345 678 9000; shift-time.org.uk).
In Bath, the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institute has a more academic stance in its Darwin and Beyond festival, with a series of talks continuing until 11 December, when the final lecture asks, "Is Evolution Over?" (01225 312084; brlsi.org/darwin2009).
Cambridge, where Darwin studied theology, while becoming increasingly absorbed by natural history and science, is holding a Darwin Festival in July, with talks and debates, exhibitions (at Christ's College, the Botanic Gardens, the Fitzwilliam Museum and more) and street music, theatre and comedy (01223 765440; darwin2009.cam.ac.uk).
A complete list of all Darwin events in the UK is published by the Natural History Museum at darwin200.org | <urn:uuid:1fe80a28-051f-4624-a0a9-05efc4b5903a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/uk/darwins-house-discover-the-origins-of-evolution-in-rural-kent-1717030.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397567.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00053-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976118 | 1,165 | 2.640625 | 3 |
New York City Marriages, 1600s-1800s
This database is an index to approximately 410,000 individuals who were married in or near New York City between 1622 and 1899. While over 90% of the marriages included in this database were recorded in New York City and its boroughs, some were recorded on Long Island or elsewhere in the state. In addition, approximately 300 of the records are from Connecticut or New Jersey. Information that may be found in this database for each individual includes their name, spouse's name, marriage date, location, and source information. Marriage records are great sources for genealogists because they document an individual in a particular place and time as well as provide details about that person's marriage. | <urn:uuid:8cf7abb7-6cee-484c-9ca6-03fc6f9a012d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.afrigeneas.com/forum-states/index.cgi/md/read/id/968/sbj/ny-nycity-marriages-1600s-1800s/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396872.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00114-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979407 | 146 | 2.828125 | 3 |
"Earth Simulator" is basically a batch-job system. Network Queuing System II (NQSII) is introduced to manage the batch job.
There are two-type queues. One is L batch queue and the other is S batch queue. S batch queue is aimed at being used for a pre-run or a post-run for large-scale batch jobs (making initial data, processing results of a simulation and other processes), and L batch queue is for a production run. Users choice an appropriate queue for users' jobs.
- The nodes allocated to a batch job are used exclusively for that batch job.
- The batch job is scheduled based on elapsed time instead of CPU time.
Strategy (1) enables to estimate the job termination time and to make iteasy to allocate nodes for the next batch jobs in advance. Strategy (2) contributes to an efficiency job execution. The job can use the nodes exclusively and the processes in each node can be executed simultaneously. As a result, the large-scale parallel program is able to be executed efficiently.
PNs of L-system are prohibited from access to the user disk to ensure enough disk I/O performance. herefore the files used by the batch job are copied from the user disk to the work disk before the job execution. This process is called "stage-in." It is important to hide this staging time for the job scheduling.
Main steps of the job scheduling are summarized as follows;
- Node Allocation
- Stage-in (copies files from the user disk to the work disk automatically)
- Job Escalation (rescheduling for the earlier estimated start time if possible)
- Job Execution
- Stage-out (copies files from the work disk to the user disk automatically)
When a new batch job is submitted, the scheduler searches available nodes (Step.1). After the nodes and the estimated start time are allocated to the batch job, stage-in process starts (Step.2). The job waits until the estimated start time after stage-in process is finished. If the scheduler find the earlier start time than the estimated start time, it allocates the new start time to the batch job. This process is called "Job Escalation" (Step.3). When the estimated start time has arrived, the scheduler executes the batch job (Step.4). The scheduler terminates the batch job and starts stage-out process after the job execution is finished or the declared elapsed time is over (Step.5).
How to execute the batch job
A user must write the batch script to execute the batch jobs. Directives (they describe the number of nodes, the disk space, the declared elapsed time and other system resources to execute the batch job) are written in the job script.
Fig: Example of a batch script. The line that begins #PBS is a directive for NQSII.
To execute the batch job, the user logs into the login-server and submits the batch script to ES. And the user waits until the job execution is done. During that time, the user can see the state of the batch job using the conventional web browser or user commands. The node scheduling, the file staging and other processing are automatically processed by the system according to the batch script. | <urn:uuid:c15a2da8-dd49-4158-b815-2b38b6c4858e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.jamstec.go.jp/es/en/system/scheduling.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397428.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00118-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.918047 | 682 | 2.53125 | 3 |
In the last three years, the pace of forced evictions in China has accelerated. The country's rapid rate of urbanization – unprecedented in history – and the pursuit of profit above all else, have driven millions of Chinese people from their homes.
Evictions are increasingly violent, with people being harassed, beaten and sometimes killed for daring to resist. The scale of abuses committed by the state authorities and developers in the course of such evictions is vast, with the state consistently failing to respect, protect and fulfil the right to adequate housing for the millions affected. Forced evictions account for the most significant source of discontent in the country.
But voicing that discontent is not easy. Residents have little recourse if they feel their rights have been violated. Their efforts to appeal, whether through the courts or government agencies, are routinely blocked and sometimes result in imprisonment. In desperation, some evictees have set themselves on fire in protest.
By documenting the risks and dangers Chinese people face in trying to protect their homes and farmland, this report offers a glimpse into the challenges facing China. The struggle for people to protect their homes is also their struggle for justice, equality and a say in the future of their country. | <urn:uuid:dcb59c41-c71e-4864-8c75-492fc0d35a99> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.amnestyusa.org/research/reports/standing-their-ground-thousands-face-violent-eviction-in-china?page=show | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396875.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00130-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964658 | 243 | 2.75 | 3 |
By Dr. Mercola
Brussels sprouts have been voted as the most-hated vegetable in both the US and Britain,1 perhaps because they can be notoriously smelly. But the offensive odor only occurs when these nutritional powerhouses are overcooked – something you definitely want to avoid to preserve both their flavor and nutrients.
Further, that odor comes from a type of glucosinolate, a sulfur-containing compound that is responsible for some pretty impressive health benefits, including fighting cancer. So the next time you're thinking of turning your nose up at these much-maligned veggies, you might want to give them a chance instead.
Low in Calories and Packed with Nutrition
Brussels sprouts are an ideal food if you're looking for something that's hearty yet low in calories. One cup of cooked Brussels sprouts contains just 56 calories but is packed with more than 240 percent of the recommended daily amount (RDA) for vitamin K1, and nearly 130 percent of the RDA for vitamin C.
Plus, Brussels sprouts are a good source of fiber, manganese, potassium, choline, and B vitamins. They even contain protein. But not only do Brussels sprouts contain well-known antioxidants like vitamin C…
They also contain others that are much less known – but equally as important, like kaempferol, isorhamnetin, caffeic, and ferulic acids, and the relatively rare sulfur-containing compound called D3T (3H-1,2-dithiole-3-thione).
This means that when you eat Brussels sprouts, you're helping your body to ward off chronic oxidative stress, which is a risk factor for many types of cancer and other chronic diseases.
You can steam Brussels sprouts and toss them with olive oil, Parmesan cheese, or butter. You can roast them and quarter them, then toss them like a salad with onions, feta cheese, and balsamic vinegar. You can even keep a bowl in the fridge, seasoned with salt and pepper, to snack on throughout the day – their small bite-sized package makes them perfect for popping in your mouth.
Remember, if your Brussels sprouts become overly "smelly," mushy, or turn a muted green, they're probably overcooked. Ideally, they should be bright green with a slightly crisp texture and pleasant, nutty/sweet flavor, even after they're cooked.
Trying to Detoxify? Eat More Brussels Sprouts
Juice cleanses and store-bought detoxes are popular now, but detoxification is really a process your body needs to be doing on a daily basis. And it can only do this if you provide it with the proper foods, Brussels sprouts (or other cruciferous veggies) being one of them.
Here again, those potentially offensive sulfur-containing compounds prove to be invaluable, as they help to activate enzyme systems in your cells that are required for detoxification of cancer-causing substances.
These sulfur compounds also support your body's Phase 2 detoxification process, which broken down toxins are shuttled out of your system. Even better, they're also a rich source of antioxidants, which are necessary for Phase 1 detoxification, which is when toxins are broken down into smaller particles (that are later eliminated during phase 2).
Foods that support both Phase 1 and Phase 2 detoxification are key to supporting your body's daily removal of harmful substances from your body. For example, if you eat foods that support Phase 1, but not Phase 2, the broken-down toxins may begin to accumulate in your body.
Eating foods like Brussels sprouts helps to ensure that not only are toxins being broken down, they're also being safely removed from your body.
Brussels Sprouts May Work Better Than Broccoli to Help Lower Your Risk of Cancer
Cancer is a leading cause of death in the US, and eating Brussels sprouts is a simple way to lower your risk of this disease. Your body uses the glucosinolates in Brussels sprouts to make isothiocyanates, which activate cancer-fighting enzyme systems in your body. As reported in the journal Carcinogenesis:2
"Glucosinolates are sulfur-containing glycosides found in the Brassica vegetables. Their breakdown products include isothiocyanates, which are produced following exposure to the endogenous plant enzyme myrosinase. Isothiocyanates are pungent, biologically active compounds that suppress carcinogenesis in vivo, and induce apoptosis in vitro."
Indole-3-carbinol, for example, is one glucosinolate breakdown product that halts the cell cycle in breast cancer cells without actually killing the cells.3 The cell cycle is a rigidly controlled series of steps a cell must go through before it can divide in two, involving the duplication of the cell's contents and a final split.
If you can alter specific components of the cell cycle, you can stop the growth of cancer cells without killing normal cells. Indole-3-carbinol interferes with the cell cycle in a way that turns off a gene for an enzyme important in the cell's growth cycle.
Brussels sprouts have been linked to the prevention of a number of cancers, including colon cancer,4 ovarian cancer,5 and others. One study even found that compounds in Brussels sprouts may trigger pre-cancerous cells to commit suicide, which suggests adding more of this superfood to your diet could be a powerful anti-cancer strategy.6
In fact, in one study men who ate about 1.5 cups of Brussels sprouts daily for five weeks had a 28 percent decrease in DNA damage, which the researchers concluded showed "that consumption of cruciferous vegetables [Brussels sprouts] may result in a decreased cancer risk."7
While all of the cruciferous veggies are known for their cancer-fighting powers, Brussels sprouts have been shown to contain even greater amounts of glucosinolates than cabbage, kale, cauliflower, and broccoli.8
Eat Brussels Sprouts for Your Heart Health, Too
The glucosinolate indole-3-carbinol (I3C) is a potent anti-inflammatory and it operates on a genetic level, helping to prevent inflammatory responses at the very early, initial stages.9 This is important, because chronic inflammation is the source of many diseases, including cancer, obesity, and heart disease.
You actually need some level of inflammation in your body to stay healthy, however it's also possible, and increasingly common, for the inflammatory response to get out of hand.
If your immune system mistakenly triggers an inflammatory response when no threat is present, it can lead to excess inflammation in your body, a condition linked to asthma, allergies, autoimmune disease, and much more, depending on which organs the inflammation is impacting. Unfortunately, chronic inflammation typically will not produce symptoms until actual loss of function occurs somewhere.
This is because chronic inflammation is low-grade and systemic, often silently damaging your tissues over an extended period of time. This process can go on for years without you noticing, until a disease suddenly sets in. Diet accounts for about 80 percent of the health benefits you reap from leading a healthy lifestyle, and keeping inflammation in check is a major part of these benefits.
It's due to Brussels sprouts' anti-inflammatory properties, for example, that they may also offer important benefits for heart problems, including heart attack and atherosclerosis. As the George Mateljan Foundation noted:10
"Of particular interest here has been the isothiocyanate (ITC) sulforaphane, which is made from glucoraphanin (a glucosinolate) found in Brussels sprouts. Not only does this ITC trigger anti-inflammatory activity in our cardiovascular system — it may also be able to help prevent and even possibly help reverse blood vessel damage."
Look for Locally Grown Brussels Sprouts Still on the Stalk
In the US, most Brussels sprouts are grown in California… but because they can be grown in cold weather (and actually taste best after the first frost), they're widely available at farmer's markets across the US, even during the colder months.
For the best Brussels sprouts you've ever tasted, try your hand at growing them yourself. Otherwise, look for those sold still attached to the stalk. They stay much fresher this way and, because they don't have to be plucked from the stalk, there's less labor involved so they often cost less as well.11 | <urn:uuid:1c2f2c11-9cd2-440c-aba2-dd18849755ba> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/11/16/benefits-brussels-sprouts.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397696.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00191-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950769 | 1,773 | 2.59375 | 3 |
After a long leave of absence, warm weather is making a comeback in Sheridan.
Public Health Nurse, Toby Granger, says for about 40 million Americans, the spring season means a runny nose, itchy eyes, and sneezing.
Granger says for the most part, those with allergies handle it on their own.
Granger said people sensitive to pollen can mitigate the severity of their allergic flare-ups by monitoring local pollen reports and staying inside when the levels get high. Some people even remodel their home to include hardwood floors instead of carpet to avoid having triggers in the house. When you just can't stay indoors any longer and all else fails, there's always the stand-by of antihistamines.
Allergens are generally more abundant during dry, warm weather. | <urn:uuid:e3e36807-5910-4860-be65-4d212e0ebb85> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.sheridanmedia.com/news/spring-season-triggers-allergies63402 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395160.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00159-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952234 | 162 | 2.625 | 3 |
MDN's Learning Area is our home for articles that introduce Web concepts to new developers. Because its content mostly targets beginners, it's a great place to share your knowledge and help newcomers get to know the Web. It's important to make sure new developers can follow this content, so we pay special attention to it.
This article explains how to write pages for the Learning Area.
How to write a Learning Area article
To start contributing your knowledge, simply click the big green button, then follow the five steps below. If you're looking for ideas, please take a look at the our team Trello board!
Step 1: Write a one-liner
Your article's first sentence needs to summarize what you're going to cover. For example:
This is (at the time of writing) the first sentence of the Learning Area's article about CSS. Note how it briefly explains that CSS is a core Web technology used to style pages. That's enough for the reader to get a pretty good idea what the article covers.
Because Learning Area articles primarily target beginners, each article should cover one straightforward topic so as not to overwhelm the reader with too much new information. If you can't summarize the article in one sentence, you might be trying to do too much in one article!
Step 2: Add a top box
Then add a top box to help readers get their bearings as to where they are in the learning process. Here's an example of a top box from "Understanding URLs and their structure". You can use this article as an model when writing your own.
|Prerequisites:||You need to first know how the Internet works, what a Web server is, and the concepts behind links on the web.|
|Objective:||You will learn what a URL is and how it works on the Web.|
- What must the reader already know to follow the article? When possible, make each prerequisite a link to another Learning Area article covering the concept (unless it's a really basic article that doesn't require prior knowledge).
- This section briefly states what the reader will learn over the course of the article. This is a bit different than the one-liner; the one-liner summarizes the topic of the article, while the objectives section specifically lays out what the reader can expect to accomplish over the course of the article.
Note: To create this table, you can either copy and paste the example table above, or use MDN's editor's table tool. If you choose to use the table tool, you need to specifically add the
learn-box CSS class in addition to the default
standard-table class. To do this, when you create or edit the table's properties,, go to the "Advanced" panel and set the Stylesheet Classes field to "
Step 3: Write a full summary
Next, write a longer summary that provides a more thorough overview of the article highlighting the most important concepts. Don't forget to explain why the reader should take the time to learn this topic and read your article!
Step 4: Provide a list of "active learning materials"
To illustrate the article and help the reader better understand what they're learning, be sure to provide exercises, tutorials, and tasks to accomplish. By having them actively and practically using and experimenting with the concepts your article explains, you can help "lock" the information into their brains.
Because these active learning materials can be quite large, you should generally link to them rather than including them right in the article. If you're interested in helping create these valuable materials, please read the article Create an interactive exercise to help learning the Web.
If you can't provide links to existing active learning materials (you don't know of any or don't have time to create them), you should add the tag NeedsActiveLearning to the article. That way other contributors can find articles that need active learning materials and perhaps help you come up with them.
Step 5: Dig deeper
When you're done with all that, you can finally dive deeply into the topic. You can structure this part of your article however you like (although feel free to consult our style guide). This is your chance to shine! Go into detail explaining the topic you're writing about. Provide links to the full reference documentation, explain how the technology works in detail, provide syntax and usage details, and so forth. It's up to you!
As a guide, here are some writing tips for beginners:
- Focus on a single topic. If you feel like you need to cover other topics, it means either you're missing a prerequisite article, or you need to break up your article into more than one.
- Use simple English. Avoid technical terms when you can, or at least define them and link to their glossary entries where applicable.
- Include straightforward examples to make the theoretical concepts easier to grasp. Many people learn best by example. Rather than writing academic papers, we want beginners to follow the text readily.
- Visual aids often can make things easier to digest and carry extra information, so feel free to use images, diagrams, videos, and tables. If you're using diagrams or charts that include text, we encourage you to use SVG so our translation teams can localize the text.
So you want to contribute but you're not sure what to write about?
The Learning Area team maintains a Trello board with ideas of articles to write. Feel free to pick one and get to work! | <urn:uuid:dcd4a79a-e4bd-40bf-9cc0-f6604aa0e9bd> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/MDN/Contribute/Howto/Write_an_article_to_help_learn_about_the_Web | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395546.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00012-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.915036 | 1,117 | 3.078125 | 3 |
- Mitochondrial DNA analysis of the putative heart of Louis XVII, son of Louis XVI and Marie-AntoinetteE Jehaes
Center for Human Genetics, University of Leuven, Belgium
Eur J Hum Genet 9:185-90. 2001..In order to obtain the strongest evidence possible, two laboratories independently analysed the heart. The results showed that the consensus mtDNA sequence of the heart was identical to that of the maternal relatives of Louis XVII...
- Pitfalls in the analysis of mitochondrial DNA from ancient specimens and the consequences for forensic DNA analysis: the historical case of the putative heart of Louis XVIIE Jehaes
Laboratory for Forensic Genetics and Molecular Archaeology, Center for Human Genetics, University of Leuven, Belgium
Int J Legal Med 115:135-41. 2001..Use of short PCR fragments for the analysis of mtDNA from shed hair, in combination with a competitive PCR assay to determine the state of degradation, should improve the reliability of forensic mtDNA analysis considerably... | <urn:uuid:566539c9-275d-4d4b-8e6d-6951601eaed5> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.labome.org/expert/belgium/katholieke/jehaes/e-jehaes-659682.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392527.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00185-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.810363 | 212 | 2.546875 | 3 |
When a spinal joint's normal range of motion and it's softness and fluid is reduced a healthy disc deteriorates. Healthy discs have a spongy, soft, flexible and moist characteristic almost like a wet sponge. An unhealthy disc is like a dry, brittle and cracked sponge. Mobility is reduced. Injury or trauma to the spine can cause discs to bulge, herniate, or even rupture. This can be painful and add pressure to nerves.
Approach to disc problems is to help restore better motion and position to the spinal joint. We work on creating a reduction in disc bulging and reduced inflammation. We can achieve good results with disc injuries, albeit that clients with disc injuries may often present in the first instance with a significant amount of distress. Treatment commonly involves stabilisation of acute inflammation first followed by muscle release and spinal adjustments. As the condition stabilises and improves rehabilitation, stretching and strengthening exercises are often included in treatment protocol. | <urn:uuid:6d0db02e-e6fb-465e-86bc-6f595027d884> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://ehealthforum.com/health/disc-injuries-t314440.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397213.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00009-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94296 | 191 | 2.71875 | 3 |
As stated at the end of Chapter 8, if administrative data are used to develop and maintain statistical registers, and also to supplement statistical surveys, the next logical step is to consider how to link those registers and surveys, and thus move towards a register-based statistical system. This approach has been developed mainly by statistical agencies in the Nordic countries, often with the initial focus of implementing a register-based population census.
A pure register-based statistical system could be defined as one in which all statistics (for a particular domain or set of domains) are produced exclusively from administrative sources that have been combined into two or more linked statistical registers. In practice, such a purely register-based statistical system is relatively rare, as small-scale statistical surveys are often needed for quality assessment or to overcome coverage issues for specific variables or sectors of the population. A more pragmatic approach is therefore to use the term “register-based statistical system” to refer to a system based primarily on administrative data that have been organized into linked statistical registers.
This chapter takes a brief look at some of the issues involved in the transition to a register-based statistical system. It intends to complement rather than duplicate the much more detailed study of this topic contained in the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe publication “Register-based Statistics in the Nordic Countries”. That publication reviews best practices, with a focus on population and social statistics, and was prepared by experts from several Nordic counties, so should be regarded as the authoritative work on this topic.
Register-based statistical systems are not feasible for all countries, or even all domains of statistics, at least in the short-term. This is because the feasibility of developing and implementing such a system depends on a number of pre-conditions relating to policy and infrastructure, some of which have been mentioned in different contexts in preceding chapters. The key pre-conditions for a successful register-based statistical system are:
If these pre-conditions are not in place, it is clearly not feasible to consider a register-based statistical system as a short-term option. This model could still, however be useful as a long-term goal, to be reached by following a step-by-step programme of changes to establish the necessary pre-conditions. Experience in the Nordic countries underlines the importance of long-term planning, as the implementation of register-based population censuses in those countries has typically taken around twenty years.
