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A 4.4 magnitude earthquake hit three miles from The Geysers in Sonoma County Sunday night, according to the USGS.
The Geysers is one of the most active areas of Northern California with small earthquakes hitting the area nearly every week. A 4.4 quake is on the large size for The Geysers. The UGSG Website says the largest quake ever to be recorded there was 4.5.
The U.S. Geological Survey said Sunday's 4.4 quake hit at 8:47 p.m. at a shallow depth of approximately 0.2 miles.
There were no reports of damage or injuries. People reported feeling the earthquake from San Francisco, Half Moon Bay and as far away as Santa Clara and Palo Alto.
Here is an explanation from the USGS as to why there are so many earthquakes in this particular area:
The Geysers geothermal field is located in a tectonically active region of Northern California. The major seismic hazards in the region are from large earthquakes occurring along regional faults that are located miles away from the geothermal field, such as the San Andreas and Healdsburg-Rodgers Creek faults. However, activities associated with the withdrawal of steam for producing electric power cause or induce small quakes to occur in the field. These smaller quakes are frequently felt by those who work at the field and by nearby residents.
Seismicity at The Geysers was poorly documented when power generation commenced in the 1960's, but since 1975 high-quality seismic monitoring data has been available, and it has been demonstrated that increased steam production and fluid injection correlates positively with changes in earthquake activity. The level of seismicity has been fairly stable since the mid-1980s, even though power production has declined in the field with the depletion of the steam reservoirs. Sheet 3 of Open-File Report 2002-209 illustrates how seismicity has spatially and temporally expanded with geothermal production.
Seismologists have proposed several mechanisms to explain why earthquakes are being induced. The operators of the geothermal field are withdrawing mass (steam boiled from water) and heat, both of which cause the surrounding rock to contract, which in turn can induce earthquakes as a result of the contractional stresses. In addition, the operators condense the extracted steam and flow the water back into the steam reservoir at depths of one to three km in order to extend the life of the field. Furthermore, reclaimed water from nearby Lake County and Santa Rosa is pumped to The Geysers and flowed into the steam reservoir. The condensed steam and reclaimed water is cold, whereas the rock is hot, and it appears that this thermal contrast is a significant factor in inducing the earthquakes. It is also possible that the hydraulic pressure of the injected fluid finds its way into faults and facilitates fracturing due to increased fluid pressures.
To date, the largest quake recorded at The Geysers is approximately M4.5. It is possible that a magnitude 5 could occur, but larger earthquakes are thought to be unlikely. In order for a larger earthquake to occur, it is necessary that a large fault exist. For example, the 1906 magnitude (M) 7.8 San Francisco earthquake ruptured nearly 300 miles of the San Andreas Fault. At The Geysers no such continuous fault is known to exist. Rather, there are numerous small fractures in the rock located near the many steam and injection wells. The activities described above result in local stress changes which, when added to the prevailing regional tectonic stresses, induce the quakes on these small faults. | <urn:uuid:7f71edf1-7690-4bb0-9bc5-d3498e08e502> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/44-Earthquake-Hits-The-Geysers-139199629.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397865.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00087-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970825 | 722 | 3.15625 | 3 |
paper, 373 pp., $32.95
In writing a practical guide for achieving sustainability of the environment through community involvement, the authors — all experienced in the field of community planning — offer insights into strategies to maintain an enduring ecosystem. Using the metaphor of the kitchen table, the authors urge all citizens to express themselves in community development. Only through mutual respect of fellow citizens and their values can planning options succeed. To put it more succinctly, successful community planning starts from the bottom up.
— Marilyn K. Alaimo, garden writer and volunteer, Chicago Botanic Garden | <urn:uuid:a510e874-703e-4c0c-bb3f-6206365f7fbd> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.chicagobotanic.org/book/kitchen_table_sustainability_practical_recipes_community_engagement_sustainability | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404382.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00058-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.881847 | 116 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Clinical trials are research studies that investigate newer and better ways to manage medical conditions, including rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treatments.
New therapies, new ways to use existing therapies, or comparisons between therapies are the most common subjects studied in current clinical trials, says Eric Ruderman, MD, a rheumatologist and associate professor of medicine in the division of rheumatology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. "Trials are designed to look at both efficacy and safety for the treatments being studied.”
What Clinical Trials Have Discovered
Not every clinical trial yields positive results, but very important discoveries have been made, leading to better rheumatoid arthritis treatments and better pain management for people with severe rheumatoid arthritis symptoms.
"All current therapies for RA were developed in clinical trials," says Dr. Ruderman. So they've played a key part in advancing what experts know about rheumatoid arthritis and treating it. "Without these, we would not have any of the biologics, or methotrexate for that matter," he says.
Clinical trials even go beyond new treatments. They also show better ways to use existing treatments to get the most from them — for instance, how and when they should be administered for the best rheumatoid pain relief.
"Clinical trials have shown us the importance of early treatment and the importance of treating with a goal in mind, and have provided information on appropriate monitoring for different treatments," explains Ruderman.
The Pros and Cons of Clinical Trials for RA
Clinical trials may not be appropriate for everyone, but may be right for people who struggle with finding relief from their rheumatoid arthritis symptoms — people who have tried every drug and every rheumatoid arthritis treatment, yet still experience severe pain in their joints.
"For people who have not responded to existing treatments (a smaller and smaller number in recent years), clinical trials may provide access to newer, potentially effective treatments," says Ruderman.
One important benefit of participating in clinical trials is to make life better not just for yourself, but also for other individuals with rheumatoid arthritis today and in the years to come. "There is an altruistic component to clinical trials, as this is the method that allows us to advance therapies in RA, which may help others with this disease in the future," says Ruderman.
One significant point to keep in mind is that there is no guarantee that the rheumatoid arthritis treatment being tested will actually be better than what is currently available. "The caveat is that the newer treatment may not actually work, which is why the trial is done in the first place," Ruderman explains.
There are possible negatives to consider before joining a clinical trial. First, even though you agree to participate, you may not actually get the new medication under review.
Trials often have a placebo group, so it is possible that participants may not be getting active therapy for some of the time. As we've learned the value of aggressive therapy for RA, the time frame for the placebo portion of the study has been shortened to the minimum possible time necessary to provide the scientific answer," says Ruderman. "Since disease activity is not always stable, it is typically important to have a placebo group to be sure that any improvement seen with the study treatment is not due to chance."
In addition to the drug not being effective for a particular individual, Ruderman says there's also the risk of unforeseen side effects — another reason clinical trials are necessary before a medication can be put on the market..
Deciding to Participate
Your doctor may be able to tell you about current clinical trials. You can also search for clinical trials to see if any trials for which you meet the criteria are accepting applicants.
There is no easy answer to the question of whether a clinical trial is right for you. Any consideration of joining a clinical trial requires a conversation between you and your doctor to weigh all the benefits and any possible risks associated with it. Ruderman says that patients considering participating in a rheumatoid arthritis trial should also consider any alternatives that might be more appropriate for you.
Last Updated: 8/16/2010 | <urn:uuid:b9076ccf-2e8d-466f-a987-bc210600f126> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.everydayhealth.com/rheumatoid-arthritis/clinical-trials-for-rheumatoid-arthritis.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396872.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00170-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958979 | 859 | 2.828125 | 3 |
By Sally Holland, CNN
Washington (CNN) - A new study from the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project found cell phones, tablets, Google and Wikipedia are at the center of how educators teach and how students learn - but they bring new challenges, too.
Almost three-quarters of teachers surveyed said cell phones are used in their classrooms to complete assignments, while 45% use e-readers and 43% use tablet computers.
Many teachers - 99% - themselves rely on online research, but they believe digital technologies make it harder for students to “find and use credible sources of information.”
The Pew study said 76% of teachers surveyed strongly agree that “search engines have conditioned students to expect to be able to find information quickly and easily,” and 83% agree that the amount of information is overwhelming.
The survey of about 2,400 middle school and high school teachers from across the United States asked how they use technology in their classrooms and at home. The teachers were all Advanced Placement teachers or from the National Writing Project, so all their students are considered academically advanced.
“Several teachers noted that if a student looks for a particular piece of information online for a few minutes and can’t find it, they will often not interpret that to mean they have to search differently or go to a different resource,” said Kristen Purcell, the main author of the report.
Students will assume “that information is not out there to be found," she said. "If it were, the search engine would find it quickly."
Editor's note: Check out CNN Living's story about a college program creating jobs by training students to revive a 'dying trade.'
By Jamie Gumbrecht, CNN
(CNN) - You can almost hear the old shop teacher asking - so, how is this going to work?
In his State of the Union speech, President Barack Obama talked about redesigning schools for a high-tech future. He gave a shout-out to a technical high school in Brooklyn, and to 3-D printing. In a moment of seeming agreement, Republican Sen. Marco Rubio mentioned incentives for schools to add vocational and career training.
But long gone are the days of shop class, or even "vocational training," said Stephen DeWitt, the senior director of public policy for the Association for Career and Technical Education. For many years, he saw career and technical education cut by shrunken budgets or "literally and figuratively left in the back of the school, separate from academics."
What's emerging in schools now is something tougher to pin down. In one district, it might be a fancy new school dedicated to teaching tech. In another, an apprenticeship program. Some schools design career and technical classes to line up with college-prep courses that guide students to become engineers, chefs, CEOs or doctors. Almost 80% of high school students who concentrated on career and technical studies pursued some type of postsecondary education within two years of finishing high school, the U.S. Department of Education reported in 2011.
"We’re hearing policy makers talk about it more often. Certain districts are looking at career and technical education as a way to reform schools," DeWitt said. "The focus on project-based learning, how to get students engaged more, is something that’s caught on."
That might mean more maker spaces sprouting up at schools, too.
Students helped build out the maker space at Analy High School.
They are exactly what they sound like - a space to make things. The workshops and warehouses have taken off in communities around the country during the last few years, but the push to add them to schools is still fresh.
"Maker spaces aren't in schools and they need to be," MAKE magazine founder Dale Dougherty told a crowd at Maker Faire in Michigan last summer. "Not just a summer camp, not just an after-school program."
MAKE secured a grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to build the "hacker spaces" in schools - a move some criticized because of its military ties. The money helped to launch maker spaces at a handful of Northern California schools this school year.
The goal: more than 1,000 by 2015.
Follow us on Twitter @CNNschools
(CNN) - Nearly three-fourths of the nation's teachers say they personally would not bring a firearm to their school if allowed, but most educators believe armed guards would improve campus safety, a new survey showed.
Since the December massacre by a lone gunman in Newtown, Connecticut, many schools have hastened to add safety measures in an effort to prevent similar violence.The most common step since the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School that left 20 first-graders and six educators dead has been ensuring that all doors are locked, teachers said.
Of the nearly 11,000 educators surveyed nationwide, most said they generally feel safe in their schools, but disagreed on whether their workplaces were safe from gun violence.
Nearly four in 10 school superintendents who responded said their schools were not safe from gun violence, slightly higher than the 31% of teachers who felt their schools were not safe.
January's online survey was conducted by School Improvement Network, a for-profit company that specializes in professional development for educators and partners with schools, districts, and educators.
Some 72.4% of educators said they would be unlikely to bring a firearm to school if allowed to do so.
(CNN) - Just like she did during the first half of the school year, first-grader Coy Mathis wants to use the girls' restroom at her Colorado elementary school. But school officials won't let her.
The reason? Coy is transgendered, born with male sex organs but a child who identifies herself as female.
She dressed as a girl for most of last year. And her passport and state-issued identification recognize her as female.
In December, the Fountain-Fort Carson School District informed Coy's parents that Coy would be barred from using the girls' restrooms at Eagleside Elementary in Fountain after winter break.
She could instead use the boys' bathroom, gender-neutral faculty bathrooms or the nurse's bathroom, the district said.
In making the decision, the district "took into account not only Coy but other students in the building, their parents, and the future impact a boy with male genitals using a girls' bathroom would have as Coy grew older," attorney W. Kelly Dude said."However, I'm certain you can appreciate that as Coy grows older and his male genitals develop along with the rest of his body, at least some parents and students are likely to become uncomfortable with his continued use of the girls' restroom."
Coy's parents see it differently.
By Richard Galant, CNN
Long Beach, California (CNN) - What if everything you thought you knew about education was wrong?
What if students learn more quickly on their own, working in teams, than in a classroom with a teacher?
What if tests and discipline get in the way of the learning process rather than accelerate it?
Those are the questions Sugata Mitra has been asking since the late 1990s, and for which he was awarded the $1 million TED Prize on Tuesday, the first day of the TED2013 conference.
Newcastle University professor Sugata Mitra won the 2013 TED Prize for his experiments in self-organized learning.
Mitra, professor of educational technology at Newcastle University, won the prize for his concept of "self organizing learning environments," an alternative to traditional schooling that relies on empowering students to work together on computers with broadband access to solve their own problems, with adults intervening to provide encouragement and admiration, rather than top-down instruction.
Mitra's work with students in India has gained wide attention and was the focus of a 2010 TED Talk on his "hole in the wall" experiment, showing the potential of computers to jump-start learning without any adult intervention.
Thinking about children living in slums in New Delhi, he said, "It can't be possible that our sons are geniuses and they are not." Mitra set up a publicly accessible computer along the lines of a bank ATM, behind a glass barrier, and told children they could use it, with no further guidance.
They soon learned to browse the Web in English, even though they lacked facility in the language. To prove the experiment would work in an isolated environment, he set up another "hole in the wall" computer in a village 300 miles away. After a while, "one of the kids was saying we need a faster processor and a better mouse."
When the head of the World Bank came to see the experiment, Mitra said he encouraged him to go to the New Delhi slum and see for himself.
By Jon Marcus at The Hechinger Institute, CNNMoney
New York (CNNMoney) - Berevan Omer graduated on a Friday in February with an associate's degree from Nashville State Community College and started work the following Monday as a computer-networking engineer at a local television station, making about $50,000 a year.
That's 15% higher than the average starting salary for graduates - not only from community colleges, but for bachelor's degree holders from four-year universities.
"I have a buddy who got a four-year bachelor's degree in accounting who's making $10 an hour," Omer says. "I'm making two and a-half times more than he is."
Omer, who is 24, is one of many newly minted graduates of community colleges defying history and stereotypes by proving that a bachelor's degree is not, as widely believed, the only ticket to a middle-class income.
Nearly 30% of Americans with associate's degrees now make more than those with bachelor's degrees, according to Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce. In fact, other recent research in several states shows that, on average, community college graduates right out of school make more than graduates of four-year universities.
The average wage for graduates of community colleges in Tennessee, for instance, is $38,948 - more than $1,300 higher than the average salaries for graduates of the state's four-year institutions.
By Noni Ellison-Southall, Special to CNN
Editor's note: Noni Ellison-Southall serves as senior counsel for Turner Broadcasting System Inc., which operates CNN, and heads Turner’s music division. She is on the boards of the Urban League of Greater Atlanta, MARTA, the Atlanta Speech School and the National Association for Multi-Ethnicity in Communications. She is a graduate of Howard University and University of Chicago Law School.
(CNN) - I was in a dead sleep the night of February 13 when I got an unexpected phone call. President Barack Obama would be visiting a preschool in nearby Decatur, Georgia, just days after he’d announced a priority on early childhood education. I was invited to hear him speak.
It would be special to hear the president addressing the importance of education, but especially for me. He was my law school professor. I wondered if he, now the president of the United States, was aware that he’d had a profound impact on my life years earlier at the University of Chicago Law School?
I didn’t have long to reflect. My mind was racing as reality set in. With only 12 hours till showtime, what would I wear? What should I say? Would he remember me from class? I needed to get my camera, and of course, my syllabus from “Current Issues in Racism and Law,” the class he’d taught.
It was stored safely in a green binder in an old leather briefcase in the basement with my law books. He’d apologized in the notes for messy copies, a consequence of not having a teacher’s assistant. “On the other hand,” he’d written in the syllabus, “my wife tells me that she wouldn’t have minded getting the professor’s notations on her reading material when she was in law school.” I wasn’t sure if he would sign it, but I planned to ask.
At a recreation center in Decatur, I sat in the row with Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and Sylvia Reed, his mother. It’s a modest and very intimate space. There was festive music playing, press and security everywhere and a colorful banner that read “Preschool for All” hanging on the wall. Teachers walked around, giggling and taking pictures in front of the podium with the presidential seal affixed. A sense of excitement and anticipation filled the venue. It was surreal. Was I really going to meet the president of the United States today, all those years after I’d met him the first time? | <urn:uuid:587cb436-9fbe-4815-b77b-7887de41bb70> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://schoolsofthought.blogs.cnn.com/2013/02/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392069.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00032-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975513 | 2,660 | 3.046875 | 3 |
Functional metabolites in phytoplankton
Allelopathy and functional metabolites in phytoplankton
Allelopathy is the study of chemical interactions among neighboring plants and the chemicals responsible for such interactions. The word allelopathy derives from two separate words: allelon which means "of each other", and pathos which means "to suffer". In the phytoplankton, the release of chemicals by microalgae that induce negative effects on growth of other microalgae has mainly been studied in toxin-producing species such as cyanobacteria, diatoms, dinoflagellates and flagellates, and has been suggested to influence phytoplankton competition, succession, and bloom formation or maintenance. The mode of action of allelochemicals can be quite diverse, and the chemical nature of these compounds is largely unknown. The most common effect is to cause cell lysis, blistering, or growth inhibition. The factors that affect allelochemical production have not been studied much, although nutrient limitation, pH, and temperature appear to have an effect. The evolutionary aspects of allelopathy remain largely unknown, but it has been suggested that the producers of allelochemicals should gain a competitive advantage over other phytoplankton. A recent line of research is highlighting the role of these compounds for cell-to-cell communication. This is the case for diatom unsaturated aldehydes, which are involved in a stress surveillance mechanism based on fluctuations in calcium and nitric oxide levels. When stress conditions during a bloom and cell lysis rates increase, aldehyde concentrations may exceed a certain threshold, and possibly function as a diffusible bloom-termination signal that triggers an active cell death. Diatom-derived aldehydes also have an allelopathic role, since they have been shown to affect growth and physiological performance of diatoms and other phytoplankton species.
Phytoplankton-zooplankton chemical interactions
Herbivory is very intense in the plankton. Copepods and other planktonic crustaceans are predominantly herbivorous, grazing on large quantities of phytoplankton cells. Herbivory is therefore an important pressure for the evolution of defensive compounds in marine phytoplankton, seaweeds and macroalgae, and for shaping prey- predator relationships in the pelagic environment. However, the organism has to pay a price for this ecological advantage since the chemical pathways that generate these metabolites are often complex and significant amounts of metabolic energy are expended to generate their production. This may be the case of constitutive metabolites that are always present within the cells as opposed to induced defenses that are only produced when the predator is present. In the case of diatoms, for example, some compounds (oxylipins) are not constitutively present in the cells but are only produced when the cell is damaged as would occur during grazing. Thus, the cost for the production of these metabolites is expected to be lower than for other microalgal toxins which are always present in the cell, such as the saxitoxins, gonytoxins and other chemically complex neurotoxic compounds produced by dinoflagellates. Diatom defense relies on primary metabolites such as storage lipids, which are transformed by lipase and lipoxygenase enzymes after wounding or ingestion. The cost of defense would therefore be negligible and the evolution of such defenses could thus be driven by the need for processes involved in primary metabolism together with the need for feeding pressure reduction.
Due to the teratogenic nature of diatoms oxylipins, the mechanism of chemical defense in diatoms functions by reducing grazing effects of subsequent generations of copepods. Hence, these compounds differ from those that act as feeding deterrents, the purpose of which is not to intoxicate the predator but discourage further consumption, or those that lead to physical incapacitation such as paralysis and death of the predator. Feeding deterrence would not protect the individual ingested cells but the community as a whole and the defense compounds would not target the predator but its offspring. In the end, grazing pressure would be reduced allowing blooms to persist when grazing pressure would otherwise have caused them to crash.
Another activated enzyme-cleavage mechanism of defense in the plankton is found in the bloom-forming coccolithophorid, Emiliana huxleyi, which produces dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) found in several marine phytoplankton species, seaweeds and some species of terrestrial and aquatic vascular plants. DMSP is cleaved by DMSP-lyase enzymes into the gas DMS and the feeding deterrent acrylate by protistan and zooplankton grazers. DMS released into sea water, and eventually into the atmosphere, can have profound effects on global climate processes. Seabirds such as petrels respond behaviorally to DMS and use the gas to track areas where phytoplankton and zooplankton accumulate. DMS and acrylate are also produced in another bloom-forming alga, the prymnesiophyte Phaeocystis globosa, which is thought to be a poor food source for a variety of zooplankton grazers. When copepods feed on P. globosa, this alga suppresses colony formation since individual cells are too small for the copepod to attack. However when ciliates attack this alga, it shifts to the colonial form which is too large to be grazed.
Dinoflagellate toxins are also often assumed to act as chemical defenses against herbivory. Effects on predatory copepods range from severe physical incapacitation and death in some species to no apparent physiological effects in others. This variability indicates that some copepods are more resistant to these compounds and may have evolved counter-defenses and detoxification mechanisms. Some copepod species seem capable of concentrating toxins in their body tissues, as occurs in bivalve molluscs, and ingested toxins may then act as defenses to deter predation by fish and other zooplanktivorous consumers.
- Chemical ecology
- Functional Metabolites
Please note that others may also have edited the contents of this article. | <urn:uuid:70bef7fb-95c6-4b0b-b7c0-e4a610a24895> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.vliz.be/v/index.php?title=Functional_metabolites_in_phytoplankton&oldid=37338 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391766.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00156-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948923 | 1,311 | 2.75 | 3 |
ASU Insight, Vol.27, Number 19.
Printable PDF file of the article
Biologist weaves world of science into online photo gallery
By Dan Jenk
There's more to behold in a sliver of of paper than meets the eye, and ASU biologist Charles Kazilek can tell you all about it. Kazilek, of ASU's School of Life Sciences, can see plant biology, chemistry, physics and history all weaving through the microscopic fibers of the thinnest of slivers of paper.
His discerning eye and technical expertise recently earned him an award of fourth prize in Nikon's "Small World" competition for his photomicrograph of paper made out Lomandra longifolia, a native Australian grass. Kazilek also received an honorable mention in the Olympus Bioscapes Digital Imaging competition for his micrograph of paper made from another Australian plant, Cyprus eragrostis.
The micrographs are just a small part of a substantial online gallery of pictures Kazilek has compiled in the "paper project." Through the use of a scanning 4-laser confocal microscope, Kazilek has revealed a detailed microscopic world.
"The longer I have worked with paper, the more I have become enamored with it," he says. Kazilek has found innovative ways of incorporating features of the paper project into other creative projects. The paper images were incorporated into a dance piece in 2002 with the help of ASU choreographer Jennifer Tsukayama in which dancers weaved through three-dimensional projections of paper.
There is also an exhibit based on the paper project at the Paper Discovery Center in Appleton, Wis., called "Fiberscapes: Experiencing Paper in 3D." The exhibit features a room with three-dimensional projections of magnified paper fibers where the visitors are transformed into the size of a period, Kazilek says. The paper project began in 1999 when ASU professor emeritus Gene Valentine went to Kazilek hoping he could tell him how some silk paper Valentine made was held together. The two have been working on the project ever since, revealing intricate detail of paper's structure.
An important part of the paper project is the fact that it is a great educational resource for teachers. The Web site (http://paperproject. org) was awarded last year for having the best teacher education site by Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching.
The stunning pictures on the Web site help pull students into subjects like the hydrogen bonding that acts like a glue to hold the paper together or the types of plant cells that make up different kinds of paper, Kazilek says. The Web site also provides in formation about how to make paper with pictures of Valentine demonstrating the process. It also allows visitors to process confocal microscope datasets and make three-dimensional images using free software available on the Web site.
Dan Jenk, with Media Relations, can be reached at (480) 965-9690 or (email@example.com).
Reprinted from front page article, ASU Insight, Vol.27, Number 19. | <urn:uuid:6005adae-f7c8-48d9-9830-864dea9e516b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://paperproject.org/paper_chase.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396949.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00067-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952025 | 642 | 2.625 | 3 |
Editor's note: Peniel E. Joseph, a Haitian-American, teaches history at Tufts University. His latest book is "Dark Days, Bright Nights: From Black Power to Barack Obama." Patrick Sylvain is a Haitian language and culture instructor at Brown University and a language coach at Harvard. His latest bilingual poetry collection is "Love, Lust & Loss."