9.3 The Generic Model
Chapter 7.3 included discussion about register-based statistical systems insofar as they provide a model for the use of administrative data in statistical registers. Figure 7.4 in that chapter showed a generic model for a register-based statistical system, but focused only on the administrative inputs. Figure 9.1 below adapts that model to include statistical inputs and outputs. The two key features are:
Figure 9.1 – Register-based Statistical Systems – A Generic Model
Note: The statistical register of jobs and other activities is not always present in national versions of this model.
A register-based statistical system is clearly the ultimate goal when considering the greater use of administrative data for statistical purposes. In many countries it may seem a very distant goal, perhaps not attainable for many years. However, by adopting a strategic plan based on step-by-step improvements towards creating the necessary pre-conditions, it is possible to gradually move closer to this goal. | <urn:uuid:82137cb0-8608-4157-b5b7-ee4605529bab> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www1.unece.org/stat/platform/plugins/viewsource/viewpagesrc.action?pageId=75564352 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392099.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00194-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949628 | 694 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Aside from the high temperatures however, what became more noticeable throughout southern California in July was dew point and humidity levels equaled those found in tropical zones.
Was July 2006 a result of global climate change -- and perhaps indicative of what is yet to befall Los Angeles in the future? Read long-range weather predictions for California.
There is no clear answer when predicting climate change past an educated guess -- hence the debate surrounding affects of global warming itself. Global weather patterns know no boundaries between southern California, the Rocky Mountain states, and across the Atlantic into Europe and into Asia and cycling back again into the Pacific. While one unusually hot day in one location (or a record breaker) is not as relevant to the whole of a pattern -- sustainable long term trends however are far more telling of climate change, which is why studying and understanding California's record July weather is relevant.
Perhaps southern California's July weather is written off as being a fluke -- just as was the unheard of yet severe thunderstorm and hailstorm outbreak for four days in New Delhi and Mumbai, India, during March 2006 smack in the middle of their dry season. Hail could be a fluke too for Buenos Aires, Argentina, on 26 July 2006 when hailstones the size of plums and grapefruit injured more than one dozen people, knocked out power and windows, and damaged automobiles.
Atmospheric conditions suggest that widespread unusual events are indicative of a larger change in patterns. Southern California was not alone in recording unusual weather patterns during July. Germany's weather statisticians did not wait for the month to close before declaring July 2006 the country's hottest and sunniest on record. The average high was approximately 81 degrees, or 8 degrees higher than historical average.
Paris, France, too logged a record July. The average July temperatures in Paris are 76 and 57 degrees: Not a single day or night were that cool. The average high as of July 29 has been 88 degrees and the overnight low 68 degrees. Twelve days exceeded 90 degrees, the coolest evening was 61 degrees. July 2006 daytime high temperatures in Paris were 6 degrees warmer than the deadly heat wave of 2003.
Feel the Ocean Air
San Diego as of press time --July 29-- has not experienced a temperature reading below 70 degrees for 21 consecutive days and nights and should end up with an average high of 81 and low of 72 degrees for the month. The coolest reading for July 2006 was 68 degrees or five degrees higher than the monthís average low. Dew points jumped to unusually high levels during the second half of the month (into the 60s and low 70s) as the Pacific Ocean warmed into the unusual mid-70s range.
The Los Angeles basin and all points west of the mountains in southern California are a hotbed of microclimates due to topographical and Pacific Ocean influences. One temperature location does not reflect patterns experienced in the San Fernando Valley and Orange County or the Westside of Los Angeles as each region and elevation has its own set of climate rules. Typically the low-lying coastal plain is moderated from extreme heat due to a daily sea breeze, whereas points further away from the coast experience low humidity and warmer afternoons, which easily reflect a 20-degree difference between coast and valley locations.
Sea breezes work when the ocean water temperature is a chilly and murky 60 degrees -- which was not case as July 2006 wore on. The Pacific coastal waters off southern California during July 2006 have warmed into the mid-and-upper 70s from Point Conception south to the Mexican border and out at least 40 miles. On July 29 the water temperature at San Clemente Pier, in Orange County, was 78 degrees -- or the same water temperature at Waimea Bay, Hawaii. The reason was not a result of El Nino or La Nina, but from localized weather patterns begun in early June.
Ships further out to sea off southern California show water temperatures higher now than what is typical for the area in July at 67 degrees approximately 121 nautical miles west of San Diego, and 71 degrees 12 miles southwest of Santa Barbara. These figures are about 10 degrees warmer than historical average and unusually widespread.
Wind Pattern Shifts
The reason for warmer ocean temperatures, and thus warmer and more humid landmass air temperatures in July were a result of two important events.
1.) Prevailing northwesterly ocean surface winds, which generally flow southeast along the coasts of Oregon and California to Point Conception have been weak and even taken on at times a more southerly / southwesterly direction off the coast of central and northern California. Once the winds round Point Conception, they have abated almost entirely.
2.) The high pressure system responsible for the desert southwest's summer monsoon. (Discussed in the next section.)
Ordinarily, the northwesterly winds are responsible for a great deal of upwelling along the California coast. Colder ocean water below the surface is pulled to the coastline on wind-generated surf and works itís way southeast. With this influence abated, as was the case in July, the shallower ocean depths retain solar energy.
Consider that in July 2005 --a typical wind pattern year along the California coast-- the water temperature 121 miles off the coast of San Diego was 57 degrees (10 degrees cooler than in July 2006) and at San Clemente Pier the water was 69 degrees, or 9 degrees cooler than present day. Northern California ocean water in July typically runs in the low to mid-50s, with high 40s not unusual in July, but even those water temperatures are running one to three degrees above average. As of press time however northern California's weather patterns have adjusted back to what would be considered normal for July with fog and clouds along the coast and air temperatures barely reaching 65 degrees in San Francisco midday.
Cause and Effect
The northwesterly wind pattern usually rounds Point Conception and enters the coastal waters of southern California and heads toward the central Baja Peninsula. The wind can sometimes be deflected by the channel islands in which case spins into what is called a Catalina eddy or micro surface low.
As desert heat builds inland in excess of 100 degrees, the Pacific-cooled air (some 30 and 40 degrees cooler) is pulled inland across southern California. With the cooler air in motion, the coastline is kept oftentimes cloudy and the sun is blocked from heating surface water to a great extent. This pattern is most noticeable in May and June, but usually decreases in July as the Pacific warms slightly to varying degrees of between 66 and 71 degrees, and the southwestern monsoon season is in full swing.
In early June 2006 the monsoonal high pressure system in the four-corners region established itself early. Mid-level moisture streamed into Tucson and Phoenix, Arizona, and Las Vegas, Nevada, in the first few days of June and all three cities were slammed with thundershowers, flash flooding, and wind damage. The monsoon season could be said to have arrived one month early, but moisture subsided for the most part until later in the month and new record high temperatures were noted instead of unusually high moisture levels.
The event could have been written off as unusual, however the pattern has been steadfast now for nearly two months.
During June the monsoon system flirted with southern California at the surface, but pushed further west at the mid levels, out and over the Pacific, further disrupting coastal eddy and marine layer influences as the northwesterly flow abated in northern California. Mid and low level wind flows across southern California shifted to an offshore flow, giving the region above normal temperatures -- but average to below average dew points (30s and 40s.) This pattern abated slightly for the first week of July at the surface, but continued at the mid levels as tropical moisture increased into the system from the gulfs of both Mexico and Baja California.
Humidity levels increased in early July, but backed off in the second week. Forecasters continued to predict the four corners high pressure system would move east, returning southern California's pattern to a more typical west-to-southwest flow aloft. During July 2006 however --with the pattern unchanged-- the ocean wind patterns off southern California provided a new twist.
Around 10 July 2006 coastal winds along Baja California started to head offshore --west/northwest-- in response to numerous easterly waves leaving old Mexico.
The four-corners high-pressure system reinforced off shore gradients in Baja and southern California -- keeping cloudless skies with nocturnal offshore winds at the 1,000-2,000 foot level that prevented any marine influence from developing.
Foothill regions in Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego counties experienced sundowner winds, which pushed midnight and pre-dawn temperatures above the 90-degree mark on northeasterly winds of 30 miles per hour. Montecito, California, at elevation 1,500 feet recorded five consecutive days and nights in early July with air tempertatures at or above 85 degrees, and yet the recording station is only 2 miles from the cool Pacific Ocean in Santa Barbara county.
In response to cloudless skies and lack of northwesterly surface winds, the Pacific Ocean had the full effect of solar heating from late June through all of July. With an ocean water temperature average having warmed to 75 degrees by mid-July, it was taking very little solar energy to warm the air into the 80s even at the beach. The air mass grew increasingly moist, which held nighttime temperatures above 70 degrees.
On 28 July the air mass in southern California had grown saturated enough that there was little difference between temperatures along the coast and those up against the foothills -- traditionally 20 degrees warmer in July. By late afternoon higher elevations were shrouded in low cloud cover, dew points were in the 60s/70s at a time of day usually with dew points in the 30s.
After sunset, clouds formed everywhere on the 28th and in some cases produced light showers notably in San Diego county's coastal region as temperatures met dew points -- in the 70s.
Given the same conditions under what would be considered 'normal' temperatures --with the ocean at 65 degrees and landmass air temperatures of about the same or cooler-- the interaction of these patterns would have passed unnoticed.
Low clouds and fog creeping inland is a mainstay pattern in southern California, but not with temperatures of 10 degrees above average and dew points in the 70s. Such measurements are indicative of weather patterns in Hawaii.
Outlook for August
Nothing has budged the four-corners high-pressure system since it established itself 2 June 2006 -- just as nothing pushed out high-pressure systems responsible for heat in Germany and France and all of central Europe for about the same period.
As the earth's axis now begins its progression away from summer solstice, all of these patterns will indeed change. Even as of press time, temperatures in Paris, Hamburg and Berlin (Germany,) are all expected to crash within the next week into the 60s for daytime highs finally bringing relief and much needed rainfall.
Once Europe returns to a more average pattern for August, expect a domino affect to work around the northern hemisphere in six to eight weeks.
California's patterns however are more difficult to assess, unlike the northern latitudes, southern California is less dependent upon solar heating during summer months to shift weather systems -- mainly because a central Pacific high blocks frontal systems from reaching as far south as California from late June through early September.
The same four-corners high-pressure system responsible for southern California's phase of hot and humid weather in July is the same pattern responsible for Santa Ana wind events -- extremely dry and windy conditions usually saved for the months of October through March. Temperatures during those events are usually far above average, but they too can bring the coldest nights of the year.
Going into August --now with the Pacific Ocean warmed by as much as is probable-- it is conceivable that little will change in the current pattern until the northern latitudes prepare for the fall equinox. However, if the northwesterlies strengthen along the Oregon/California coast, water temperatures will drop rapidly from upwelling and air temperatures will follow, especially at the coast.
As with all predictions - they are educated guesses based upon numerous historical trends and computer modeling data. The National Weather Service models suggest above average temperatures for southern California through October with little or no measurable rainfall, whereas it predicts below average temperatures for Arizona with more rainfall than average.
Despite predictions of an active Atlantic Ocean hurricane season -so far- it has been a wash. The Pacific ocean hurricane season has been fairly active, but not robust.
Nonetheless, if the coastal waters off southern California and Baja California remain sustainable to tropical storms moving northwest, the threat of a hurricane strike in the region grows during the next eight weeks. In such an event any amount of rainfall in excess of 1 inch would be considered above normal for Los Angeles and San Diego prior to mid-October.
Fast moving hurricanes have hit New England's coast at times when the ocean temperature in the region was 10 degrees cooler than what is presently the case in southern California. The difference is that due to the Gulf Stream off the New Englandís coast, the water temperatures climb dramatically away from the shore, which lend hurricane support all the way up to landfall. The opposite is true in California where water temperatures are lower further out to sea.
---This content is copyrighted by Think & Ask, reproduction of any kind is not permitted without written consent.--- | <urn:uuid:1e841aef-16e6-44f0-805f-0c285da0329e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.thinkandask.com/2006/072906-6calif.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399428.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00194-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961416 | 2,783 | 3.21875 | 3 |
Nabataean Kingdom, Rabbel II and Shuqailat, 70 - 76 A.D.
Shuqailat, Rabbel's mother, likely ruled until her death in his sixth regnal year. Rabbel was a child and during this period he was called "Rabbel, of the Nabataeans." Later he was titled "Rabbel the , of the Nabataeans." This may seem a slight change, but it was significant to the Nabataeans. He was later given the appellation, "who resuscitated and saved his people."GS67115. Silver , 142 - H12 (various years), aF, 3.366 g, maximum 12.3 mm, 0o, Petra mint, 70 - 76 A.D.; Aramaic , "Rabbel, of the Nabataeans, year..." (date off ), laureate and draped of Rabbel II with long hair; Aramaic , "Shuqailat, his mother, queen of the Nabataeans", laureate, draped and veiled of Shuqailat right; ; $60.00 (Ä53.40)
City of Constantinople Commemorative, 334 - 335 A.D.
On 11 May 330, refounded , renamed it after himself, and moved the capital of the Roman Empire from Rome to his new city. Coins were issued with types for Rome and Constantinople to advertise the importance of the new capital.
RL77770. reduced , 241, I 751, 16469, 22, VF, on full , green , 2.426 g, maximum 17.8 mm, 0o, 2nd , (Sisak, Croatia) mint, 334 - 335 A.D.; , laureate and helmeted of left, wearing imperial cloak, over left shoulder; standing left, right foot on prow, in right, resting left on grounded , ēBSISē in ; from the Butte College Foundation, ex ; $7.10 (Ä6.32)
Nabataean Kingdom, Syllaeus and Aretas IV, 9 B.C.
Aretas IV was probably the son of Obodas III, but this is not certain. Syllaeus was chief minister for Obodas III and initially shared rule with Aretas after Obodas death. But the rulers of served under the authority of Rome and Rome, begrudging Syllaeus as an enemy, did not approve. In 24 B.C. Syllaeus had betrayed Rome causing the near massacre of a Roman army sent into . Syllaeus was called to the court at Rome, where in 6 B.C. he was convicted of treason and Obodas' murder. He was beheaded and his body was pitched from the Tarpeian Rock.SH12877. Silver 1/4
or , , Sup. 4; and ,"Nabataean Coinage III", NumChron 1994, pl. 10, VF, 1.069 g, maximum 12.0 mm, 0o, Petra mint, 9 B.C.; diademed of Obodas II, Syllaes' Aramaic (shin) behind; S (shin = Syllaeus) and H (heth = Aretas) in wreath; very ; SOLD
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Charles Crocker in Early American Immigration
Charles Crocker (1822-1888) was a failed miner who became a successful shop-owner in the California Gold Rush, then reinvested the profits from his store to become one of the "Big Four" directors of the Central Pacific Railroad. In that role, Crocker oversaw the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad. Crocker—like his "Big Four" colleagues Leland Stanford, Collis P. Huntington, and Mark Hopkins—earned extravagant wealth from the Central Pacific railroad empire.
In 1865, when faced with a strike threat from white workers building the transcontinental railroad, Crocker hired a gang of 50 Chinese workers to take their jobs. Within two years, 90% of the Central Pacific's labor force was made up of Chinese immigrants, who worked long hours in backbreaking conditions for very low pay. While white workingmen denounced Crocker for hiring "coolie labor," the railroad work Crocker provided sustained California's fledgling Chinese community. | <urn:uuid:d8873c99-63ae-4bf6-bde6-a4c24426728b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.shmoop.com/early-american-immigration/charles-crocker.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398869.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00125-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95649 | 201 | 3.203125 | 3 |
- Image via Wikipedia
Halifax – Dalhousie University’s Eco-Efficiency Centre now offers a cost-free carbon footprint calculator for small- and medium-sized businesses in Canada.
With support from Nova Scotia Environment, the Centre’s calculator is a user-friendly tool to help businesses estimate their environmental impacts through measuring emissions associated with a variety of operations, including energy use, electricity consumption, and freight.
As the term “carbon footprint” has become particularly in vogue in the past several years, customers, governments, and businesses around the world are devoting unprecedented attention to this topic.
The carbon footprints of businesses, known more formally as their “corporate greenhouse gas inventories,” are a measure of the emissions generated through their day-to-day operations. A carbon footprint can include everything from burning natural gas onsite, to business travel, to the electricity consumption, which is a particular concern in Nova Scotia where non-renewable fossil fuels generate the vast majority of electricity in the province.
The Eco-Efficiency Centre’s unique tool seeks to provide businesses with a helpful tool to determine their biggest sources of emissions, as these areas will offer the biggest and potentially most lucrative opportunities to improve operational efficiency. For example, for a business that finds that its greatest source of emissions is electricity generation, switching to more efficient lighting and encouraging employees to turn off unused office equipment can significantly reduce energy consumption, greenhouse gases, and energy costs.
As the sources of emissions will vary between businesses, the Eco-Efficiency Centre will incorporate carbon footprinting support into all of its programs for SMEs in Nova Scotia. Through these tools and services, the Centre will develop industry and regional averages of the SME greenhouse gas emissions throughout Canada. Currently, there are many gaps in this knowledge, and the Centre hopes to that this data will ensure that climate change legislation, such as cap-and-trade schemes, are developed with SME data in mind. In addition, these databases will also help review greenhouse gas-reduction progress, such as those targets set out in Nova Scotia’s Environmental Goals and Sustainable Prosperity Act to reduce emissions in the province 10 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.
In support of the Sustainable Prosperity objectives to align economic and environmental performance, businesses throughout Atlantic Canada will soon be able to tap into expanded services from the Eco-Efficiency Centre, green technology innovations from the Faculty of Engineering, and the University’s corporate social responsibility expertise to develop customized sustainability strategies.
- Conserve Nova Scotia Success Stories (thegreenlibrary.ca)
- New Forest Research Program in Nova Scotia (thegreenlibrary.ca) | <urn:uuid:ea752b23-89ec-4dd1-89b4-870f5f70d3e6> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://thegreenpages.ca/ns/2009/05/eco-efficiency_centre_launches/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393332.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00194-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937816 | 549 | 2.9375 | 3 |
Indian Island was home to two ancient villages; Tuluwat (" Toulouwat ") and Etpidolh ("Etpidalh Watpuroulh "). At Tuluwat, Wiyot held the annual "world renewal ceremony", a dance lasting seven to ten days.
The ground beneath Tuluwat, the Wiyot village, is an enormous clamshell mound (or midden). This mound, measuring over six acres in size and estimated to be over 1,000 years old, is an irreplaceable physical history of the Wiyot way of life. Contained within it are remnants of meals, tools, and ceremonies, as well as many burial sites.
At the end of the 19th century, settlers built dikes and channels on the island. These modifications changed tidal action along the shore, resulting in erosion of the edge of the mound. Between 1913 and 1985, an estimated 2000 cubic yards of the shell mound were lost to erosion, which continues and seems to even be accelerating. In addition, the shell mound was the site of uncontrolled digging in the early part of the 20th century. One amateur archeologist was said to have looted as many as 500 of our gravesites. In addition, structures of the Tuluwat village that were still visible in 1913 are now gone, having been destroyed or carried away by wind and waves.
It is imperative to prevent further destruction of the mound. The planned restoration will eliminate continued erosion and looting while creating and enhancing wildlife habitat.
As part of the survival of the Wiyot culture, the Wiyot Tribe established the Wiyot Sacred Site Fund to purchase back portions of Indian Island as they became available and other sites of religious and/or cultural significance for future generations and for those of today. The Wiyot people who have gone before us and those who are to come would like to invite you to contribute generously to the Wiyot Sacred Site Fund and help heal the past to make a dance for future generations to come.
Through grassroots fundraising, and with the help of the community and individual donors, the Wiyot Tribe was able to purchase back 1.5 acres of the historic village site of Tuluwat on Indian Island in 2000.
Pictured above is Eureka City Council with Wiyot Tribal Leaders immediately following the historic meeting. Photo by Michelle Vassel.
The Eureka City Council made history May 18, 2004 as they unanimously approved a resolution to return approximatley 45 acres, comprising the northeastern tip, of Indian Island to the Wiyot Tribe. Indian Island will be protected from inappropriate development because all zoning and land use restrictions will be in place. In the return of the 60 acres that the City Council passed, there are measures that assure that this will remain the case by prohibiting a change in status or transfer to anyone else, except back to the City of Eureka.
We know of no other city in California that has taken an action as bold as this, and that has a tribute to its indigenous people so prominently in its midst. We wish to express our profound gratitude to the Eureka City Council, and staff, for their visionary and courageous action, and commitment to an enriched inclusive community.
The goal of the Tuluwat project is to restore the cultural heritage and ecological resources of the site and surrounding salt marsh, to construct a cultural center open to the public, and to restore the site to once again perform Tribal ceremonies there. But in order to realize these goals, the Tribe first had to clean up the site, which was the site of a ship repair facility from approximately 1870 to 1990. Tons of scattered metal, wood debris, and hazardous materials littered the area, along with several dilapidated structures and contaminated soil. The Tribe has been in the process of cleaning up the debris and pollutants left on the village site since its purchase. A vast majority of the metal and wood debris has been removed, all but three of the structures were demolished, and the most contaminated soil was excavated. The next steps are to finish the sheet piling for erosion control, rebuild the dock and bulkhead, and install a geotextile and soil cap over the site.
Indian Island Cultural and Environmental Restoration Project
The Natural Resources Department has spearheaded several ongoing restoration activities at the Wiyot village site of Tuluwat on Indian Island in Humboldt Bay. The overarching project, the Indian Island Cultural and Environmental Restoration Project (IICERP), is very complex because of the multiple cultural and environmental conditions that exist at the site: historic injustice, insensitive ecosystem and manipulation, archeological & cultural significance, environmental contamination, and physical isolation all play a part in the project execution.
The Natural Resources Department collaborates with the Wiyot Cultural Department and tribal community, along with a large number of state, federal, and local community agencies and consultants in the ongoing program of improving the environmental and cultural quality of the Tuluwat site. Specifically, the environmental department has acquired funding from the National Park Service Historic Preservation Fund, US EPA Brownfields Program, California Integrated Waste Management Board, the Center for Creative Land Recycling, the Lannan Foundation, California Cultural and Historical Endowmentand others to move the project forward.
These funds, as well as the Tribe's Sacred Sites fund, have allowed the Natural Resources Department to realize the removal of contaminated material, over 60 tons of scrap metal, and many tons of garbage; completion of a brownfields assessment and remediation plan; erosion control achieved through installation of 450 feet of composite sheetpiling backfilled with 300 cubic yards of imported fill; and native plant landscaping over portions of the site. Still ahead, of course, are brownfields project completion (including in-site contaminant remediation) and site re-development, as well as restoration of the salt marsh surrounding the Tuluwat site.
January 2009 Update on the Tuluwat Restoration Project
This fall saw the excavation of the most contaminated material, removal of the solid waste debris, and the demolition of all but three buildings. The only task that remains from that work is the removal of the drums containing the hazardous material. The results of the random sampling of the drums concerned our intended disposal facility, which required us to find a new disposal site. The new site is in Utah, through a company called Safe Harbors. Because of the delay, we requested and received an extension from the US EPA of the deadline for removal of the hazardous material. We are currently coordinating schedules with the barge operator, transfer facility (to unload from the barge onto the truck), and the disposal facility that will also ship the material. It looks as though the drums will be removed from the site in February, then loaded onto the truck for shipping.
The California Cultural and Historical Endowment grant agreement was finalized and signed on December 15, 2008. This grant will mostly pay for the drum removal/disposal, bulkhead restoration, sheet pile completion, and the beginning of the geotextile and soil cap. Unfortunately, the funds are frozen until after the California budget is finalized.
Brush is slowly being cleared from the developed portion of the site and the remaining small debris is being gathered in preparation for the installation of the cap and to control the spread of the more invasive plant species.
For more on IICERP, click here:
For a gallery of images, click here | <urn:uuid:3578cdbf-ed47-4ffb-8c5c-e1dc40189eb8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.wiyot.us/tuluwat-project | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393442.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00133-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956497 | 1,511 | 3.203125 | 3 |
To the editor:
A report appeared recently in the Denver Post titled, "Hunters in Montana kill more bison." It described how bison, more commonly known as buffalo, are killed annually after leaving Yellowstone National Park for low-elevation winter range in Montana.
This slaughter has been going on each and every winter since the mid-1990s. The "reason" given for this killing is that the Montana cattle ranchers fear the bacterial disease brucellosis, which infects some buffalo, might also infect cattle which would cause them to abort their calves.
Yet, the truth is there has never, not even once, been a confirmed case of brucellosis being transmitted from free-roaming bison to cattle.
In spite of this, the slaughter continues every winter. As is so often the case, ignorance prevails. Many that are not shot and killed are simply herded into trucks for the trip to the slaughter yards without being tested.
What a despicable way to treat these magnificent, iconic animals.
In less than two decades, more than 3,000 of the Yellowstone National Park buffalo have been decimated. Nearly one-half of the park's population. The worst carnage occurred during the winter of 2007-08, when 1,090 bison were killed by hunters and government agencies. What a tragedy. So unnecessary, so uncalled for.
I have been privileged to visit Yellowstone annually for many years. I very much enjoy observing these majestic animals, often up close. These creatures are virtually tame and human-friendly. To shoot and kill them, often at close range, is a cowardly betrayal of this trust and morally disgusting.
Carl B. Fritz | <urn:uuid:ef4b8b0f-001f-4a9b-8c08-f70c901c6ee3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.reporterherald.com/opinion/letters/ci_23083550/killing-yellowstone-bison-is-shameful-indeed | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395160.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00109-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972511 | 344 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Proper Care of Contact Lenses
While contact lenses are safely used by millions of people every day, they do carry a risk of eye infection. Factors contributing to infection can include:
- Use of extended-wear lenses;
- Reduced tear exchange under the lens;
- Environmental factors;
- Poor hygiene.
The single best way to avoid eye infections is to follow proper lens care guidelines as prescribed by your eye care professional. In particular, including a "rub and rinse" step in the lens cleaning process, minimizing contact with water while wearing contact lenses and replacing the lens case frequently can help reduce the risk of infection.
Taking Care of Your Lenses
The following guidelines for care of contact lenses have been developed in partnership by the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the Contact Lens Association for Ophthalmologists, the Cornea Society and the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery.
Risk of infection varies somewhat depending on the type of contact lens. Single-use daily disposable lenses are the safest type of soft contact lens, in terms of reducing the risk of infection. Rigid gas permeable lenses are a safer alternative than any type of soft contact lens. Your ophthalmologist can help you decide which type of lens is right for you.
Regardless of the type you decide on, proper care of the lenses is essential to eye health.
- Before handling contact lenses, wash your hands with soap and water, then rinse and dry them with a lint-free towel.
- Minimize contact with water, including removing lenses before going swimming or in a hot tub.
- Contact lenses should not be rinsed with or stored in water (tap or sterile water).
- Do not put your lenses in your mouth to wet them. Saliva is not a sterile solution.
- Do not use saline solution and rewetting drops to disinfect lenses. Neither is an effective or approved disinfectant.
- Wear and replace contact lenses according to the schedule prescribed by your eye care professional.
- Follow the specific contact lens cleaning and storage guidelines from your eye care professional and the solution manufacturer.
- During cleaning, rub your contact lenses with your fingers, then rinse the lenses with solution before soaking them. This "rub and rinse" method is considered by some experts to be a superior method of cleaning, even if the solution you are using is a "no-rub" variety.
- Rinse the contact lens case with fresh solution — not water. Then leave the empty case open to air dry.
- Keep the contact lens case clean and replace it regularly, at least every three months. Lens cases can be a source of contamination and infection. Do not use cracked or damaged lens cases.
Handle your contact lens solution with care:
- Do not re-use old solution or "top off" the solution in your lens case.
- Do not transfer contact lens solution into smaller travel-size containers. This can affect the sterility of the solution, which can lead to an eye infection.
- Do not allow the tip of the solution bottle to come in contact with any surface, and keep the bottle tightly closed when not in use.
- If you store your lenses in the case for an extended period of time, consult the instructions for the lenses or the contact lens solution to determine if re-disinfecting the lenses is appropriate before you wear them. In no case should you wear your lenses after storage for 30 or more days without re-disinfecting.
Some experts recommend that if you use contact lenses sporadically you consider using single-use daily disposable lenses.
Taking Care of Your Eyes
Eye infections can lead to serious vision loss in some cases. Proper care of your eyes is just as important as proper lens care.
- Remove the contact lenses and consult an ophthalmologist immediately if you experience symptoms such as redness, pain, tearing, increased light sensitivity, blurry vision, discharge or swelling.
- If you smoke, stop. Studies show that contact lens wearers who smoke have a higher rate of problems than nonsmokers.
- Beware of using decorative lenses, such as those often sold at costume shops. These lenses have the potential to damage eyes permanently.
- Get regular eye exams. If you wear contact lenses, you should be examined by an eye care provider annually, and more often as needed.
As with any prescription, contact lens prescriptions do expire — typically within one year. You should see your eye care professional yearly to ensure they continue to have an accurate and appropriate prescription. These regular exams are also important opportunities for reinforcing proper lens care. | <urn:uuid:41fec008-4292-4a25-835f-5e8960e4ff65> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.aao.org/eye-health/glasses-contacts/contact-lens-care | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393146.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00017-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.91373 | 947 | 2.75 | 3 |
New analyses of NASA airborne radar data collected in 2012 reveal the radar detected indications of a huge sinkhole before it collapsed and forced evacuations near Bayou Corne, La., that year.
The findings suggest such radar data, if collected routinely from airborne systems or satellites, could at least in some cases foresee sinkholes before they happen, decreasing danger to people and property.
Sinkholes are depressions in the ground formed when Earth surface layers collapse into caverns below. They usually form without warning. The data were collected as part of an ongoing NASA campaign to monitor sinking of the ground along the Louisiana Gulf Coast.
Researchers Cathleen Jones and Ron Blom of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., analyzed interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) imagery of the area acquired during flights of the agency's Uninhabited Airborne Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR), which uses a C-20A jet, in June 2011 and July 2012. InSAR detects and measures very subtle deformations in Earth's surface.
Their analyses showed the ground surface layer deformed significantly at least a month before the collapse, moving mostly horizontally up to 10.2 inches (260 millimeters) toward where the sinkhole would later form. These precursory surface movements covered a much larger area -- about 1,640 by 1,640 feet, (500 by 500 meters) -- than that of the initial sinkhole, which measured about 2 acres (1 hectare).
Results of the study are published in the February issue of the journal Geology.
"While horizontal surface deformations had not previously been considered a signature of sinkholes, the new study shows they can precede sinkhole formation well in advance," said Jones. "This kind of movement may be more common than previously thought, particularly in areas with loose soil near the surface."
The Bayou Corne sinkhole formed unexpectedly Aug. 3, 2012, after weeks of minor earthquakes and bubbling natural gas that provoked community concern. It was caused by the collapse of a sidewall of an underground storage cavity connected to a nearby well operated by Texas Brine Company and owned by Occidental Petroleum. On-site investigation revealed the storage cavity, located more than 3,000 feet (914 meters) underground, had been mined closer to the edge of the subterranean Napoleonville salt dome than thought. The sinkhole, which filled with slurry -- a fluid mixture of water and pulverized solids -- has gradually expanded and now measures about 25 acres (10.1 hectares) and is at least 750 feet (229 meters) deep. It is still growing.
"Our work shows radar remote sensing could offer a monitoring technique for identifying at least some sinkholes before their surface collapse, and could be of particular use to the petroleum industry for monitoring operations in salt domes," said Blom. "Salt domes are dome-shaped structures in sedimentary rocks that form where large masses of salt are forced upward. By measuring strain on Earth's surface, this capability can reduce risks and provide quantitative information that can be used to predict a sinkhole's size and growth rate."
Typically, sinkholes have no natural external surface drainage, and they form through natural processes and human activities. They occur in regions of karst"terrain where the rock below the surface can be dissolved by groundwater, most commonly in areas with limestone or other carbonate rocks, gypsum or salt beds. When the rocks dissolve, they form spaces and caverns underground. Sinkholes vary in size from a few feet across to hundreds of acres, and some can be very deep. They are common hazards worldwide and are found in all regions of the United States, with Florida, Missouri, Texas, Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee and Pennsylvania reporting the most sinkhole damage. While sinkhole deaths are rare, in February 2013 a man in Tampa, Fla., was killed when his house was swallowed by a sinkhole.
The human-produced Bayou Corne sinkhole occurred in an area not prone to sinkholes. The Gulf Coast of Louisiana and eastern Texas sits on an ancient ocean floor with salt layers that form domes as the lower-density salt rises. The Napoleonville salt dome underneath Bayou Corne extends to within 690 feet (210 meters) of the surface. Various companies mine caverns in the dome by dissolving the salt to obtain brine and subsequently store fuels and salt water in the caverns.
Jones and Blom say continued UAVSAR monitoring of the area as recently as October 2013 has shown a widening area of deformation, with the potential to affect other nearby storage cavities located near the salt dome's outer wall. Because the Bayou Corne sinkhole is now filled with water, it is harder to measure deformation of the area using InSAR. However, if the deformation extends far past the sinkhole boundaries, InSAR could continue to track surface movement caused by changes below the surface.
Continued growth of the sinkhole threatens the community and Highway 70, so there is a pressing need for reliable estimates of how fast it may expand and how big it may eventually get.
"This kind of data could be of great value in determining the direction in which the sinkhole is likely to expand," said Jones. "At Bayou Corne, it appears that material is continuing to flow into the huge cavern that is undergoing collapse."
Blom says there are no immediate plans to fly UAVSAR over sinkhole-prone areas.
"You could spend a lot of time flying and processing data without capturing a sinkhole," he said. "Our discovery at Bayou Corne was really serendipitous. But it does demonstrate one of the expected benefits of an InSAR satellite that would image wide areas frequently."
"Every year, unexpected ground motions from sinkholes, landslides and levee failures cost millions of dollars and many lives," said Jones. "When there is small movement prior to a catastrophic collapse, such subtle precursory clues can be detected by InSAR."
NASA monitors Earth's vital signs from land, air and space with a fleet of satellites and ambitious airborne and ground-based observation campaigns. NASA develops new ways to observe and study Earth's interconnected natural systems with long-term data records and computer analysis tools to better see how our planet is changing. The agency shares this unique knowledge with the global community and works with institutions in the United States and around the world that contribute to understanding and protecting our home planet.
For more information about UAVSAR, visit: http://uavsar.jpl.nasa.gov/
For more information about NASA's Earth science activities in 2014, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/earthrightnow
For information on the latest NASA Earth science findings, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/earth
The California Institute of Technology manages JPL for NASA.
News Media ContactAlan Buis
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
NASA Headquarters, Washington | <urn:uuid:992f4352-b480-41b2-9000-5012c6948aa2> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2014-073 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00186-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941644 | 1,450 | 3.359375 | 3 |
- change ups
Focus on accomplishments to build self-esteem
People often minimize the importance of learning from failure. Too often people consciously seek to avoid failure because they fear more what others will think than they feel might be learned from their mistakes.
While a sense of the past is an important part of building an identity, when individuals anchor themselves in history — seeking the comfort in being “where they are” rather than “where they could be” — they tend to lose track of where they are going (or what they could possibly become). The past is a critical component of what we are, but far more valuable is the sense of self-esteem and accomplishment that can be gained by acknowledging reality, learning from it and moving on to another adventure.
That is the issue I see most lacking in today’s emerging work force, yet I fear we are more to blame than those entering “our world” with the desire to be treated “like everyone else.”
My youngest son (now happily employed in a field he loves) once bemoaned the fact that he was the youngest in the family, working the most hours yet earning the least money. Should my compassionate, esteem-building reaction have been to say that we understood he was working hard and that we would help to offset his feelings of financial inadequacy by supplementing his income to a level that would be more appropriate? Was I wrong for saying that life isn’t always fair — that he should continue to develop himself to his highest potential so that he could feel good about what he did and what he earned in the future?
It seems that the desire to build a “positive self-esteem” has supplanted the need to identify and overcome the barriers that life places before us — both in our schools and workplaces — often at the expense of success and accomplishment.
Being involved in work force development and seeing students entering employment has allowed me to see the results of “self-esteem” being elevated to one of the more important aspects of education. It appears that teachers want students to feel better about their self-concept than about what they can accomplish. An elementary teacher once told us that it was her job to make everyone feel as though they were an equal contributor to the classes’ success: excluding nobody and leaving nobody behind.
While there is value in helping those who do not understand, should that help come at the expense of individual achievement? Some schools give little attention to proper spelling (“spell check will handle that”) and don’t worry about basic math concepts (“that’s what calculators are for”). In sporting events, schools tend to focus on the equality of playing time — regardless of an athlete’s ability — and on sportsmanship rather than on winning.
In moderation, these are not bad concepts. In practice, however, it seems that students are more often being rewarded for effort rather than accomplishment, receiving more praise for simply trying than for actually achieving. The result of this thinking was recently brought to my attention when a family friend contacted me for help finding a job in “marketing or human resource management.” Since he’d graduated from college, he didn’t feel the need to first learn the ropes — his education pre-qualified him to be a manager.
Business doesn’t do much better than schools at establishing independence or building self-esteem. We avoid confrontation by conducting performance reviews that establish marginal work patterns as being proficient (yet we always know who to let go when there is a downturn; their performance reviews just don’t often verify our knowledge). Giving an “across the board” pay increase minimizes friction but rewards mediocrity. Organizations develop workplace teams so that nobody is left out of the decision-making process, but the tactic often causes unnecessary delay in the implementation of “workable solutions.”
Our fervor to make people “feel good” can remove their motivation to accomplish more. Students receiving praise for working hard to almost get the right answer, or workers receiving a small raise for doing most of an assigned project tend to adopt that level of performance as acceptable. Why should they reach beyond where they are if they can receive praise and recognition for achieving the minimum?
Self-esteem can influence what we accomplish but there are several common mistakes to avoid when constructively establishing and maintaining an individual’s self-concept:
- Rewarding efforts (which may actually be leading toward failure) and/or assigning new responsibilities rather than recognizing and rewarding accomplishment (or addressing failure).
- Placing unqualified or inexperienced individuals into positions they want that they have no proven ability to perform, rewarding their self-concept but potentially breeding frustration and failure (unless appropriate orientation and/or training is provided).
- Praising an individual for trying hard with the hope that he or she will be encouraged to perform better in the future without any change in training or expectations. Such hollow praise often establishes a lower level of acceptable performance.
- Treating people equally rather that equitably. People are created equal — but perhaps some are created “more equal” than others. We all have gifts and abilities that contribute differently to success and accomplishment. Treating people equally can minimize confrontation, but the practice often helps to retain the under-qualified, “reward the average” and de-motivate high achievers.
We have been told that a good self-concept breeds success. I would offer that success creates a good self-concept. We have been told that students and workers need to work as equals within teams to accomplish anything. I would offer that all teams need a leader — a collector of ideas or a champion — to accomplish change. We have been told that rewarding the process will enhance creativity, thereby minimizing the fear of failure. I would offer that rewarding an individual’s accomplishments while constructively addressing sub-standard efforts will foster creativity and encourage risk-taking behavior, potentially eliminating the fear of failure.
We often feel that it’s good to think about a person’s self-esteem. Perhaps it’s better to encourage their success.
David J. Smith is president and CEO of The Employers’ Association, a not-for-profit provider of human resource solutions since 1939. | <urn:uuid:85b39cdd-9b44-419d-be3f-da559ce2cb07> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.grbj.com/articles/71829 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397565.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00034-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97527 | 1,305 | 2.953125 | 3 |
Fail to obey (rules, a command, or someone in authority): around 1,000 soldiers had disobeyed orders and surrendered
More example sentences
- She never disobeyed laws or rules for her own ill-gotten gains, it was just that she was good at it, and it was fun.
- That is what civil disobedience is: disobeying existing laws in order to promote change.
- She had disobeyed a witness summons ordering her to give evidence at the trial.
- Example sentences
- The counter argument, from the disobeyer's point of view, is that the social contract is a fiction as there is no historical evidence of any such agreement ever being entered into.
- Lovers of freedom, lovers of social justice, disarmers, peacekeepers, civil disobeyers, democrats, civil rights activists, and defenders of the environment are legions in a single multiform cause.
- All we need to do is assign teams to organize civil disobeyers for each bridge.
For editors and proofreaders
Line breaks: dis|obey
What do you find interesting about this word or phrase?
Comments that don't adhere to our Community Guidelines may be moderated or removed. | <urn:uuid:7b3392ce-5e4c-448d-903f-a56464d08a8d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/english/disobey | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402746.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00147-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954485 | 250 | 2.984375 | 3 |
With cell phone cameras making significant advances in image quality and in the ability to edit photos via apps like Instagram, many people are opting to use their cell phones as their primary camera. They cite reasons such as the fact that they always have their phone with them and that the phone can do many other things — check email, post to social media such as Twitter, Facebook, G+, make phone calls, and send text messages — that a camera, no matter how tricked out, cannot do.
However, while cell phones can do many things, any full-frame camera can do one thing better than a cell phone will ever do. That thing is taking high-quality photos. Why is this? In the end, it comes down to size.
Size does matter in photography. The larger the sensor, the more it can do. A large sensor can capture more of an image, can record more of the depth of color and the depth of field. A dedicated aperture can soften or harden the focus, allowing the photographer to manipulate the image while he captures it. A camera can also allow for true optical zoom while a cell phone must settle for digital zoom only. And, with many cameras coming out today with on-board WiFi, the ability to send photos via email, text, or share them to social media sites is just as easy with a smart camera as it is with a smartphone.