(CNN) -- Haiti's emergence as the first free black republic, forged against the backdrop of Caribbean and North American slavery, is pivotal to today's discussions of citizenship, democracy, and freedom.
Now, 206 years after its declaration of independence, Haiti's dire poverty, the earthquake and its massive death toll have triggered yet another global "first," one with potentially major geopolitical consequences.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy recently visited Haiti, the first French president to set foot on Haitian soil. His historic trip recalled long-standing colonial wounds, even as he graciously offered much-needed economic assistance to a ravaged Port-au-Prince. The visit also offered a glimpse of the Caribbean republic's paradoxical relationship with its former colonial master.
A country once known as the "Pearl of the Antilles," Haiti 's downfall was not of its own making. Its tragic poverty stems from a brutal history of colonial subjugation, one that caused an unexpected and globally shattering revolution that toppled the colonial rule of France, an imperial power that Alexander Hamilton had dreamed of dismantling in the Americas.
Haiti's war of independence, from 1791 to 1803, was won through a combination of bravado and a political self-determination embodied in the bracing personality and ingenuity of Toussaint L'Ouverture. Toussaint was helped by U.S. President John Adams, who saw in him a temporary ally in the quasi-war against France, from 1798 to 1801.
The young United States sought to muster its strength through naval expansion and indirectly curtail France's power in the Caribbean. In 1799, the United States lifted the embargo against Haiti (Saint-Domingue) by providing it with arms, food supplies and naval intelligence that aided Toussaint's war against the pro-French elites.
But positive U.S. policies toward Haiti and the political gains orchestrated by Toussaint L'Ouverture under the Adams administration were dramatically reversed under Thomas Jefferson. He supported the punishing French blockade of Haiti and allowed the French naval power to rise under the leadership of Napoleon, which culminated in the arrest and deportation of Toussaint to France.
The French blockage and closing of U.S. ports to Haiti stunted the embryonic republic's economic growth. France demanded reparations from Haiti of 150 million francs -- about $21 billion in today's money. This forced debt crippled Haiti's economy and took 122 years to repay.
So, on the one hand, President Sarkozy's visit to Haiti initiated a new chapter between that country and France. Indeed, according to Sarkozy, "Haiti must set the conditions for a national consensus on which to base a national project. Haiti for the Haitians."
In a very real sense, Sarkozy's visit offered a glimpse of a more promising future for Haiti, one marked by cooperation with former colonial rulers, in which prosperity replaces endemic poverty.
Haiti's proud and resilient citizens, who have endured a seemingly endless series of setbacks since independence in 1804, remain hopeful that Sarkozy's visit ushers in a long-overdue political alliance with France. But they are also aware that the nations' contentious history cannot be repaired by a single visit from a French president.
Although global observers may interpret French promises of economic aid to Haiti as a gesture of goodwill to the earthquake-stricken nation, Haitians will take a more complex view.
Some observers may also interpret France's assistance as just another in a long line of handouts, but students of Haitian history know better. That assistance has been paid for many times over in the blood of countless unknown Haitians who toiled and died under French rule.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Peniel E. Joseph and Patrick Sylvain. | <urn:uuid:efe203e9-f0c9-476d-96b3-8003faa6b897> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/02/23/joseph.haiti.sarkozy/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395166.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00165-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953106 | 854 | 3.359375 | 3 |
The Great Chicago Fire and the Web of Memory
Created by the Chicago Historical Society and Northwestern University, 1996.
Reviewed Oct. 2001.
Any general historical resource on such a pivotal event as the great Chicago fire of 1871, which nearly destroyed the new nation’s most representative city, must deal effectively both with the complex facts of the event itself and with the even more complex aftermath. Readers need a rich understanding of the tangle of social perspectives and mythologizing that enshrouds the event, but they also need to get a concrete grip on the event despite the historical confusion.
This Web site, first published in 1996, meets these standards both deeply and broadly, providing an impressive mix of archival materials and interpretive essays that can serve a very wide range of readers, from junior high school students through university researchers. Produced by the Chicago Historical Society (which provided the extraordinary archival materials) in collaboration with Academic Technologies of Northwestern University (which created the Web site), the voluminous interpretive and introductory text was all written by Carl Smith, the award-winning author of Urban Disorder and the Shape of Belief: The Great Chicago Fire, the Haymarket Bomb, and the Model Town of Pullman (1995).
There are actually two parallel Web sites here, neatly hyperlinked together. The first, The Great Chicago Fire, deals with the context, causes, course, and consequences of the fire. The second parallel site, titled The Web of Memory, deals with the cultural representations of the fire, with sections devoted to such issues as “The Eyewitnesses,” "Media Event,“ "The O’Leary Legend,” and “Commemorating Catastrophe.” Each section of each parallel site is further divided into three genres: 1) interpretive “Essays” (by Smith), each about 1,000 to 1,500 words; 2) “Galleries” (maps, photographs, sketches, lithographs, paintings); and 3) “Library,” containing manuscript (mostly letters) or printed sources (newspapers, plays, pamphlets, books).
The archival materials provide compelling viewpoints from a wide social and institutional spectrum. The “Galleries” contain real treasures, such as six “on-the-scene” drawings by the illustrator Alfred R. Waud and photographic surveys by Jex Bardwell and George N. Barnard. One “Library,” titled “An Anthology of Fire Narratives,” presents twenty-one gripping eyewitness accounts. The site very effectively allows rapid browsing from one genre to the other, enabling a reader to build powerful visual and verbal impressions of the conflagration.
Each archival object is both introduced with a brief editor’s note and captioned with precise date and provenance information. In other words, this site can easily be cited. While attractive, this Web site does not excel in graphic or programming sophistication. It does excel in substance, navigability, and readability, and these are more important qualities. Significantly, Carl Smith holds the chair titled Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence at Northwestern University. His essays are peppered with Socratic questions inviting the reader to interrogate the materials presented. This is a real model for multimedia history: strongly recommended as assigned reading for students of many levels, in fields ranging from general U.S. and urban history to popular culture.
Philip J. Ethington
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, California | <urn:uuid:590d7bf5-453f-4612-acd0-126033dcb0d1> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/297/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395679.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00075-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92045 | 732 | 3.0625 | 3 |
74.8 degrees – Surface water temp on Lake Superior near Duluth this morning
70s – water temps along the North Shore from Duluth all the way to Grand Marais
“It’s pretty safe to say that what we’re seeing here is the warmest that we’ve seen in Lake Superior in a century,” said Jay Austin, a professor at the University of Minnesota at Duluth, who has researched the lake’s water temperatures back to the beginning of the 20th century.
Excerpt from Andrew Freedman’s Climate Central piece on record Great Lakes water temps in 2012
The all-time daily average high temperature record for Lake Superior is 71°F, which was recorded in mid-August 2010. With a few more weeks of warming left, that record is in jeopardy.
“The season hasn’t played itself out yet and we’re already within 3 degrees of the all-time daily record surface temperature,” Austin said.
-Mild winter, less ice cover & Duluth Flood played a role: Details below
Source: Paul Huttner-MPR News
Swimming in Superior anyone?
In another sign of just how crazy warm 2012 has been in Minnesota and the nation, water temps are at record levels on Lake Superior and the Great Lakes this summer.
Source: NOAA/Climate Central
Surface water temps in the “swimmable” 70s now stretch from Duluth all the way to Grand Marais. A small bubble of water has even reached 75 degrees just east of Grand Marais this week, according to satellite derived data from NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory.
Source: Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory
Average surface water temps on Lake Superior for this time of year are in the mid-50s. So water temps are running about 15 to 20 degrees above average this summer.
With about 3 weeks left to go before the usual “peak water temps” in Lake Superior, I would not be stunned to see an unheard of 80 degree water temp on the big lake this summer.
Duluth flood played a role:
The massive runoff from the Duluth floods has played a role in boosting water temps this summer. The runoff stream carried loads of tiny sediment particles into the western part of the lake. Those particles take time to settle, and are efficient at reflecting sunlight and heating up surrounding water.
Source: NASA MODIS Terra Satellite
Another excerpt from the story at Climate Central.
Austin said that water temperatures at the westernmost edge of Lake Superior are running in the mid-70s, and it was due in part to the runoff from flooding rains that struck Duluth, Minn., in late June.
Because of sand and other particles within in the runoff, sunlight is not penetrating far below the surface, and that helps heat near-surface waters more significantly than if clearer waters were present, Austin said.
80F in Lake Michigan on July 6th?
So much for “cooler by the lake” in Milwaukee and Chicago this year.
The south buoy 43 miles off shore from Milwaukee recorded a water temp of 80 degrees on July 6th this year! That’s unheard of so early in July, the average for July 6th is a cool 63F!
For example, the South Buoy on Lake Michigan, located 43 nautical miles southeast of Milwaukee, recorded a water temperature of 80°F on Friday July 6, a feat the National Weather Service (NWS) said was “remarkable . . . for the lake to begin with . . . But unprecedented for this early in the summer season.” The previous date of the earliest 80°F temperature was July 21, which was set during both 2010 and 2011.
The average water temperature for July 6 at the South Buoy is a chilly 63°F.
The rapid temperature increase on Lake Michigan was closely tied to the heat waves that have affected the Midwest this summer. Chicago has experienced its warmest year to date, and the early July heat wave in the Windy City that sent temperatures soaring into the triple digits caused water temperatures at the South Buoy to climb by 10°F during the course of just one week, the NWS said.
The entire Great Lakes system is running at or near record warmth this year.
Source: NOAA via Climate Central
More Lake Effect Snow this winter?
One ironic twist in the record warm water temps is that it may lead to a more active lake effect snow season downwind of the Great lakes. Warmer water means the lakes will give off more heat and moisture as cold air masses blow across the lakes, especially early in the season. If we get some arctic air in late November & December, we could see some horrendous lake effect snow totals in the lee of the Great Lakes this winter. | <urn:uuid:6a0d9387-8bdc-41b4-b96f-82c9d4f1a38a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blogs.mprnews.org/updraft/2012/07/balmy_70s_2012_lake_superior_w/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404382.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00131-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946209 | 1,014 | 2.828125 | 3 |
A drive shaft, driveshaft, driving shaft, propeller shaft, or Cardan shaft is a mechanical component for transmitting torque and rotation, usually used to connect other components of a drive train that cannot be connected directly because of distance or the need to allow for relative movement between them.
An automobile may use a longitudinal shaft to deliver power from an engine/transmission to the other end of the vehicle before it goes to the wheels. A pair of short drive shafts is commonly used to send power from a central differential, transmission, or transaxle to the wheels.
B2BManufactures.Com provides numerous professional Drive Shaft manufacturers & suppliers from Taiwan & China. All qualify drive shafts made in China & Taiwan, connecting reliable Chinese manufacturers, suppliers, exporters, factories & contract manufacturing companies with global buyers. Improve efficiency in sourcing,reducing time and saving money.
source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia | <urn:uuid:f1da7148-892f-4f26-9fef-b985a292e634> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.manufacturers.com.tw/vehicles/drive-shaft.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397864.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00015-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.903112 | 189 | 2.875 | 3 |
Taj Mahal way built by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan (1628-1658), who was the grandson of Akbar the great. As the history of Taj Mahal goes, it was built in the memory of his beloved queen Arjumand Bano Begum, better known as "Mumtaz Mahal".
Mumtaz Mahal was one of the most loved queens of emperor Shah Jahan. She was a niece of empress Nur Jahan and granddaughter of Mirza Ghias Beg I'timad-ud-Daula, who was the wazir of emperor Jehangir. Mumtaj Mahal was born in 1593 and died in 1631 at the age of 38. She lost her life in the city of Burhanpur during the birth of her fourteenth child. Shah Jahan was in deep sorrow at the death of the queen and decided to build the Taj Mahal, a marble wonder, in her rememberence. Soon after her death her mortal remains were buried in the garden of Zainabad. Six months after her death, her body was transferred to Agra, and was finally enshrined in the crypt of the main tomb of the Taj Mahal. After the death of Shah Jahan, his last remains were also enshirned in the Taj Mahal. Therefore, the Taj Mahal is the mausoleum of both Mumtaz Mahal and Shah Jahan. The history of Taj Mahal is an ensemble of love and affection, due to which many regard it as the monument of love.
Taj Mahal, the great mausoleum, is located on the right bank of the river
Yamuna. It is situated at a point, where the river takes a sharp turn and flows towards the east. The land where the Taj Mahal presently stands originally belonged to the Kachhwahas of
Ajmer (Rajasthan). It is testified by Abdul Hamid Lahauri, a court historian, in his book titled "Badshah-Namah and the Firmans (Royal Decrees)" that the land for the Taj Mahal was acquired by the Kachhwahas in lieu of four havelis.
For construction of the Taj Mahal, An area of around three acres was excavated. It was filled with dirt to reduce seepage, and levelled at 50 metres (160 ft) above riverbank. In the tomb area, wells were dug and filled with stone and rubble to form the footings of the tomb. Masons, stonecutters, inlayers, carvers, painters, calligraphers, dome-builders and other artisans were requisitioned from the whole of the empire and other places in the world, like Central Asia and Iran. While bricks for internal constructions were locally prepared, white marble for external use in veneering work was obtained from Makrana in Rajasthan. Semi-precious stones for inlay ornamentation of the Taj Mahal were brought from far of regions in India, Ceylon and Afghanistan. Red sandstone of different tints was requisitioned from the neighbouring quarries of Sikri, Dholpur, etc. It took 17 years for the Taj Mahal to be ready, and the monument was completed in 1648.
Over all, the Taj Mahal covers a large area of 60 bighas (nearly 40 acres). The terrain gradually slopes from south to north, towards the river, in the form of descending terraces. At the southernmost point of the Taj Mahal is the forecourt with the main gate in front. It has tombs of two other queen of Shah Jahan, namely Akbarabadi Begum and Fatehpuri Begum, on the south-east and south-west corners, which are known as Saheli Burj 1 and 2.
On the second terrace, in the complex is a spacious square garden with side pavilions. The garden is divided into four quarters by broad shallow canals of water, with wide walkways and cypress avenues on the sides. The water channels and fountains are fed by overhead water tanks. These four quarters are further divided into the smaller quarters by broad causeways, so that the whole scheme is in a perfect char-bagh (four-gardens).
The main tomb of the Taj Mahal is a square with chamfered corners. The minarets of the monument are detached, facing the chamfered angles (corners) of the main tomb on the main plinth. Red sandstone mosque on the western side, and Mehman-Khana on the eastern side of the tomb provides an aesthetically appealing colour contrast.
The Taj Mahal has some wonderful specimens of polychrome inlay art both in the exterior and interior on the dados, on the cenotaphs and on the marble jhajjhari (jali-screen) around them. | <urn:uuid:99342f8c-feb6-44fb-a241-e1a7c6e3a375> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.indohistory.com/taj_mahal.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402516.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00074-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971751 | 1,032 | 3.265625 | 3 |
Digitaria is from the Latin digitus meaning finger and refers to the finger like seed head. Crabgrass - because it growth habit resembles a crab.
Summer grass - because if grows and flowers in summer.
Creeping stemmed, striped sheath, annual grass with rough leaves and a seed head of 3-10 purplish fingers. 100-1000 mm tall. Sometimes with a purplish tinge.
Emerging leaf rolled in the bud. Mainly on the stems. Blade - Green or tinged with purple, narrowly oval, 30-300 long by 3-14 mm wide. Wavy, slightly thickened and roughened edges. Flat, soft, rough to touch on both surfaces, limp and weak. Rounded or contracted near the base. Tapers to a point. Hairless or a few tubercle-based hairs near the base or on the upper and lower surface. Midrib whitish. Ligule - Membranous, flat or ragged on top. 1-2 mm long. With a few hairs behind it. Auricles - Sheath - Striped. Sometimes has tubercle (wart) based hairs on the lower leaf sheaths.
Creeping, soft, tufted, sometimes erect or with a knee like bend near the base. 100-1000 mm tall. Nodes are hairy, otherwise hairless. Often channelled on one side. Roots at the nodes. Branched at the lower nodes, unbranched at the upper nodes.
Raceme. 2-12 fingers, 30-300 mm long, initially erect but later spreading outwards. Main axis 3 angled, 20-40 mm long, and more or less in 2 rings (whorls). Branch axis is small, rough, winged (1 mm wide). Spikelets in pairs or threes on unequal stalks, pressed along one side, slightly overlapping and all the way to the base of the fingers.
Spikelets - Pale green to purplish, 2.5-3.5 mm long by 0.7-0.9 mm wide, lance shaped, 2 flowered. Pointed tip. Overlapping stalks of varying lengths. Fall to ground intact on maturity. Hairless or hairy but not silky hairy. Florets - Flattened. Glumes - Lower, triangular, tiny, less than 0.5 mm long. Upper one has 3 smooth nerves, hairy, acute tip and a third to half the length of the spikelet (1-2 mm). Usually has fine hairs between the nerves and on the edges. Palea - Similar length to the lemma. Pointed tip. Lemma - Lower one, 2-3.5 mm long, as long as spikelet. 5-7 nerves with 2-3 nerves near each edge and a midrib in the centre. Nerves rough to touch at least in the upper part. Edges hairy or rough. Fine, low lying silky hairs often with a frill of hairs. Upper (fertile) lemma almost the same size as the lower, pointed tip, smooth, hairless, oval to oblong, hardened. Stamens - Anthers -
Fibrous. Roots at the stem nodes.
Spikelets paired and all the way to the base of the 'fingers'. First glume is present. Sterile (lower) lemma is rough to touch on the nerves.
Annual. Flowers November to April. Germinates mainly in spring and makes rapid growth over the summer quickly covering the ground and competing with companion species.
It is a C4 plant, which makes it very competitive with C3 plants over summer and gives it tolerance to the triazine herbicides.
December to May in SA. Summer to autumn in NSW. December to May in Perth.
Seed Biology and Germination:
D. sanguinalis ssp. pectiniformis has stiff hairs on the margins of the lower lemma.
Population Dynamics and Dispersal:
Origin and History:
Southern Europe, Mediterranean, Asia and America. Widespread in warm and temperate areas of the world.
ACT, NSW, NT, QLD, SA, VIC, WA. Lord Howe Island.
Courtesy Australia's Virtual Herbarium.
Summer moist areas, irrigated areas.
Temperate to sub tropical.
Prefers summer moist soils.
Eaten by stock, but little forage value.
Serious weed of pineapples, orchards and vegetables. Weed of cultivation, irrigated lucerne, rice, vegetables, vineyards, orchards, rotational crops, gardens, and lawns, recreational and disturbed areas.
Summer grass (Digitaria ciliaris) is almost identical. Distinguished on flower characters. In summer grass the upper glume is 50-75% as long as lemma and the lower lemma is silky hairy, whilst in Crabgrass the upper glume is 30-50% as long as lemma and the lower lemma is rough to touch. In Summer grass the nerves on the upper lemma are scabrous at least in the upper part whereas in Crabgrass the are not. Crowsfoot grass (Eleusine indica) is similar but has hairless leaves, doesn't root at the nodes, has fewer flower heads and more than 2 florets per spikelet. Paspalum, Carpet grass, Barnyard grass, Millet, Pigeon grass, Kikuyu are similar.
Auld, B.A. and Medd R.W. (1992). Weeds. An illustrated botanical guide to the weeds of Australia. (Inkata Press, Melbourne). P43-44.
Black, J.M. (1965). Flora of South Australia. (Government Printer, Adelaide, South Australia). P218. Diagram.
Burbidge, N.T. and Gray, M. (1970). Flora of the Australian Capital Territory. (Australian National University Press, Canberra). P63-65.
Cunningham, G.M., Mulham, W.E., Milthorpe, P.L. and Leigh, J.H. (1992). Plants of Western New South Wales. (Inkata Press, Melbourne). P86.
Hussey, B.M.J., Keighery, G.J., Cousens, R.D., Dodd, J. and Lloyd, S.G. (1997). Western Weeds. A guide to the weeds of Western Australia. (Plant Protection Society of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia). P52-53. Photo.
Lamp, C. and Collet, F. (1990). A Field Guide to Weeds in Australia. (Inkata Press, Melbourne).
Lazarides, M. and Hince, B. (1993). CSIRO handbook of economic plants of Australia. (CSIRO, Melbourne). 437.3.
Marchant, N.G., Wheeler, J.R., Rye, B.L., Bennett, E.M., Lander, N.S. and Macfarlane, T.D. (1987). Flora of the Perth Region. (Western Australian Herbarium, Department of Agriculture, Western Australia). P955. | <urn:uuid:dc0854f9-0145-485e-9db0-d416f1b2df29> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.herbiguide.com.au/Descriptions/hg_Crabgrass.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397428.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00003-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.865161 | 1,532 | 2.921875 | 3 |
Now that spring is here, people want to start getting into better shape for the summer. Eating healthier will help you feel more energetic and boost your brain power, too. So start by eating foods that are "cleansing." Not only will this help to improve energy levels, it will also help to remove toxins that can cause serious health problems. In fact, you don’t have to wait until each spring to start a cleansing diet. These foods are delicious, and can be part of a healthy lifestyle all year-round.
- Smoothies – Those who don’t like eating breakfast can still get the nutrients they need by mixing up smoothies with greens (spinach, kale, celery, etc.) and delicious berries. The greens contain chlorophyll, which helps remove toxins from the body, and the berries are loaded with antioxidants and free-radical fighting enzymes. The berries are sweet tasting, and overpower the flavor of the vegetables. These drinks are great for kids who refuse to eat their vegetables, as they won’t even know they are there.
- Green Tea – This is great for detoxifying the body because it is loaded with polyphenols. Green teas have phytochemicals which are rich in antioxidants, and when combined with exercise can help get rid of belly fat. Green teas can also help improve the memory. Drinking green tea can even reduce the risk of some cancers.
- Curry – This is full of turmeric, which contains curcumin. This helps those who have digestive disorders or problems with their livers. Curry is a known anti-inflammatory, and aids in the production of glutathione, an anti-oxidant that helps to protect the liver. Curry is a delicious additive to many dishes, including roasted vegetables, chicken, and even eggs.
- Kale – Loaded with vitamin K, kale aids in blood clotting, as well as keeping bones healthy. It can help in the prevention of atherosclerosis and Alzheimer’s disease. One thing to keep in mind when eating kale is that because it contains so much vitamin K, it shouldn’t be eaten while taking blood-thinning drugs, such as Warfarin and other anticoagulants.
- Cabbage – Because it is comprised mainly of water, cabbage is a diuretic and helps remove unnecessary fluids from the body. It is loaded with glucosinolates, which are organic compounds that are rich in sulfur and nitrogen, which help to eliminate toxins in the body. In addition to these benefits, cabbage also contains a lot of important vitamins and minerals, folic acid, and dietary fiber.
- Water – Everyone should try to drink at least eight to nine glasses of water each day. It helps to flush toxins from the liver and kidneys, and wards off hunger. Anyone who is trying to lose weight especially needs to drink lots of water, as it will help to fight those mid-meal cravings. Drink water before and after working out to stay hydrated.
- Water and Lemon – Adding fresh lemon juice to water is great for detoxifying the body. Lemons can help to purify blood since it has antibacterial properties, and it can also balance the pH level in the colon. Loaded with vitamin C, lemons are great for increasing immunity, and are used for treating a number of ailments, including the common cold. In addition to adding lemon to water, the juice can be used in many recipes for added flavor, including recipes for pasta, fish, and chicken.
- Pineapple – For those who want a sweet treat that is healthy, fresh pineapple is the answer. In addition to being a great sweet treat, pineapple is a great detoxifying food that contains bromelian. This is a digestive enzyme that helps people to digest proteins, as well as break down fats. Pineapple also contains manganese, which helps elevate mood levels.