Why does size matter in a camera’s sensor? Because a larger sensor contains more photosensitive diodes. These sensors and diodes are to a digital camera what film was to the older cameras. A full-frame sensor is one that is the equivalent to 35 mm film. It measures 36mm x 24mm in size. Higher-end cameras, such as the DSLRs that many professional photographers use, sport 50 mm x 39 mm sensors. The average cell phone, on the other hand, has a sensor that measures only 5 mm x 4 mm. The larger the sensor, the more diodes. The more diodes, the more photosensitive the camera is. The more photosensitive, the more information it can store about the images — light, colors, outlines, and depth.
No matter how advanced cell phone cameras become, due to the sheer physical dimensions required, they will not be able to beat a true camera in the realm of photography.
— da Bird
Image taken from Engadget, Why your camera’s sensor size matters | <urn:uuid:3d63cfa6-0afb-48e7-9598-5de90dd34e4f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.beachcamera.com/blog/why-buy-a-full-frame-camera/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397842.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00037-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950397 | 501 | 2.828125 | 3 |
PHOTOVOLTAIC MARKETS AND APPLICATIONS
Southwest Technology Development Institute
New Mexico State University
Solar energy is the energy force that sustains life on the earth for all plants, animals, and people. The earth receives this radiant energy from the sun in the form of electromagnetic waves, which the sun continually emits into space. The earth is essentially a huge solar energy collector receiving large quantities of this energy which manifests itself in various forms, such as direct sunlight used through photosynthesis by plants, heated air masses causing wind, and evaporation of the oceans resulting as rain which can form rivers. This solar energy can be tapped directly as solar energy (thermal and photovoltaics), and indirectly as wind, biomass, and hydroelectric energy.
Solar energy is a renewable resource that is inexhaustible and is locally available. It is a clean energy source that allows for local energy independence. The sun’s power flow reaching the earth is typically about 1,000 Watts per square meter (W/m2), although availability varies with location and time of year. Capturing solar energy typically requires equipment with a relatively high initial capital cost. However, over the lifetime of the solar equipment, these systems can prove to be cost-competitive, as compared to conventional energy technologies. The key to successful solar energy installation is to use quality components that have long lifetimes and require minimal maintenance.
ELECTRICITY FROM SUNLIGHT (PHOTOVOLTAICS)
Electricity can be produced from sunlight through direct heating of fluids to generate steam for large scale centralized electrical generation (solar thermal electrical generation). Electricity can alternatively be produced from sunlight through a process called photovoltaics (PV), which can be applied, in either a centralized or decentralized fashion.
“Photo” refers to light and “voltaic” to voltage. The term describes a solid-state electronic cell that produces direct current electrical energy from the radiant energy of the sun, as represented in Figure 1. Solar cells are made of semi-conducting material, most commonly silicon, coated with special additives. When light strikes the cell, electrons are knocked loose from the silicon atoms and flow in a built-in circuit, producing electricity.
Solar Cell: The PV cell is the component responsible for converting light to electricity. Some materials (e.g., silicon is the most common) produce a photovoltaic effect, where sunlight frees electrons striking the silicon material. The freed electrons cannot return to the positively charged sites (“holes”) without flowing through an external circuit, thus generating current. Solar cells are designed to absorb as much light as possible and are interconnected in series and parallel electrical connections to produce desired voltages and currents.
PV Module: A PV module is composed of interconnected solar cells that are encapsulated between a glass cover and weatherproof backing. The modules are typically framed in aluminum frames suitable for mounting.
PV Array: PV modules are connected in series and parallel to form an array of modules, thus increasing total available power output to the needed voltage and current for a particular application.
Peak Watt (Wp): PV modules are rated by their total power output, or peak Watts. A peak Watt is the amount of power output a PV module produces at Standard Test Conditions (STC) of a module operating temperature of 25°C in full noontime sunshine (irradiance) of 1,000 Watts per square meter. Keep in mind that modules often operate much hotter than 25°C in all but cold climates, reducing operating voltage and power by about 0.5% for every 1°C hotter, thus a 100W module operating at 45°C (20° hotter than STC yielding a 10% power drop) would actually produce about 90 Watts.
A thin silicon cell, four inches across, can produce more than one watt of direct current (DC) electrical power in full sun. Individual solar cells can be connected in series and parallel to obtain desired voltages and currents. These groups of cells are packaged into standard modules that protect the cells from the environment while providing useful voltages and currents. PV modules are extremely reliable since they are solid state and there are no moving parts. Silicon PV cells manufactured today can provide over thirty years of useful service life. Some manufacturers provide warranties of up to 25 years on their PV product (at 80 percent of original power rating). A 50 Wp PV module in direct sunlight operating at 25°C will generate 50 Watts per hour (referred to as a Watt-hour[Wh]). This same module will produce less power at higher temperatures; at 55°C this same module can only produce about 42.5 W. Modules can be connected together in series and/or parallel in an array to provide required voltages and currents for a particular application.
PV systems are made up of a variety of components, which aside from the modules, may include conductors, fuses, disconnects, controls, batteries, trackers, and inverters. Components will vary somewhat depending on the application. PV systems are modular by nature, thus systems can be readily expanded and components easily repaired or replaced if needed. PV systems are cost effective for many remote power applications, as well as for small stand-alone power applications in proximity to the existing electric grid.
PV is a relatively new and unknown technology, which offers a new vision for consumers and business as to how power can be provided. PV technology is already proving to be a force for social change in rural areas in less developed countries. The unique aspect of PV is that it is a “radical” or “disruptive” type of technology as compared to conventional power generation technologies. PV is a technology that does not build from the old technology base, but rather replaces that base from the bottom up. PV allows people the opportunity to ignore traditional electrical power supply structures and meet their own power needs locally. In rural regions of the world today, where there are no power companies offering electricity, PV is often the technology of choice.
The best performing renewable energy electrification systems are those that meet the expectations of the users. It is important to satisfy the basic needs of the user in order to ensure acceptance of renewable energy systems. Ownership and subsequent accountability is the key to system sustainability for PV.
One 50 Wp PV module is enough to power four or five small fluorescent bulbs, a radio, and a 15-inch black-and-white television set for up to 5 hours a day. Obviously this is only a modest amount of energy, however this represents an important quality of life improvement for many rural people without electricity. A small PV solar home system can cost as little as $550 to 650. This represents a significant monetary investment for a rural campesino in Mexico and several months’ worth of income. The need for financing and innovative financing instruments that can assist rural people to obtain better services through the private marketplace is obvious.
GLOBAL PHOTOVOLTAIC MARKETS
The fast growing world market for PV greatly reflects the growing rural electrification demand of less developed countries around the world. The global PV market has grown at an average rate of 16 percent per year over the decade with village power driving demand. Table 2 shows the total worldwide PV production in 1980 was only 6.5 megawatts (MW) and by 1997 this had increased to 126.7 MW.
Table 2. Worldwide PV production
1980 1986 1989 1991 1993 1996 1997
TOTAL (MW) 6.5 26.0 40.2 55.4 60.1 88.6 126.7
Source: O’Meara, 1998.
U.S. module production is leading world growth as well. In 1993 the U.S. produced 21 MW of PV, of which 14.8 MW was exported. By 1997, global demand led to a record breaking PV production year with a 42 percent leap in worldwide production. The U.S. produced 46.4 MW with $175 million in sales and exported 33.8 MW (73 percent of production) overseas (EIA, 1998).
There are over 500,000 homes using PV today in villages around the world for electricity (Flavin and O’Meara, 1998b). In Kenya, more rural households receive electricity from PV than from the conventional power grid (Kozloff and Shobowale, 1994). The single largest market sector for PV is village power at about 45 percent of worldwide sales. This is mostly comprised of small home lighting systems and water pumping. Remote industrial applications such as communications are the second largest market segment.
For many applications, especially remote site and small power applications, PV power is the most cost-effective option available, not to mention its environmental benefits. New PV modules generally retail for about $5 per peak watt, depending on quantities purchased. Batteries, inverters, and other balance of system components can raise the overall price of a PV system to over $10 – $15 per installed Watt. PV modules on the market today are guaranteed by manufacturer’s from 10 to 20 years, while many of these should provide over 30 years of useful life. It is important when designing PV systems to be realistic and flexible, and not to overdesign the system or overestimate energy requirements (e.g., overestimating water-pumping requirements) so as not to have to spend more money than needed. PV conversion efficiencies and manufacturing processes will continue to improve, causing prices to gradually decrease.
PV conversion efficiencies have increased with commercially available modules that are from 12 to 17 percent efficient, and research laboratory cells demonstrate efficiencies above 34 percent. A well-designed PV system will operate unattended and requires minimum periodic maintenance, which can result in significant labor savings. PV modules on the market today are guaranteed by the manufacturer from 10 to 25 years and should last well over 30 years. PV conversion efficiencies and manufacturing processes will continue to improve, causing prices to gradually decrease, however no dramatic overnight price breakthroughs are expected.
COMMON PHOTOVOLTAIC APPLICATIONS
PV is best suited for remote site applications that have small to moderate power requirements, or small power consuming applications even where the grid is in existence. A few power companies are also promoting limited grid-connected PV systems, but the large market for this technology is for stand-alone (off grid) applications. Some common PV applications are as follows:
Pumping water is one of the most competitive arenas for PV power since it is simple, reliable, and requires almost no maintenance. Agricultural watering needs are usually greatest during sunnier periods when more water can be pumped with a solar system. PV powered pumping systems are excellent for small to medium scale pumping needs (e.g., livestock tanks) and rarely exceed applications requiring more than a 2 hp motor. There are thousands of agricultural PV water pumping systems in the field today throughout Texas. PV pumping systems main advantages are that no fuel is required and little maintenance is needed.
PV powered water pumping system is similar to any other pumping system, only the power source is solar energy; PV pumping systems have, as a minimum, a PV array, a motor, and a pump. PV water pumping arrays are fixed mounted or sometimes placed on passive trackers (which use no motors) to increase pumping time and volume. AC and DC motors with centrifugal or displacement pumps are used with PV pumping systems. The most inexpensive PV pumpers cost less than $1,500, while the large systems can run over $20,000. Most PV water pumpers rarely exceed 2 horsepower in size. Well installed quality PV water pumping systems can provide over 20 years of reliable and continuous service.
The reason users like to use PV water pumping systems can be seen in example survey results obtained from Mexico for the SNL water pumping program (22 end-users surveyed) provided in Figure 7 (Foster, 1998). The increased leisure time, less site visits, and considerably less operation and maintenance.
Figure 7. Perceived end-user socio-economic benefits from photovoltaic water pumping systems use for ranchers.
Commercially available PV powered electric gate openers use wireless remote controls that start a motorized actuator that releases a gate latch, opens the gate, and closes the gate behind the vehicle. Gates are designed to stop if resistance is met as a safety mechanism. Units are available that can be used on gates up to 16 feet wide and weighing up to 250 pounds. Batteries are charged by small PV modules of only a few watts. Digital keypads are available to allow access with an entry code for persons without a transmitter. Solar powered gate-opening assemblies with a PV module and transmitter sell for about $700.
PV power can be used to electrify fences for livestock and animals. Commercially available packaged units have maintenance free 6 or 12 Volt sealed gel cell batteries (never need to add water) for day and night operation. These units deliver safe (non-burning) power spikes (shocks) typically in the 8,000 to 12,000 Volt range. Commercial units are UL rated and can effectively electrify about 25 to 30 miles of fencing. Commercially packaged units are available from about $150 to $300, depending on voltage and other features.
Water Tank De-Icers
For the north plains of Texas in the winter, PV power can be used to melt ice for livestock tanks, which frees a rancher from going out to the tank with an ax to break the surface ice so the cows can drink the water. The PV module provides power to a small compressor on the tank bottom that generates air bubbles underwater, which rise to the surface of the tank. This movement of the water with the air bubbles melts the tank’s surface ice. Commercially available units are recommended for tanks 10 feet in diameter or greater, and can also be used with ponds. Performance is best for tanks that are sheltered, bermed or insulated. Installation is not recommended for small, unsheltered tanks in extremely cold and windy sites. Approximate cost for a complete owner-installed system, including a PV module, compressor, and mounting pole is about $450 (Foster, 1994).
PV powered lighting systems are reliable and a low cost alternative widely used throughout the United States. Security, billboard sign, area, and outdoor lighting are all viable applications for PV. It’s often cheaper to put in a PV lighting system as opposed to installing a grid lighting system that requires a new transformer, trenching across parking lots, etc. Most stand-alone PV lighting systems operate at 12 or 24 volts DC. Efficient fluorescent or sodium lamps are recommended for their high efficiency of lumens per watt. Batteries are required for PV lighting systems. Deep cycle batteries specifically designed for PV applications should be used for energy storage for lighting systems. Batteries should be located in protective enclosures, and manufacturer’s installation and maintenance instructions should be followed. Batteries should be regulated with a quality charge controller. Lighting system prices vary depending on the size; average systems cost from $600 to $1,500.
Over 500,000 homes worldwide use PV power as their only source of electricity. In Texas, a residence located more than a mile from the electric grid can install a PV system more inexpensively than extending the electric grid. A Texas residence opting to go solar requires about a 2 kW PV array to meet its energy needs, at a cost of about $15,000. The first rule with PV is always energy efficiency. A PV system can provide enough power for an energy efficient refrigerator, lights, television, stereo, and other common household appliances.
A great number of PV installations for homes have taken place in Mexico. The experience of PV electrification varies widely across Mexico and is demonstrative of the potential pitfalls of haphazard installations. Over 40,000 PV home lighting systems have been installed in Mexico, mostly through government programs (Foster, 1998). However, nearly half of these systems are not functioning today, mostly due to poor balance of systems hardware (i.e., the PV modules work fine), where improper batteries and poor quality charge controllers are used. It is important for any PV user to use quality equipment and install PV systems in accordance with local electric codes. This greatly reduces the potential for future problems.
PV powered packaged evaporative cooling units are commercially available and take advantage of the natural relation that when maximum cooling is required is when maximum solar energy is available. These units are most appropriate for comfort cooling in the dry climate of West Texas where performance is best. Direct evaporative coolers save 70% of the energy over refrigerated units. Battery storage is obviously required if cooler operation is desired at night. Array size would vary with the power requirements of the cooler motor. A linear current booster (LCB) is useful between the PV modules and the cooler’s DC motor if the cooler is coupled directly to the PV array. Packaged PV evaporative cooling systems for residences generally run from $500 to $1,500, depending on size.
This was one of the early important markets for PV technologies, and continues to be an important market. Isolated mountaintops and other rural areas are ideal for stand-alone PV systems where maintenance and power accessibility makes PV the ideal technology. These are often large systems, sometimes placed in hybrid applications with propane or other type of generators.
Consumer electronics that have low power requirements are one of the most common uses for PV technologies today. Solar powered watches, calculators, and cameras are all everyday applications for PV technologies. Typically, these applications use amorphous PV technologies that work well even in artificial light environments such as offices and classrooms.
Electric Utility Applications
A potential future growth area for photovoltaics is the utility market, which currently amounts to less than 10% of U.S. PV installations. While PV today is not very competitive in grid-tied applications, a number of utilities across the U.S. are evaluating PV for off-grid and grid-tied applications. The White House and Department of Energy are promoting the “Million Solar Roofs Initiative,” whose goal is to put solar energy on these many roofs (both solar thermal and PV systems) by the year 2010. However, major power policy reforms and tax incentives are needed if this goal is going to be effectively realized.
Utilities have numerous uses for small power sources, often at remote sites that are difficult to power conventionally, such as lighting for transmission towers, water pumping, cathodic protection for structures, sectionalizing switches, monitoring systems and microwave communication links. While this utility market is not large these applications are cost-effective today.
The Photovoltaics for Utility Scale Applications (PVUSA) project initiated in 1986 is a joint effort between PG&E, DOE and other utilities across the country including the City of Austin Electric Utility. This project focuses on evaluation of PV within the U.S. utility sector. The City of Austin Electric Department is a PVUSA host site with an installed a 20kW experimental array in 1992. The City of Austin Electric Utility has also built a 300kW PV array by Decker Lake, as well as Several U.S. utilities are investigating using PV systems as a 2.7kW PV system located on a youth hostel in Austin to evaluate PV as a future demand-side management tool.
Another Texas utility, Central and Southwest Services, has also built a pioneering renewable energy demonstration park near Fort Davis. They have installed over 300 kW of different PV technologies connected to the electric grid. Both the Austin Utility and Central and Southwest are members of the Utility Photovoltaic Group (UPVG) which is comprised of numerous utilities and trade associations across the U.S.
The future is bright for continued PV technology dissemination in the Southwest U.S. and around the world. PV technology fills a significant need in supplying electricity, creating local jobs and promoting economic development in rural areas, while also having the positive benefits of avoiding the external environmental costs associated with traditional electrical generation technologies. People who choose to pursue a renewable and sustainable energy future now, are the ones showing the way for the future.
EIA, Energy Information Agency, “Solar Energy,” ftp://ftp.eia.doe.gov/pub/solar.renewables/solar.txt, U.S. Department of Energy, Washington, D.C., October, 1998.
Flavin, Christopher and Molly O’Meara, Karl Böer (editor), “Financing Solar Home Systems in Developing Countries: Examples of New Market Strategies,” Advances in Solar Energy, Volume 12, American Solar Energy Society, Boulder, Colorado, 1998a.
Flavin, Christopher and Molly O’Meara, “Solar Power Markets Boom,” World Watch, Vol. 11, No. 5, Washington, D. C., September/October, 1998b.
Foster, Robert, Photovoltaic Market Development and Barriers in Mexico, MBA Thesis, Graduate School of Business, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico, December, 1998, 206 pp.
Foster, R. E., “Photovoltaic Energy for Agriculture,” Energy Conservation and Management Division; Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department, Santa Fe, New Mexico, June, 1994, 6 pp.
Kozloff, Keith and Olatokumbo Shobowale, “Rethinking Development Assistance for Renewable Electricity,” World Resources Institute, Washington, D.C., November, 1994.
O’Meara, Molly, “Solar Cells Shipments Hit New High,” Vital Signs, 1998, WorldWatch Institute, Washington, D.C., 1998.
What’s the correct angle for your PV modules? Here’s the answer!
Led by Associate Professor Greg Metha, Head of Chemistry, the researchers are exploring how the metal nanoparticles act as highly efficient catalysts in using solar radiation to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. “Efficient and direct production of hydrogen from solar radiation provides a renewable energy source that is the pinnacle of clean energy,” said Associate Professor Greg Metha. “We believe this work will contribute significantly to the global effort to convert solar energy into portable chemical energy.”
Inkjet printers, a low-cost technology that in recent decades has revolutionized home and small office printing, may soon offer similar benefits for the future of solar energy. Engineers at Oregon State University have discovered a way for the first time to create successful “CIGS” solar devices with inkjet printing, in work that reduces raw material waste by 90 percent and will significantly lower the cost of producing solar energy cells with some very promising compounds. | <urn:uuid:9930b9fe-e5a2-48c0-8b86-e139fd8b77dd> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.epsea.org/pv.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396949.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00094-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930206 | 4,710 | 3.875 | 4 |
A pair of space telescopes to be launched later this month will help to answer some of the biggest questions in the Universe – such as how did we get to where we are now, and where are we likely to end up.
Each telescope is designed to probe the deepest recesses of space to unravel the origins of matter, from the earliest beginnings of the Universe some 13.7 billion years ago to the creation of the stars, galaxies and planets.
One of the telescopes, called Planck, will study in unprecedented detail the ancient "fossilised" radiation left over as a relic of the Big Bang. The analysis could help to explain how the Universe formed through a process of rapid expansion, called inflation, in the first fractions of a second after the Big Bang itself.
The other telescope, called Herschel, will concentrate on the invisible, infrared radiation emitted by the star-forming regions of the galaxies in the hope of explaining how stellar objects, from stars like the Sun to planets such as Earth, can form from clouds of cosmic gas, dust and debris.
Scientists involved in the twin mission hope that the data gleaned from instruments on board each telescope will enable them to fill in the remaining mysteries of how the Universe came into existence, how it evolved and how it is likely to end – if indeed it ever will.
"We're looking at the physics at the very beginning of the physical universe," said Professor David Southwood, director of science at the European Space Agency, which is scheduled to launch the satellites from its station in Kourou, French Guyana on 14 May. Instruments on board the Planck telescope, named after the German physicist Max Planck, will be kept at minus 272.7C – just 0.3 degrees above absolute zero – in order to detect the cosmic background radiation left over from the Big Bang.
"These results will allow us to test our theories of the Big Bang and could completely change our understanding of the origin and development of our Universe and even predict its future," said Professor George Efstathiou of Cambridge University.
"By understanding the process of inflation, we make contact with fundamental physics."
Herschel, meanwhile, will gather infrared radiation emitted from the vast dust clouds of space where stars and galaxies are forming. With its 3.5-metre-wide mirror, Herschel will be the biggest telescope in space, said Professor Matt Griffin of Cardiff University.
"The results could reveal how stars like the Sun are forming in our own galaxy today, how the galaxies grew and evolved over cosmic time, and how planetary systems can develop from the dust and gas around young stars," Professor Griffin said.
Both telescopes will be launched on the same Arianne V rocket, which will take them to their final, and separate, resting orbits about 1.5 million kilometres (930,000 miles) from Earth.
It will take about six months before the first data is received at a listening station built near a monastery in Western Australia, 125 miles from Perth. | <urn:uuid:8b6a27c7-94ba-462f-ae3a-435e5a87b81d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/telescopes-that-could-see-the-future-1677662.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402479.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00026-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940564 | 614 | 3.828125 | 4 |
JERUSALEM (Jun. 7)
Prof. Nahman Avigad, head of an archaeological team, disclosed today that the remains of a pre-Herodian building of “monumental” proportions were unearthed during excavations in the Jewish quarter of the Old City last year. He said a column base almost two yards wide was found indicating that the structure possessed columns at least 12 yards high, reminiscent of the Hasmonaean palace once built in Jerusalem. According to Prof. Avigad, such columns were usually used in a temple rather than a palace. King Herod, a ruler of Judaea, lived between 73-4 BCE. The archaeologist said capitals of “superb design” were found near the column base. | <urn:uuid:01ee24f1-88c3-4602-ab7b-329c69e7ad88> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.jta.org/1971/06/08/archive/remains-of-pre-herodian-building-uncovered-during-excavations-in-old-city | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395560.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00083-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978277 | 156 | 2.953125 | 3 |
National Science & Engineering Week 2011: register your event, competiton news, teaching resources and more.
© British Science Association
Looking to enthuse your pupils in science?
About National Science & Engineering Week 2011, (NSEW)
National Science & Engineering Week takes place March 11-20, 2011 and is a national celebration of the sciences and engineering. The theme for 2011 is Communication and it's open to any school or organisation to arrange an event to celebrate the Week, including museums and science centres round the UK.
You can book a science presenter, organise a science fair, get resources for cross-curricular activities across the entire school or take a class on a trip. Find inspiration with case-studies of past NSEW Event Award finalists on the British Science Association website.
Register your event for the School Prize Draw
Register before February 8, 2011 for the School Prize Draw with prizes for over 130 schools.
NSEW Event Awards – cash prizes
Did you know you could also self-nominate for an NSEW Event Award?
NSEW Event Awards, sponsored by EngineeringUK, recognise the best events that take place during NSEW each year, with cash prizes of between £200 and £800 in the following categories:
Best Science Event
Best Engineering Event
Best Primary School Event
Best Secondary School Event
Outstanding Contribution Award
Nominations are now open and close on February 4, 2011. The winning school/organisation in each event category receives £600, and for 2011 there’s an additional £200 prize for runners-up. If you have been organising NSEW events for a number of years then the Outstanding Contribution Award, along with an £800 prize for science and engineering engagement activities, could be yours.
Find out more and download NSEW resources
Click on the link above for full details of NSEW Event Award applications and resources including Activity Packs, How To guides and other downloadable material to put on your event. | <urn:uuid:0629c8f1-4e62-40a3-af02-2b5e92b9ffdf> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.culture24.org.uk/teachers/ideas%20and%20resources/art314910 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393997.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00005-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934007 | 414 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Launched in late 2005 by two mothers in Atlanta, Georgia, “Reaching for the Stars. A Foundation of Hope for Children with Cerebral Palsy” (RFTS, Inc.) has grown into the largest pediatric Cerebral Palsy nonprofit foundation in the world led by parents, with a focus on the Prevention, Treatment and Cure of Cerebral Palsy. We are committed to serving the needs of children with Cerebral Palsy, their families, and the care givers involved in their care. You can read more about our story here in a feature on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website about Cerebral Palsy.
The RFTS mission is centered on the belief that leading-edge pediatric research, increased awareness and education will lead to new treatments of Cerebral Palsy, improving the lives of impacted children and their families. Research for CP, particularly in children, is under-supported and severely under-funded… slowing progress towards better understanding what causes Cerebral Palsy, how to best treat it and how to eventually cure it.
Consider these facts:
- Despite being the most common motor disability in children affecting over 17,000,000 people worldwide, the awareness of Cerebral Palsy remains very low.
- The prevalence of Cerebral Palsy is not decreasing in the U.S. – despite advances in neonatal and obstetrical care. It is estimated that 1 in 323 children, and over 800,000 Americans are impacted by Cerebral Palsy.
- There has been no dedicated U.S. line item funding for Cerebral Palsy research, even though Cerebral Palsy has higher prevalence than muscular dystrophy, Parkinson’s disease, childhood cancer, hearing loss, spina bifida, hemophilia, fetal alcohol syndrome, or cystic fibrosis. Source: CDC, National Institute of Neurological Disorders & Stroke (NINDS/NIH) You can read more about this issue here.
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” —Margaret Mead
In just a few short years, “Reaching for the Stars” has made huge strides to increase Cerebral Palsy awareness and research progress.
Here are a few of our specific accomplishments:
- Establishment of March 25th as Cerebral Palsy Awareness Day in the United States, via bi-partisan Congressional designation
- Testified before the 2014 Congressional House Appropriations LHHS Subcommittee about the need for Cerebral Palsy Research Funding. You can read our testimony here.
- Official external partners of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Academy of Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine (AACPDM)
- Through federal advocacy efforts, secured Congressional appropriations language committing to line item federal funding of Cerebral Palsy research in the 2013 budget. This is the first time specific funding language of this kind for Cerebral Palsy funding has occurred. Click here to learn more.
- Clinical trial recruitment for major Cerebral Palsy clinical trials around the U.S.
- Direct funding and partnership of cerebral palsy research initiatives for stem cells, advanced brain imaging, pharmaceuticals, robotics and medical devices.
- Establishment of effective partnerships with other cerebral palsy organizations around the world, government entities, disability groups, adaptive sports programs, medical institutions, researchers and scientists.
- Member of NeuroNext Network for Cerebral Palsy research collaboration.
- Honored with awards for increasing Cerebral Palsy awareness and research including the Cathleen Lyle Murray Award for humanitarian efforts on behalf of people with disabilities by the AACPDM.
- Built the largest Cerebral Palsy database of parents in North America and social media presence on www.twitter.com/reach4stars and Facebook
- Speaker at conferences in the U.S., Canada and Australia
- Member of AHRQ Cerebral Palsy Issue Exploration Forum. Read report here.
- NINDS Nonprofit Forum
- Read more about Michael Kutcher:
Read about RFTS Parent Physician Partnerships: Physical Medicine & Rehab Clinics of North America
Listen to a CDC/RFTS podcast about Cerebral Palsy
Read about our bi-partisan designation for National Cerebral Palsy Day
More children with Cerebral Palsy are being diagnosed every day despite advances in neonatal and obstetrical care. The prevalence of CP is 1 in 323 U.S. children, and over 17,000,000 people worldwide. | <urn:uuid:d77ff0dd-0211-435e-8efa-cbd625103d82> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://reachingforthestars.org/about-us/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396029.85/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00151-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.914829 | 961 | 2.5625 | 3 |
"You are not beaten until you admit it."
--George S. Patton
- Neuropsychiatric cases constituted 26-percent of American casualties evacuated from the front lines during World War II.
- The French word "bistro – café," derives from the Russian "Bystro -- Quickly!," which was shouted at terrified French waiters by Russian troops participating in the Allied occupation of Paris after Waterloo.
- British warships based in the Falkland Islands destroyed the German raiding squadron of Admiral Graf Spee in 1914 and the raiding "pocket battleship" Admiral Graf Spee in 1939.
- The first use of D-Day, H-Hour by the U.S. Army occurred in Field Order Number 9, First Army, American Expeditionary Forces, September 7, 1918, which reads in part "The First Army will attack at H hour on D day with the object of forcing the evacuation of the St. Mihiel Salient."
- During the Vietnam War, the United States Navy brought down seven enemy aircraft using surface-to-air missiles, and, apparently, one enemy anti-ship missile as well.
- Abandoning the pacifistic tenets of their faith, many Quakers chose to enlist during the Revolutionary War, so that in some companies in which they were a majority commands often took the form "Shoulder thy firelock!"
- Desertion in the Spanish Army of Flanders in 1570, a peaceful year, was about 0.7 of strength percent per month, which rose to about 3 percent by the mid-1570s during the Dutch Rebellion, over 30-percent per annum.
- At the Battle of Aljubarrata in 1385, some Spanish troops who broke through the Portuguese lines were routed by a female baker wielding an oven spatula. | <urn:uuid:1903f8bf-89c1-416e-aa8d-3e37c7795f9e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.strategypage.com/cic/docs/cic62a.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396027.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00012-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960183 | 371 | 2.875 | 3 |
You may sigh when your teacher assigns a book report project, but writing about
the works of others is one of the best ways to expand your literary
horizons. With the helpful tips that follow and your own creativity, you can keep the A's coming in.
Most book reports follow a similar format, but your teacher will probably
outline what he or she expects from you. Follow those instructions first.
For additional inspiration and ideas, check out the The Lakewood Public Library's helpful student guide to writing book reports. It
covers everything from selecting a book to writing your final draft.
The Standard Format
This paragraph should include the title of the book and name of the
author. It will also describe the setting and quickly summarize what the
book is about. Don't get too detailed here. It's just the introduction.
This is where the real content enters the picture. By reading this part of your book report (three to four paragraphs),
your teacher will be able to determine whether you read the
book and understood the story.
Start by describing the main characters of the story. Then,
describe the conflict. Common conflicts include
man vs. man, man vs. nature and man vs. himself. Your book may present a
different kind of conflict. Describe it in detail.
The remaining body paragraphs should summarize the plot and describe how it relates to
Begin with the rising action, the part of the story where
events build. Then describe the climax, where the story
reaches its most dramatic or interesting point. The third paragraph
should describe the falling action, when the conflict or problem is
This is an appropriate place to state your personal opinion of the
book. What did you think of it? Describe its strengths and weaknesses. Would you
recommend it to others? Why or why not? Remember, a winning paper will use examples from the book to
back up comments. | <urn:uuid:2b58ff2a-8ed6-453e-93fb-b96054d35868> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://homeworkspot.com/features/bookreports.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398628.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00176-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.918645 | 399 | 3.859375 | 4 |
A Hammer Toe is a term used to describe a crooked, deviated, or contracted toe. Although the condition usually stems from muscle imbalance, it is often aggravated by poor-fitting shoes or socks that cramp the toes. Over a period of years, the tendons that move the toe up and down begin to pull the toe with unequal tension, and the toe then begins to buckle or become contracted, causing an abnormal “v”-shaped bending of the little toes. Patients with this condition often experience pain, swelling, redness and stiffness in the affected toes.
The cause of hammertoes varies, but causes include genetics, arthritis and injury to the toe. Treatment for hammertoes depends on the severity and can include anti-inflammatory medication, metatarsal pads, foot exercises and better-fitting shoes. If the pain caused by a hammertoe is so severe that wearing a shoe is uncomfortable, surgery may be necessary. Typically this surgery is an outpatient procedure that doesn?t require general anesthesia, though it is an option. Recovery from surgery usually takes a few weeks, and patients are given special shoes to wear.
Well-developed hammertoes are distinctive due to the abnormal bent shape of the toe. However, there are many other common symptoms. Some symptoms may be present before the toe becomes overly bent or fixed in the contracted position. Often, before the toe becomes permanently contracted, there will be pain or irritation over the top of the toe, particularly over the joint. The symptoms are pronounced while wearing shoes due to the top of the toe rubbing against the upper portion of the shoe. Often, there is a significant amount of friction between the toe and the shoe or between the toe and the toes on either side of it. The corns may be soft or hard, depending on their location and age. The affected toe may also appear red with irritated skin. In more severe cases, blisters or open sores may form. Those with diabetes should take extra care if they develop any of these symptoms, as they could lead to further complications.
Some questions your doctor may ask of you include, when did you first begin having foot problems? How much pain are your feet or toes causing you? Where is the pain located? What, if anything, seems to improve your symptoms? What, if anything, appears to worsen your symptoms? What kind of shoes do you normally wear? Your doctor can diagnose hammertoe or mallet toe by examining your foot. Your doctor may also order X-rays to further evaluate the bones and joints of your feet and toes.
Non Surgical Treatment
Conservative treatment starts with new shoes that have soft, roomy toe boxes. Shoes should be one-half inch longer than your longest toe. For many people, the second toe is longer than the big toe.) Avoid wearing tight, narrow, high-heeled shoes. You may also be able to find a shoe with a deep toe box that accommodates the hammer toe. Or, a shoe repair shop may be able to stretch the toe box so that it bulges out around the toe. Sandals may help, as long as they do not pinch or rub other areas of the foot.
There are generally two methods surgeons use to correct hammer toes, they are joint resection (arthroplasty) or bone mending (fusion), and the location where this is performed on the toe depends on where the toe is buckled. Its important to recognize that most of the surgical work involved the joints of the toe, not the joint of the ball of the foot. Sometimes a toe relocation procedure is needed when the joint of the ball of the foot is malaligned (subluxed or dislocated).
Patiko (0)Rodyk draugams | <urn:uuid:2d19a118-7ebc-4de9-9712-794296c92bef> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://cristinehalsell.blogas.lt/hammer-toe-fusion-implant-9.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396459.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00067-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950837 | 764 | 3.015625 | 3 |
The Summer Palace, one of the finest examples garden architecture in China, is located in the northwest suburbs of Beijing. The 100-odd examples of traditional architecture in the park include pavilions, terraces, temples, pagodas, waterside gazebos, covered corridors, stone bridges and the famous marble boat. The palace occupies a total area of 290 hectares, three quarters of which is made up of shallow lakes.
The history of the Summer Palace dates back some 800 years when the first emperor of the Jin Dynasty, Wan Yanliang, moved his capital to the vicinity of Beijing and built his "God Mountain Palace" at the present site of Longevity Hill. A subsequent emperor of the same dynasty diverted the water from the nearby Jade Spring to the Gold Mountain, naming the lake it flowed into the Gold Sea. After the founding of the Yuan Dynasty, Gold Mountain was renamed Jug Mountain (Wengshan), as explained in the following legend: There was once an itinerant old man who discovered a large rock on the slope of Gold Mountain. Breaking it open, he found an earthenware jar hidden inside. The jar's surface was exquisitely carved with flowers, animals and dragons. Inside the jar were many objects of great value which the old man took away with him. Before his departure, however, he brought the jar to the sunny side of the mountain and inscribed it with the following couplet: "When this earthen jar is moved, the emperor's decline shall begin." During the Jiajing period (1522-1566) of the Ming Dynasty, the jar disappeared and, just as the old man predicted, the dynasty fell into decay.
In 1292, Guo Shoujing, a Yuan official in charge of irrigation work, suggested digging a riverbed leading all the springs in the vicinity of Jug Mountain to facilitate grain transport. Spring water from Changping, 50 kilometers north of Beijing, was thus led to the foot of Jug Mountain, and the lake was enlarged and renamed Jug Mountain Lake.
The names of the lake and the park and how they have changed over the course of their long history would make a study in itself. In the Yuan Dynasty, Kunming Lake was known as the Big Lake, the West Sea or the West Lake. Visiting West Lake in April was already a popular custom among the people in this period. In the Ming Dynasty a temple was built on the south side of Longevity Hill.
Emperor Zhengde of the Ming (reigned 1506-1521) built a palace on the bank of the lake and called it the Fine Garden for Enjoying Mountains (Haoshanyuan). He also changed Jug Mountain's name back to Gold Mountain and Jug Mountain Lake to Gold Sea. In the early 17th century, the infamous eunuch Zhongxian took over the entire garden for his private use.
When Qing troops occupied Beijing in the middle of the 17th century, the Fine Garden for Enjoying Mountains was renamed Jug Mountain Palace. It was during the reign of Qianlong (1736-1796) that the names of the last time. In commemoration of the 60th birthday of Qianlong's mother, the emperor erected the Temple of Gratitude and Longevity Hill and, following the example of the Han Dynasty Emperor Wu Di who had conducted Kunming Lake naval exercises in the Han capital of Chang' an many centuries before, the Gold Sea was renamed Kunming Lake. At the same, the entire area was called the Park pf Pure Ripples (Qingyiyuan).
The Summer Palace has fallen prey to two acts of destruction. The first took place in 1860 when the Anglo-French forces invaded Beijing and ravaged both the Yuanmingyuan Garden and the Park of Pure Ripples. Every single building in the park was destroyed by fire except nonflammable structures such as bronze pavilions and stone pagodas.
In 1888, Empress Dowager Cixi diverted 30 million taels of silver originally designated for the Chinese navy into the reconstruction and enlargement of the Summer Palace. She had the southern side of Longevity Hill laid out in imitation of West Lake in Hangzhou and the northern face in the architectural style of Suzhou. She gave the park its present name: Yiheyuan (Garden of Good Health and Harmony), known generally in English as the Summer Palace.
The second great act of destruction took place in 1900 when the Eight-Power Allied Forces invaded Beijing. The great temples rebuilt in the 1880s were completely demolished and almost every valuable object in sight stolen by the invading troops. In 1902, when Empress Dawager Cixi returned to Beijing from Xi' an, she ordered the reconstruction of the park. According to historical records, she "rebuilt the Summer Palace with unbounded extravagance and opulence, spending some 40,000 taels of silver per day. Singing and dancing went on without end."
After the Revolution of 1911, the Summer Palace became the private property of the deposed Emperor Puyi, who in 1914 opened the garden to the public. The entrance fee was so high that the palace had very few visitors. In 1924, Puyi was forced to leave the Forbidden City by the "Christian" General Feng Yuxiang, and the Beijing government turned the Summer palace once again fell prey to full-scale devastation; pavilions and covered corridors were destroyed, lakes became silted up, vegetation withered and died, and antiques and other objects of value were lost.
Today, older Beijing residents can still recall some of the palace's former treasures: the statue of the Goddess of Mercy and the watermelon made of kingfisher jade (feicui), the huge jade disc (bi) which "could be traded for several cities," the pearl that glowed at night, and the pearl-embroidered shoes. When the Kuomintang troops fled the mainland, they absconded with these and other treasures, some of which ended up in Taiwan, while he remainder was bought up by museums and private collectors in state of total dilapidation. After the founding of the People' s Republic in 1949, local authorities began the painstaking task of restoration. Today, after more than 40 years of repainting and reconstruction, the Summer Palace plays host to approximately 2 million visitors per year.
Below. We discuss the Summer Palace by area-the Eastern Palaces, the southern side of Longevity Hill, the northern side of Longevity Hill and the South Lake district.
The Eastern Palace
The Eastern Palace Gate, or main gate is guarded on each side by two brass lions from the Qianlong period. Set in the center of the staircase is a large slab of stone carved with two dragons amusing themselves with giant pearls. This symbol of imperial power was moved here from the Yuanmingyuan Gardens. Above the gate, the three Chinese characters of the name of the Summer Palace "Yiheyuan" have been inscribed in Emperor Guangxu' s hand. Immediately inside the gate is a "spirit wall," beyond which lies a bow-shaped "moon pond" crossed by a pair of stone bridges. In the days of the Empress Dowager, only she, the emperor and empress were permitted to come here, all other mortals being denied entry by a cordon of mounted guards. Walking west and passing through the Gate of Benevolent Longevity, you come to Palace of Benevolent Longevity (Renshoudian). This edifice was originally named the Palace of Encouraging Good Government . Restored in 1890, its name was changed to the Palace of Benevolent Longevity, an ironic notion derived from an old saying, "Benevolent People live long lives." Here Cixi held audience with high officials and handled the daily affairs of government. This palace once contained the famous screen behind which, out of propriety, Cixi ruled China. Though the screen has long since rotted away, the building still contains a number of interesting treasures: bronze vessels from the Shang Dynasty (c 16th-11th century BC); a screen bearing a scene on Dongting Lake made entirely of kingfisher feathers; lions carved from gnarled roots of trees; and Chinese decorative mirrors dating from the 18th century. Among these treasures is a sandalwood mirror frame carved with dragons, which took 3,600 days of labor to complete, the equivalent of one person working non-stop for 10 years.
North of the Palace of Benevolent Longevity is the Garden of Harmonious Virtue (Deheyuan). When Cixi rebuilt this section of the palace after it had been burned down by the Anglo-French forces, she spent a total of more than 700,000 taels of silver. A good portion of this investment went into the outdoor stage, which stands 21 meters high and has a stage area 17 meters wide, more than five times large than the average in the old days. Actually, the stage is composed of three levels, one on top of the other, and is impressive in several other respects: the ceiling of the lowest level is provided with seven traps through which a actors playing the roles of immortals, spirits or other celestial beings could descend. The stage floor also has seven traps which were used by ghosts and other underworld beings. Beneath the stage is a deep well and five square water tanks. Water was pumped from the tanks in some programs to produce underwater scenes on stage. On Cixi' s birthday every year, the same opera would be performed simultaneously on all three levels.