Dr. Steven Masley shares his insights for making eating healthy a habit and discusses his latest book, The 30-Day Heart Tune-Up: | <urn:uuid:b07f9503-edf2-4942-8e1c-d59714249049> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://bigthink.com/mind-memes/cleanse-or-detox-these-8-foods-are-all-you-need | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396949.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00171-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966215 | 832 | 2.53125 | 3 |
With wind speeds topping 260 kilometers per hour (160 mph), Hurricane Ivan is roaring through the Caribbean as a deadly Category 5 storm. Early on September 9, 2004, the SeaWinds scatterometer aboard NASA’s QuikSCAT satellite saw through Ivan’s swirling clouds to measure wind speed 10 meters above the ocean surface. The result was this multi-colored image of the storm. Purple in the center of the storm shows the highest wind speeds, and green fringes around the outside of the storm show the lowest wind speeds. The black barbs indicate wind speed and direction at QuikSCAT’s nominal 25 km resolution; white barbs indicate areas of heavy rain.
Ivan strengthened after plowing over Grenada on Tuesday, September 7. The storm is forecast to move northwest over Jamaica and Cuba, then on to Florida. For more information, please visit the National Hurricane Center.
NASA’s Quick Scatterometer (QuikSCAT) spacecraft was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California on June 19, 1999. QuikScat carries the SeaWinds scatterometer, a specialized microwave radar that measures near-surface wind speed and direction under all weather and cloud conditions over the Earth’s oceans.
In recent years, the ability to detect and track severe storms has been dramatically enhanced by the advent of weather satellites. Data from the SeaWinds scatterometer is augmenting traditional satellite images of clouds by providing direct measurements of surface winds to compare with the observed cloud patterns in an effort to better determine a hurricane’s location, direction, structure, and strength. Specifically, these wind data are helping meteorologists to more accurately identify the extent of gale-force winds associated with a storm, while supplying inputs to numerical models that provide advanced warning of high waves and flooding.
NASA image courtesy the QuikSCAT team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
- QuikSCAT - SeaWinds | <urn:uuid:323e0773-534a-4553-87d8-43b0c6d3a3d0> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=13840 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403502.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00188-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.896542 | 401 | 3.765625 | 4 |
Summarizing and synthesizing are two important reading comprehension strategies. They’re also skills that students struggle with and often confuse despite the differences. In this article, we review the two skills, discuss the differences between them, and highlight activities that can be used to support students as they develop proficiency with them.
What does summarizing mean? Into the Book, a reading strategies web site for teachers and students, explains that when readers summarize, they “identify key elements and condense important information into their own words during and after reading to solidify meaning.” The site offers a simpler definition for students: “Tell what’s important.”
Why is summarizing difficult for students? For starters, it requires students to apply the skill of determining importance in text and then express the important ideas in their own words. Many times, as students learn to summarize, their first attempts are a collection of details, rather than the main ideas of the passage. Other student-produced summaries are too vague and do not include enough detail. Teachers need to devote time to explicit instruction and modeling on both determining importance and summarizing to help students become proficient with both strategies.
The following resources can be helpful for teaching students to summarize:
This article provides an overview of summarizing as a reading comprehension strategy, and how it can be taught and assessed in an elementary classroom.
Into the Book: Summarizing
This section of the Into the Book web site provides definitions of summarizing for teachers and students, learning objectives with videos, lessons, and a wealth of additional resources. The student area (which requires a key to access) has interactive activities for each of the featured comprehension strategies.
Guided Comprehension: Summarizing Using the QuIP Strategy
This lesson plan, for grades 3-6 from ReadWriteThink, teaches students to summarize information by graphically organizing information in response to questions, then reorganizing their answers into paragraph form.
Lesson 8: Summarizing Information
In this lesson, students practice summarizing by extracting the Five Ws (who, what, when, where, why) and the H (how) from feature stories in local newspapers. The lesson could be adapted for use with other texts as well.
Synthesizing takes the process of summarizing one step further. Instead of just restating the important points from text, synthesizing involves combining ideas and allowing an evolving understanding of text. Into the Book defines synthesizing as “[creating] original insights, perspectives, and understandings by reflecting on text(s) and merging elements from text and existing schema.” For students, the site provides the simpler “Put pieces together to see them in a new way.”
As with summarizing, this higher-order thinking skill needs explicit instruction and modeling. In her book Comprehension Connections: Bridges to Strategic Reading, Tanny McGregor provides examples of instructional sequences for synthesizing using common objects (nesting dolls), prompts or sentence starters, and a spiral-shaped graphic organizer inspired by the notes written and passed by her students. These activities provide the scaffolding needed to support students as they become familiar and then proficient with the skill and can be used with all types of text.
The following resources can be helpful for teaching students to synthesize:
This article provides an overview of synthesizing as a reading comprehension strategy and describes approaches for teaching and supporting students as they develop proficiency.
Into the Book: Synthesizing
This section of the Into the Book web site provides definitions of synthesizing for teachers and students, learning objectives with videos, lessons, and a wealth of additional resources. The student area (which requires a key to access) has interactive activities for each of the featured comprehension strategies.
Classroom Connections: Bridges to Strategic Reading
Tanny McGregor’s book includes chapters devoted to six reading comprehension strategies: schema, inferring, questioning, determining importance, visualizing, and synthesizing. Heinemann’s page also includes links to web seminars about various strategies (click on Companion Resources).
Copyright June 2010 – The Ohio State University. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0733024. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. This work is licensed under an Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported Creative Commons license. | <urn:uuid:4288827a-5045-4a3d-ac3e-b1e1d9c3a163> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://beyondpenguins.ehe.osu.edu/issue/climate-change-and-the-polar-regions/summarizing-and-synthesizing-whats-the-difference | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396949.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00063-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919908 | 924 | 3.59375 | 4 |
The Irish Volunteers were a paramilitary organization established by Irish Nationalists in 1913 "to secure and maintain the rights and liberties common to the whole people of Ireland", and to enforce the imminent Home Rule Devolution. Act. The Volunteers were formed in response to the formation of the Ulster Volunteer Force in January 1913. The Ulster Volunteers were founded by Protestant Unionists in the north in order to prevent enactment of Home Rule. It was seen that with armed men in Ulster threatening force to counter Home Rule, a similar force would be prudent to pressure Britain in the other direction.
The Volunteers had their first public meeting and call for enlistments at the Rotunda in Dublin. The turnout was beyond what anyone expected. The hall was filled to its 4,000 person capacity, with a further 3,000 spilling onto the grounds outside. Over the course of the following months the movement spread throughout the country with thousands more joining every week.
From its inception, the leadership of the Volunteers was heavily influenced by the radical Irish Republican Brotherhood. This was the IRB's plan from the beginning, but it had a major drawback when the leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, John Redmond, demanded that the Volunteers accept his own personal appointments to the Provisional Committee, effectively placing the organization in his control. While the moderates didn't like the idea, they were prepared to go along with it in order to prevent the very popular Redmond from forming his own similar organization that would draw away most of their support. The IRB was completely opposed, as it would end their control of the Volunteers, but were unable to prevent the motion from being carried in Redmond's favor.
Arming the Volunteers
Shortly after the formation of the Volunteers, British Parliament banned the importation of weapons into Ireland. The Ulster Volunteers were able to get away with it nevertheless, and the Irish Volunteers realized they would have to as well if they were to be a serious force. Thus O'Rahilly, Sir Roger Casement, and Bulmer Hobson worked together to coordinate a daylight gun running expedition to the port of Howth, just north of Dublin. The plan worked beautifully, and Erskine Childers brought nearly 1,000 rifles to the harbor and distributed them to the waiting Volunteers without interference from the authorities. As the Volunteers returned to Dublin, however, they were met by a large patrol of the Royal Irish Constabulary and the British Army. The Vounteers escaped largely unscathed, but when the army returned to Dublin they fired on a group of unarmed civilians who had been heckling them. This massacre caused enlistments in the Volunteers to soar.
| This picture came from a newspaper but was also used
in a postcard
of "THE SERVICE PETS SERIES" sold in aid of the
RSPCA Fund for Sick & Wounded Horses
The caption to the postcard read
"Volunteers' Day in the Irish Capital
Easter Sunday was a memorable day in Dublin
Tens of thousands of Irish Volunteers under Colonel
Moore, CB, their Inspector General, swung past the
Parnell Statue with John Redmond, MP at the base on
their way to the Review in Phoenix Park
This picture shows the Dublin Regiment's mascot, an Irish Wolf-hound"
The outbreak of the First World War in August 1914 provoked a serious split in the organization. Redmond encouraged the Volunteers to join the British Army, an action vigorously opposed by the founding members. The majority supported the War and left to form the National Volunteers and fight in the British Army. The minority, retaining the name "Irish Volunteers" were led by MacNeill and called for Irish neutrality. The National Volunteers kept some 175,000 members, leaving the Irish Volunteers with a mere estimated 13,500. This split proved advantageous to the IRB, who were now back in control.
The National Volunteers joined the British Army in large numbers, and ceased to play an active role in Irish politics. Following the split, the remnants of the Irish Volunteers were often, and erroneously, referred to as the "Sinn Féin Volunteers", or "Shinners", after the political organization Sinn Féin. The term began as a derogatory one, but soon became ubiquitous among much of the Dublin citizenry. Although the two organizations had some overlapping memberships, there was no official connection between Sinn Féin and the Volunteers.
The Easter Rising
The Easter Rising was an unsuccessful rebellion staged in Ireland against British rule on Easter Monday in April 1916. The rebellion marked the most famous attempt by militant republicans to seize control of Ireland and force independence from the United Kingdom. The Rising was, of course, a failure, and large numbers of the Irish Volunteers were arrested, even ones that did not participate in the Rising. In 1919 the Irish Volunteers were absorbed into the Irish Republican Army, so it really only lasted six years.
Details of the Irish Volunteers taken from the Free Dictionary.com | <urn:uuid:d9064383-13ee-438f-8a30-2da6eaa93f33> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.irishwolfhounds.org/volunteers.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398869.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00177-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979851 | 997 | 3.53125 | 4 |
Whether you are a seasoned marathoner ramping up for your next race or just lacing up your running shoes for the first time, pain in the front of your lower legs, commonly known as "shin splints" can really slow you down.
"Shin splints" the pain you feel over the front of the lower leg with activity, more appropriately known as Medial Tibial Stress Syndrome (MTSS), is almost a rite of passage for recreational runners and accounts for 60 percent of all over use injuries.
The pain creeps up on you about three weeks into your period of increased training and feels like an ache that intensifies with pounding. It can progress to sharp pain with each step. When you touch the front of your shin bone (tibia) and the muscle beside it (anterior tibialis) you will feel reproducibly tender. Most of the pain will be localized over the lower one-third of your leg and will increase with resisted plantar flexion (like pushing against the gas pedal).
Why You Get Shin Splints
There are three reasons most of us develop MTSS at some point in our athletic careers. I call them the "Shin Splint Terrible Toos":
1. Too much medial foot pressure (ie: poor biomechanics):
with each heel strike onto the central part of your heel, too much pressure is transferred towards your arch and medial column of your forefoot. If you are naturally "knock kneed" this is even worse. All this leads to altered internal rotation of the tibia and overwork/pressure on the front of your leg and therefore pain.
2. Too little lower leg strength (ie: you're weak)
Runners pay too little attention to the strength of the muscles in their lower legs! A weak posterior tibialis (the muscle responsible for supporting the medial column of your foot) leads to early fatigue and over pronation. Anterior tibialis and gastroc weakness also contribute to early fatigue and worse mechanics. Beginning runners with low initial fitness and strength levels are 3.6 times more likely to develop shin splints.
3. Too much activity, too soon, with too much intensity
This is true for seasoned runners ramping up as well as newbies. Shin splints show up during the first three to10 weeks of a new training schedule.
How to Treat Shin Splints
Previous mistreated shin splints predicts future mistreated shin splints, so don't ignore it.
1. Cross-train: runners who only run without a plan for total body conditioning are set-ups for injury. You will be a better runner if you cross train on a spin bike or rowing machine and with total body cross training circuits such as my THRIVE Powerplay series for runners.
2. Get a foot pressure evaluation or running evaluation to make sure your are not overloading your foot's medial side. You may need an orthotic to correct your mechanics.
3. Strengthen your lower leg in 4 directions using bands: dorsiflexion, plantarflexion, eversion, inversion. Do two sets of 10 in each direction with both feet daily during the initial recovery period and then several times a week as maintenance. (see pictures and video that accompany this blog)
4. ICE massage: Freeze Dixie cups of ice, peel back the paper and massage the front of our legs with the ice for 20 minutes several times a day. This not only decreases the inflammation but stimulates blood flow to repair the injury.
5. NSAIDS: Non-steroidal anti-inflammatories are not for pain but actually act to decrease the explosion of inflammatory factors at your injury site...as a consequence the pain decreases. It is not a pain masker...it is actually treating the problem.
6. Return to sport: When your pain is gone with rest, there is no pain with pressing on the front of your leg and does it not return with light activity, begin walk/running again on soft surfaces. Gradually increase your activity.
7. Go to a sports doc: If your pain is not responding to these steps in two weeks, your point tenderness is increasing, if you have known osteopenia, or you just need to know you are not hurting yourselfSign up for your next race.
A practicing orthopaedic surgeon, runner and author, Dr. Vonda Wright has gained national prominence as an expert in active aging and sports medicine. She is the creator and director of the Performance and Research Initiative for Masters Athletes (PRIMA); a first of its kind medical and performance based program for recreational and elite athletes focusing on maximizing performance and minimizing injury.
Dr. Wright is the author of Fitness After 40 and Dr. Wright's Guide to THRIVE: 4 steps to Body, Brains and BlissThrive Cross Training for Runners video series, the Powerplay cross training movie and the MORE ? marathon training program.
Visit her website, www.vondawright.com and follow her on Twitter @DrVondaWright. | <urn:uuid:1c0e0679-0d75-4928-a579-4eeeecb3901a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.active.com/running/articles/7-tips-to-beat-shin-splints | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00046-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930915 | 1,046 | 2.65625 | 3 |
In the Amish religion, there lies a pivotal tradition for many of its adolescent followers. There are a number of Americans whom are likely to have never heard of this rite; as it is practiced by a small demographic, consisting of roughly 200,000 people . Their tradition, referred to as the Pennsylvania-German term "Rumspringa", can best be explained by the word's translation. With "rum-", translating in English to "around", and "-schpringe", meaning "to run" or "to skip", Rumspringa roughly translates to: "running around". In essence, this is what the young participants do, as they explore the modern American society. While this tradition entails both religious symbol and myth, the primary purpose behind Rumspringa is to serve as a religious ritual.
Upon turning 16, it is by the decision of the youth whether he or she will go and explore the outer limits of the Amish community and religion. It is at this age that a person is thought to be mature enough to make wise informed decisions. Sometimes lasting for years, participants live in modern society, what the Amish refer to as, "The Devil's Playground". Throughout their journey, the adolescents are expected to reflect upon whether or not they would like to return to their religion and make a lifetime commitment to the sacrificial lifestyle . Should they return home from the luxuries of technology and temptations of video games, cars, alcohol, drugs and such, they can then be baptized and forever committed to the Amish religion. Myth
While the practice of Rumspringa itself if ritual, the origins of this tradition are based on a myth promoted by English philosopher John Locke. Following the Lutheran Reformation, there was an emergence of a number of Christian sects. One such sect was the Anabaptists ("rebaptizers), held an opposing stance to the practice of baptism at birth. It was their belief that only when one had reached adulthood, could they make a conscious and informed decision to become part of the church. This philosophy digresses back to the myth stated by John Locke, "Nobody is born a member of any church " It was the belief that one had the right to choose what faith they followed. Consequently, the myth was highly opposed by Catholics and Protestants, whose own values enforced being baptized at infancy. It was with this conflict, that the grounds for additional sect formations such as the Mennonites, Hutterites, and the Amish religions in England were provided.
Myth has also played a key element in the adolescents' decision-making process during Rumspringa. While many Americans may not regard it as so, to the Amish community, life outside of their territory is mythologized to be a land of the damned. We may not believe the myth that we are forever damned for watching Thursday night television or using washing machines to do our laundry; but within the Amish tradition, when adolescents choose to live this lifestyle, the myth is held that they are literally playing in "The Devil's playground". The religion holds this belief because of their certainty that there is no salvation outside of their church. In a video documentary by Lisa Walker on the Rumspringa ritual, concern over the "right path" is quoted by Faron, an Amish teen, as he ponders, "It all comes down to whether you want to be Amish or not. To be, or not to be- that is the question".
With this Amish concept in mind, should the young candidates chose to live a life without sacrifice in "The Devil's playground", they will be forever condemned. This plays a critical role in the youth's final choice of direction; whether they should forever join the church or not. Torn thoughts are further expressed in the documentary by another teen, "I know for sure that if I decide to become Amish, I'll get to heaven." This confidence in the religion's capability of salvation is highly prevalent among those undergoing Rumspringa. In a New York Times article,... | <urn:uuid:0786a301-f841-45cb-84a3-cca3fe3a0bcf> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.studymode.com/essays/Rumspringa-The-Amish-Ritual-106623.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398516.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00014-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968296 | 823 | 3.0625 | 3 |
Make sustainability improvements to your buildings and properties using federal government guidelines.
Detailed in a publication recently released by the IFMA Foundation, these guidelines demonstrate how to stay ahead of emerging building guidelines and implement strategic sustainability upgrades.
The strategies inside utilize resources and benchmarking information developed by federal and state governments. The publication will help facility professionals to:
- Understand how recent legislative and executive initiatives focus on reducing costs and increasing the efficiency of energy and water use in federal buildings;
- Learn how to achieve greener buildings through site planning, building material selection, water efficiency, HVAC systems, and ongoing operations;
- Improve energy management techniques through consideration of lighting, windows, energy demand, refrigeration systems, and ENERGY STAR-rated appliances;
- Build a business case for sustainability initiatives and utilize effective measurement tools;
- Learn more about waste stream management, including reusable dishes and flatware, composting, and recycling;
- Procure sustainable foods through local purchasing and learn more about food safety and disposable products;
- Take advantage of available incentives, encourage increased operational and capital investments, and utilize resources supporting sustainability planning and execution;
- Understand the current reporting requirements affecting both federal agencies and commercial entities; and
- Learn from case studies offering real-world insight into effective sustainability approaches.
For more on government sustainability guidelines, read U.S. Government Policy Impacts and Opportunities for Facility Management at www.ifma.org. | <urn:uuid:c5eb63c1-18e6-46e3-b895-1a6d4f080058> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.buildings.com/article-details/articleid/13760/title/implement-sustainable-practices-based-on-government-guidelines.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398209.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00174-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.902815 | 295 | 2.625 | 3 |
The Origins of the Second World Warby Dr Ruth Henig. University of Lancaster
new perspective. Volume 3. Number 1. September 1997
Summary: There is now general agreement amongst historians that the chief responsibility for unleashing war in Europe, in 1939, rests on Hitler and the Nazis. While there are still debates about the role of Hitler vis- -vis other Nazi leaders, and about the extent of influence of army leaders and of industrialists working in partnership with the Nazis, Taylor's contention that the outbreak of war owed as much to 'the faults and failures of European statesmen' as it did to Hitler's ambitions, has been firmly repudiated. The consensus now is that it was Hitler's determination to transform the basis of European society which brought war to Europe in 1939. It was not necessarily the war he was planning for; the evidence suggests that Hitler was aiming to prepare Germany for a massive conflict with Russia in the early 1940s. Unquestionably, however, it was a war provoked by his relentless pursuit of policies based on 'race' and on 'space'.
THE DEBATE ABOUT the aims of Nazi foreign policy and about the extent to which they were responsible for the war, which broke out over Poland in 1939, continues as vigorously as ever. This article aims to summarise some of the most recent interpretations about the causes of the war, by considering the ideology or set of beliefs which lay at the heart of Nazi foreign policy and outlining the ways in which Nazi foreign policy differed from that pursued by previous German governments. It will then examine whether the Nazis pursued any consistent set of foreign policy objectives between 1933 and 1939 and to what extent they were preparing for war by the late 1930s.Nazi Ideology
Historians are now generally in agreement that Nazi foreign policy cannot be assessed without a clear understanding of the set of beliefs and strong convictions which shaped it. Historians, such as Professor Norman Rich (in Hitler's War Aims) and Professor Gerald Weinberg (in The Foreign Policy of Hitler's Germany), point to the fact that in writings, in speeches and in policy pronouncements throughout the 1920s and 1930s, leading Nazis identified a set of concerns relating to 'race and space' which ran as a consistent thread through their policies. These concerns centred on the importance of racial purity and on the need for a nation to be prepared to compete with its neighbours in a brutal, uncompromising and ceaseless struggle to survive and to expand. In Mein Kampf, Hitler emphasised his belief in a 'healthy and natural relationship between the number and growth of the population, on the one hand, and the extent and quality of its soil, on the other.' He argued that 'only a sufficiently large space on this earth can ensure the independent existence of a nation' and that, therefore, 'the aim of our political activity must be ... the acquisition of land and soil as the objective of our foreign policy'. More specifically, he wrote that 'when we speak of new land in Europe today we must principally bear in mind Russia and the border states subject to her'. These themes, of racial purity and the need for constant struggle to secure 'living space' or lebensraum in the East are echoed again and again in speeches to the faithful, at election meetings, in addresses to specific interest groups and in party literature.A.J.P. Taylor and The Debate
While there is no dispute that such themes run through Nazi speeches and writings of the 1920s and early 1930s, the argument was advanced, in the 1960s, that they did not materially shape Nazi foreign policy once Hitler actually became Chancellor. In his controversial 1961 publication The Origins of the Second World War, A.J.P. Taylor argued that Hitler's foreign policies after 1933 were shaped much more by the international situation and by the responses of other European leaders than by his previously-expressed convictions. Taylor dismissed Mein Kampf as consisting of 'fantasies from behind bars', a rambling and turgid collection of half-baked ideas which Hitler dictated to his prison cronies in 1924 to while away the long months in prison. Once in power, however, Hitler had to temper his views to the prevailing international situation, and acted as a typical German statesman pursuing traditional German objectives. He was not driven by any underlying ideology or timetable for aggressive expansion in eastern Europe, and it was not his fault if other European leaders failed to make a stand against his predictable re-assertion of German power. Having acquiesced in the remilitarisation of the Rhineland, Anschluss (union) with Austria and the incorporation into Germany of the Sudeten Germans of Czechoslovakia, how was Hitler to know that British and French leaders would actually be serious in making a stand over the Polish Corridor and Danzig?
Taylor's book unleashed a hail of criticism. Many historians were incensed at what they saw as an attempt to 'whitewash' Hitler by suggesting that he was a typical German leader when, in fact, he was anything but typical, an Austrian German mob orator of limited education and few social connections. Furthermore, Taylor's critics were not prepared to ignore Mein Kampf as he had. Some saw it as a 'blue-print for aggression' which set out in a fair amount of detail Hitler's foreign policy ambitions after 1933. While some historians were prepared to acknowledge that Hitler was an opportunist in the way he approached crises after 1933, most agreed with Professor Alan Bullock that this merely demonstrated Hitler's 'flexibility of method' which was allied to a 'consistency of aim'. Indeed, a German historian, Eberhard Jäckel, has asserted: 'Perhaps never in history did a ruler write down before he came to power what he was to do afterwards as precisely as did Adolf Hitler'.Wide Agreement on the Dominance of Ideology
In recent years, there has been considerable agreement amongst historians of the Third Reich that ideology was fundamental to the shaping of Nazi policies after 1933. They argue that it was the basic ingredients of Nazi ideology - a belief in racial purity, in the importance of balancing population, resources and soil, and the necessity of acquiring 'living space' in the East - which made Hitler's foreign policy so dynamic and so difficult to combat. Taylor's interpretation of Hitler's foreign policy aims after 1933 is now seen as fatally flawed because it completely ignores the dynamic ingredient of Nazi ideology. In a chapter in Modern Germany Reconsidered (ed. Martel, 1993) Professor David Kaiser has argued that Taylor's views, that Hitler did not intend war to break out in September 1939, that he lacked any real plan for the conquest of Europe or the world, and that other governments played a crucial role in unleashing German expansion, 'are no longer regarded as valid'. Instead, the domestic and foreign policies of the Third Reich are now seen as two sides of the same coin. The main aim of domestic policies - which involved strengthening and purifying the German race - was to secure the successful implementation of an expansionist foreign policy. As Hitler instructed a group of Reichswehr commanders soon after coming to power, in January 1933, it was necessary for them all to work together for 'the conquest and ruthless Germanisation of new living space in the East.'The Debate about Continuity
While historians accept that there are some similarities between the foreign ambitions of Wilhelmine Germany, the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich, recent studies (such as Germany and Europe 1919-39 by Professor John Hiden) place more emphasis on those characteristics which made Nazi foreign policy objectives so different from those of preceding regimes. We can identify four areas of policy which clearly illustrate a change of policy after 1933 rather than a continuity of aim.Lack of Continuity. 1 The Racial Element
While Germany's geographical position made it inevitable that she would seek to exert power in eastern Europe, it was only the Nazi regime which sought to establish in the East and in Russia an empire based on race, in which those of Aryan descent would rule over lesser Slav subject races. As John Hiden has pointed out, German leaders during the First World War 'followed an expansionist policy in the East primarily to help them preserve a conservative reactionary status quo, not a racially-driven revolution of German, then European and, ultimately, world society!' In this sense, Hitler's aims were truly revolutionary. As he wrote in Mein Kampf:
We National Socialists have intentionally drawn a line under the foreign policy of prewar Germany. We are taking up where we left off six hundred years ago. We are putting an end to the perpetual German march towards the South and West of Europe and turning our eyes towards the land in the East. We are finally putting a stop to the colonial and trade policy of the prewar period and passing over to the territorial policy of the future.
The change was to have far-reaching implications, as Hitler later declared: `with the concept of race, National Socialism will carry its revolution abroad and recast the world'.Lack of Continuity. 2 Colonial and Trade Policy
Hitler himself pointed out in Mein Kampf that, whereas the aim of German governments before 1914 was to secure colonies overseas and to acquire markets worldwide, the objectives of the Third Reich would be very different: to expand Germany's living space in the East and to try to make the country economically as self-sufficient as possible. Hitler was not greatly interested in the return of the pre-1914 German colonies; what he sought was the productive soil of eastern Europe which could support an expansionist Aryan state and enable it to become one of the world's dominant powers. He was convinced that Germany's former dependence on international trade had laid it open to the malign influence of external enemies, particularly scheming Jewish financiers. Thus, his aim was to ensure that through bilateral trade agreements and the manufacture of synthetic materials, Germany could be in full control of its economic development and therefore master of its political and military destiny.Lack of Continuity. 3 The Role of Russia
Russo-German relations were a central element in European history from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. Both Bismarck, after 1870, and Weimar governments of the 1920s recognised the importance of cultivating good relations with Russia, to prevent Germany from becoming encircled by a ring of hostile powers and to allow some freedom to manoeuvre within the European diplomatic system. Even in the period between 1892 and 1914, when Russia and France were in alliance against Germany, there were dynastic ties between the Kaiser and the Tsar, and the recognition of similar domestic social and political goals.
Hitler's attitude to Bolshevik Russia was very different. He viewed it as an ideological enemy, a monstrous regime based on Communist doctrines of class division and led by racially-unfit Jews. His hostility to Russia was, therefore, based not on its potential strategic threat or military power but on its capacity to undermine Germany's social and political foundations and contaminate its Aryan race. In the long run, there could be no compromise between the Third Reich and Bolshevik Russia. The Russian regime had to be defeated and dismantled to make way for the establishment of an enlarged Aryan empire.Lack of Continuity. 4 The International System
It has sometimes been argued that, as Foreign Secretary in the 1920s, Stresemann pursued aims similar to those of Hitler, centred on the removal of the shackles of Versailles and revision of frontiers in eastern Europe which would allow for the recovery of German power and for substantial expansion eastwards. There is no doubt that Stresemann, like all Weimar leaders, and like Bismarck before him, aimed to restore Germany's power within the existing international system, working through the League of Nations and through the conference diplomacy of Locarno. Like Bismarck, he sought a pivotal and possibly dominating role in European diplomacy, but he did not aim to overturn the whole system.
Hitler, however, viewed alliances and diplomatic agreements as tactical ploys, which would protect Germany from attack while she was still relatively unarmed and vulnerable, but which could be repudiated later on. His overriding aim was to build up Germany's power to the point where he would be in a position to challenge and to overthrow the existing international system, replacing it with a racially-based global order. Whereas Stresemann and Bismarck worked through diplomacy and negotiated agreement to achieve defined goals, Hitler emphasised the importance of ceaseless struggle to achieve his aims. As he wrote in 1928: 'Wherever our success may end, that will always be only the starting-point of a new fight'.
Thus, Hitler's approach to international affairs was very different from that of his predecessors or, indeed, from that of the foreign leaders with whom he was dealing after 1933. They sought to negotiate with him and were agreeable to the restoration of a considerable degree of German power, so long as it was negotiated within the existing European order. Hitler's aim was to destroy that order but, in the short term, he was prepared to work through it to achieve his long-term goals. It was both the revolutionary nature of Hitler's ultimate objectives and the accommodating flexibility of his methods which made him so different from previous German leaders and so dangerous to Europe.Was there a Foreign Policy 'Programme' which Hitler Pursued after 1933?
One cannot help but be struck by the consistency between Hitler's words and his actions. Running through all his writings, speeches, addresses and private conversations was a set of racist and expansionist aims which began to be carried out after 1933 in a number of domestic and foreign policies. While the actions did not always follow the exact sequence of the words, they embodied the substance, and both pointed inexorably eastwards, towards lebensraum and the establishment of a racial empire on east European and Russian soil.
Most historians would not accept the notion of a detailed 'programme' for expansion, fully worked-out before 1933, but they do believe that Hitler had a clear strategy for transforming the Germany of 1933 into a dominant racial state vying for world power. The strategy was to concentrate first on rearmament and on the removal of the remaining Versailles restrictions. Success in these areas, together with the pursuit of racial purity policies within Germany, would enable the Third Reich to embark on an ambitious programme of eastern expansion.A Consistent Policy. 1 Rearmament
Rearmament was, unquestionably, Hitler's first priority in 1933 and dominated the first two years of his foreign policy. He was painfully aware that Germany's military forces were no match for those of its neighbours and rivals - France, Poland, Czechoslovakia - who, between them, could mobilise armies of well over a million compared to Germany's 100,000. He told his first cabinet meeting on 8 February 1933 that rearmament was to have top priority for the next four to five years, and to this end the services, particularly the army and air force, were mobilised for rapid expansion. While the rearmament process was under way and Germany was still, to some extent, at the mercy of other powers, Hitler's diplomacy was cautious and even included a non-aggression treaty with the despised upstart, Poland. However, as German military strength grew, so did the pace and scope of Hitler's diplomatic demands.A Consistent Policy. 2 The Struggle against Versailles
The rejection of the military restrictions of the Versailles treaty marked the first stage of Hitler's 'struggle against Versailles'. Rearmament was accompanied by Hitler's dramatic departure from the League of Nations Disarmament Conference in October 1933 and then from the League itself. In 1935, the inhabitants of the Saar region voted to return to Germany, and conscription was introduced, in flagrant defiance of the Treaty of Versailles. Remilitarisation of the Rhineland, in 1936, in contravention of the treaties of both Versailles and Locarno, was followed, in March 1938, by Anschluss with Austria. The Sudeten Germans of Czechoslovakia were incorporated into Germany as a result of the Munich conference of October 1938 and, by the following March, German troops were in Prague, and Czechoslovakia had disappeared from the map of Europe. Hitler now turned his attention to Danzig and the Polish Corridor, and it was his demand for the return of these areas, heavily populated by Germans, which finally provoked the opposition of Britain and France. Hitler's response to their guarantee of support to Poland was to sign a pact with the Soviet Union in August of 1939 and to declare war on Poland.A Consistent Policy. 3 Preparing for War
There can be no doubt whatever that, by the late 1930s, the Third Reich was mobilising for war. The meticulous research which has been carried out in the last two decades, notably by Richard Overy, has revealed the full extent of German rearmament between 1936 and 1939. The Four Year Plan of 1936 aimed to put Germany on a war footing by the end of the decade, and heavy industry, iron and steel and chemical works expanded enormously. There were growing labour shortages, as military spending soared to about 23 per cent of gross national product (as against 3 per cent in 1913). By 1939 a quarter of the German workforce were working on direct orders for the armed forces. In addition, Germany was stockpiling synthetic materials and building up its supplies of aluminium for aircraft construction. By 1939 it had become the world's largest producer of aluminium, surpassing the USA. Professor Overy has calculated that a half or more of the German economy by 1939 was devoted to war or war-related products. We should not, therefore, be surprised that a war broke out in eastern Europe in 1939. The only surprise, perhaps, was that the invasion of Poland in 1939 found Nazi Germany and communist Russia for the time being fighting on the same side. Does this suggest any major inconsistency or change of strategy on Hitler's part?A Consistent Policy. 4 Establishment of a Racial Empire in the East
The evidence suggests that the invasion of Poland, followed by war in northern and western Europe, represented a tactical switch by Hitler rather than a retreat from his long-term objectives. He told his army commanders, in May 1939, that:
It is not Danzig that is at stake. For us it is a matter of expanding our living space in the East and making food supplies secure and also solving the problem of the Baltic states.
At this point, however, spirited opposition on the part of Britain and France necessitated a change in tactics. In the midst of a lengthy tirade directed at the League of Nations High Commissioner in Danzig in August, Hitler declared:
Everything I undertake is directed against the Russians; if the West is too stupid and blind to grasp this, then I shall be compelled to come to an agreement with the Russians, beat the West, and then after their defeat turn against the Soviet Union with all my forces. I need the Ukraine so they can't starve us out like in the last war.
And, as had happened before, the words were followed in due course by the actions.Words and concepts to note
contravention: contrary to a law or treaty.
turgid: pompous or pretentious.
status quo: the existing position.
strategy: plans on a large scale or for a longer period.
tactic: plans on a smaller scale for more immediate aims.
pivotal: something on which other matters depend.Questions to consider
wWhat is the connection between Hitler's ideology and the details of Hitler's expansionist foreign policy plans?
wWhy have some historians found Mein Kampf forwarded their understanding of Hitler's policy while others see the book as an obstruction to that understanding?
wWhy did Hitler launch attacks on western Europe (in 1940)?
wWhat were the major discontinuities between Hitler's foreign policy and those of his predecessors?
wWhich were the assumptions, which Hitler ignored, behind the existing European order if he was to achieve his foreign policy aims?
Further Reading: P.M.H. Bell, The Origins of the Second World War in Europe, Addison Wesley Longman, 1986; Alan Bullock, Hitler: A Study in Tyranny, rev. edn, Penguin, 1964; Ruth Henig, The Origins of the Second World War, Methuen, Lancaster Pamphlet, 1985; John Hiden, Germany and Europe 1919-39 (second edn, Addison Wesley Longman, 1993; Gordon Martel (ed.), Modern Germany Reconsidered (Chapter 9), Routledge, 1992; Richard Overy, The Road to War, Macmillan, 1989; A.J.P. Taylor: The Origins of the Second World War, Hamish Hamilton, 1961.
The Origins of the Second World War by Ruth Henig © new perspective 1997
Dr Ruth Henig is Head of History at Lancaster University, and specialises in twentieth-century international history. She has written three Lancaster Pamphlets, on the origins of the First and Second World Wars and on the Treaty of Versailles and international diplomacy in the 1920s. A textbook in the Longman Advanced History series, Modern Europe 1870-1945, co-written with Christopher Culpin, was published this year. | <urn:uuid:51cd4635-e335-4abc-aebd-025be0f7d954> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~semp/origins.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396459.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00105-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974548 | 4,376 | 3.25 | 3 |
A pianist and composer who made associations with C. P. E. Bach, Ludwig Spohr
, and Punto, and who was positioned with, or performed for, such royal persons as Catherine II, Marie Antoinette, Napoleon, and Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia. Dussek
was well traveled in Europe and was perhaps the premier pianist of his day. Innovatively it was his idea to turn the piano to the side while on stage so that the audience could see the perfomer's profile; he also encouraged the extension of the keyboard from five octaves to five-and-a-half, and then six octaves. A plethora of compositions included vocal and stage works, concertos, accompanied sonatas, chamber pieces, piano sonatas (one of which was played at the funeral of Prince Louis Ferdinand), and a theoretical work entitled "Instructions of the Art of Playing the Piano Forte or Harpsichord". He was one of the earliest concert pianists and composed music predominantly in the Classical vein. Romantic flavors such as full chords, modulations to distant keys, and altered chords informed his later works. The technical demands of the majority of his compositions required the attention of a virtuoso. Much of his music is similar to that of other composers but those which seem most closely related appeared "after" Dussek
, Rossini, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Schumann, and even Dvorak
, Brahms and Smetana). | <urn:uuid:c11f7b07-e127-4719-8bf5-e6af34411ca1> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.chom.com/Music/Artist.aspx?id=43953 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395621.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00165-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975681 | 311 | 2.984375 | 3 |
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The entity concept is a principle of accounting which allows a business to be treated separately from its owners for accounting purposes. As such, the financial activities of the individuals, either private owners or shareholders, who own the business are independent from the business itself. Under the entity concept, the business itself makes all of its own transactions, amassing profits and losses, and is taxed accordingly on those results. This concept applies to all types of companies, from those owned by multiple individuals, like partnerships or corporations, to those owned by single individuals, who are known as sole traders.
It is common to think of a large corporation as having an existence all its own. Some of the most well-known companies in the business world have taken on their own identities over time, through their marketing strategies and their interactions with the public. For accounting purposes, that perception of companies turns out to be relatively accurate, since they are usually treated as if they were a living thing separate from their owners. This is known as the entity concept, the overarching accounting principle which determines how businesses are taxed.
When considering the entity concept, it is important to understand that some common business terms are judged differently depending on the context in which they are viewed. For example, profit is something that every business wishes to achieve in abundance. Yet, in terms of the business as an entity, profit is actually something which is owed by the business to the owners.
Building upon that notion, the entity concept that governs business accounting stipulates that a business must be taxed according to its own actions. These actions must be held separately from the owners, which can be numerous in the case of corporations or partnerships. If the owners of the business start using business funds for their own purposes, they must report these actions. Failure to do so is in essence a form of tax fraud.
For individuals who are the lone owners of companies, the entity concept holds different ramifications. In such cases, it is crucial to separate the money put into the business from the owner's own personal funds from the capital earned by the business from sales and other income streams. By the same token, money taken out of the business must be recorded as drawings by the owner. These distinctions are important to the tax implications on businesses owned by so-called sole traders.
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:74d05c33-9862-47c9-a9df-7170632b9ef6> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-an-entity-concept.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396949.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00161-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978805 | 521 | 2.609375 | 3 |
The freestyle stroke, also known as front crawl, is the fastest and most efficient of the competitive swimming strokes. That’s why it is always used in the freestyle event of swimming competitions and is also often the preferred stroke of experienced swimmers and triathletes.
To swim freestyle, you assume a prone position in the water.
Your arms execute alternating movements. One arm moves backwards in the water from an overhead position towards the hip and provides propulsion. The other arm recovers above water from the hip towards the overhead position. Afterwards your arms exchange their roles.
Your legs do the flutter kick, which means they are extended and kick downwards and upwards in the water with pointed toes. This is a simple and efficient kicking technique.
Freestyle Swimming Video
Here’s nice a video that shows a freestyle swimmer in action:
Overview of the Freestyle Stroke Phases
We will now have an overview of the freestyle swimming technique. Let’s imagine that you have just pushed off the wall in a streamlined prone position:
- Your head is in line with your trunk and you look straight down.
- Both arms are extended overhead. Your palms are turned downward.
- You kick using a supple flutter kick.
Now you start the swim stroke’s cycle:
- The wrist of your propulsive arm flexes downward. Your forearm moves downward and backward into a vertical position. At the same time, your elbow and upper arm stay high in the water and move a little bit outward so as to form the so-called high elbow position.
- Once your forearm and palm are vertical and facing backward, your arm adducts at the shoulder as a unit and your hand sweeps in under the chest.
- From there, your hand changes direction and moves toward the hip. At the same time, your body rolls on the side so that your hip gets out of the way.
- Your hand leaves the water at the hip and your arm sweeps forward with the forearm relaxed and dangling.
- You inhale quickly on the side of the recovering arm if this is a breathing recovery.
- Once your hand has passed your head, it enters the water again and your arm extends forward into the overhead position. At the same time, your head and body roll back toward a more neutral position.
- As soon as your recovering arm enters the water, your other arm starts its propulsive phase, and so on.
- The flutter kick continues rhythmically during the whole stroke cycle.
- You start to exhale as soon as the head rolls downward and continue to do so until the next breathing recovery.
Freestyle Swimming Technique in Depth
The following articles explain the swimming technique of the freestyle stroke in more detail:
Head and Body Positions: This article explains how to position your head and your body while swimming freestyle so as to create the least amount of drag. It also explains how to roll your body on your sides to inhale more easily and to improve propulsion.
Arm Stroke and Hand Movements: This article explains the different phases of the front crawl arm stroke in detail: downsweep, catch, insweep, upsweep, release, recovery, entry and extension forward. The synchronization between arms and legs is also covered.
The Flutter Kick: This article covers the flutter kick as it is used in freestyle swim stroke. The kicking technique is explained, kicking rhythms are discussed and some additional tips are given.
Breathing Technique: This article explains how to breathe in the front crawl stroke. It explains during which phases of the stroke you should inhale and exhale, which breathing patterns are most commonly used. The article also gives several tips for proper breathing technique.
Learning To Swim Freestyle
Learning freestyle is difficult for several reasons. Your face is submerged for the most part of the stroke cycle and you must roll on your side to breathe. Your arms and your legs execute alternating movements. That’s why it takes practice to correctly and simultaneously execute all these different aspects of the stroke.
However, learning freestyle is much easier if you use our step by step approach based on a sequence of progressive swimming drills. These drills let you learn the freestyle stroke in several steps:
- The first step is to learn static balance, which means you learn how to float effortlessly on your back, on your chest and on your sides.
- The next step is to learn dynamic balance, which means you learn to maintain balance while switching between different body positions.
- The third step is to practice balance while having the arms extended overhead, so as to get into the habit of swimming while being as tall as possible in the water.
- The final step integrates the arm stroke movements and also lets you practice efficient swimming rhythms.
So discover our swimming drills in the learn how to swim freestyle section!
Advanced Freestyle Swimming Technique
The next set of articles allow you to fine-tune your technique once you have become a proficient freestyle swimmer:
Freestyle Swimming Mistakes – Putting on the Brakes: Describes a common mistake intermediate swimmers of the freestyle stroke do called “Putting on the Brakes”. This means that you push water forward during the underwater phase at the end of the arm recovery, hence the name.
Freestyle Swimming Mistakes – Overreaching: Explains why overreaching during the arm recovery in the freestyle stroke is considered bad swimming technique. Tips on how to correct this mistake are given.
Freestyle Swimming Mistakes – Wide Arm Recovery: A wide arm recovery wastes energy, creates drag and can put strain on your shoulders. This article discusses why this is the case and provides means to correct this swimming mistake.
Freestyle Stroke – A Few Simple Tips: Our reader Zach explains a few simple tips to improve your freestyle stroke. | <urn:uuid:c7448bbc-ad9d-4dcb-85b8-ab3f099f5323> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.enjoy-swimming.com/freestyle-stroke.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396100.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00100-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935084 | 1,217 | 2.984375 | 3 |
Definitions for angara river
This page provides all possible meanings and translations of the word angara river
The Angara River is a 1,779-kilometer river in Irkutsk Oblast and Krasnoyarsk Krai, south-east Siberia, Russia. It is the river that drains Lake Baikal, and is the headwater tributary of the Yenisei River. Leaving Lake Baikal near the settlement of Listvyanka, the Angara flows north past the Irkutsk Oblast's cities of Irkutsk, Angarsk, Bratsk, and Ust-Ilimsk. It then turns west, enters the Krasnoyarsk Krai, and falls into the Yenisei near Strelka. Below its junction with the Ilim River, the Angara has been known in the past as the Upper Tunguska. Confusingly, some maps referred to this same section of the Angara as Nizhnyaya Tunguska, i.e. the Lower Tunguska – the name that is currently applied to another river.
The numerical value of angara river in Chaldean Numerology is: 2
The numerical value of angara river in Pythagorean Numerology is: 6
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"angara river." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2016. Web. 27 Jun 2016. <http://www.definitions.net/definition/angara river>. | <urn:uuid:44e9713b-98e0-4571-bbc3-6b37ae92acf5> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.definitions.net/definition/angara%20river | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395620.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00027-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.833377 | 389 | 2.59375 | 3 |
School Security Personnel: Emergency Management
created by the Colorado School Safety Resource Center, Department of Public Safety
This module is designed as an overview of emergency management in schools.
After completing this module, you will be familiar with:
- The four phases of emergency management: prevention/mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery
- The importance of planning and using a comprehensive all hazards risk assessment
- A brief overview of the National Incident Management System (NIMS)
- The importance of communication during an emergency and the need to coordinate with first responders
- Available resources
Plan for about 1 hour to complete the course and review the resources.
A printable certificate of completion will be available upon completing the course. To access the certificate:
- Go to the "Home" tab and confirm you are logged in.
- Look for the "Dashboard" box on the right side of the screen.
- Click on "My Certificates" and "View All Certificates." You will see a list of certificates available to you.
- Click on the "Click here for CSSRC Emergency Management certificate" link.
Be sure to complete all interactivity on each page. The course will not allow you to advance prior to completing every interactive element.
We appreciate your feedback! After completing the course, please take a few moments to complete an evaluation at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/TY53BH9.
If you are experiencing technical difficulties, please check your computer capability: click the Help tab in the TRAIN navigation bar, then click "Test Your Environment" on the left-hand menu. | <urn:uuid:822deb08-f507-4240-806d-f2ce930800c6> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.co.train.org/DesktopModules/eLearning/CourseDetails/CourseDetailsForm.aspx?tabid=62&courseid=1044575&backURL=L0Rlc2t0b3BTaGVsbC5hc3B4P3RhYklkPTYyJmdvdG89YnJvd3NlJmJyb3dzZT1rZXl3b3JkJmtleXdvcmQ9MTA0NDU3NSZrZXlvcHRpb249Qm90aCZjbGluaWNhbD1Cb3RoJm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396029.85/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00107-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.852547 | 339 | 2.828125 | 3 |
What happens to the internet after the U.S. hands off ICANN to others?
This weekend, hundreds of people from dozens of countries will gather in Singapore to discuss the future of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a multinational organization that oversees the address book of the internet thanks to a contract issued by the U.S. government.
The contract expires in September 2015 and the U.S. Commerce Department announced last Friday that it would eventually transfer key internet “domain name functions to a global multi-stakeholder community.” Some Americans worry this will cede “control” of the internet to nations that will impose regulations that change the basic open character of the internet and make it less hospitable to American interests.
It is important to remember that no one, no government and no organization “controls the internet.” ICANN is a crucial cog in the functioning of the internet because computers (and the people who use them) cannot find each other on the internet without Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. ICANN oversees how those addresses are doled out and how they are named. No IP address; no connectivity between your computer, smartphone, or tablet and others. No IP address; no website.
It is such a huge system that the original creators of the internet in the 1970s-1980s substantially underestimated how many addresses would be needed. They built a system that allowed for about 4.3 billion addresses, and the world has been scrambling in recent years to expand to a system, called Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6), that allows for roughly 340,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 addresses. (Yes, that’s right.)
ICANN’s big job is to ensure that when users try to access a website or send an email, they end up in the right place. It is perhaps best known for coordinating the Domain Naming System (DNS), the key bits of information that fall on either side of the “dot” in a web address. It set up the nomenclature for the right side of “top level domain,” which, for most of the history of the Web consisted of a few familiar suffixes – .com, .org, .net, .edu, .gov, .mil and some country-specific domains like .af for Afghanistan and .by for Belarus. A raft of new top-level domains are now being reviewed or have recently been approved, many of which are trying to tie a top-level domain to a particular topic such as .museum or .plumbing.
ICANN makes arrangements with “registries” to administer those top level domains. In turn, those accredited registries handle the material on the left side of the dot – selling or providing local domain names to websites or email providers.
The internet would break down without this kind of basic coordination, but there are plenty of important things on the internet that ICANN does not regulate:
- Bad actors on the internet: ICANN is not a policing enterprise. It does not investigate hackers or spammers or those accused of trademark violations (e.g. an organization pretending to be a famous brand product).