South from the Palace of Benevolent Longevity, you come to the Hal of Jade Ripples (Yulantang). It is said that the name of this structure comes from a poem by Lu Ji (261-303) which contains the line, "Tiny ripples flow up from the Jade Spring." Built in 1750, it was destroyed by the Anglo-French forces in 1860. Upon its restoration, it served as the private living quarters of Emperor Guangxu, though this luxuriously appointed home soon became his prison. Following the failure of the Reform Movement of 1898, to which Guangxu had lent his support, the Empress Dowager had the emperor imprisoned here and a brick wall built to prevent escape. Originally, Dropping Flowers Gate connected Guangxu' s home with the Hall of Pleasing Rue (Yiyunguan), the residence of his concubines. As a further punishment, Cixi ordered this gate to be sealed up, thus confining Guangxu to his elegant prison. Guangxu got into the habit of tapping his walking stick on the brick floor of his courtyard, carving out the uneven surface of his patio floor.
Between the Hall of Jade Ripples and the Hall of Pleasing Rue stands the Tower of Fine Sunset (Xijialou). Offering an excellent view of the Western Hills, it is an ideal spot for watching the sunset over Kunming Lake. Its eastern wing contains rockery hills and a Forest of (Stone) Lions modeled after the Forest of Lions Garden (Shizilin) in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province.
Walking north along the shore of the lake and heading west for a short distance, one comes to the Hall of Joyful Longevity (Leshoutang), the residence of the Empress Dowager. The eastern and western auxiliary halls were the center of daily activities. Each year, Cixi would move here in May, and not until the 10th day of the 10th lunar month (approximately the end of November), long past her birthday, would she move back to he Forbidden City. The current displays include a throne, imperial tables, screens, palace fans, and other imperial paraphernalia. Whenever "Old Buddha" (one of her favorite names) took a meal here, 128 different dishes would be served at a cost of 100 taels of silver, an amount which could buy enough millet to feed 5,000 peasants for one day. On display in the dining room are a basket of pearls, agate and kingfisher jade (feicui), as well as a panoramic mural on which the flowers of the four seasons are depicted in inlaid designs of gold, silver and precious stones. Magnolia, flowering crabapple and peony fill the courtyard. When the magnolias bloom in early April, the number of visitors increases dramatically. Directly south of the Hall of Joyful Longevity on the lake is a small dock with carved stone balustrades where Cixi would alight when arriving at the Summer Palace by boat.
From the west auxiliary hall of the Hall of Joyful Longevity through the Gate for Greeting the Moon, one comes to the eastern end of the Long Corridor (Changlang). First built in 1750 and destroyed by the Anglo-French forces in 1860, the current structure dates form the Guangxu reign. The total length of the corridor is 728 meters, making it the longest corridor in Chinese garden architecture.
Skirting the northern shoreline of Kunming Lake, the corridor links up the principle structures in this section of the Summer Palace. Four pavilions have been built at regular intervals along its length, each decorated with intricate paintings of flowers and historical figures. Every crossbeam in the Long Corridor is decorated with s colorful painting-17,000 in all. Among stories from Chinese history. Of additional interest are the two large stone kiosks jutting out over the water, making fine resting places on hot summer days.
The Southern Side of Longevity Hill
The main structure in the central architectural complex on the southern side of Longevity Hill is the Palace of parting Clouds (Paiyundian). This is fronted by a memorial archway built on the edge of the lake inscribed with the words "The myriad stars surround the Polar Star" and "The radiance of the clouds shines through the jade firmament." Between the archway and the Palace of Parting Clouds there are a number of evergreens and 12 Taihu Lake stones which represent the Chinese astrological animals. A n elegant pair of bronze lions guards the Gate of Parting Clouds. Inside the gate is a courtyard with buildings on each side; to the east is the Hall of Brilliant Jade and to the west the Hall of Brocade Clouds. A lotus pond in the courtyard is spanned by a stone bridge which leads to the gates of standing on the northern side of the courtyard, was the site of Empress Dowager Cixi' s birthday celebrations. There was a temple here in the Ming Dynasty, which was rebuilt during the Qianlong period and called the Temple of Gratitude and Longevity. After its destruction by the Anglo-French forces. Its name is taken from a poem by Guo Pu (276-324): "The immortals emerge from between parting clouds; a terrace of silver and gold appears."
The Palace of Parting Clouds, built on a stone terrace with staircases on three sides, is surrounded by white stone balustrades. The terrace in front of the palace is called the"Cinnabar Staircase."Bronze dragons, phoenixes, sacrificial vessels and large water vats are on display. The interior is similar to that of the Hall of Benevolent Longevity, including an oil portrait of Empress Dowager Cixi painted in 1903 by Katherine A. Carl, an American who also wrote a book about Cixi. Though the portrait was executed in Cixi' s 69th year, it flattered her to the likeness of a 30-year-old woman.
Covered staircases on either side of the Palace of Parting Clouds lead to the Hall of Virtuous Light. At the top is the highest point in the entire Summer Palace, the Pagoda of Buddhist Fragrance. This 38-meter-high pagoda, designed after the Yellow Crane Pagoda in Wuchang, Hubei Province, is supported by four hardwood columns. The immense task of restoration was begun in 1953. Repainting alone, applying some 600 kilograms of dark blue paint and 2.5 kilograms of pure gold leaf, took 16,000 worker-days.
The Revolving Scripture Repository (Zhuanlunzang) is the name given to the buildings east of the Pagoda of Buddhist Fragrance, which contain a large carved stone tablet. The 10-meter-tall tablet is inscribed with the words "Longevity Hill and Kunming Lake" in the hand of Qianlong. On its back is a short essay, "A Record of Kunming Lake," also in Qianlong' s hand. On either side are pavilions housing miniature octagonal pagodas, which revolve on vertical axles. These curious religious structures, designed to store Buddhist scriptures, are modeled after those in the Fayuan Temple in Hangzhou. The third pavilion is the so-called Bronze Pavilion. Standing 7.55 meters tall and weighing more than 200,000 kilograms, every detail resembles were executed with the lost wax method. Inside is a list of the craftsmen who took part in its construction.
The southern side of the Longevity Hill is full of smaller buildings with picturesque names, which will only be mentioned briefly. First, to the east: The House of Leisure (Zizaizhuang), dating from 1903, was built in the style of an old-fashioned country teahouse; the Hall for Nourishing Clouds (Yangyunxuan), divided into two side halls, served during the time of Cixi as a resting place of higher-ranking concubines, members of the imperial clan, and women who had been granted official titles; the Hall of Limitless Pleasure (Wujinyixuan), facing a small lotus pond, is an ideal place of retreat from the heat of summer; and finally, the Hall of Longevity (Jieshoutang) is surrounded by wonderful cypresses and magnolias.
To the west, there is Shao' s Nest, named after a Song Dynasty philosopher, Shao Yong, who called his retirement home the Nest of Peace and Joy. Another "nest," the Nest of Pines and Clouds, is derived from a line in a poem by the famous Tang poet Li Bai: "Here I will make my nest in the pines and clouds." The Pavilion of the Stone Gentleman (Shizhangting) recalls the Song painter and calligrapher Mi Fei, who would bow in reverence whenever he came upon a strange stone. To the west of the Pavilion of the Stone gentleman is a group of buildings called the Four Western Pavilions (Xisiting). Originally built by Qianlong, they were refurbished in 1892 to serve as a residence of the imperial concubines. After the failure of the Reform Movement of 1898, the Empress Dowager temporarily imprisoned Emperor Guangxu' s favorite, Concubine Zhen, in these precincts.
The listening to the Orioles Hall, the site of a popular restaurant, was first built in the 18th century and refurbished during the Guangxu reign. Fine old pine trees grow in its courtyards, while its exterior is planted with apricot trees and bamboo. To the rear of the hall stands the Strolling-Through-a-Painting Pavilion (Huazhongyou), a two-story building, which is flanked by the Adoration for the Hill Pavilion on the east and the Borrowing from Autumn Pavilion on the west. Covered galleries connect these two side pavilions with the main one. The name Strolling-Through-a-Painting Pavilion comes from the fact that standing on the exquisite veranda, it is easy to imagine oneself being part of a landscape painting.
To the west of the Stone Gentleman Pavilion. A rather unseaworthy boat sits permanently docked with its bow jutting out into the lake. This is the famous Marble boat, an ironic reminder that the funds appropriated by the Empress Dowager to reconstruct the Summer Palace had originally been earmarked for the Chinese navy. The boat's hull is of stone and Cixi herself in the style of an old steamship designed its two-story wooden cabin. To the east of the Marble Boat is the Hall of Accumulated Ripples from where pleasure boats set out for rides around the lake.
The Northern Side of Longevity Hill
There is a great contrast between the southern and northern sides of Longevity Hill. While the southern side is lavish to the point of extravagance, the northern slope is more peaceful and less crowed. With its winding hill paths, limpid flowing streams, luxuriant pines and cypresses, and numerous shrubs, the northern side of Longevity Hill reminds one of the countryside of southern China. There was originally a large number of fine buildings here, but with few exceptions they were all destroyed by the Anglo-French forces.
Apart from the long Lilac Corridor, there are only two palaces worthy of mention: the Tower of Great Fortune (Jingfuge) and the Garden pf Harmonious Delights (Xiequyuan).
The Tower of Great Fortune was known as the Palace of Epiphyllum (Tanhuage) during the Qianlong period and was rebuilt in its present form in 1892. This rather large square building is surrounded on all sides by corridors, and was frequented by the Empress Dowager for two main purposes: watching the moon, and admiring the scenery on rainy days. The elevation here permits a fine view of the Seventeen-Arch Bridge and the Knowing Spring Pavilion on Kunming Lake. Cixi often dined here on rainy days, for this was an ideal spot from which to gaze out upon the distant hills half-lost in clouds.
East of Longevity Hill in the very northeast corner of the palace stands the"garden within a garden,"the Garden of Harmonious Delights, perhaps the most peaceful and secluded place in the entire Summer Palace. The Garden was built during the Qianlong period. Water from Kunming Lake was led here to form a pond and a complex of ingeniously interconnected buildings was built around it. Since Qianlong copied the buildings themselves after a garden in the Huishan district of Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, the garden was first known as Huishan Garden. Its name was changed to the Garden of Harmonious Delights in 1893. The Hall of Embracing the Distance (Hanyuantang) is the central structure in the garden. Here the Empress Dowager would drink tea or perhaps take an afternoon nap. Everything in the hall remains as Cixi left it; there are sculptures of characters from the famous Qing novel A Dream of Red Mansions and an exquisite bamboo carved sailboat with 68 miniature figures of old men, each with their own distinct gestures and facial features.
Had the Anglo-French forces not destroyed the series of buildings on the banks of the Suzhou Creek in the rear section of the palace, they would not only be a favorite spot for visitors, but also a valuable resource for studying the social economy of the Qing Dynasty. In the old days, both sides of the creek in the vicinity of the Long Bridge were laid out with streets containing a variety of commercial establishments, such as teahouses, wine shops, bookstores and antique shops. Known as Suzhou Street, this area enabled the imperial family, entirely cut off from the normal society of the country they ruled, to taste Beijing urban life. The roles of the shopkeepers were played by court eunuchs, and when the imperial party approached, they would begin shouting to attract their customers' attention, just as in real life.
By crossing Long Bridge and walking north, one will come to the North Palace Gate, which was originally the main gate of the summer Palace.
At the eastern end of Suzhou Street stands a large gate-like structure which is inscribed on his eastern side with the words "Early morning light" and on its western side with "Gathering brilliance." This is yet another example of southern Chinese architecture.
The Palace Lakes
To the south of Longevity Hill is a vast expanse of water embellished with a number of small islands and a long embankment. The islands take their names from the structures built upon them: the Knowing Spring Pavilion; the Phoenix Pier; the Mirror Tower; and the Hall of Ornate Mirrors. The most accessible is the Southern Lake Island.
The Temple of the Dragon King is the main point of interest on the Southern Lake Island. Seen from afar, it resembles a mythical fairy mountain in the middle of the sea. The Southern Lake Island is connected to the shore by the magnificent Seventeen-Arch Bridge, which is decorated with numerous sculptures of lions. A large bronze bull sits on the shore at he east end of the bridge, ostensibly for the purpose of suppressing floods. An "Inscription to the Golden Bull" is cast in ancient seal characters on the bull's is cast in ancient seal characters on the bull's back. The Tapestry of Ripples Bridge (Xiuyiqiao) at the southern end of the lake narks the former site of a lock, which connected kunming Lake with the old canal, which leads to the center of the capital. Nearby are the tomb of Yelu Chucai, the famous advisor to Genghis Khan, and a naturally formed swimming pool.
The Western Embankment, totaling 2.5 kilometers, leads from the Willow Bridge in the south to the Lake Edge Bridge (Jiehuqiao) in the northwest corner of the palace. Peach and willow trees grow along its entire length and six bridges dotted on it were designed in imitation of those on the Su Dyke (Sudi) on Hangzhou's West Lake. The highest of the bridges is the superb Jade Belt Bridge (Yudaiqiao), known also as the Camel's Back Bridge, because of its tall and elegant arch.
Summer is naturally the finest time of year to visit the Summer Palace. By the end of April, winter jasmine and mountain peach make their early debut on the northern side of the Longevity Hill. Not long after this, flaming-red plums and sweet almonds come into bloom, followed by Chinese crabapples and lilacs. Next, magnolias and peonies, the "king of flowers," are in full bloom, while Chinese wisteria and herbaceous peonies are in bud along the Long Corridor. The mock oranges in front of the Palace of Parting Clouds bloom in mid-May, while the season for lotuses extends from July to October. At the height of summer, jasmine and osmanthus send forth their fragrance. The frost-defying autumn chrysanthemums bring this symphony of flowers to a splendid close, making their debut on October 1, China's National Day.
Note: Tingliguan, or the Hall for Listening to the Orioles located in the middle section of the Longevity Hill, where the Dowager Empress watched opera, is now a restaurant serving dishes cooked with the recipes from the royal kitchen.
Address: West of Peking University, Haidian District;
Entry ticket: 30 yuan/person, park admission only; 50 yuan/person, including park admission and charged exhibitions inside some of the halls;
Traffic: About 20 buses go to Yiheyuan from all parts of Beijing, stopping at the park's east, north or south gate. These include: Bus No.s 301, 303, 332, 374, 375, 726, 826, 801 and 808; | <urn:uuid:67e8750a-d381-429d-8cd5-de3f18218410> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.china.org.cn/english/MATERIAL/30960.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392159.3/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00037-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963919 | 5,699 | 3.421875 | 3 |
[updated September 17, 2014]
|Vikram Kode Iyengar|
|Department of Biology||
|800 Lancaster Avenue|
|Villanova, PA 19085|
|office: (610) 519-8081|
|fax: (610) 519-7863|
|Behavioral Ecology, Chemical Ecology, Entomology. My research involves studying the behavioral ecology of arthropods, with an emphasis on sexual selection in insects. Arthropods are the most abundant and diverse group in the animal kingdom, and they occupy nearly every ecological niche in marine, freshwater and terrestrial habitats. The extraordinary evolutionary success of arthropods can be partly attributed to the remarkable diversity of mating systems, and these fascinating creatures provide many wonderful opportunities to do both field and laboratory studies. My research is driven by my interests in sexual selection and its consequences, and I study many different organisms that communicate through chemistry including moths, beetles and crustaceans. Specifically, I examine how the costs and benefits of mate choice and differences in parental investment shape the evolution of arthropod mating systems.|
|Utetheisa ornatrix (Lepidoptera: Arctiidae): The Rattlebox Moth|
|Sexual selection is an important area of behavioral ecology that explains phenomena including exaggerated male traits, female mating preferences, precopulatory courtship signals, and postcopulatory sperm selection. A great deal of my research is focused on the reproductive biology of Utetheisa ornatrix, commonly known as the rattlebox moth. Tom Eisner introduced me this fascinating lepidopteran during graduate school at Cornell University, and I have been working to unravel its mysteries ever since.|
|The details of this moth's reproductive strategy are complex. Utetheisa, as a larva, feeds on plants of the genus Crotalaria (family Fabaceae), containing poisonous pyrrolizidine alkaloids. Utetheisa is insensitive to the alkaloids, and the larva stores the chemicals systemically, retaining them through metamorphosis into the adult stage. At mating, the male transfers a substantial fraction of his alkaloidal load to the female with the sperm package (spermatophore). The gift is transmitted by the female in part to the eggs, together with a supplement of her own alkaloidal supply. All developmental stages of Utetheisa are protected by the alkaloid, the larvae and adults against spiders, and the eggs are avoided by ants and coccinellid beetles. The spermatophore is of substantial size, amounting on average to over 10% of male body mass. It also contains nutrient, which the female invests in egg production. Females mate on average with four to five males over their lifespan of 3 to 4 weeks. With each mating, the female is able to increase her fecundity by 15%. Fecundity in Utetheisa is also a function of intrinsic female body mass: large females lay greater numbers of eggs.|
|Female Utetheisa do not mate randomly with males but do so selectively with males of higher alkaloid content. The female does not gauge male alkaloid content directly but does so indirectly, on the basis of a pheromone (hydroxydanaidal) that the male produces from alkaloid, in proportion to his alkaloid load, and airs during close-range precopulatory interaction with the female. Males richest in alkaloid, having the strongest pheromonal scent, are also largest, and apt to bestow the largest alkaloidal (and presumably nutritive) gifts. In essence, by selecting males of high alkaloid content, the female is selecting males of large size.|
|My doctoral research established that body size is heritable in Utetheisa. This finding indicated that by favoring larger males, females obtain not only larger nuptial gifts but also larger sons and daughters. The offspring, as a consequence, could receive direct phenotypic benefits (from the nuptial gifts) and indirect genetic benefits (from the expression of largeness in both sons and daughters). Further investigation revealed that the offspring of preferred males do indeed fare better than the offspring of non-preferred males. Specifically, I showed that (i) eggs sired by preferred males are less vulnerable to predation; (ii) sons of preferred males are more successful in courtship; and (iii) daughters of preferred males are more fecund. In Utetheisa, multiple benefits appear to have contributed to the female mating preference for large males, and I am interested in how direct and indirect benefits may interact in the evolution of female choice.|
|As a postdoctoral associate, I continued my research in the areas of behavioral and chemical ecology. My main projects involved testing sexual selection models by quantifying the strength, heritability, and sex-linkage of the female mating preference (for large males) in Utetheisa. In Utetheisa, as in all lepidopterans and birds, males are homogametic (ZZ) whereas females are heterogametic (ZW). Interestingly, the female mating preference gene(s) are Z-linked, which means that they are strictly paternally inherited. In addition to providing support for the protected invasion theory, which links exaggerated male traits with genetic architecture, this result highlights the importance of indirect genetic benefits in the evolution and maintenance of sexual selection in this moth.|
I am currently working on two major projects regarding sexual selection in Utetheisa ornatrix. The first project involves the use of microsatellites to determine whether female polyandry may driven selection for male sperm competitiveness - this represents one of the few empirical test of the sexy-sperm hypothesis to explain multiple mating by females. The second project focuses on larval competition, which is likely to be the heritable trait that drives sexual selection in adults. Utetheisa has been studied for over three decades, and previous research on all aspects of its life history have made it a model system for studying the chemical basis of reproductive behavior. With these projects, I hope further our understanding of fundamental principles of sexual selection as I lay the foundation for future experiments that will advance the expanding, interdisciplinary field of chemical ecology.
|Anisolabis maritima (Dermaptera: Anisolabididae): The Seaside or Maritime Earwig|
|We are currently conducting experiments in which we examine
sexual selection in the seaside or maritime earwig Anisolabis maritima
(Order Dermaptera). This insect, found in aggregations under beach debris in
both tropical and temperate regions around the world (including both coasts
of North America), is sexually dimorphic regarding its most distinctive
feature in that females have straight posterior forceps/pinchers whereas
males have asymmetrical, curved forceps (see picture on right - female
above, male below).
Males and females also differ fundamentally in their aggression during agonistic encounters. Females lay eggs and violently guard their nest, often killing conspecifics by using their straight forceps like scissors to cut opponents into pieces. Males, on the other hand, usually resolve their disputes non-lethally by squeezing each other, perhaps a means to assess strength and fighting ability (see picture below).
Two males fighting (from Munoz & Zink 2012)
|Animal aggregations can occur for a variety of abiotic factors, such as resource limitation, or biotic factors including sexual selection and predator-prey interactions. The maritime earwig is often found in clusters among members of its own species as well as other beach insects, and our research is primarily done over the summer at Friday Harbor Marine Laboratories in Washington. We are continuing our research on sexual selection in the maritime earwig by examining the roles of mate choice and competition, as there is potential for multiple selective forces to contribute to the mating system in species where both sexes possess weaponry. We will be presenting our results in January 2015 in West Palm Beach, FL at the annual meeting for the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB), and submitting a manuscript for publication soon thereafter.|
|Calopteryx aequabilis (Odonata: Caloperygidae): The River Jewelwing|
|Sexual selection is defined as the differential reproductive success due to competition over access to mates, and it can be divided into categories of intersexual selection (female choice) and intrasexual selection (male competition). Within species, sexual selection can lead to exaggerated male traits used in attracting females or intrasexual combat. Between species, it can maintain separate species through reproductive isolation even in areas where both species occur. We are currently interested in precopulatory forces that prevent interspecific matings - specifically, we studied intrasexual aggression by territorial males to gain insight into reproductive isolation between the damselfly species Calopteryx aequabilis (The River Jewelwing) and Calopteryx maculata (The Ebony Jewelwing). The importance of intrasexual selection is supported by male wing spot variation in both damselflies - the wings look similar in allopatric parts of their ranges (places where only one species occurs), whereas C. maculata wings are darker and C. aequabilis wing spots are smaller in areas of sympatry (places where the species co-occur). This character displacement (divergent shift in character associated with species recognition) is likely due to selection on one or both species to reduce courting errors or misplace intrasexual aggression.||
Calopteryx aequabilis (The River Jewelwing)
Calopteryx maculata (The Ebony Jewelwing)
Tom Castle (senior thesis student) measuring aggression by using individuals tether to a fishing pole
|We recently found two field sites near Ithaca,
NY that were similar in appearance and abiotic factors, differing only
in relative abundance of C. aequabilis and C. maculata. We
caught, marked, measured (spot size), and released males of both species to
be used as focal territorial individuals in trials where we tested levels of
intrasexual aggression toward conspecifics and heterospecifics. We found the
C. maculata males were more aggressive towards large-spotted (vs.
small-spotted) C. aequabilis males,
providing evidence that elevated intrasexual aggression from C. maculata
males toward melanized males is driving character displacement in C.
aequabilis in areas of sympatry.
We presented our results a the Animal Behavior Society meeting in 2013, and our results were published in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology in 2014. We are currently interested in looking at intraspecific factors that may affect spot size in C. aequabilis, as well as abiotic factors that may affect the relative abundance and distribution of both Calopteryx species.
|Megalorchestia californiana (Amphipoda: Talitridae): The California Beach Flea|
|Currently, I am also investigating the mating system and reproductive strategies of the California Beach Flea (Megalorchestia californiana), an amphipod found on sandy beaches from California to Washington. Adults, which reach over 1" in size, are often found roaming the beaches in the evening scavenging washed up animals or eating seaweed. Females spend most of the daytime in burrows that are guarded by males. Competition over females can lead to territorial fights between males looking to control access to the group of females (harem) found inside the burrow. Victorious males get the reward of mating with the females, who brood their eggs in an internal pouch and release fully active juveniles.|
|I was initially interested in M. californiana because there is a sexual dimorphism that is unusual among arthropods in that males are larger than females. Furthermore, males have larger, redder antennae and an enlarged second pair of gnathopods - both of these characters are used by the male to hold the female and guard her prior to mating. Individuals of both sexes are found in burrows near or beneath beach wrack, and they are scavengers that feed on decaying plant or animal tissue. Competition for burrows can be fierce, and burrows appear to be a valuable resource by offering protection from predators, prevention of desiccation and a safe place to copulate and breed. Previous work indicated that these organisms have a harem mating system in which a single male may guard and mate with many females, and our experiences in the field confirmed that multiple females are often found in a burrow with a single male. Our initial observations revealed that males use their enlarged antennae to prevent other males from removing them from their burrow or to evict smaller males from a burrow. Although it had been suggested that larger males are more successful in mating with females, we wanted to empirically test aspects of sexual selection including male competition and female choice. Specifically, we looked at interactions between two males alone and in the presence of a female.|
|We found that both sexes preferred to be in separate burrows rather than together in one burrow, regardless of the relative sizes of the individuals. We also observed that males were more aggressive towards one another, whereas females demonstrated very little intrasexual aggression. The remainder of our experiments investigated the interactions between the sexes when 2 males and 1 female were placed in an arena together. Overall, the female ended up in a burrow with the larger male in the majority of the trials. Although it is difficult at this time to disentangle the mechanism by which this occurs, it appears that male competition may play a larger role than female choice. We found that, when given a choice between empty burrow and one occupied by a member of the opposite sex, males will seek the burrow with the female whereas the female chooses her burrowing site randomly. Regardless of whether male competition and/or female choice is occurring, larger males do appear able to secure more matings with females.|
|Although a great deal was accomplished last field season, further study is needed to fully understand all of the facets of sexual selection in Megalorchestia californiana. I plan to return to Friday Harbor Labs next summer ton continue my research, and hopefully bring back some organisms to perform some laboratory experiments as well. Many behavioral aspects of this mating system remain unknown, so there are many exciting avenues of investigation to explore.| | <urn:uuid:efa7cf63-988d-432c-b23d-df86d95f012f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www79.homepage.villanova.edu/vikram.iyengar/ResearchPageVik.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403508.34/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00036-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943179 | 3,012 | 2.515625 | 3 |
To be sure their animals get a balanced diet that provides for their health and for good production, many livestock farmers hire a nutritionist to help them prepare the best feed possible for their animals. Or if they don't hire a nutritionist, they check closely with one available from the feed company that provides various feeds that they need to buy.
We might ask how many of us would hire a nutritionist to help us decide what to feed our families. Many of us would not feel that such a thing would be necessary. We know how to feed our families.
Yet a recent study done by the U.S. Economic Research Service suggests otherwise.
In every part of the U.S., this study found that we are not eating the balanced and healthful diets recommended in the dietary guidelines for Americans. We are eating fewer fruits and vegetables than recommended and more fats, sugars and calories. This continues to cause problems for us as a nation.
Does this say that livestock farmers do a better job of feeding their animals than we feed ourselves? We might look at it that way, but it really points to the need for better nutrition education in this country. And it also emphasizes the care that livestock farmers, especially dairy, give to their animals.
When the nutritionist pays a monthly visit to the farm, all the feeds must be checked for their nutritional qualities. That includes the various grains as well as hay and silages. Feeds are tested so the nutritionist knows what vitamins and minerals need to be added. Also, the amount of milk produced by the herd is taken into consideration as well the body condition of the animals.
Then the farmer has to be sure the amount fed to the animals is what he told the nutritionist. On many dairy farms, a total mixed ration is fed. This is a combination of a grain mixture with the necessary vitamins and minerals, silage and hay. Weighted amounts of these feeds are put in a mixer wagon where they are mixed together and fed as a total ration.
On smaller dairy farms, the feeds may be feed separately at different times and the cows still get the same ration. Cows can get a little more individual attention on these farms. On the other hand, in the larger herds, someone "walks the herd" a couple of times a day to check for any problems.
If they are going to get top production from their herd, feeding is one of the most important things a dairy or other livestock farmers needs to look at, and most of them do. That is why they hire a nutritionist for a monthly visit.
Feed quality can also vary with the time of year it is harvested. Hay harvested in mid-May is higher in protein than mid to late June. Corn silage with ears well-formed when harvested can be higher in energy than that made earlier.
As you can see, feeding those cows has a lot of science that goes into it. And dairy and other livestock farmers work hard at making sure their animals are well-fed.
Parker is an independent agricultural writer. | <urn:uuid:351912fe-8652-4dc4-b2cf-e7f9d13c0a2a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.tribtoday.com/page/content.detail/id/582264/Farmers-hire-nutritionists-for-cattle.html?nav=5146 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392099.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00172-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969956 | 622 | 2.796875 | 3 |
Stem Cell Discovery May Be Key to New Cures
OHSU Extra, Summer 2013
A world-leading discovery by Shoukhrat Mitalipov, Ph.D., has brought new hope to patients with Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord injuries, multiple sclerosis, diabetes and cardiac disease. “As a Parkinson’s patient, I am absolutely thrilled by the potential of Mitalipov’s research, not only to treat PD but many other disorders as well,” said OHSU Foundation trustee Gregory Chaillé.
Mitalipov, a senior scientist in OHSU’s Oregon National Primate Research Center, worked in collaboration with OHSU reproductive endocrinologist Paula Amato, M.D., to become the first team in the world to convert human skin cells into embryonic stem cells. Stem cells can be converted into different cell types – such as nerve cells, liver cells or heart cells – that might one day be used to replace cells damaged by injury or illness. The potential is so great, and the discovery so revolutionary, the research made headlines around the world, sparking more than 2,000 news reports from Japan to South Africa.
Mitalipov and his team used a technique called somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), which removes chromosomes from a human donor’s unfertilized egg and then replaces them with new DNA obtained from a patient’s skin cells. Using a specially formulated growth medium (one surprising ingredient is caffeine), the researchers prompted the modified egg to divide and eventually become stem cells that have the potential to grow into other kinds of cells. The team spurred the growth of human heart cells, which can be seen rhythmically beating, in unison, inside a petri dish. Mature cells created using this method will exactly match a patient’s own DNA. This may prove a significant advantage in regenerating cells or tissues that the body will not reject.
“The task is now to produce these different cells – whatever cells the patient needs – in the lab,” said Mitalipov. “Then we could transplant these mature cells back into the patient.” The technique holds promise for treating diseases such as Parkinson’s, which is caused by a dysfunction in one type of brain cell, or neuron, that produces a chemical the body needs to function properly. “In many patients, these neurons have died off. They’re gone,” says Mitalipov. “There are no other types of cell that can make this chemical. So now in the lab we can learn how to make these neurons and transplant them into patients.”
"If we don't fund promising projects in their early stages, then these opportunities to improve the human condition will be lost to all of us."
- Karen Hinsdale
Mitalipov’s latest breakthrough is the culmination of years of painstaking research, a combination of basic science discoveries made at the OHSU primate center and privately funded human cell studies. Researchers were able to pursue promising leads thanks to substantial institutional investment from OHSU, support from the Leducq Foundation, and early funding from donors in the OHSU Center for Women’s Health Circle of Giving.
“If we believe that solutions to serious health problems lie in scientific research, then it’s going to take the private sector to step forward and let the scientists pursue that research,” said Karen Hinsdale, who was chair of the Circle of Giving when it awarded research funding to Mitalipov in 2010. “If we don’t fund promising projects in their early stages, then these opportunities to improve the human condition will be lost to all of us.”
The worldwide media reaction touched off by Mitalipov’s recent findings included both kudos from prominent scientists around the globe – and some concerns. The SCNT method is considered a technique for cloning stem cells. Some worry that these therapeutic cloning techniques might lead others to attempt to clone human beings. Mitalipov, whose work is focused solely on the potential to cure human diseases, says that such concerns are understandable but in the case of SCNT, he believes they are unwarranted. “We don’t believe our findings could be used by others to advance the possibility of human reproductive cloning. We’ve been doing it for many years in monkeys, and none of the embryos could develop into live monkeys. We can assume that the same techniques, if applied to humans, would not be able to produce live clones.”
Mitalipov operates at the complicated intersection of scientific promise, political debate and regulatory constraint. On the one hand, the SCNT method is an alternative to the politically fraught use of stem cells derived from fertilized human embryos. On the other hand, because federal funding for stem cell research is restricted, Mitalipov’s work is conducted under tightly regulated conditions that mandate a separate lab space designated for human embryonic stem cell research and funded solely through private support.
“Only private investment will move this research forward,” said Daniel Dorsa, Ph.D., OHSU’s senior vice president for research. “Private funders need to step in where federal agencies cannot. This research will fuel the development of stem cell therapies to combat several diseases and conditions for which there are currently no treatments or cures.”
Through ongoing collaborative efforts, Mitalipov and his colleagues around the world will refine the innovation that has given new hope to so many.
For information on how you can support this research, contact Cathy Kemmerer at 503 412-6353 or firstname.lastname@example.org. | <urn:uuid:dd4e3d0e-9dfe-4523-8c85-91e8dc5c530b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.ohsu.edu/xd/about/foundation/about/ohsu-extra/stem-cell-discovery.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392069.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00033-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94104 | 1,185 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Education psychologists at the University of California in Riverside, Calif., and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, split 400 children ages 9- to-12-years-old into two groups and asked members of the first to keep track of "acts of kindness" they performed and the members of the second to record pleasant places they visited. The researchers then evaluated perceptions, attitudes, and levels of happiness among the study subjects, who were recruited from 19 classrooms in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Kind gestures might include sharing lunch with a peer or hugging mom when she was stressed out about her job. Pleasant places included a ball field, shopping center, or a grandparent's home. Both groups were asked to complete these tasks three times per week. Four weeks into the study, researchers assessed the level of happiness among the study participants.Though most of the children reported improved happiness, the researchers found only the participants who made kind gesture experienced a higher level of social acceptance among their peers.
To evaluate each student's peer acceptance level, the researchers gave each child a list of their classmates and asked them to circle those they'd like to work with on a school project. Children who had performed kind gestures were chosen more frequently as potential collaborators on school projects.
The authors suggest performing kind acts may reduce the likelihood a child will be bullied. They suggest their findings could be used by educators to further develop curriculum-based activities that encourage generosity among peers.
Students in classrooms with an even distribution of popularity tend to report more emotional stability, say the authors.
"Our study demonstrates that doing good for others benefits the givers, earning them not only improved well-being but also popularity," the authors explain in their paper, which was published in PLOS One, a peer reviewed journal that covers primary research in the fields of medicine and science. "Considering the importance of happiness and peer acceptance in youth, it is noteworthy that we succeeded in increasing both among preadolescents through a simple prosocial activity."
Last Updated: 12/26/2012 | <urn:uuid:39018cb9-05ad-4dd0-b49b-bae27c9b6f35> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.everydayhealth.com/emotional-health/for-preteens-kindness-leads-to-happiness-6785.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394414.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00066-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973001 | 409 | 3.4375 | 3 |
LHASA, Tibet — After decades of suppression and neglect, attempts are being made to restore the Tibetan language to a predominant position in the public life of this region.
The moves are part of efforts to ease the bitter anti-Chinese sentiments of many Tibetans, feelings that erupted last fall and again in March in violent rioting against China's control of Tibet.
Under a resolution approved last year by the People's Congress of the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, government offices in Tibet are instructed to try to use Tibetan as their primary working language beginning July 1. The Chinese language would be secondary.
More use of Tibetan in secondary school education is also envisioned.
Government and Communist Party supporters of the resolution believe that more use of Tibetan would help defuse sentiment for Tibetan independence and contribute in general to economic and social development here.
"All our cadres . . . must master the Tibetan language," the Panchen Lama, the second-ranking leader of Tibetan Buddhism, said in a speech to the regional People's Congress earlier this year. "This is of great importance."
(Tibetan Buddhism's top leader, the Dalai Lama, opposes the government and lives in exile in India.)
A complete changeover to use of Tibetan in government offices this summer is impossible, however, because too many ethnic Chinese officials posted to Tibet are unable to function in Tibetan, a fact acknowledged in last year's People's Congress resolution.
"Due to the fact that many ethnic Chinese cadres working in Tibet do not know Tibetan, it is very hard (for them) to exchange feelings and ideas with the Tibetan masses," the resolution stated. " . . . What is particularly serious and of far-reaching harm is the fact that many schools do not teach Tibetan."
Although the resolution places considerable emphasis on the study of Tibetan by ethnic Chinese, there is little evidence that many Chinese feel any commitment to learning such a difficult language when mastery would only tie them more tightly to Tibet. With its harsh environment, Tibet is viewed by most Chinese as an extremely unattractive place to live.
The Panchen Lama, who also holds the largely honorary position of vice chairman of China's National People's Congress, complained bitterly to the regional congress about the lack of progress in acting upon the resolution. The proposal was originally made by the Panchen Lama and Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme, another ethnic Tibetan official.
As an example of the need for improved Tibetan language skills among ethnic Chinese working in Tibet, the Panchen Lama, who normally resides in Beijing, cited what he called "untruthful news reports" about the anti-Chinese rioting last October.
False reports prepared by Chinese journalists aroused "great complaints " from the people, the Panchen Lama said. In a scathing critique that touched only briefly on the issue of intentional distortion, he placed much of the blame for the untruthful reporting on language incompetence.
Despite the Panchen Lama's complaint about lack of action, Dorje Ngodup Changngopa, deputy director of Tibet's education department, said in a recent interview that the department has drawn up plans to gradually implement Tibetan-language instruction for all Tibetan children through the junior high and high school levels, retaining the study of Chinese as a second language.
Until now, junior high and high school education in Tibet has been conducted in Chinese, he said.
The goal of Tibetan language instruction through high school is still some distance away, Changngopa said.
"There are not enough qualified teachers," he said. "First we want to establish one or two schools, like experimental schools, where Tibetan will be used in teaching all subjects." | <urn:uuid:1b4b2bf6-12b0-436b-8eac-3f01dddd9858> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://articles.latimes.com/1988-05-13/news/mn-3421_1_tibetan-language | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396875.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00084-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955641 | 745 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Since the financial crisis, two dominant topics in financial news have been the rise in gold prices and the increasing U.S. debt burden. The price of gold is up 94% since November 2008. The amount of U.S. debt outstanding is up 34% over the same period. Today's chart of the day unites these two popular topics.
U.S. debt is generally expressed in U.S. dollars, but what if we instead expressed it in troy pounds of gold (12 troy ounces to a troy pound) instead? That paints a somewhat different picture. Another way to think of this chart would be: how much gold would it take to pay off the national debt. Here's the chart, since 1971:
In fact, it now takes much less gold to pay off the U.S. debt than it did a decade ago. At first, this might seem surprising, since the debt has grown so much. But the price of gold has jumped even higher.
One takeaway from this exercise is to show how little impact the U.S.'s gold reserves would make in paying down the debt. The U.S. government has around 21.7 million pounds of gold. That might sound like a lot, but it would take 808.0 million pounds of gold to pay off the debt. Even if the U.S. government put every once of its gold towards paying down the debt, it would pay down less than 3%.
How much is 808 million pounds of gold? For a little perspective, this is equal to the weight of 55,403 male Asiatic elephants. It's weighs as much as nearly 80 million gallons of water, which is enough to fill up 121 Olympic-sized swimming pools. It's the same weight as 1,691 Boeing 747-400 jets ("Operating Empty Weight"). Even now, with prices at historical highs, that's an awful lot of gold. | <urn:uuid:4b6d4aed-eba8-4b3c-81cc-91b91333ec08> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/05/chart-of-the-day-how-much-is-the-us-national-debt-in-gold/239338/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395160.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00162-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972183 | 393 | 2.765625 | 3 |
m. 7 OCT 1880
Facts and Events
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (his own pronunciation, or ) (January 30, 1882 – April 12, 1945), commonly known by his initials FDR, was an American statesman and political leader who served as the 32nd President of the United States. A Democrat, he won a record four elections and served from March 1933 to his death in April 1945. He was a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic depression and total war. A dominant leader of the Democratic Party, he built a New Deal Coalition that realigned American politics after 1932, as his New Deal domestic policies defined American liberalism for the middle third of the 20th century.
Roosevelt was born in Hyde Park, New York in 1882 to a prominent New York family. He attended Groton School and Harvard College, graduating in 1903. In 1905, he married Eleanor Roosevelt, with whom he had six children. He entered politics in 1910, serving in the New York State Senate, and then as Assistant Secretary of the Navy under President Woodrow Wilson. In 1920, he was the Democratic nominee for Vice-President of the United States, but was defeated by Calvin Coolidge. Roosevelt was stricken with polio in 1921, which cost him the use of his legs and put his political career on hold for several years. After returning to political life by placing Alfred E. Smith’s name into nomination at the 1924 Democratic National Convention, Roosevelt was asked by Smith to run for Governor of New York in the 1928 election. Roosevelt served as a reform governor from 1929 to 1932, and promoted the enactment of programs to combat the Great Depression that occurred during his governorship.
Roosevelt defeated incumbent Republican president Herbert Hoover in November 1932, at the depth of the Great Depression. Energized by his personal victory over polio, FDR used his persistent optimism and activism to renew the national spirit. Assisted by key aide Harry Hopkins, he worked closely with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in leading the Allies against Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan in World War II.
In his first hundred days in office, which began March 4, 1933, Roosevelt spearheaded major legislation and issued a profusion of executive orders that instituted the New Deal—a variety of programs designed to produce relief (government jobs for the unemployed), recovery (economic growth), and reform (through regulation of Wall Street, banks and transportation). The economy improved rapidly from 1933 to 1937, but then relapsed into a deep recession. The bipartisan Conservative Coalition that formed in 1937 prevented his packing the Supreme Court. For the rest of his days in office, it blocked all proposals for major liberal legislation (apart from a minimum wage law). It abolished many of the relief programs when unemployment practically vanished during the war. Most of the regulations on business continued in effect until they ended about 1975–1985, except for the regulation of Wall Street by the still existing Securities and Exchange Commission. Along with several smaller programs, major surviving programs include the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which was created in 1933, and Social Security, which Congress passed in 1935.