- Content on the internet: ICANN is not in the business of monitoring and regulating child pornography, hate speech, scams, spoofs or other illegal material. Laws in international organizations, or in countries, states or localities, govern such activity, and the law enforcement personnel in those realms are responsible for those policing functions.
- Internet access itself: That is provided by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) that are not under the control of ICANN.
Still, there are really crucial internet “real estate” issues for ICANN to sort out and any number of legal issues that bring it into court.
Even more important, at times, are the political atmospherics of ICANN. Despite the fact that most ICANN board members are not American, despite the fact that the CEO is Egyptian, there are many in the international community who assume that the U.S. has outsized influence on the group. In the wake of revelations that the National Security Agency has been gathering up enormous amounts of information on people’s internet activities, several countries have announced plans to host meetings on the future of internet governance that will push for non-U.S. control. Some believe that the U.S. announcement was aimed at reassuring other nations that it would not retain control of ICANN.
As the Singapore meeting proceeds it will be interesting to see if the U.S. provides more details about what kind of “multi-taskholder” structure would be satisfactory as a body to run the organization. The Commerce Department statement only specified what it would not be: The department “will not accept a proposal that replaces the NTIA role with a government-led or an inter-governmental organization solution.”
Obama Administration officials emphasized that this transfer was not handing power over to Russia and China or other governments with histories of censorship. Perhaps they were aware of the broad international sentiment against internet censorship that the Pew Research Center just reported.
There are important questions to resolve in Singapore and beyond: how the board and staffing of ICANN will be structured, who gets to pick people for which jobs, who gets to vote when policy is made, how non-government stakeholders like companies and non-profit organizations will have a say in ICANN affairs, and what kinds of appeals mechanisms will be available to those who are on the losing side in policy choices.
It would not surprise many if the transfer of ICANN to another overseer extended beyond the September 2015 end of the current contract – perhaps well beyond.
Topics: Future of the Internet
Lee Rainie is director of internet, science and technology research at Pew Research Center. | <urn:uuid:feb341f5-2d45-4f4a-abf4-1591967dc298> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/03/20/what-happens-to-the-internet-after-the-u-s-hands-off-icann-to-others/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395560.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934071 | 1,217 | 2.9375 | 3 |
A spaceship powered by nuclear bombs secretly launched in the 1960s. A colony ship on 100-year journey to spread humanity to the stars. These central themes of the SyFy Channel's epic "Ascension" miniseries this week sound like pure science fiction, U.S. scientists actually worked to build such a spaceship in the 1960s.
In "Ascension," a three-part SyFy miniseries that launches tonight (Dec. 15), 600 people live aboard an Orion-class nuclear spacecraft on a mission to Proxima Centauri. The mission launched in 1963, when the Space Race was in full swing and the Cold War made the threat of global nuclear war an uncomfortable possibility. This leads to Project Ascension, led by a Werner von Braun-esque Abraham Enzmann, who dreamed up a spaceship taller than the Empire State Building that is propelled by nuclear bombs.
There is certainly a lot going on in "Ascension" to grab the average space fan, not the least of which is the fact that the ship Ascension itself is based on Project Orion, a real-life 1960s project by the U.S. government to build a 4,000 ton spaceship propelled through space by nuclear explosions. "Ascension" takes the potential of Project Orion and asks the simple question: What if the U.S. actually did it? [Visions of Interstellar Starship Travel]
Science fiction powered by space facts
The real-life Project Orion began in the late 1950s and ran through the early 1960s until it was shut down after the passage of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963, according to a project description on NASA's Glenn Research Center website. But the promise of such a craft was tantalizing, especially given how it worked.
"About five bombs per second are dropped out the back and detonated to propel the craft along. A huge shock plate with shock absorbers make up the base of the craft," reads one NASA description. "Experiments using conventional explosives were conducted to demonstrate the viability of this scheme. Although this vehicle was conceived to take a crew to Mars, it can also be considered for sending smaller probes to the stars." [Superfast Spacecraft Propulsion Concepts (Images)]
In his book "Project Orion: The True Story of the Atomic Spaceship," author George Dyson (son of famed scientist Freeman Dyson who worked on Project Orion) writes that the project, which began in 1957, aimed to launch manned missions to Mars by 1965, with trips to Saturn by 1970. According to Dyson, the project ran through 1965, was overseen by General Atomic and gained NASA's interest in 1963 because of its high specific impulse for space propulsion.
Engineering a space colony
SyFy's "Ascension" embraces its space history, with the crew of its ship garbed in 1960s style, using retro tech and showing a glimpse of what life on a generational colony spaceship would be like. The show begins in the present day, 51 years after the ship's launch, as the mission hits its midpoint.
Without giving too much away, the show does make a point of describing the psychological effects of a decades-long spaceflight, particularly on children who have to grow up knowing they will be stuck inside a spaceship — the "glorious tin can" as one character puts it — for most of their lives.
"Battlestar Galactica" reboot alum Tricia Helfer stars as Viondra Denniger, Ascension's Chief Stewardess and wife of Captain William Denniger (Brian Van Holt). First Officer Aaron Gault (Brandon P. Bell) rounds out the top tier cast after being placed in charge of the investigation of the murder of a young woman — the first murder in Ascension ship history. The show was created by showrunner Philip Levens ("Smallville") and executive produced by Jason Blum (film franchises "Paranormal Activity" and "The Purge"), as well as Ivan Fecan, Tim Gamble and Brett Burlock with Sea To Sky Studios.
To say there's a lot of intrigue and scheming going on aboard Ascension is an understatement. But I don't want to spoil the fun for you. To experience the full thrill of the show's twists and turns, you'll just have to tune in.
"Ascension" debuts on the SyFy Channel Monday, Dec. 15, at 9 pm/8 pm Central. Check local listings. Parts 2 and 3 will air on Tuesday and Wednesday (Dec. 16 and 17) at 9 pm/8 pm Central. | <urn:uuid:904eca9a-68da-4197-8519-18e821d4f333> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.space.com/28013-ascension-syfy-tv-miniseries-project-orion.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395346.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00033-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95613 | 941 | 3.109375 | 3 |
The derivation of the term "Goldbug" has its roots in the Republican National Convention, which was held in St. Louis on June 16, 1896, when William McKinley, then governor of Ohio, was nominated for President on the gold-standard platform.
On this momentous occasion, the followers of McKinley, known as McKinleyites, held a parade, in which they wore black pants and gold velvet coats. Because of the principle for which they stood, and the clothes that they wore, these paraders were called, "Goldbugs."
When McKinley High School adopted the colors of black and gold, recollections of the original McKinley Goldbugs germinated in the minds of those who remembered the days of the late President McKinley. Thus, McKinley High School became known as the home of the Goldbugs and that we, the students, are referred to as Goldbugs. | <urn:uuid:31665157-0571-42ef-a879-e6f5936e695b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.slps.org/domain/3166 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395620.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00074-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982181 | 184 | 3.171875 | 3 |
A while ago, we had the chance of interviewing Richard Meier. During the interview, Meier told us about the importance of white in architecture. Now, we want to know your opinion. For you, what is the importance of white in contemporary architecture? Leave us your answer in the comments below, and among all the registered users who comment we will give away three signed copies of the book by Richard Meier and Associate Partner – Reynolds Logan.
Become a registered user right here, share with us your comment and next Wednesday, May4 we’ll announce the three winners! You can see more photos by and a short review of “Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona” after the break.
Richard Meier’s importance of white:
Published in Poligrafa’s new series on museum architecture, this volume is devoted to the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona–widely known by its acronym “MACBA”–designed by American architect Richard Meier (born 1934). Located in the Raval neighborhood of Barcelona, MACBA forges a dialogue with the historic urban quarter. The neighborhood’s labyrinthine streets are reflected in the building’s organization, most notably in the main entry, as well as a parallel pedestrian walkway that connects the museum’s rear garden to a recently created plaza in front of the museum. As befits an institution devoted to modern and contemporary art, the museum synthesizes the striking innovation of its rationalist architecture and the accrued history of its context. Offering detailed information on every aspect of the project, this publication features a full-page photographic essay by renowned Spanish photographer Aleix Bagué, as well as an in-depth interview with Meier.
Review by artbook.com. | <urn:uuid:3f35b340-c943-44d0-b754-ccb1e5ca517e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.archdaily.com/130978/win-three-signed-copies-of-richard-meiers-new-book-museu-dart-contemporani-de-barcelona/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404405.88/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00120-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943463 | 371 | 2.875 | 3 |
Paris Architecture Explained
By Lisa Pasold (Special thanks to www.parisnotes.com)
“All that can be found anywhere can be found in Paris.”—Victor Hugo, 1881
Paris, France, is an unusually coherent architectural creature. Paris' modern buildings have developed gradually out of earlier styles; palaces and mansions have survived by transforming into apartments and shops, and most streets harbor a range of buildings from various centuries. Our Paris guide traces a millennium of building in Paris, and what’s amazing is that so much remains visible and integrally important to the way the Paris works, from the earliest Medieval period through the most contemporary constructions.
Paris evolved out of a walled city, and some historians argue that this alone has given the city a certain logic that London or Boston lacks. Paris has really never lost its walls: 900 years after the 12th-century wall of Philippe August, we now live in a city walled by its ring-road, the Péripherique highway. This succession of walls, gradually torn down and rebuilt through the centuries, has created a spiraling city, which grew gradually out from the Ile de la Cité. It’s not surprising that some of the oldest buildings are near the center of the spiral. However, we’ve included buildings in every corner of the city in our guide, so that wherever you are staying, you will probably find that you are near a particular architectural landmark. This is also an armchair traveler’s guide to the architecture of Paris: you don’t have to stand on the street in front of the building. We’ve tried to take you there, so you can recreate the building in your mind’s eye.
We’ve taken as broad an overview of the Paris' architectural delights as possible. All the buildings included are either open during the day, or else their interesting façades are easily viewed from the street. For the most part, we’ve stayed away from churches; religious buildings have their own architectural evolution and an entire guide could be given over to churches and cathedrals. In France particularly, this development has been dominated by the Gothic; Notre Dame is so inspiring, it’s not surprising that she remains the pinnacle of Christian architecture in Paris. You’ll also notice many monuments are mentioned only in passing or omitted altogether. We know you’ve already seen the Eiffel Tower. You know that the Musée d’Orsay was once a train station. So we’re bringing you the next level of Paris architecture. We’ve included buildings that are fantastic examples of a particular period in Paris' history. These addresses often aren’t official buildings, they’re simply the places you pass every day in Paris. These are the building blocks of the city. We’ll tell you when a place was created, and what to look for, but we’ll also let you in on why. Here are 25 buildings that really speak to us. Let us know what you think.
|The Mediaeval Period (1100-1526)|
In 52 BC, the Romans defeated a tribe called the Parisii and established a city they named Lutetia, which probably means “swampy.” Today, that city is Paris—and it’s still swampy in the springtime! Traces of Roman architecture remain visible in Paris: if you look at a map, Rue Saint-Jacques cuts right through the middle of the city and was the main Roman road in and out. But when the Roman Empire crumbled, its architectural genius disappeared as well, and the Dark Ages were actually a step backwards architecturally. During the early Middle Ages, the people of Paris sometimes stole and relocated entire sections of Roman walls to use for their own buildings, because the Roman walls were so much sturdier. During this entire period, the “architect” per se didn’t yet exist, and important buildings were designed and constructed by teams of masons.
Most surviving medieval architecture in France is religious; this is partly a question of durability: the earliest secular buildings were roughly built, often using flammable wood and straw, whereas religious buildings were made to last with stone, built for the glory of God. In France, as in much of Europe, churches evolved through a series of styles beginning with the Romanesque. This early tradition featured a wide central aisle or nave, usually flanked with narrow aisles on each side. Be sure to visit the Saint-Germain-des-Prés Church, one of the few remaining churches that has retained its Romanesque shape. It dates back to the 10th-century, the truly Dark Ages.
By the 1100s, three unique engineering improvements appeared in France and created a new, Gothic style. These three innovations were: pointed arches, which can carry more weight than Romanesque round arches; cross vaults, or X-shaped ribbing growing up from columns inside the arch, for better support; and flying buttresses, which channel the weight of the roof and walls to the ground, allowing walls to be thinner and opening them up for windows. The Basilique Saint-Denis (1140-1144) in nearby Saint Denis was the first of the great Gothic Cathedrals; here in Paris, Notre Dame, begun by the Bishop de Sully in 1163, was the first to appear. Sully claimed that Notre Dame appeared to him in a vision, but it’s more likely he was trying to compete with Saint-Denis, to ensure that Paris remained the most important Christian city in the area.
Soon after Notre Dame was completed, Paris suffered such a disastrous series of events that any other city would have given up. Along with nearly constant warfare, the year 1315 brought so much rain that the Church declared a new Flood. In the following years, there were a series of crop failures so disastrous that the period is now believed to have been a miniature Ice Age. And during the plague-filled winter of 1348, 800 Parisians died per day. A third of Paris' population was wiped out. The desperate times show in the buildings: you’ll notice shutters, very small windows, and well-bolted heavy doors protecting inner courtyards. While parts of Italy were entering the Renaissance in the 1400’s, Paris was still recovering from the Hundred Years War. No wonder people barricaded themselves behind crenellated walls and prayed for deliverance.The House of Nicolas Flammel
51 Rue Montmorency, 3rd. Unknown, 1407
Nicolas Flammel was a wealthy bourgeois of the late Middle Ages. He and his wife Pernelle lived in this house and left the building to the City of Paris, as a dormitory for the poor. Impoverished Parisians were allowed to sleep in upstairs rooms on the condition that they recite prayers twice daily to save the Flammels’ souls. There is a big carved sign, probably added long after the building was constructed, which reads “Ici l’on boit et l’on mange” (here we eat and we drink) referring to the fact that the poor were fed and offered a beer before being escorted upstairs to sleep. But underneath the sign, hand-carved and so worn as to be almost invisible, there are painstakingly-created, gorgeously-drawn angels and elaborate texts. It’s this unusual and lovely decoration that makes this building special. Although it’s called the oldest building in Paris, it isn’t. But Flammel’s house is the only residential building from this period with a documented history, and its façade is unusually elaborate. For older, plainer buildings, you can stroll a few blocks north to the corner of Rue Volta and Rue Maire. These tangled streets house a tiny Vietnamese and Chinese community who live and work in buildings that probably date back to the late 1300s. Keep an eye out for ancient half-timbered buildings: medieval houses had a stone foundation but were framed up in wood. The spaces between the beams were packed with mud, straw, and stone, which was plastered over to form smooth walls. Considering their rough construction, it’s amazing that these buildings have survived the centuries, crooked as they are.
6 Place Paul Painlevé (corner Sommerand), 5th. unknown, 1483
This flamboyant late Gothic masterpiece was originally an embassy for the Abbot of Cluny, the most powerful monastery leader in what’s now France. The mansion was built on top of the ruins of an elaborate Roman public bath. Today, if you stand in the garden at the back of the museum, you can see how the ruins were used as a very solid and useful foundation for this elaborate private residence. The building is protected by a crenellated wall, which was a symbol of the Burgundian Abbot’s independence from the King. The floor plan of the building, with its outer wall and inner courtyard, is a template for the later development of private hôtels in Paris, which all used a very similar plan. This particular location is also important: it’s not on Isle de la Cite, the medieval heart of the city. The Abbot consciously wished to be apart from the center of the city—after all, during the Middle Ages, Burgundy was often allied with the enemies of France. The Abbot could afford to be independent; Burgundy was a wealthy duchy, made rich by its vineyards and by its control of the major pilgrimage route south. Both these sources of power are alluded to on the façade of the building, where magnificent carved grapevines twine around the entranceway and scallop shells form the hinges of the gate. Scallop shells refer to the pilgrims’ route towards Santiago de Compostella, by the sea. Pilgrims who completed the route sewed scallop shells to their cloaks, turning the symbol into a fashion accessory. Here, every peak is frilled with finials and every empty space is given pattern. The building is almost a parody of Medieval style, but it thrives on excess. It was this over-the-top quality that attracted 19th-century medieval collector Alexandre Du Sommerard, who established the medieval museum here in 1844.
|The Renaissance (1515-1643)|
In 1515, Francis I took over the French throne, to the immediate benefit of Parisian art and architecture. Francis was a great art lover and reader (unlike several previous monarchs, who were functionally illiterate), and he surrounded himself with the best creative minds of the time. He invited Leonardo da Vinci to Paris and hired Italian architects to renovate the Louvre. With Francis, the Renaissance arrived in Paris with a bang. He was the French equivalent and contemporary of England’s Henry VIII, without the multiple wives; the French capital surged with life and new buildings. Renaissance ideas insisted on a sense of human proportion in all the arts, including architecture. As a result, buildings of this time can be read as metaphors for the human shape: their solid base is the foot of the building, the elegant middle is the building’s body, and the peak of the roof, with gabled windows, is the hat. These carefully-proportioned ideas really initiated the concept of Classical architecture in Paris.
Unfortunately, when Francis died in 1547, the city was torn apart by Catholic and Protestant factions. A Protestant king, Henri IV, finally brought peace to Paris once he had converted to Catholicism (it’s Henri who apparently said “Paris is worth a Mass.”) He rode into Paris in 1594, finding a city ruined by violence. Determined to restore its brilliance, he completed the Pont Neuf, extended the Louvre (partly to please his new Catholic bride, Marie de Medicis) and reorganized the entranceways of the city. His most beautiful public legacy is the Place Royale (see below), but private real estate also took off at this time. New neighborhoods were developed by Louis le Barbier, who appears to be the original French real estate developer. Le Barbier established elegant neighborhoods in the Latin Quarter, the Faubourg Saint-Germain, and the Quartier du Palais-Royal (Rue Saint-Honoré) by constructing magnificent private urban chateaux known as “hôtels,” which he then sold to nobles.
23 Rue de Sevigné, 4th. poss. Pierre Lescot, 1548
The only 16th-century hôtel of Paris that remains intact today, this hôtel boasts an extraordinary history of occupants, the most famous being the Marquise de Sevigné, a lady-in-waiting remembered today for her astonishingly frank letters. The Carnavalet was originally built for a Parisian politician, but soon was taken over by the Widow De Kernevenoy, whose mispronounced name gives us the hôtel’s title. Documents are unclear, but it’s believed that the architect who built much of the Louvre, Lescot, is also responsible for the Carnavalet. If you stand in the main entrance off Rue de Sevigné, just inside the courtyard, you’ll see the symmetrical proportions of his original façade, with wonderful Renaissance figures representing the Four Seasons by sculptor J. Goujon. At the time of construction, the roof was steeply pitched, like a medieval roof, but it has changed somewhat since then. Imagine you have just stepped out from a carriage into this calm, elegant courtyard. The walls behind you keep the hubbub of Renaissance Paris at bay. Considering the frequent unrest plaguing the city during this period, the heavy walls and grand gates were more than merely decorative: the wealthy could retreat to relative safety while the city raged outside. Their windows, much larger than those of the Medieval period, logically face inwards, overlooking the beautifully-designed courtyard.
Enter at Rue de Birague, 4th. Claude Chastillon and/or Louis Métezeai, architect, with Claude Vellefaux, builder, 1605-1612
Place des Vosges, originally named Place Royale, is the prototype for the urban European square. Think of London’s famous Bloomsbury Square and the many designs by Inigo Jones, or closer to home, think of New York’s Union Square: each of them was inspired by this original square promenade in Paris. Some say Henri IV conceived the Place Royale as an amusement for his Italian wife, Marie de Medici. The 36 elegant rowhouses that make up this square were a radical shift in urban planning: instead of living in separate hôtels, residents lived side by side, walked under the same galleries that housed boutiques, and sometimes even shared gardens. Both Henri and his queen maintained houses on the square (notice their higher roofs at the north and south entrances), which made the arcades the ultimate place to see and be seen. Two years after Henri’s tragic assassination, the garden was officially inaugurated when his son Louis XIII was married in the square. As a result, these elegant brick facades ornamented with stone detailing and high slate roofs are known as the Style Louis XIII. (An interesting side note: while Henri was building this, the Taj Mahal was being built in India.) Throughout the centuries, Place des Vosges has remained an elegant address even as the surrounding streets fell into decline: letter-writer Mme de Sevigné was born at number 1, now sadly boarded up; several centuries later, Victor Hugo lived at number6, and his house is now a small museum. Walking through the elegant low arcades that surround the square, you can still sense the Renaissance belief in rational symmetry. The garden feels like a well-appointed room, with the architecture of Place des Vosges a most enduring and calm decor.
|French Baroque and Classicism (17th Century)|
Everyone has heard the word “baroque” but in Paris it’s easy to see what the style actually refers to. Although Baroque first appeared in Italy in 1590, it reached its apogee in France 50 years later, under the omnipotent reign of Louis XIV (who reigned 1643-1715). The style’s emphasis on grand floor plans, superhuman massive figures, and the illusion of infinite distance were qualities that suited the Sun King, who used architecture to reflect his political clout. His great palace of Versailles is essentially Baroque, and it was designed as the king’s seat of power partly because Louis disliked Paris. He had suffered through a turbulent childhood regency and he distrusted the city. He left urban planning to his superintendent of finance, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, who understood the symbolic importance of Paris.
Colbert was incorruptibly honest, which made him loathed by everyone, but he was a visionary for Paris planning. He knew that Louis XIV needed Paris to represent his power, much as Rome represented the might of the Roman Empire. So Colbert commissioned buildings inspired by Rome; Classicism makes its first conscious appearance in Paris during this time. Order, sumptuous functionality, and the principles of Palladio defined Classical buildings. This style gained ground especially in the 18th and 19th Centuries, and we’ll visit several examples later. But for this period, the most clearly Classical of Colbert’s legacies is the Hôtel des Invalides, begun in 1671. The famous dome of the Invalides was directly inspired by St. Peter’s in Rome, and the overall design of the Invalides complex is Classical. But standing at the front entrance of Invalides, you can also see how Baroque combined well with the Classical style. The Baroque influence gave us the symmetrical wings, strong window treatments, and monumentality of the building. In some of the hôtels (now embassy buildings) that line the esplanade of Invalides, you’ll notice a new French invention of this period: the Mansard roof, the distinctive double-sloped roof line created by François Mansart (1598-1666). Small oval windows often poke out from these roofs and are known as “oeil de boeuf” windows.
1 Quai d’Anjou, 4th. Louis Le Vau, 1641
This impeccable Baroque address is best viewed from the Pont de Sully. From here, you have a spectacular view of the building’s oval wing and long galleries, which rise above a very private walled garden. The hôtel was built during the initial development of Isle Saint-Louis, which had previously been used as grazing land for church cattle. The city was desperate for space: the population was approximately 415,000 in 1637, with only 20,000 residences to house everyone! A bridge to the island was completed in 1635 and the newly-wealthy class of judges, tax men, and other bureaucrats rushed to build mansions here. The owner of this hôtel, Jean-Baptiste Lambert, was a member of this nouveau-riche “noblesse de la robe,” and he hired one of the greatest architects of the time to work on this mansion. Architect Louis Le Vau expertly manipulated the space to seem much bigger than it actually is. His Baroque hôtel emphasizes grandeur, while paying meticulous attention to the effect of light on the facade of the building. The complex floor plan, energetic detailwork, and curves such as the oval wing are noteworthy of the period. Le Vau is an architect who effortlessly combined Baroque and Classical influences, and gave us several public Paris buildings like the Académie de France on the Quai de Conti. Le Vau’s brilliance was not ignored: soon after completing this hôtel, the architect was snatched up by Louis XIV and set to work on Versailles.
62 Rue Saint-Antoine, 4th. Androuet du Cerceau, 1642
This hôtel is often used as a shortcut by those in the know. The building is an early Parisian Baroque inspired by Flemish architecture. You can see how this has smaller windows and seems heavier than the Hôtel Lambert. But the design is ingenious because it links the main entrance on the crucial thoroughfare of Saint-Antoine with the aristocratic strolling-ground of Place des Vosges, called Place Royale at the time. This careful floor plan by Jean I Androuet du Cerceau seems effortless and logical when you stroll through the building—the courtyards are open to the public. The formal layout and symmetrical windows of the hôtel show the Baroque interest in a dignified, well-ordered environment. But the Baroque style is also designed to impress visitors: a hôtel was meant to announce your importance and power. Here, huge allegorical figures representing the four elements and the seasons are similar to the Renaissance style seen in the Hôtel Carnavalet, but the facade’s stonework has become much more active. Energy and movement were crucial considerations in the Baroque; stone was cut to encourage variations of light on its surface, and elaborate window surrounds became the norm. This hôtel was originally built for Mesme Gallet, but was taken over in 1634 by government minister Maximilien de Béthune, duc de Sully, who gave the building its name. After admiring the entrance courtyard, walk between the tormented-looking sphinxes and pause to look up at the magnificent stone stairwell. Continue into the formal garden courtyard, where the noise of Saint-Antoine falls away. The building facing you is the former “orangerie,” built as a miniature mirror of the hôtel. At the far northeast corner is a discrete door leading to Place des Vosges: the perfect shortcut.
For a while, it seemed that Louis XIV would live forever. When the Sun King finally died, the Baroque style was as exhausted as the overtaxed peasants. Louis’ great-grandson, Louis XV, a mere child, took the throne in 1715, just as Paris was beginning a new period of intellectual fermentation known as the Enlightenment. While Voltaire and Rousseau wrote of man’s necessary freedom, architecture changed to complement the new ideals. The refined, nature-inspired curves of Rococo became popular.
The word “Rococo” is believed to be a combination of the French words for grotto rock (“rocaille”) and shell (“coquille”); the sinuous line of grottoes and shells were imitated as ornamentation in this style. Some of the great hôtels of this period include the Hôtel de Matignon, where the Premier of France now lives, and the Hôtel d’Evreux, residence of the President. In 1748, at the height of the style, Jacques-Ange Gabriel designed Place Louis XV, which we now know as Place de la Concorde; clearly, Classicism still held power over architects’ imaginations. Hôtel de la Vrilliere, now part of U.S. Embassy, was built during the same period. Along with decorative details and a desire for lightness, the Rococo brought improvements in practical aspects of architecture: chimneys became more efficient, sanitation was improved, and rooms were arranged with more consideration for privacy. Residential life was creeping closer to what we would recognize today.
51 Rue Saint-Louis-en-Ile, 4th. Pierre de Vigny, 1726
This fabulous mansion is impossible to miss when you walk down the central street of Isle Saint-Louis. The recently-cleaned and heavily-ornamented façade contains all the important features of Rococo. Notice the excessive detail and curvaceous playfulness, so different from the geometric shapes of Baroque. What’s particularly fascinating about this style is that it has a fresh, light feeling despite its overwrought decoration. Here, the wonderful balcony is supported by absurd sea creatures and shells which show the “C” and “S” lines so important to Rococo. Rococo buildings often include flower, seashell, and bamboo stem motifs, while interior decoration reflected a fashion for the Far East with elaborate Chinese-inspired rooms and “singerie” patterns (walls painted with monkeys dressed in exotic costumes.) If the courtyard of this hôtel is open, walk through to admire the overall lines of the building, although behind the glorious facade, some of the apartments are sadly dilapidated. Through the doorway to the right, marked “E”, you’ll find the original curving staircase, complete with its dragon-ornamented banister. If the weather is warm, you can sit for a moment on the cool marble bench here at the foot of the stairs and think of the lovely allegories painted by Watteau. The Rococo rooms above you once would have echoed down these stairs with conversations about harmony, humanism, and the nature of beauty.
51 Rue Montorgueil, 2nd. Unknown, 1720s
Paris is filled with this sort of typical residential building that has a shop on the ground floor. The combination began in the Middle Ages and continues today, in part because every generation of architect breathes fresh life into the style. The apartment with shop combination has given Paris its wonderful small neighborhoods. This particular address is interesting because the pastry shop, similar to so many across the city, has a very specific Rococo history. In 1725, the unfortunate bride of Louis XV arrived in Paris. Marie Leczynska was spectacularly unsuited for the position; her lack of French was the least of her problems. To distract the miserable girl, her father sent her off to Paris with a dowry that included a personal pastry chef. Mr Stohrer introduced Viennese-style pastries to the royal court, but his sweet confections couldn’t improve the royal marriage. After five years in the tension-filled palace, Stohrer decamped and opened his own shop, here on the Rue Montorgueil. His court connections guaranteed an immediate public for his cakes. Here, he invented the “puit d’amour,” a flaky pastry shell stuffed with pastry cream or jelly. The shop stayed in his family for several generations; the decor you see inside the bakery today was painted by Paul Baudry in 1864, who is remembered primarily for his lobby decoration in the Opera Garnier. Today, you can buy a fabulous “bombe framboise” and stand outside this facade, eating cake and admiring the discrete elegance of the building’s facade. Looking at the main door of the building, you’ll discover a quiet irony. This address has no architect’s name attached to it, yet when the building was constructed, the architect responsible obviously set up his office here, carving the tools of his trade into the lintel over the door. His carved billboard remains: a Classical Ionic pillar, a compass, an axe, and other trademarks of his trade, an anonymous but permanent signature.
|Neo-Classicism (late 18th- early 19th-century)|
Just as fashion flips from skinny to baggy, architecture also often flip-flops from one extreme to the other, so after the frivolous and light-filled Rococo, buildings were pared back to classical symmetry. As the doomed reign of Louis XVI began, Paris entered a period of Neo-classicism. This severe style was inspired by intense study of Roman and Greek architectural theories. As a result, Neo-classicism is very intellectual, unlike the emotional moodiness that characterized the Rococo period. This style also reflects a desire for plain, unadorned materials, combined with extremely logical floor plans and design.
Even when Louis XVI lost his head, his style of Neo-classicim continued unchanged. This is partly because the Revolution was chaotic, with little opportunity for architects to invent a new style. But Neo-classicism also corresponded to Revolutionary aspirations—democracy was born in Athens and Rome, so the classic architecture of those times was still very relevant. What’s fascinating about Neo-classicism is its incredible versatility: after surviving Louis XVI and the Revolution, the style managed to continue through Napoleon’s Empire. When Bonaparte came to power, first under the Directoire and eventually as Emperor, he used classical references to validate his dream of Paris as the center of a new Roman Empire. Neo-classicism dominated the city, leaving us today with a surprising collection of Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian pillars on every sort of Parisian building.
“That summer of 1789 when the Bastille was destroyed and its stones transformed into souvenirs—as [people] would sell the concrete fragments of the Berlin Wall, exactly two centuries later.” —writer Eric Hazan, L’Invention de Paris, 2002.
Rue Soufflot & Rue Clotaire, 5th. Soufflot, 1755-1789
As its Roman name suggests, the Pantheon is the essential Neo-classic monument in Paris. Louis XV first swore that he would build a new church here if he survived a long illness. But the project was only begun under Louis XVI. Soufflot died in 1781, supposedly from worrying that his entire construction would collapse. The church was finally finished on the cusp of the Revolution. Although many churches throughout the country were torn down, often by people’s bare hands, the Pantheon survived the mob’s wrath by becoming a tomb for French heroes. Post-Revolution, when many churches returned to their former religious purpose, the Pantheon too regained its religious calling for a time. But it was soon re-secularized and returned to its role as a prestigious tomb. Today its vaults contain all sorts of politicians, writers, and thinkers, including Voltaire and Victor Hugo. The well-balanced layout and sombre interior exemplifies the rather dull, too-serious Neo-classic style. If you feel like making a comparison, stroll across the river to the lovely gardens of the Palais Royal. These elegant arcades by Victor Louis are also Neo-classic, completed at exactly the same time as the Pantheon. You immediately sense the difference in tone between the Pantheon’s massive Corinthian pillars and the Palais Royal’s initial Doric promenade, and its two-storey Corinthian pillars which are embedded into the garden facade. While the Pantheon inspires awe and an almost mystical sense of contemplation, the Palais Royal simply evokes a serious commitment to leisure time. The Palais Royal’s more human proportions are much more emotionally touching, proving that Neo-classicism depends largely on the manipulation of scale.
2 Rue de la Roquette, 11th. Various builders throughout Paris history
The Revolution is forever linked to one specific building: the prison known ominously as La Bastille.When the building was stormed on July 14, 1789, the prison only held four cheque forgers, an elderly aristocrat and a couple of lunatics. But no matter: the building has gone down in history as an infamous dungeon. Only a few stones are left—keep your eyes open in the Bastille Métro. But what remains nearby is the the architecture that gave rise to the Revolution in the first place: the crowded streets of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, where you’re now standing. These narrow passages housed poor craftsmen, who were among the first to revolt in 1789. Parisian workers’ lives had been strictly regulated by their guilds since the Middle Ages, but the Faubourg Saint-Antoine escaped the expensive guild system by placing itself under the protection of the local Abbess. From the beginning of the 17th century, the area was known for its rebellious attitude towards the King. When the Revolution came, the Faubourg exploded. Walking through the mixture of buildings in this passage, you have to imagine the throngs of people who lived here, crowded into tiny apartments above noisy workshops. Child labor was normal and horses powered the large machinery crammed into these passages. Today these buildings have been beautifully cleaned up, but the narrow buildings to the left are a good reminder that the vast majority of Parisians still lived in overcrowded, poorly-sanitized, truly Medieval conditions, even as the wealthy constructed magnificent Neo-classic monuments.
|Consulate, Empire, and Restoration (1803-1840)|
The Revolution devastated Paris and the city’s architecture suffered alongside its people. Royal chambers were torn apart by mobs, churches were looted and demolished, and ordinary apartments burned. With the end of the Terror in 1794, thousands were released from prison. As the brutality faded, a new flippancy swept the city. Wealthy young fops called “Incroyables” appeared, partnered by scandalously-dressed “Merveilleuses.” A 5-man Directoire was set up while Emperor-to-be Napoleon directed campaigns in Italy, Austria, and Egypt. By 1802, the Directoire had collapsed and the Consulate had been usurped by Napoleon, who named himself Consul for Life. Two years later, he was Emperor, Josephine his temporary Empress, and their extended family was ensconced in the Tuileries Palace. Barely a decade after decapitating Louis XVI, Parisians had acquired a new royal family, which set about establishing a new aristocratic tone for the city.
The Napoleonic style is a mishmash of Neo-classic impulses. Decoration was stimulated by excavations in Pompeii and archeological discoveries in Greece. Classical references pleased Napoleon, since they suited his ambitions for an expanding Empire. Napoleon wisely set up massive building projects to keep Parisians employed, and his largest urban projects shaped today’s city. Napoleon started construction on Père Lachaise cemetery, had parts of the Tuileries and the Louvre rebuilt, began the Madeleine, and ordered the Ourq Canal dug. Napoleon also ordained that streets should be numbered odd on one side, even on the other, a remarkably practical concept that hadn’t occurred to anyone before.
But Napoleon’s Empire turned out to be brief: by 1815, he was exiled permanently, and his capital city had grown to a very crowded 715,000 people. The Coalition which defeated Napoleon placed King Louis XVIII on the throne, a gouty old man who had few illusions of omnipotence. His most important architectural contribution wasn’t stylistic but practical: under his reign, 21,000 new Parisian apartment buildings were constructed. He died calmly in office in 1824, unleashing a period of great unrest. Riots left hundreds dead, barricades were set up in the streets, and new sections of the city caught fire. People who remembered the Revolution wondered if it was all going to happen again. But the Industrial Revolution was gradually changing the economic structure of Paris, and in 1830, the Duc d’Orleans, a former banker, became King. Louis-Philippe attempted to establish an Orleans style in architecture, but his reign was too short to have a major impact. He is responsible for finishing the Madeleine Church, along with the grandiose Galerie des Batailles in Versailles.
North from Place Stalingrad along the quays, 10th, 19th. Simon Girard, overseer, 1802-1822.
Napoleon had studied at the Ecole Militaire and while he was famously not from Paris, he understood the city. To keep Parisians fed so they wouldn’t riot, he kept them employed. As the Depression proved in America, the best route to full employment is huge public works, followed by a major war. Napoleon did both. In Paris, he found that nothing keeps people happy like a large construction project; the building of the canal was perfect for his purpose. Initially intended as a source of drinking water, this canal actually set in motion an entire architectural shift in northeastern Paris as the Industrial Revolution gained speed. Because of this convenient shipping lane connecting the Canal Saint-Denis (out in the suburbs) with the Canal Saint-Martin (inside the old walls of 18th-century Paris), Paris was able to set up important dockyards for sugar refineries, construction equipment, and every kind of light industry in the 10th, 11th, and 19th arrondissements. These industrial buildings would soon have a huge impact on Paris architecture. But originally, the plan was simply to bring water to thirsty Parisians. The head of construction, Simon Girard, was a veteran of Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign, and the canal went forward much like a campaign. Pillars were sunk to support the canal bed over marshy ground, while utopian Classical architecture was used at the tax checkpoints and for other detailing along the canal. The Ourcq was almost lost in the 1970s, when planners suggested paving it over and installing a high-speed highway through the east of Paris. Fortunately, residents protested and today the canal remains a magnificent place to stroll, surrounded by superb 19th- and 20th-century buildings.
32 Rue de Trévise, 9th. Jules-Jean-Baptiste Bony, 1826
After the Revolution, this neighborhood became known as the New Athens (note the Classical Greek reference). The magnificent houses built by wealthy businessmen and government officers became famous for intellectual salons. Unfortunately, the few mansions that survive today are set back from the street and invisible to passers-by because the original gatehouses and gardens have been replaced by larger buildings. The Hôtel Bony has the advantage of having a glass hallway in front of it, allowing us a glimpse of the mansion beyond. This Neo-classical beauty has a Restoration interior. Its exterior grand curved stairs and flouncey loggia is practically a Rococo revival, but its sober Classical proportions and Corinthian pillars keep the building from becoming a pastry. If you have the time, you might try to visit the privately-owned Petit Hôtel Bourrienne at 58 Rue d’Hauteville, unfortunately hidden from the street but perfectly preserved inside. This was a 1783 Directoire gem built for “merveilleuse” Fortunée Hamelin, friend of Empress Josephine and hostess of one the most glittering salons of the time. Known for her witty conversation, and transparent dresses, Fortunée had the walls of her home painted with erotic allegories, fabulous flowers and tropical birds to remind her of Saint-Domingue, where she was born. The Napoleonic decor has been kept up by the current owners and can be visited by appointment.
6 Rue Vivienne, 2nd. Francois-Jacques Delannoy, 1823
This is the best-preserved of the famed 19th-century shopping arcades in Paris. The Neo-classic bas-reliefs and luxurious star patterns in the Italian mosaic floor are particularly impressive to modern eyes. But watch your step: the different varieties of stone have worn unevenly over the past 160 years. The floor’s creator, G. Facchina, cleverly tiled his name and Paris address into several thresholds around the Galerie in a decorative act of self-promotion. I often wonder if it worked. Above his floor, the walls are decorated in a celebration of commerce, with carved cornucopia, anchors, wheat, and beehives; unlike many Paris arcades, which have fallen into shabbiness, here the paint is fresh and the glass roof is clean. Structurally, the arcades’ iron frames support panels of glass that allow light into the interior space, much like a greenhouse. Several of the roof panels even open to allow fresh air to circulate. Iron beams are really the first artificial construction material introduced into European building, which makes architecture of the 1820s and onwards consistently revolutionary. These passageways were especially radical at night, when they were illuminated by the very latest technology: gas lamps. Artists and writers of the time were amazed and delighted by these “worlds in miniature,” where Parisians could escape the dangerous and muddy streets, show off their fine clothes, and window-shop for the first time. When the Galerie Vivienne first opened, its tenants included a bookshop, a printshop and an elegant restaurant called the Grignon; today, not that much has changed. There are luxury boutiques and a bookshop nestled under the clock flanked by winged Grecians. Sadly, these passages didn’t hold sway for very long; they were soon displaced by the much larger and more alluring department stores. But even today, the largest French department store has kept an arcade reference in its name: Galeries Lafayette.
The Haussmann renovations under the Second Empire & the early Third Republic (1840- early-20th-century)
The Second Empire was a peculiar dream invented by a short man with a big moustache, named Louis Napoleon. A nephew of the original Napoleon, Louis attempted to seize the French throne in 1836 and 1840, failing on both occasions. But despite his moustache wax, he was not completely feckless: he escaped from prison and bided his time in London. While he was there, he admired the urban fabric of the city and spent time walking in Hyde Park. In 1848, French politics were once again in disarray, Paris was in revolt, and Louis seized his chance. He returned to France and got himself elected to Parliament. He manipulated his way into the presidency, but his vision was much more ambitious. In 1851, he seized power in a coup d’etat and a year later became Emperor Napoleon III. His dream had become reality. But his capital city was a wreck; it looked nothing like his fond memories of London. Paris traffic was snarled, its housing unsanitary, and worst of all, there were no real public parks.
Napoleon needed someone to take on the renovation of Paris. By sheer luck, he found the perfect man for the job in Baron Georges Eugène Haussmann. Tall, honest and good-looking, the Baron must have been a curious match for Louis Napoleon as they studied plans of the city and discussed what needed to be done. By 1853, the city’s population had skyrocketed to over 1 million. Only one house in five had any running water; of these, most only had plumbing on the ground floor. Haussmann understood the desperate need to reorganize the city: he had grown up during the terrible cholera epidemic of Paris, which killed 20,000 inhabitants. Impressed with the Baron’s efficiency, Napoleon III gradually placed all major Paris administration in his capable hands.
Haussmann succeeded in turning Paris into a functioning Imperial city despite an incredibly short period of control: by 1870, the Baron was in disgrace. His Imperial boss threw him to the dogs in a desperate effort to save his own political skin, but later that same year, Louis Napoleon was taken prisoner by the Prussians. And the Hôtel de Ville, symbol of Haussmann’s power, was set on fire by an enraged mob. Yet, Haussmann is the most enduring and successful city planner Paris has ever known. His apartment buildings remain the Parisian standard, his sewage system still works, and his reorganization of city boulevards has allowed Paris traffic to creep into the 21st century. The city’s beauty, with its splendid London-inspired Bois de Boulogne and Vincennes, remains the sole truly great accomplishment of Napoleon III.
The Baron set out different categories for apartments, with varying regulations according to street size and neighborhood. His vision was so successful that long after his fall from power, apartments continued to be built according to his standard: 5 stories in locally-quarried “pierre de taille” with a crowning floor of maid’s rooms under a Mansard roof. This particular example is a sober interpretation at the high-class end of Haussmann’s buildings. Architect Codry chose to give this building sober individualistic details, inspired by Classicism. This beautifully stoic, discrete style became gradually more elaborate, even florid, as the century drew to a close. These streets, along Rue Saint-Sulpice and down Rue du Four, show the many variations of Haussmannism, from the unadorned to the over-the-top. Yet it’s always clear that the Haussmann building is based on the “hôtel particulier” floor plan: a courtyard gives light and reduces street noise in the bedrooms, and a street door leading to an entry hall gives the inhabitants a sense of protection from the street. Apartments are designed in consideration of people’s real needs and desires: the layouts are usually L-shaped to allow better light, and the front reception rooms were originally equipped with gas lighting, the very latest convenience. It was Haussmann who encouraged entire blocks to co-ordinate their balcony heights and windows. The 2nd and 5th floors tend to have balconies, as these were the two most desirable floors to live on: the 2nd because it was above street noise, but still not too far upstairs, and the 5th for its magnificent light (made more accessible once elevators became popular). Haussmann apartments featured parquet floors, moldings, and fireplaces with marble mantles, details which have usually been preserved and appreciated by later residents. Because of its proven success, the Haussmann standard dominated residential building in Paris until World War I, soaking up new influences and growing to 8 stories.
132 Quai de Jammapes, 10th. Paul Friesé, 1896
The 10th is perfect for admiring the 19th-century’s architectural shift into iron and glass construction. Huge iron beams were first used in train station architecture. The exposed iron had a machine-made, purpose-filled look which expressed the concept of progress put forward by the Industrial Revolution. Builders took advantage of the beams’ flexibility and strength to create radical innovations in construction. Architect Baltard used the metal structure of the train shed as inspiration for his famous market buildings in Les Halles. Bridge engineers like Gustave Eiffel continued the experiment with girders and created the Eiffel Tower. In the 10th arrondissement, you can admire the Gare de l’Est and the Gare du Nord, then cross to the Canal Saint Martin, where you can witness the evolution of metal architecture from train sheds to dramatic and beautiful industrial buildings. The Canal was the dockyard of Paris, where materials arrived by barge as well as train, allowing industry to flourish. The most innovative industrial buildings lined the quays here, and this air compression factory is a fabulous surviving example. Best admired from the far side of the canal, the building is a real show-off, with homey rough stonework, classical interplay of colored brick, imposing stone columns, and every shape of window. But most important is its wonderful metal exoskeleton of blue-grey beams—looking at the exposed structure, you can feel the Modern period about to bloom.
|Art Nouveau (1893-1917)|
Art Nouveau was a brief but exquisite fin-de-siecle architectural trend lasting approximately from 1893 to the beginning of World War I. The name for the style comes from an art gallery opened in 1900, when German-born Parisian S. Bing opened a shop near Galeries Lafayette called “L’Art Nouveau Bing.” The press quickly seized on the label. From the mid- 1800s, industrial building materials had revolutionized construction, but architects were slow to change their style. Heavy overwrought versions of Haussmann buildings remained the norm. A few innovative young architects across Europe took a fresh look at the new steel, iron, and concrete available. They realized that these new materials could emphasize the way a building was put together instead of using a heavy facade to conceal the inner architectural structure. The new materials allowed architects to free the interior space of a building, opening the way to Modernism.
The essential name of the period was Hector Guimard, today remembered for his famous Métro entrances. The Paris transport authority hired him in 1896. Guimard’s curving “cigarette smoke” line had already made waves in the elegant 16th arrondissement, but his Art Nouveau was motivated by a social conscience, much like the Arts and Crafts Movement in Britain. He leapt at the chance to design something beautiful for the masses. Of course, when Guimard unveiled his brilliant Métro work in 1900, everyone hated it. The shiny green color he had chosen to emulate nature was considered unpatriotic, too close to Prussian green, and the writhing insect-like metalwork was much too weird for the public. Time has defeated his critics however, and Guimard’s Art Nouveau Métro entrances have become one of the city’s trademarks.
122 Avenue Mozart, 16th. Hector Guimard, 1912
This is the house that Guimard built for himself and his American wife, the painter Adeline Oppenheim. Installing his own office on the ground floor, he included north-facing studio windows on the top floor to give his wife good light to paint by. Crammed onto a peculiar narrow footprint, the tall house shows all of the architect’s influences. In the early 1890s, Guimard traveled to Britain. There, he was particularly affected by the great Scottish architect, Charles Rennie Mackintosh. On the way home, Guimard stopped in Brussels and spent time with architectural genius Victor Horta, who was at that time developing his signature Art Nouveau style. Horta manipulated cast iron so that it imitated tree branches, spreading out to support immense ceilings. Inspired, Guimard returned to Paris and introduced Art Nouveau to France. In this house, you can see the Horta influence in the melting Flemish windows. The tiles edging the roof and the wonderful natural rootedness of the house might remind you of the Edinburgh work of Rennie Mackintosh. Even when keeping a close eye on the bottom line, Guimard always worked with excellent craftsmen, using the best materials available, and the result here is a unified masterpiece. Guimard designed everything from the door locks to the furnishings. Tragically, when his widow attempted to leave the house to the city as a Guimard museum, she received no support and the interior furnishings were dispersed. The house is now divided into apartments.