As World War II loomed after 1938, with the Japanese invasion of China and the aggression of Nazi Germany, Roosevelt gave strong diplomatic and financial support to China and Great Britain, while remaining officially neutral. His goal was to make America the "Arsenal of Democracy," which would supply munitions to the Allies. In March 1941, Roosevelt, with Congressional approval, provided Lend-Lease aid to the countries fighting against Nazi Germany with the United Kingdom. With very strong national support, he made war on Japan and Germany after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, calling it a "date which will live in infamy". He supervised the mobilization of the U.S. economy to support the Allied war effort. As an active military leader, Roosevelt implemented an overall war strategy on two fronts that ended in the defeat of the Axis Powers and the development of the world's first nuclear bomb (commonly called the atom bomb at the time). In 1942 Roosevelt ordered the internment of 100,000 Japanese American civilians.
During the war, unemployment dropped to 2%, relief programs largely ended, and the industrial economy grew rapidly to new heights as millions of people moved to new jobs in war centers, and 16 million men and 300,000 women were drafted or volunteered for military service. All economic sectors grew during the war. Farm output went from an index (by volume) of 106 in 1939 to 128 in 1943. Coal output went from 446 million tons in 1939 to 651 in 1943; oil from 1.3 billion barrels to 1.5 billion. Manufacturing output doubled, from an index of 109 in 1939 to 239 in 1943. Railroads strained to move it all to market, from an output of 13.6 billion loaded car miles in 1939 to 23.3 in 1943. However, Roosevelt's health seriously declined during the war years, and he ultimately died three months into his fourth term while vacationing at the polio treatment center he established at Warm Springs, Georgia.
Roosevelt dominated the American political scene during the twelve years of his presidency, and his policies and ideas continued to have significant influence for decades afterward. He orchestrated the realignment of voters that created the Fifth Party System. Roosevelt's New Deal Coalition united labor unions, big city machines, white ethnics, African Americans, and rural white Southerners. His work also influenced the later creation of the United Nations and Bretton Woods. Roosevelt is consistently rated by scholars as one of the top three U.S. Presidents, along with Abraham Lincoln and George Washington. | <urn:uuid:22f5325d-35d4-478b-a4b6-1cae06b4e2ea> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.werelate.org/wiki/Person:Franklin_Roosevelt_(1) | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396945.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00182-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974781 | 1,160 | 3.453125 | 3 |
INTRODUCTION TO A COMPREHENSIVE INDEX
BIOGRAPHY OF THE PIONEERS OF EDGAR AND VERMILION COUNTIES, ILLINOIS
(Originally Published in 1889)
This is an amazing and fascinating book. Printed in 1889, the first 185 pages are biographies of American presidents and governors of Illinois, then the next 927 pages provide detailed biographies of outstanding citizens of Vermilion and Edgar Counties. Many of the biographies include genealogies from the years before the Revolutionary War.
Many people researching their family's genealogy have probably put the book aside in disappointment, not knowing that their own family information is included. Sometimes, a single name is mentioned in as many as four apparently unrelated biographies, yet the name doesn't appear in the original index. The original index of only 750 names isn't remotely comprehensive. There are 677 biographies of pioneers, leaving space for only 73 additional names. The new index provided here lists 11,503 names. The 1889 Publication is readily accessible through-out the various pages for your review.
The biographies are written in the flowery style of the Victorian Era. Today, such a book would adhere to sound writing principles, particularly the proper use of antecedents. Incorrect attribution of parentage of some children may have occurred in this new index because of the confusing way in which the information was presented. This problem, plus the lack of accuracy, neglect of important facts, faulty memories of long ago, and the haphazard writing style of the time, make it impossible to assure the reader that all of the information is accurate. Given names were handed from generation to generation; when needed, Sr., Jr., and 3rd have been added for clarification.
There are printer errors, such as 10 missing pages which should have been numbered from 1083 through 1094. This was truly a printing error because the narrative continues without interruption from page 1082 to page 1095. The numbers "1" and "4" are usually indistinguishable in the print copy; fortunately, a clue was sometimes included which helped determine the proper dates. Erroneous dates are noted and corrected, such as one biography where the marriage date was two years after the birth date of the individual. Internet searches were occasionally performed, then noted in this new index when information was obviously incomplete or contradictory. "Bio" was added to the new index next to the subjects name on each biography, to help correlate the information in the book with the index listing. Strangely, there are eight duplicate biographies; the notation, "Duplicate Bio," was added by these names.
Sorting through and recording 11,503 names on 393 pages was an overwhelming challenge, and complete accuracy was impossible. Even so, the book is an inspiration, and the source of great respect for pioneer Americans.
© 2012 Norma Ewing: All rights reserved.
(g/n/u) =given name unknown
(m/n/u) =maiden name unknown
( ) = maiden name enclosed
Names are listed alphabetically and each new alphabet letter is given a separate page. | <urn:uuid:98096abb-4958-482f-9689-493c075e109f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~connectville/places/ver/index.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396029.85/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00089-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949304 | 647 | 2.75 | 3 |
In our last Editorial, "Post-Traumatic Design: How to Design Schools that Heal Past Wounds and Prevent Future Violence," we discussed how architects must conceptualize school design in the wake of the tragic shootings that have affected our nation. Rather than leaning towards overly secure, prison-like structures, the Editorial suggested a different model, one better suited to dealing with student needs (particularly for those who have experienced trauma): domestic violence shelters.
While the comparison may seem bizarre at first, shelter design is all about implementing un-invasive security measures that could easily make schools safer, healthier spaces for students. To further elaborate this unlikely connection, we spoke with an Associate at Mahlum Architecture, Corrie Rosen, who for the last 6 years has worked with the The Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence [WSCADV] on the Building Dignity project, which provides Domestic Violence Shelters advice to design shelters that empower and heal.
Find out Corrie Rosen's 8 strategies for designing schools that can improve security and student well-being, after the break...
From Corrie Rosen, associate at Mahlum Architecture:
From Building Dignity we’ve seen that there are two ideas of preventing violence. The first measure is like a shield or an armored tank - the idea that we can create spaces that are so hardened that they can protect us by literally deflecting the violence directed against us. While relatively easy to achieve, these hardened spaces reflect the violence that they are intended to prevent. The kids and staff who use them are confronted with this latent violence every day, and it can’t help but undermine their efforts at building learning communities and educating caring members of society.
The second idea of preventing violence is harder to define. It’s the idea that when we do have successful communities they raise members who are less likely to be violent, and at the same time protect themselves by looking out for one another. Building Dignity reinforced just how important this second idea of violence prevention is – when shelters protect a woman from violence when she’s inside the shelter, but don’t provide a space that helps that woman build a new life away from abuse, then the shelter hasn’t really prevented violence, it’s only delayed it. We need shelters, and schools, that are able to do both.
Many of the strategies we saw working at successful shelters- e.g. visual connections, flexible and right-sized spaces and abundant daylighting – are also strategies that we know result in more successful schools by fostering a strong sense of community. The design challenge is to find the appropriate balance between open, connected spaces and enclosed, defensible spaces which respond directly to an individual community’s culture, traditions and needs.
1. Allow varied/multiple levels of access for public areas.
A community meeting room open to the public may be used by residents to gather with family and supportive friends, host community groups for meetings, and/or provide a location for classes or workshops. Similarly, an outdoor gathering space that can be used for public events, without compromising resident safety, can invite community members to get involved in fulfilling the shelter’s mission.
In schools, the civic nature of education embodies the notion that learning is all about creating connections; that education can form a bridge to the community. Focusing on the buildings relationship to and transparency from the surrounding community is critical to the design process. At a time when public resources are limited, we recognize that public facilities must by necessity support a wide and diverse range of user groups. Clear identity and way finding, easy access for community use and service, the ability to secure select portions of the campus when community functions are occurring, and beautiful design all play an important role in ensuring an effective and successful community learning center.
2. Consider scale when configuring shared living quarters.
Communal living is increasingly difficult to manage for both advocates and residents as size and cultural diversity increase. It is much easier for two or three families to share a kitchen than four to ten families, regardless of how large the kitchen is.
In schools, small learning communities are shown to provide safer environments, improve student behavior, and most importantly result in higher academic achievement. The success of these models comes from stronger connections students have to their lessons, to their teachers, and to their fellow students. Ultimately, these interpersonal relationships and the sense of being a part of a distinct community give students confidence and simultaneously make them accountable for their actions and performance.
3. Visual access throughout the building enhances autonomy.
In shelters, choosing when to interact and with whom is an essential component of self determination. Residents appreciate the ability to see who is in a communal space before entering it. Interior windows or cutouts and open sight lines can accomplish this. At the same time clear visual access supports people who may be deaf, hearing impaired or use sign language to communicate.
In schools, visual connections create a highly collaborative environment, spaces need to incorporate open visual access between all learning areas to encourage communication among the staff and students and reinforce the strong student-staff connection. Visual connection between spaces reinforces the sense of a whole school working towards a common goal and conveys the idea that learning should be visible and celebrated. A highly transparent environment can even change student behavior for the better. Visual transparency between the building and the site reinforce the connection between education and the greater community and enhance parent and community involvement. Views to the exterior stimulate a feeling of connectedness to the world and beyond, and provide natural daylighting. We have learned to employ transparency with a high level of intentionality, such that a balance is maintained between openness and transparency with privacy and enclosure.
4. Clarify wayfinding.
An easy-to-navigate environment is particularly important for people who are anxious, depressed, or in crisis. Clear wayfinding helps people with short term memory problems or other cognitive challenges (which are not uncommon for survivors who have sustained traumatic brain injuries from being beaten).Children also appreciate lively colors and images at their eye level that can help them stay oriented and serve as landmarks. Differentiate areas of the building with color and pictures. Consider the needs of users with varying mobility levels. Signage should be easy to read, include Braille and integrate pictograms (not just words).
In schools, clear vistas and visual connections between all elements of the school also result in easy way-finding. Research shows that ease of orientation can dramatically reduce anxiety levels in children and can make school a non-threatening experience from day one.
5. Alcoves allow residents to retreat from larger group situations.
Children in particular, but also adults love window seats, alcoves and other peripheral spaces that allow them to create their own space while also being connected to the larger, communal space.
In schools, as much as students need spaces for broad social development, they also need spaces and places to go to be alone for individual study, reflection and quiet down time. Social development suggests that schools need to find a way to improve the balance between providing spaces for communal gathering with spaces of a personal scale. This design concept is often overlooked, but by developing simple niches, benches, or alcoves, we can provide a full range of spaces to meet the emotional, psychological and learning needs of all students.
6. Flexibility within communal spaces stimulates and encourages a variety of uses.
Incorporating “tools,” such as mobile storage and lightweight but durable furniture, encourages and empowers residents and staff to reconfigure and transform the space to support their needs. Color, the position of furniture and rugs, and lighting may be used to create boundaries within a larger room rather than creating multiple smaller rooms that ultimately limit future flexibility.
In schools, learning can take place anywhere. Spaces that support multiple uses are places that provide space for a wide range of learning styles. Additionally, they are spaces that can take a variety of forms depending on the school’s social and cultural context, students’ ages and abilities, educational philosophies, curriculum and pedagogies. Multi-purpose learning spaces must be flexible. They should be able to serve a variety of learning communities within the school as well as the community surrounding the school.
7. Abundant daylight and views to the outdoors promote wellness.
Position rooms, windows, and skylights to maximize natural daylight and increase views of natural features like gardens and trees. Place windows strategically throughout the building to provide a sense of connection between the inside and outside, while still preserving the feeling of security.
In schools, spaces with glass walls or large windows connect students to nature and extend the learning environment beyond the four walls of the classroom and expand the range of learning environments.
8. Clear sightlines allow parents to supervise their children without being in the same physical space.
Visibility allows children access to play while their parent is preparing a meal, but also supports developmentally appropriate autonomy for children.
In schools, a successful way to stimulate the brain and increase engagement is the creation of lines of sight into, through and between spaces. This occasional wandering of the eyes keeps the brain engaged and alert. It also allows learners to feel connected to a larger whole. Research shows that what you see has an impact. Natural complex environments achieve best results while monotone man-made surroundings have little impact on refreshing the learner’s brain.
About the Author. As an Associate at Mahlum, Corrie Rosum leads the firm-wide community service group, which includes professional services, volunteerism and charitable donations. Corrie led the effort to create the RFP process to connect Mahlum with non-profits in their local community and guides the pro bono projects through completion. Prior to Mahlum, Corrie worked in New York at Maya Lin Studio. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in the Design of the Environment from the University of Pennsylvania and a Master of Architecture from Columbia University. She is a registered architect in Washington. | <urn:uuid:bff823e6-d488-4165-9589-5ab7184b7bc3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.archdaily.com/326114/the-8-things-domestic-violence-shelters-can-teach-us-about-secure-school-design/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398209.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00020-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944776 | 2,037 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Benefits Of Allicin
Benefits of Allicin
Allicin is a colorless liquid that is derived from garlic. It has a pungent smell and it exhibits both anti-fungal and antibacterial properties. Actually garlic uses allicin as its defense mechanism when attacked by pests. As a health supplement, allicin provides various benefits that range from cancer prevention to immune enhancement.
1. Blood thinning effects
Allicin has powerful antiplatelet effects and it thus inhibits the body’s capability of clotting. This effect is useful for persons with an enhanced risk of either stroke or heart attack. Allicin portrays considerable greater platelet inhibitor properties than aspirins, drugs commonly prescribed for their blood thinning effects.
2. Antibacterial properties
The antibacterial properties of allicin guard against a great range of injurious bacteria. Allicin also shows great promise against some drug resistant forms of E. coli, which causes life-threating instances like food poisoning. Other studies have shown that allicin consumption might kill the bacteria responsible for causing intestinal and stomach ulcers.
3. Cancer prevention
Since allicin helped to stop the development of specific cancerous cells in lab studies, scientists further examined whether the pure form of allicin has the same effect. They discovered that allicin repressed development of endometrial, colon and breast cancer cells.
4. Antifungal effects
Allicin possesses antifungal effects and is mainly effective in combating cases of oral thrush and yeast infections. Allicin also portrays strong anti-parasitic properties. It was effective in fighting certain intestinal parasites that are responsible for causing severe diarrhea. Moreover, topical use of allicin extract can effectively cure fungal skin ailments.
5. Lower cholesterol
Another allicin benefit is that it brings down and normalizes blood lipids, which includes triglycerides and cholesterol. In reality, allicin seems to have the same effects on cholesterol like statin drugs that are usually recommended for lowering high cholesterol.
Nonetheless, certain people are allergic to allicin. Some indications of this allergy include headache, fever and skin rashes.Benefits Of Allicin | <urn:uuid:64ee225b-a44d-4a2d-92be-c0808a8ce7b0> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://benefitof.net/benefits-of-allicin/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395679.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00103-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925967 | 460 | 2.671875 | 3 |
This report is one of several studies conducted by UNODC on organized crime threats around the world. These studies describe what is known about the mechanics of contraband trafficking - the what, who, how, and how much of illicit flows - and discuss their potential impact on governance and development. Their primary role is diagnostic, but they also explore the implications of these findings for policy.
West Africa has long been the focus of United Nations attention, but it is only recently that the international community recognized organized crime as a key issue for the region. This recognition stems primarily from a single contraband flow - cocaine - a flow so large that its wholesale value on arrival in Europe would exceed the national security budgets of many countries in West Africa. While the threat of cocaine is clear, there are many other forms of organized crime that threaten the stability of the region. These threats are both a cause and a consequence of weak governance, a dynamic explored in the present report.
Understanding the cocaine flow requires some historical context. In the last decade, the world cocaine market has undergone a dramatic shift. Cocaine demand in the United States has been in long-term decline, with a particularly acute downturn after Mexico implemented a new national security strategy in 2006. But cocaine demand in Europe has doubled in the last decade, and cocaine is more expensive in Europe than in the United States. As European law enforcement agencies became aware of the threat in the mid-2000s, direct smuggling to the continent became more difficult. Cocaine traffickers in South America began to look for a staging area on the other side of the Atlantic, and found one in West Africa.
This report focuses on West Africa, a collection of 16 nations that is home to around 325 million people. All these countries score poorly on human development indexes, and they are some of the poorest in the world. The region is also politically unstable - just under one third of the States have experienced a coup d'état in the last four years.
Organized crime in West Africa became an international security concern in the mid-2000s, due to the detection of large cocaine shipments transiting the region on their way to Europe. Subsequent assessments conducted by UNODC revealed that a number of transnational organized crime problems pose a threat to stability and development in the region, including oil bunkering, arms trafficking, human trafficking, migrant smuggling, toxic waste dumping, fraudulent medicine, cigarette smuggling, and the looting of natural resources.
Few transnational contraband flows have generated more alarm than the flow of cocaine through West Africa. Around 2005, it became clear that massive amounts of drugs, worth billions of dollars, were being shipped through one of the least stable regions in the world.
West African involvement in transnational drug markets extends back at least as far as the 1970s. Nigerians, particularly those from the southeast of the country, have traditionally shuttled cocaine and heroin from diaspora communities near production areas (such as Karachi, Sao Paulo, and Bangkok) to diaspora communities in consumer countries. The West African sub-region itself played little role, aside from being an air stopover location and as a place to launder the profits. All this changed when the region became a cocaine transshipment zone in the mid-2000s.
Since the cocaine profits have begun to ebb, it is perhaps not surprising that traffickers are looking for new income streams. For the first time, evidence of large-scale drug production in West Africa has emerged. The drug - methamphetamine - has many advantages over plant-based drugs, not the least of which are low start-up costs and the ability to engage in production anywhere.
Migrant smuggling occurs most frequently along the fault lines between two regions of vastly different levels of development, such as West Europe and West Africa. Though the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea pose formidable obstacles, thousands of people cross them each year in order to migrate irregularly. Almost all of those who choose to do so require assistance, and the act of rendering this assistance for gain constitutes the crime of migrant smuggling.
In recent years, about 9% of irregular migrants detected in Europe came from West Africa. Due to the economic downturn, this flow has declined, but unpredictable geopolitical events (such as the recent crisis in Libya) can rapidly increase the demand for smuggling services. The easiest way to migrate illegally is to fly into a country with a fixed period visa and simply overstay that visa. The visa itself may be legitimate, fraudulently acquired, or completely forged. It remains unclear what share of irregular migrants do, in fact, take this route, but estimates typically range from 75% to 90%. Migrant smugglers make money by helping people to fraudulently acquire visas and coaching them to pass the inspection of border officials.
After the Cold War, there was a time when West Africa received tons of armaments from outside the continent. This era has largely passed, because today, regional supply can satisfy local demand. On the one hand, the number of civil wars in Africa has declined since the 1990s, reducing demand. On the other, the firearms trafficked during those years did not evaporate, and continue to be re-circulated throughout the region.
These legacy firearms are primarily of interest to those looking to start a revolution. For daily use, the primary source of arms appears to be official state stocks, legitimately procured but diverted to the illicit market. Criminals seem to be able to get what they need from the local security forces, buying or renting weapons from corrupt elements in the police and military. The imports that do occur are not made through underground arms brokers, but rather through mainstream commercial channels, and then directed though corrupt officials or complicit governments to criminals and rebel groups.
Many of the flows described in this study can affect grand scale geopolitical events. Cocaine trafficking has fed instability in Guinea-Bissau; firearms trafficking has fueled a rebellion in northern Mali; maritime piracy threatens to undermine commerce in the Gulf of Guinea. These flows demonstrate that transnational organized crime has truly risen to the level of a security threat in West Africa.
The importation of fraudulent essential medications does not have this kind of dramatic impact. The profits appear to be too diffuse to make corrupt officials into millionaires, and are too small to be of much interest to non-state armed groups. Rather, the effect is subtler, almost impossible to measure. The sick get sicker and resistant strains of disease evolve that won't make headlines until it is too late.
Much of the piracy that affects West Africa is a product of the disorder that surrounds the regional oil industry. A large share of the recent piracy attacks targeted vessels carrying petroleum products. These vessels are attacked because there is a booming black market for fuel in West Africa. Without this ready market, there would be little point in attacking these vessels. There are indications that oil may also be smuggled outside the region.
Nigeria contains half the population of the region, and contributes more than half of the regional GDP. Oil is the source of 95% of Nigeria's foreign exchange earnings and up to 80% of budgetary revenues. It is the single most important industry in the entire region, and for two decades has been threatened by transnational organized crime.
Cocaine has garnered most of the international attention, but the transnational organized crime problems affecting West Africa are manifold. Some, like fraudulent medicines, may pose a greater threat to public safety than illicit drugs. Others, like firearms trafficking, make violent uprisings possible. Still others, like petro-piracy, could blossom to become much greater problems than the situation currently reflects. Each of these issues requires a tailored response, because the commodities involved respond to distinct sources of supply and demand.
While each flow discussed in this study represents an independent problem, all are enabled by weakness in the rule of law. This weakness makes the region vulnerable to smuggling of all sorts | <urn:uuid:64748d13-300b-465f-9658-57c30dd69264> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.unodc.org/toc/en/reports/TOCTAWestAfrica.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393332.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00010-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956906 | 1,604 | 2.71875 | 3 |
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