Corner of Rue de la Monnaie and Quai de Megisserie, 1st. Main building Frantz Jourdain, 1906, rebuilt with Henri Sauvage, 1928-1930
The main building of the Samaritaine straddles two styles: Frantz Jourdain’s magnificent iron beam construction in the Art Nouveau style, along with a superb Art Deco building by Henri Sauvage. The peculiar name for the Samaritaine comes from a 17th-century water-supply pump that used to stand on the Pont Neuf. It was a huge hydraulic pump, apparently decorated with a statue of the good Samaritan. In 1869, when he opened his shop here, Cognacq adopted the pump’s name. From the corner of Rue du Pont Neuf, you’ll see the decorative blue Jourdain building sandwiched by other construction; around the front, towards the river, what you see is the massive but effective front of the Art Deco building. Jourdain was first hired in 1883 to build a new store for owner Ernest Cognacq. The site took a long time to clear, and this fantastically decorative blue building was ready in 1906. It was an immediate sensation. Shopping was the new entertainment, and Jourdain had created a marvel. But the building was a victim of its own success: Cognacq had to expand. World War I intervened, and Art Nouveau was no longer in fashion. The expansion finally took place in 1928, by which time Jourdain was working with a young up-and-coming architect, Henri Sauvage, who was committed to the new Art Deco style. (If you want to see Sauvage at his best, visit 13, Rue des Amiraux, 18th, for a white tile Art Deco phenomenon.) Sauvage’s Samaritaine addition is all hard angles in a radical concrete casing, complete with geometric incisions across the top storey, icing for an Art Deco cake. The iron grill that holds the Samaritaine’s sign remains one of the best features of the newer building. Bigger, brasher, the Art Deco building tends to overshadow the original masterpiece, but having them side by side like this gives us an amazing chance to compare the sudden shifts in architecture within these brief two decades. To really appreciate Jourdain’s construction, be sure to go inside. Rising up from the perfumes is an elegant staircase leading up to the top floor, where painted peacocks strut across the support beams of a magnificent Art Nouveau skylight.
|Art Deco and the Modern Movement (1918-39)|
At the end of World War I, a new aesthetic began to bubble up in Paris. It was optimistic—the world had just survived “the war to end all wars” and people were exuberant. Paris hummed with wealthy visitors and artistic innovations. High-speed ocean liners crisscrossed the Atlantic; Surrealism shocked the art world; radios poured out jazz music. The Modern Age had arrived. Trying to express this freedom and movement, architects responded to the jazzy rhythm with angular shapes reminiscent of the new cruise ships. Their style was termed Industrial Moderne, Jazz Moderne or Streamline Moderne; it was only in the 60s that the term Art Deco was coined, but this is the name that has stuck to the movement. Art Deco first appeared in Paris and reached its greatest heights in New York during the 20s and 30s. World War II put an end to Art Deco’s optimism; the less-flamboyant lines of pure Modernism took over. But at the beginning, in the 1920s in Paris, the two styles overlapped, particularly in private houses designed in newly-developing residential areas of Paris such as Boulogne and Montsouris.
There was a housing boom all over the city, especially at its edges. The city wall of Adolphe Thiers, built in 1851 and made obsolete soon afterwards when the city limits were changed by Haussmann, was finally completely demolished after World War I. The new empty space was quickly filled with housing projects, many of them government-sponsored and built of brick. The new housing was influenced by the sharp angles and setbacks of Art Deco, with decorative brickwork and intelligent layouts. These brick buildings became known as “the red belt,” because they were brick-colored and inhabited by socialist workers, in a belt at the edge of the city.
25 bis Rue Benjamin Franklin, 16th. Auguste Perret & brothers, 1904
Concrete found its visionary in Auguste Perret. With his brothers Gustave and Claude, Perret inherited a construction company from his father. Auguste immediately set himself up as an architect, before he had even completed the necessary formal training. His buildings are meticulously planned, innovative, and absolutely Modern. Perret found inspiration in the Cubist movement (later he even built a Montparnasse house for Cubist Georges Braque.) He was unfettered by traditional approaches to building and studied the new materials carefully. But he also valued craftsmanship: Auguste learned stone-cutting from his father and studied the writings of Viollet-le-Duc (the 19th-century restorer of Notre Dame). The Franklin apartments are very early for the Modern period, but it’s one of the turning points in architectural history. It stands between Art Nouveau and Art Deco in appearance. Perret rejected the fluid lines of Art Nouveau and threw himself into the radical new art of Cubism, but he had not yet decided to expose unadorned concrete. Instead, he chose to cover his building in gorgeous floral geometric tiles in earthenware by Alexandre Bigot, which have aged magnificently. The structure of the building depends on concrete posts, never before attempted in residential architecture. Because of these posts, the traditional load-bearing supporting walls are eliminated, allowing the apartments to have an open plan that anticipates Le Corbusier. Window projections are angled to give maximum light and excellent views, while eliminating the traditional Paris courtyard. As the building’s neighbors refused to allow windows in the back of the building, Perret introduced glass brick to light the rear stairwell. Glass brick later became a crucial material in Modern and Art Deco design. Perret’s streamlined vision perfectly suited the period between the wars, and fortunately he went on to design further masterpieces such as the Conseil économique et social at 1 Avenue d’Iena.
7K Boulevard Jourdan, Cité Universitaire, 14th. Le Corbusier, 1932
The most famous architect of the 20th-century, Le Corbusier completed not even 60 buildings in his lifetime. But he continues to inspire both worship and loathing around the globe. Swiss by birth, Corbu is the man who coined the term “a machine for living”—which is what he expected from a successful house. He believed that mathematics contained an ideal formula for living, and the Swiss Pavilion is a magnificent example of Corbu working at the height of his power. The 30s saw Corbu formulate many of his most influential theories; his most exciting writings on art, architecture, and urban planning appeared during this period. Here, Corbu worked in collaboration with his cousin Pierre Jeanneret to create a perfect expression of his theory of four ruling elements: sky, trees, concrete and steel. His trademark brutalist materials and his love for rooftop greenery are both beautifully in evidence here. In later buildings, Corbu expanded on these concepts, but the Swiss Pavilion remains one of the most livable residential blocks the master every completed. The dormitory is an elegant, low-rise version of Corbu’s vision of high-density habitation. He dreamed of a city where streets were ignored, parks were essential, and huge high-rises boasted rooftop gardens: the Cité Universitaire was in these ways perfect for his plan. The Swiss Pavilion directs its glazed front south towards the sun, overlooking playing fields. Along the rooftop there are light and air wells, allowing students to sunbathe in privacy, and giving them a garden terrace with potted plants. Down at ground level, visible pilings support the building, which seems to float over a glass-walled lounge area. The stairs of the building are concealed in the curved back section, which is a well-balanced contrast to the 90-degree angles of the dormitory rooms. As you admire Corbu’s deceptively simple plan, consider that this masterpiece was built when many Parisian architects were still flailing around in the turgid remains of Haussmannism.
1 Boulevard Poissonière, 2nd. André Bluysen with John Eberson as consultant, 1931
From the 1830s through to the 1930s, Paris was a theatergoers paradise. There was every kind of performance from music-hall burlesque to avant-garde music, housed in fantastically beautiful and innovative buildings. When film became popular, Parisian architects adapted the theater template into magnificent cinema temples. The Grand Rex is the most impressive of these halls, built just at the end of the boom in 1931; its genius comes partly from the American consultant John Eberson, who built almost 400 cinemas across the States during the 20s. The Rex turned out to be a mammoth project, taking a year to complete and housing 3,300 seats. The front is classically Art Deco, with its ocean-liner sleekness and uniquely Parisian “pan coupe” corner entrance. This style of corner was first legislated under Haussmann to allow carriage drivers better visibility when going around corners! During the 20s, these cutaway building corners were absurdly decorated with Oriental turrets, but the Rex is determinedly Moderne and has a round glowing latticework ziggurat crowning its entranceway. The interior continues this Art Deco fantasia; the well-kept auditorium features an Arabian Nights theme by designer Maurice Dufrene complete with fake constellations in the ceiling. Instead of ruining this wonderful hall by splitting it into smaller cinemas, the Rex intelligently built a couple of small screens in the 70s in the basement, where Bluysen had originally included a nursery and a kennel.
|Post War through the Seventies|
These years are often seen as a disaster for French architecture. This isn’t entirely fair, although some terrible mistakes were made, in particular the destruction of Les Halles in central Paris. But even after ripping out the guts of the city, one phoenix rose from the ruins. Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers created the superb Centre Georges Pompidou on the square that had once been Les Halles’ parking lot for delivery trucks. The brightly-hued building changed the course of European architecture and made the careers of the two young partners, who have gone on to build fantastic buildings around the world. Their Beaubourg concept pushes all the utilities and services to the outside of the building in order to free up enormous exhibition spaces within. Whether you love it or hate it, Beaubourg has a delightful feeling of fun, its purpose-coded colors sparkling again after its 2000 renovation. The problem with many buildings from this period is that they never had a sense of humor and they have aged badly.
Although the Pompidou stands out radically from its neighbors because of its style, its height isn’t much taller than them. Paris remains largely 8-stories high. In order to keep taller buildings from ruining the skyline, a sort of architectural apartheid was introduced during this period. While low-rise Paris remained pristine, skyscrapers were sent to La Defense, a futuristic suburb just beyond the Arc de Triomphe. The first plan appeared in 1964 and was criticized for being dull; the second plan put forward much higher and more dramatic buildings and was approved in 1968. This business-oriented suburb covers about 1,000 hectares; today, some of the towers are beautiful, some ugly, and construction continues, always carefully planned. Unfortunately, other outlying areas of Paris have had to endure far less thoughtful experiments and are mutilated with residential turrets. There is no redeeming word to be said for the crumbling, supposedly Modern, architectural wrecks that litter the outlying areas of eastern Paris. It is these mistakes that have given the entire period a bad reputation.
Place Raoul-Dautry, off Boulevard Montparnasse, 15th. Eugene Beaudouin, Urbain Cassan, Louis Hoym de Marien, Jean Saubot, with consultant A. Epstein & Sons, 1973
This is not a bad tower. It is simply in a bad place. In building this skyscraper, the first of its kind in Paris, Beaudouin and company destroyed the fabric of Montparnasse. Was this intentional? Opinions differ, but the area was impoverished, filled with rebellious artists, and as such was undesirable in President Pompidou’s vision for a modern city. The French could stick the blame for this tower on its American developer, Wylie Tuttle, but they usually take full responsibility for the unfortunate and lonely building. It’s possible that the tower would have been more attractive had Raymond Lopez lived to work on the result. Modernist urban planner Lopez contributed to the initial 1959 plan, which casts the tower in less aggressive pale concrete with transparent glass. What we ended up with is a 56-storey black tower that seems to have landed from another planet, blasting tiny historic streets and artists’ studios into oblivion. Hated when it was completed, the tower forced the French into awareness of their skyline. The government rushed to protect downtown Paris, forbidding other turrets in the city center. Contemporary architecture was forced to go horizontal, as seen in the Centre Pompidou or more recently with the Quai Branly museum project. Looking at this tower, New Yorkers might be reminded of Midtown’s more successful Pan Am Building (whose consulting architects were Walter Gropius & Pietro Belluschi—Europeans out for revenge?) The Tour Montparnasse is best admired from afar, from the other side of the river. At the corner of the Rue du Louvre and Rivoli, you can just see the tower looming at twilight, a Modernist brontosaurus glittering beyond the Neo-classic turrets of Saint-Sulpice.
67-107 Avenue de Flandre, 19th. Martin S. Van Treek, 1973-1980
Little good came from the public housing projects of this period. About all that can be said in their favor is that people were housed. Not well, and not always willingly, but housed with running water, nonetheless. Les Orgues is a good example of the aggressive urban planning carried out in the Northeast of Paris. The 11th, 12th, 19th and 20th arrondissements have traditionally been left-wing; during the Occupation, most Resistance members came from these areas (while the wealthy 6th, 7th, and 16th merrily collaborated.) The Northeast has also traditionally been home for any newcomers to the city. In the 60s, Paris powers-that-be decided to eradicate the unsanitary poor sections of Paris; this was part of the rational behind the Tour Montparnasse. In the northeast, Belleville, Menilmontant, Faubourg Saint-Antoine, and this part of Avenue de Flandres were specifically targeted. Fortunately, some sectors fought back; Belleville and Saint-Antoine continue to be exciting and historic neighborhoods. But Flandres was not so lucky. An enormous and vital quartier was torn down here to make way for the 1,950 apartments housed in Les Orgues. This conglomeration of buildings is supposed to represent the pipes of an enormous church organ (no doubt a bizarre reference for the largely Muslim immigrant population that lives here.) Although quite safe to walk through, unlike several similar projects in the Parisian suburbs, the dusty central gardens and tagged tiles confirm the feeling of dislocation promoted by this style of architecture. It’s amazing proof of human resilience that children actually play here, laughing amid the monoliths.
|Contemporary, 1980 to Present|
In the 1980s, President Mitterrand unveiled a new architectural concept to move Paris into the next millennium. His “grands travaux” brought both praise and horror as they evolved, but no one can deny that the final result is a renewed and thrillingly diverse city. Mitterrand is responsible for commissioning the Grand Louvre’s new glass pyramid entrance (created by I.M. Pei), the move of the Ministry of Finance into a new building (designed by Paul Chemetov), the Grande Arche de la Defense (by Von Spreckelsen), the Cité de la Musique (by Pritzer-prize winner Christian de Portzamparc), the Institut du Monde Arabe (by Jean Nouvel), the Opera Bastille (by the less-accomplished Carlos Ott), and the new library (by Dominique Perrault), now named after the grand master puppeteer himself as the Bibliotèque François-Mitterrand. Not all of these buildings were successful (the Opera Bastille stands out as a particular blot on the landscape), but overall, Mitterrand’s desire to make Paris a contemporary architectural star turned out to be a resounding success. Some of the most exciting names in the industry are now French (see below) and if the mayor of Paris can successfully improve the city’s circulation problems, the future for Paris architecture is looking very bright indeed.
Quai de la Rapée & Boulevard de Bercy, 12th. Paul Chemetov with Borja Huidobro, 1989
Chemetov is an exciting but uneven architect. He excels at innovative sculptural forms and beautiful use of materials, both of which are admirable here, but he often falls down in the human aspect of architecture. He doesn’t seem to always remember the fact that people have to live with his buildings on a daily basis. Here, Chemetov has created a sarcastic but perfect symbol for the Finance Ministry: its Orwellian shape looms like a monster guarding the entrance to the city, with two feet firmly planted in the rushing waters of the Seine. Chemetov might be making conscious reference to the 18th-century Paris walls which once stood here, exacting tolls on all merchandise entering the city. But sometimes architecture should be more than historic sculpture, especially when it’s 1,200,000 square feet of offices. It’s hard to pity Finance Ministry workers, but their souls must suffer every morning as they are sucked into this weighty hulk. The Minister, though, has a very spiffy office, facing the water, and some of the inside spaces are magnificent; unfortunately they’re almost impossible to visit. The best way to see this building is from the river. If you can’t find a boat, stand on the Pont de Bercy and be thankful this was plonked down towards the edge of the city and not in the middle of it. Despite its rather monstrous shape, this building is typical of Chemetov. At least you can’t call him boring. To see his sculptural sense at work in a different environment, check out his very successful Les Halles underground entrance, near Saint-Eustache, which in 1988 was added to the hideous 1979 mall. Or if you’re up at Parc La Villette, drop by the fabulous sunken bamboo garden, which Chemetov co-designed with visual artist Daniel Buren.
113 Rue Oberkampf, 11th. Frédéric Borel, 1994
Borel worked as an assistant to the popular Parisian architect Christian de Portzamparc during the 80s, which obviously influenced his playful geometric style. These postal worker apartments and post office are an exciting addition to the street. The unusual receding view into the lush green courtyard keeps this building from being an aggressive block in the middle of what was the old Menilmontant working class neighborhood. Borel is part of what’s called the “new architectural hedonism”, which is the gleeful opposite of minimalism. Color, contrasting textures, and angular juxtapositions create visual interest and reflect what Borel sees in Paris itself: a great mélange of faces and places. This particular building feels like a giant transformer robot toy, about to get up and walk away through the cityscape. Critics have compared Borel’s work to an ocean liner (shades of Art Deco)—what they mean is that his work can be too independent of its environment. But the streetscape here remains light and I think the silvery finish of the post office is intriguing rather than alienating. If you like this building, be sure to check out Borel’s latest work, a new day-care building near Canal Saint-Martin at 8ter Rue des Recollets.
261 Boulevard Raspail, 14th. Jean Nouvel, 1993
Jean Nouvel is the supernova of Paris architecture stars; an entire show at the Pompidou was devoted to him in 2002, and he is responsible for the popular Tour Sans Fin in La Defense (which isn’t actually endless, only 100 stories high.) Nouvel was the main architect of the brilliant Institut du Monde Arabe, and expectations are high for his latest Paris project, the Musée des Arts Premiers, opening in 2004 on Quai Branly near the Eiffel Tower. Until this new museum is finished, you can best appreciate Nouvel’s vision at one of his older buildings, the Fondation Cartier. Here on Boulevard Raspail is the essence of Nouvel’s vision. Relying on new types of glass and support structures, the Fondation building is transparent, emphasizing its natural surroundings. The site was once the home of French writer Chateaubriand, who planted a tree in the yard. Nouvel managed to design the new building around the tree, to preserve the living link to the past. Nouvel is part of an international trend away from the purist manipulation of space, towards a crucial focus on building materials. Just as Haussmann’s Paris was defined by its golden “pierre de Paris stone,” and mid-20th-century Paris was defined by gradual discoveries using reinforced concrete, Nouvel reveals the most recent incarnation of Paris by using glass to reinterpret the City of Light.
|Special thanks to www.parisnotes.com|
France: Still Revolting
Class, race, power, geography: Why Paris and its suburbs just keep burning
by Joshua Clover
November 8th, 2005 12:00 AM
Being the center of Western cultural history (if never of military-economic dominance), Paris is more like a diorama than a living metropole: the museum of modernity, the monument museum, the museum of museums.
This preservationist urge has many intertwined roots and implications; chief among them is that the city’s 20 arrondissements (especially the inner 10) remain occupied by the überbourgeosie. Reversing Stateside logic of white flight, Paris (and, less rigorously, many another French and European town) offers a white core, and suburbs of another color. Our understanding of the word “suburb,” and the kind of life it suggests, is so powerful it can be hard to grasp the difference. While there are some well-heeled enclaves like Neuilly-sur-Seine (home to Gerard Depardieu and former Neuilly mayor/ current interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy), the banlieues now in flames around Paris more often resemble the center of Detroit, wasted holding areas for a working class whose presence is only occasionally requested by prevailing economic conditions. The classic film of suburban life isn’t the Stepford Wives but La Haine (Hate), Mathieu Kassovitz’s 1995 fearjerker. The “Neuf-Trois” (a postal code for St-Denis) is Compton and Queens rolled together just north of Paris, home to hardcore hip-hoppers including Supreme NTM. Nique ta mère may be slang for “fuck your mother,” but their best album translates as “Paris under bombs.” That’s the sound of the suburbs around here.
Great effort and expense goes into maintaining the boundary between the collar and the nation’s beautiful throat. At the metro stations serving as main gates to the downtown, consistently named for French Revolutionary history, police routinely harass and intimidate youths as they deboard. Because the suburban rail runs to Les Halles at the center of town, the complex found there, once upon a time the center of working-class life, is being torn up and bourgeoisified . . . for the second time in a generation. Unlike the events of 1968, these begin at enforced distance from monumental Paris, separated from history itself. "How do people make history,” asked some French folks about the Watts riots, “under conditions designed to dissuade them from intervening in it?"
Now that question has come home again. The prohibition against the ‘hood coming to town is so forceful that these riots spread to other cities before leaping the invisible Parisian walls: a circulatory motion of stark historical interest. Meanwhile, such an urban geography has implications both tactical and theoretical. Because the riots are not flaring in centers, they can’t be isolated and contained.
By the same token, the hand-wringing line about how the rioters may have legit causes for anger, sigh, but really are just despoiling their own streets, deep sigh — a rhetoric so popular with politicos and self-professsed liberals alike in the United States in 1965 and 1992 — just doesn’t make much sense in this conflagration. A few government honchos experimented with such an analysis last week; it didn’t take. How could it, when the riots are entirely decentered, and sometimes appear to take the shape of an anarchic, darkly joyous siege? Of all the moving quotations in recent newspapers of the world, not the least of them noted, without moralizing, that one thing driving the nightly festival of lights was the simple fact that “it’s fun to set cars on fire.” At last, something we can all agree on.
Though a vast portion of the banlieusards are darker- skinned immigrants and their children , one colorful phrase with real explanatory power is banlieues rouges: “red suburbs,” historically working- class districts which turn out to be, quel coincidence, Communist in spirit and mayoralty. This is by way of saying that there are three ways of understanding the borders between downtown and the ‘burbs, Paris-style: racialized, religious, and economic. Recent news in the U.S. has foregrounded the first two, displaying a withering hostility to reality en route. To lump various French Arabic and French African publics into a single cultural body is to beg the adjectives “stupid” and “racist.” To imagine that the HLMs (the massive housing projects ringing Paris) are zealous, jihadist strongholds is equally ludicrous. That’s not to say that such struggles don’t fall like shadows across every moment; these events are fed by numerous confluences of history, of exclusion and tension. There is no doubt, for example, that the new imposition of curfew can’t help but resonate with the era of the Algerian War, in which the French Government has after long delay admitted to crimes including torture, and murder of protesters.
Nonetheless, the last dozen days won’t succumb to suddenly convenient templates about nationalisms, or narratives of Islam balling out of control. Sabine Roddier, a French Lebanese seven-year old living in a suburb of Toulouse, told her aunt Mireille, "It's the revolution! The poor are revolting against the rich, just like in 1789! I wish they'd waited until I was a bit older and my dad would let me go. Now I come home from school and watch the news."
Ah, the optimism of youth. Still, as her aunt reports, “there was no apparent awareness of the fact that she's both foreigner and Muslim in her sense of solidarity. In her eyes, it's just about the empowerment of the lower classes.” As usual, even before 9-11, the news in America hews to the popular fantasy that class war is so last millenium; that the concept of class itself has somehow been “discredited.” Just as 1968 must now be remembered both abroad and by France’s backlash generation as a brouhaha over the spirit of youth and free love and all that — anything but a general strike by two-thirds of the nation's work force — the urge now is to settle swiftly on some sort of cultural explanation, any will do, anything so as not to see this as a long-gathering confrontation between the museum-city’s exiled and unemployed support staff, and the security guards charged with protecting the patrons, the princes, and the museum itself. It couldn’t possibly be exactly what it is.
With thanks to www.villagevoice.com
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The Study and Practice of Yoga
An Exposition of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
by Swami Krishnananda
PART I: THE SAMADHI PADA
Chapter 19: Returning to Pure Subjectivity
What actually happens when the mind cognises an object, is not, again, a matter of easy comprehension. A sudden miraculous trick, as it were, takes place when there is a mental cognition, and we are suddenly tripped from our balance and caught in a condition which escapes notice and eludes understanding. The cognition of an object is a miracle by itself. It is a wonder, and therefore it is not easy to comprehend. The peculiar structure, called the mind, envelopes the shape of the object, which is what is called 'vyapti' in Sanskrit. Various examples are given to explain what sort of enveloping takes place. It is said that as molten lead cast into a crucible may take the shape of the crucible, or water flowing into a field may take the shape of the field – circular, or rectangular, or square, or whatever the shape the field is – the mind takes the shape of the object; and something else happens, at the same time, which is the cause of our bondage.
The mind does not merely stop with this act of enveloping the object. It drags our consciousness with it - just as when the wife goes, the husband also goes. This is a danger in all mental cognitions. If the wife starts quarrelling with somebody, the husband runs and adds to the quarrel, which makes it much worse; this is what happens. So if the mind merely envelopes the object, so much the worse for us; but something still more undesirable takes place, which is that the consciousness is pulled, together with this rush of the mind, towards the object, and then it is not merely the mind that is there in the object – 'we' are there in the object. I am there in the object – finished. My doom has come immediately.
When I run from myself and sit on the object outside, one can imagine my condition. I forget myself, lose myself, snatch myself away from myself and completely destroy my subjectivity, my self-identity, my very existence. I sell myself to the object, so that I have abolished myself like a slave surrendering himself to the master under utter abnegation. The subject has become the object. This is an extreme form of clinging to objects. Why does a subject cling to the object? The subject has lost itself completely – lost its very life. It does not anymore exist there. It has transferred its location to that of the object. It is sitting in the object and has become the object. It has taken the shape of the object and identified itself with the object; its existence is the existence of the object, and it thinks through the object. The subject is now finished. This is the last consummatory condition to which the mind takes us in the cognition of objects.
This result does not come about at once – there are stages to this process. The extent of absorption of the subject into the object depends upon the extent of the meaning that the subject reads into the object, the extent of the value that the subject sees in the object, and the extent of the need that one feels for the object. According to the degree of the value that is recognised in the object, to that degree one transfers oneself to that object. There are degrees of affection – all affections are not same. One may have a little love, or a little more love, or intense love, or complete self-abnegating love. In very rare cases, the ultimate stage comes. But mostly it is only some percentage of love. We have a love for our children, we have a love for our dog or cat, and so on and so forth – but all loves are not the same. They have various degrees according to the meaning that we find in them, the value that is there and the significance that we can read into their very existence in respect of our personal necessities.
But now we are considering merely the psychological processes of perception. The subject which is supposed to transfer itself to the object is not merely a process of thinking. When I say the mind transfers itself to the object by an act of enveloping, it does not mean that merely a thought process in the ordinary sense takes place, because the subject – the cognising individual – is not merely thought, but is also will and emotion. Thinking, feeling and willing – these three are the primary functions of the psychological organ. So in cognition it is not merely the thinking aspect that functions. Though thinking is perhaps the first aspect that rouses itself into activity in cognition, emotion follows.
It is very difficult to withdraw emotions from acts of cognition. In some cognitions, emotions are not involved very much. Just as when we see a rock on the bank of the Ganga, there is a mental cognition based on sensory perception of that rock on the bank of the river, but as a rock does not mean much to us – whether it is there or it is not there, it is not of great significance to our life – our emotions do not run to that rock. But if it is a rock of gold, or a diamond, then the emotions will go to it. "Oh, it is a diamond rock." We will not withdraw our eyes from the rock; we will go on looking at it because a tremendous meaning has been seen in this rock. But ordinary rocks do not mean anything as we have seen so many rocks.
But the control of the mind, which is the primary function in yoga, is also a direct step taken in the restraint of emotion and will, together with thinking, because while thinking is the beginning of attachment – the identification of the subject with the object – the will and the emotion get the upper hand subsequently and reinforce this act of cognition and make it impossible for the individual to extricate itself from the identification it has established with the object. We cannot ordinarily understand to what extent we are attached to objects, because we are shifting the position of attachment from one object to another, every day, according to circumstances. We do not stick to any particular object from morning to evening. That is not possible, because we do not find it necessary. .
There are many factors necessary to maintain our individuality in life – a single object is not adequate. So the mind, in its intelligent manoeuvres, shifts itself suddenly, like a shuttle, from one centre to another, and keeps itself in contact with all the necessary factors in life which are essential for its existence and security, just like a good politician who shrewdly maintains contact with all the people concerned with his security, position, etc. He can contact even a thousand people in a day if the necessity arises – by phone, by telegram, by letter, by personal interview, etc. – because he knows that these contacts are necessary for his security and status. Likewise, the mind – the greatest of politicians conceivable in the world – plays the very same trick and sees that its security is maintained throughout life, and that nobody threatens its existence. The act of mental cognition is nothing but a continuous activity engaged in by the mind for maintaining its security in life. Otherwise, what is the use of perceiving things? Why do we want to see objects? Why do we want to contact people in the world? Why do we want friends? Why do we want telephones? It is only for security, maintenance and status, so that we may not be cut off from the ground on which we are standing. This is what the mind is doing in every act of cognition.
This is a bare outline of the psychological process involved in perception, but it is a process which completely enslaves us into conditions which go beyond our control. We can imagine the state of affairs in which a bonded slave lives. Nowadays we do not have slaves of the kind that we have heard of in ancient history. The slaves were sold not only financially and physically, but even emotionally and in every aspect that constituted their personality. A slave is one who has no individuality or personality of his own. He has become part and parcel of the master to whom he has been sold. His existence, his will, his thought, his feeling, his very security and life itself is in the hands of the master. So is the case with an individual selling itself to the object. The object controls us, and one is a slave of that object.
One cannot know that one is a slave. In the case of mental attachments, the situation is a little different from a human slave selling himself to a master. The slave in the ordinary case may be aware that he has bound himself to a master who is controlling him in every way, so he may feel very unhappy sometimes. "Oh, what a condition is mine. I am serving under this master and he may even end my life due to the subjection into which I have entered with him." But in our case of slavery to objects, something worse is taking place. We cannot be aware that we are slaves. We are not sorry that we are attached to objects. We are immensely happy because of the attachment. Otherwise, how can there be attachment if we are always conscious of the sorrow that is involved in it? The attachment becomes a source of happiness. It is not a source of sorrow, as in the case of the ordinary slave or subordinate. It is a source of happiness because something very strange has taken place in the cognition of the object, which is the cause of this joy.
Something inscrutable is taking place. The mind feels the need, which is the need that the whole personality feels. Why is the need felt? It is a little difficult to understand merely by surface thinking. The need is biological, sociological, psychological, economical, and every blessed thing. When we are attached to something, we are not attached merely for one single reason. Many factors pull us to the object, and all these factors act simultaneously, like enemies attacking from all sides, so that we may not know what is happening to us. We become helpless and then surrender ourselves. Similarly, the subject surrenders itself to the object on account of the attack to which it is subjected by umpteen factors from all sides – social, physical, economical, psychological, emotional, volitional, and what not.
The need that we feel in our personality is multi-faceted. This is what keeps us unhappy throughout the day, and to remove this unhappiness we cling to objects. We feel social insecurity, physical deficiency, emotional inadequacy and psychological inferiority – all of which cannot be set right at one stroke by a single object. It is difficult to find a single object which will fulfil all our needs – economical, sociological, physical, biological, etc. All these needs cannot be fulfilled by a single object – such a thing is difficult to find. There may be such a thing, but it is not always easy to find. So we cling to many aspects of objectivity for the fulfilment of various types of need we feel in our personality. We want social status; we want the recognition of people; we want a lot of money; we want a wife or husband; we want a very delicious dish to eat every day; we want a nice bed; we want security by army, police and friends, etc. so that nobody can attack us. We want medicines to cure us of illnesses. What untold things we require to keep us happy and secure in life! For this reason the mind keeps us distracted. It shifts itself from one thing to another thing to find out what it lacks and where it can find what it needs.
Occasionally the mind gets caught up by the preponderance of a type of need, to the exclusion of others. That is what is called a mania or an intense form of emotional clinging, which rarely takes place in people, but is not unseen. It can be the state of affairs of any person under certain conditions where exclusive attachment is possible, closing one's eyes to all other aspects of one's existence. When we are about to be elected into a very high post and we are working day and night, sweating, and moving earth and heaven for this purpose, we may have an exclusive concentration on that aspect of our life, oblivious of every other factor. We may not eat – hunger also vanishes at such times. Though at other times we may think very much about the food that we want to eat, during the election period we will not eat food. The appetite has gone because there is a shifting of emphasis on some other aspect. Also, normally we sleep because sleep is a necessity, but during the time of elections – no sleep. There is no food and there is no other biological attachment that is usually present in family life or social life. It is not cut off, but it is completely suppressed by the preponderance of an urge which has taken the upper hand at that particular moment or period. Or, when we are in an army, in a battlefield, where we are worked up into a feeling of intense emotion – do or die – we find that all other needs are suppressed, and a particular aspect of our mind gains the upper hand and directs us along a single channel.
In the practice of yoga we have to place ourselves in a practical condition by conscious analysis, and subject ourselves to diagnosis and treatment, deliberately and voluntarily, for the purpose of freeing ourselves from the chances of getting caught by these conditions in future, sometime or the other. Self-analysis is something like a vaccination, where we produce an artificial disease in our personality in order to get rid of the impending destructive disease which may threaten us. Though we may not be in a state of attachment just now, we become conscious of the possibility of such attachments in the future, because no one can be completely immune to attachments of any type. Any attachment can come to any person at any time, only if circumstances are favourable. So we should not say we are free from such these things. Nobody can be free.
That we are free from certain attachments is only because of the fact that we have laid emphasis on certain other factors, for other reasons, which does not mean that the enemy is not lying in ambush even though he is not visible now. Anything can happen at any time to any person – we should not forget this. So we have to be cautious of these possibilities and then rouse the potentialities of the mind in this connection, up from the unconscious level to the subconscious, and then bring it to the conscious level of direct attack and frontal investigation. This is self-analysis.
To revert to the point I mentioned earlier, in the act of mental cognition the mind takes the shape of the object and drags the consciousness towards it. In technical Sanskrit language these are called vritti vyapti and phala vyapti. Vritti vyapti is the mind enveloping the object and taking the shape of the object – the molten metal getting cast into the crucible of the structure of the object. To become conscious of it is to be in the state of phala vyapti, as they call it. So there is a dual role played in acts of perception and cognition – psychological and conscious – and they are inseparable.
The mind cannot be isolated from the consciousness that is animating it, just as when a mirror is kept in the blazing sun, it may itself become invisible. A glass that is in the sun cannot be seen because of the light of the sun that is shining through every particle of glass. The whole glass or mirror is radiant with the blazing light of the sun, and therefore we see only a glare and we cannot see the mirror. Though it is there it cannot be seen, because light has enveloped every particle of that matter. Likewise, we cannot know that some peculiar perceptional involvement is taking place, on account of consciousness enveloping every fibre of thinking. We may say the mind is something like a mirror. Sometimes we may call it is a prism. Sometimes we may call it a plain glass, or it may be called a stained glass through which consciousness passes like light and takes various shapes. Inasmuch as consciousness envelops the total structure of the mind in acts of mental activity, we cannot isolate ourselves from perceptional processes – we become the process. We become the process, and we become the object towards which the process is directed, and then we are the object.
Samsara is the subject becoming the object, and moksha is the object becoming subject, to put it very plainly. When we become the object, we are a samsarin. When the object has become us, we are liberated. They are simple things to explain and say but most difficult things to swallow, because the mind is not an object of perception, as we have been noticing in our earlier analysis. It cannot be studied in the usual manner, because here we are studying our own self, and so every act of self-control or mental-control involves subjugation of oneself by oneself. Atma vinigrah is another word which is very aptly used in this connection. One controls the self, which means oneself as one is at present, by the introduction of the principles governing the higher values of life or the higher nature of the self. The higher self includes the immediate vicinity of objectivity which usually the individual self regards as external to it; and every stage of rise to the higher degree of self is also a rise to a greater inclusiveness of objectivity in subjectivity, so that in every higher stage the subject becomes larger in its comprehension, and the objectivity gets lessened. The more we rise higher, the less is the objectivity involved in awareness, and the greater is the subjectivity.
In the final consummation, which is the goal of life, there is only subject, and no object. All the objects are drawn into the subject, in the largest comprehensiveness of the subject. That Supreme Subjectivity, which is All-Comprehensiveness, in which every object is subsumed, is Ishvara or God. | <urn:uuid:61a3d01d-8a01-4232-a218-96a276f4da18> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.swami-krishnananda.org/patanjali/raja_19.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398516.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00078-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969962 | 3,726 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Hani G. Alexander
William C. Meecham
Mech. Aerosp. and Nucl. Eng. Dept., Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA 90024
Noise generated by a jet impinging on a surface is of interest in itself for such applications as vertical takeoff. Here we consider the image argument [see A. Powell, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 32, 982 (1960) and W. C. Meecham, ibid. 37, 516 (1965)]. It shows that there can be no dipole sound for a large flat surface, only the volume, quadrupole aerosound. The sound generated by the viscous layer at the surface is neglected, and is examined by us here and shown to be indeed negligible. The simulation was carried out in two separate steps. The first step was to generate the hydrodynamic field which was compared to well-documented experimental results of similar flows. Once an adequate hydrodynamic field was generated, the theoretical treatment of Curle and Lighthill relating surface generated sound and the nature of aeroacoustic sound, respectively, was employed to get order-of-magnitude values for the sound intensity and develop directivity patterns. The source region considered was the viscous region near the surface. The k(epsilon) turbulence model was employed and did a fair job of depicting the fluid field. Velocity profiles of the free-jet region were very successful, while the model broke down some in the ``wall jet'' region of the flow. Surface pressure and shear stress distribution was in good agreement with experimental values. The acoustic values were then obtained and the viscous layer was found to generate very low intensity levels, in the neighborhood of 25 dB, much less than the volume sound. | <urn:uuid:affa6b3e-5ec4-4a41-8f87-c1a892a18898> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.auditory.org/asamtgs/asa94aus/5aEA/5aEA1.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395546.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00100-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954112 | 366 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Baby Calendar Month 15publishdate
Your toddler is likely to have at least a few words beyond Mama or Dada and has a much bigger receptive vocabulary, meaning while he may only speak a few words your little one understands far more than that. The more you talk to your child and explain the world around her, the larger her vocabulary will grow.
As a related development your child will start using objects with an understanding of their intended purpose. For instance, your child will not merely be pleased to beat a hairbrush on the floor anymore. Rather he'll likely want to brush his, yours or the dog with it since he now understands the function of a brush. Similarly she will pretend to do things she sees you and other family members do such as cooking, talking on the phone or driving. Play along and enrich your child's pretending time.
Your child will enjoy more activities with the sharpened fine motor skills and refined gross motor skills. In fact your child is more likely to encounter other children at the playground or other settings as a result of growing skills and interests. Don't expect any best buddies just yet, though. Children this age will engage in parallel play or play side by side rather than truly interacting at a level that preschoolers do. That's OK, let them enjoy their socialization and just keep an eye out for overly enthusiastic play, unintentional hurting one another or battles over objects. Redirection and explaining why we can't pull Jena's hair or take Wyatt's bear is best. No long lectures and certainly no physical correction is advised.
Your child will probably go see the pediatrician this month. If your child has not had a developmental screening thus far, ask your doctor about doing one. Periodic developmental checks give an overall picture of your baby's development. Never rely on a solitary test to give an accurate portrait of your baby's level of skills or development. If your toddler has missed any scheduled immunizations this will be the time to get caught up. Like usual the doctor will check your baby's growth and plot it on a chart. Your child will follow a normal curve of growth in both height and weight. This is a good time to discuss things such as your baby's diet, multivitamins, and sleep patterns.
Tips for Mom and Dad
Sleep problems are likely to crop up now and again as your child grows. Toddlers can experience sleep disturbances with spurts in growth or development. Separation anxiety can also bring about new sleep difficulties. The best way to combat night time troubles is to be consistent. Have a pretty regular schedule whether you are on vacation, your child is ill or you have a busy week. Of course there will be some variation on occasion but staying as close to a normal schedule will do a lot to prevent sleep problems.
Have a consistent routine as well. Perhaps it's a bath, story time and some rocking or singing. Whatever the routine keep to it.
Nightmares are not uncommon and it's perfectly fine to comfort your child or put a nightlight in the bedroom. An occasional emotional night may precipitate you staying in your child's room until he falls asleep but don't get drawn into a regular pattern of this. Make sure your child has a lovey, some blanket toy or object that allows her to self-soothe. Otherwise you might become an emotional pacifier and that is habit that is horrible to break.
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The Absolute Impossibility of Disproving God's Existence
To Say There Are No Absolutes is to Make an Absolute Statement
by Jack Wellman
There are no absolutes. First of all, the relativist is declaring there are absolutely no absolutes. That is an absolute statement. The statement is logically contradictory. If the statement is true, there is, in fact, an absolute - there are absolutely no absolutes. Then what about objective truths? Do objective truths exist? When someone says that "there are no objective truths", then how can we really believe that to be a true statement, since they have just declared that there are not objective truths. Therefore, it is logical to infer that there must be objective truths for to declare that there are not, it is holding fast to an objective truth in that statement.
One of the greatest scientists who ever lived, Thomas Edison, said, "We do not know a millionth of one percent about anything." That's probably a conservative figure. One absolute truth is that we do not know everything there is, therefore, absolutes do exist. Yet some people still believe that there are no absolutes. My question would be, "Really? How can you be absolutely sure of that? "Here is the loss of logic in the statement that there are no absolutes. If you say that there are no absolutes, then how can you be absolutely sure of this, since you are stating, absolutely, that there are no absolutes. You are using an absolute statement to say that there are no absolutes.
That can not fly logically or philosophically. How can a statement that there are no absolutes be proved? Finite humans are limited in their understanding of the universe as is our finiteness limiting our measuring time into infinity. For humans, it is absolutely impossible. This is another absolute.
So if you say categorically that, "There is no God," is to make an absolute statement for which you can not prove. For that statement to be true, I must have absolute knowledge of the entire universe in all dimensions and in all recesses of the universe, even beyond those we can not see or ever hope to reach. We already have the concrete absolute that no human being has all knowledge. Therefore, none of us is able to truthfully, dogmatically and absolutely make the assertion that there is no God…
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Structural Biochemistry/Nucleic Acid/Nucleotides
- Nucleotides consist of a base, sugar, and phosphate group. They are the building blocks of nucleic acids. Nucleotides are essential for the body for many reasons. They are needed for gene replication and transcription into RNA. They are also needed for energy. ATP, the body's form of energy, is a nucleotide with adenine as its base. Guanine nucleotides (GTP) are also a source of energy. Furthermore, derivatives of nucleotides are necessary in various biosynthetic processes. Nucleotides are necessary in signal transduction pathways as ewll.
The Biosynthesis of Nucleotides
There are two kinds of pathways in the biosynthesis of nucleotides: de novo and salvage. The following table contains similiarities and differences between the two pathways.
|Simpler compounds are used in the synthesis of nucleotides. Numerous small pathways are repeated to assemble different nucleotides.||Both synthesize nucleotides, though they utilize different mechanisms.||Bases are preformed, recovered, and reconnected to a ribose.|
|Synthesizes pyrimidine nucleotides. Bicarbonate, aspartate, and glutamine are used to synthesize the ring of the pyrimidine. The ring then links with ribose phosphate, forming the nucleotide.||Both assemble ribonucleotides, which are then used to synthezise deoxyribonucleotides for DNA.||Synthesizes purine nucleotides. Various precurosrs may be used to form the purine ring, which is then added to ribose and phosphate.|
- Feedback inhibition regulates multiple steps in the biosynthesis of nucleotides. Examples of this include activation and inactivation of aspartate transcarbamoylase in the synthesis of pyrimidines by CTP and ATP respectively,and activation and iactivation of glutamine-PRPP amidotransferase by purine nucelotides.
Reduction of Ribonucleotides to Deoxyribonucleotides
- Ribonucleotide reductase is a catalyst in reducing ribonucleoside diphosphates to deoxyribonucleotides. In this process, electrons flow from NADPH to sulfhydryl groups at ribonucleotide reductase's active sites. The reaction is summarized as follows:
- 1. An electron is transferred from cysteine on R1 to tyrosyl on R2. This creates a cysteine thiyl radical on R1, which is highly reactive on the active site.
- 2.A hydrogen from C3 of the ribose is then abstracted. This creates carbon radical.
- 3. The C3 radical helps release OH- at carbon-2. This departs as H2O after protonation from the second cysteine residue.
- 4. A third cysteine residue then provides a hydride to complete the reduction at C2. This returns the C3 to a radicala nd also generates a disulfide bond.
- 5. The c3 radical reacts with the original hydrogen that the first cysteine had extracted. A deoxyribonucleotide has now been generated and can leave the enzyme ribonucleotide reductase.
- The biosynthesis and metabolism of nucleotides are important to the body because disruptions in them can result in pathology. If nucleotides are not degraded properly, certain conditions may arise. An example of this is gout. Urates are degraded proteins, and gout is when they are accumulated, generating poor joints and arthritis.
- Similarly, if nucleotides are not synthesize properly, or if not enough are synthesized, conditions will arise as well. An example of this is the Lesch-Nyhan syndrome. Symptoms of this include mental deficiency, self-mutilation, and gout. This disease is due to a lack of an enzyme that is needed to synthesize purine nucleotides through the salvage pathway.
Source: Berg, Jeremy and Stryer, Lubert. Biochemistry: Fifth Edition. United States of America: W.H. Freeman and Company, 2002. | <urn:uuid:d1a503bc-e990-4e98-8b3a-9bf30dab3ccb> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Structural_Biochemistry/Nucleic_Acid/Nucleotides | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395346.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00009-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.915502 | 901 | 3.765625 | 4 |
The Little Prince Innocence Quotes
How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
That is why, at the age of six, I gave up what might have been a magnificent career as a painter. I had been disheartened by the failure of my Drawing Number One and my Drawing Number Two. Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them. (1.7)
In this paragraph, the traditional ideas of experience and innocence get turned upside down. Actually this book seems to do that a lot! The young characters are the ones with the most wisdom, and it’s the grown-ups who, over and over again, appear not to “understand anything.”
They [grown-ups] are like that. One must not hold it against them. Children should always show great forbearance toward grown-up people. (4.10)
Sound familiar? This is one of the ideas we hear again and again in this book—the idea that children know more and have a greater understanding than grown-ups do. In the narrator’s opinion, this means that children basically have a responsibility to “show great forbearance,” which is a fancy way of saying “be patient with the grown-ups” rather than getting upset when the grown-ups display their ignorance.
“[…] And if I know—I, myself—one flower which is unique in the world, which grows nowhere but on my planet, but which one little sheep can destroy in a single bite some morning, without even noticing what he is doing—Oh! You think that is not important!” (7.28)
To believe that a single flower and sheep are so important, or so vital, takes a certain kind of purity. Most people wouldn’t get upset about such a thing. Their experience has taught them to worry about things that seem more “important,” like bills and timetables and even having the right color backpacks. The narrator, for example, doesn’t seem all that bothered about the sheep because he’s thinking about fixing his plane…and that’s what upsets the prince so much. To the prince, something like a plane getting fixed isn’t nearly as important as safeguarding his flower from his sheep. | <urn:uuid:c33674c5-f096-43b9-948c-1f97a39fe0c0> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.shmoop.com/little-prince/innocence-quotes.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399385.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00176-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970948 | 498 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Futaba is a modern-day ghost town — not a boomtown gone bust, not even entirely a victim of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that leveled other parts of Japan’s northeast coast.
Its traditional wooden homes have begun to sag and collapse since they were abandoned in March by residents fleeing the nuclear plant on the edge of town that began spiraling toward disaster. Roofs possibly damaged by the earth’s shaking have let rain seep in, starting the rot that is eating at the houses from the inside.
The roadway arch at the entrance to the empty town almost seems a taunt. It reads: “Nuclear energy: a correct understanding brings a prosperous lifestyle.”
Those who fled Futaba are among the nearly 90,000 people evacuated from a 19km zone around the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant and another area to the northwest contaminated when a plume from the plant scattered radioactive cesium and iodine.
Now, Japan is drawing up plans for a cleanup that is both monumental and unprecedented, in the hopes that those displaced can go home.
The debate over whether to repopulate the area, if trial cleanups prove effective, has become a proxy for a larger battle over the future of Japan.
Supporters see rehabilitating the area as a chance to showcase the country’s formidable determination and superior technical know-how — proof that Japan is still a great power.
For them, the cleanup is a perfect metaphor for Japan’s rebirth.
Critics counter that the effort to clean Fukushima Prefecture could end up as perhaps the biggest of Japan’s white-elephant public works projects — and yet another example of post-disaster Japan reverting to the wasteful ways that have crippled economic growth for two decades.
So far, the government is following a pattern set since the nuclear accident — dismissing dangers, often prematurely, and laboring to minimize the scope of the catastrophe. Already, the trial cleanups have stalled: The government failed to anticipate communities’ reluctance to store the tonnes of soil to be scraped from contaminated yards and fields.
And a radiation specialist who tested the results of an extensive local cleanup in a nearby city found that exposure levels remained above international safety standards for long-term habitation.
Even a vocal supporter of repatriation suggests that the government has not yet leveled with its people about the seriousness of their predicament.
“I believe it is possible to save Fukushima,” said the supporter, Tatsuhiko Kodama, director of the Radioisotope Center at the University of Tokyo. “But many evacuated residents must accept that it won’t happen in their lifetimes.”
To judge the huge scale of what Japan is contemplating, consider that experts say residents can return home safely only after thousands of buildings are scrubbed of radioactive particles and much of the topsoil from an area the size of Connecticut is replaced.
That is not all: Even forested mountains will probably need to be decontaminated, which might necessitate clear-cutting and literally scraping them clean.
The Soviet Union did not attempt such a cleanup after the Chernobyl accident of 1986, the only nuclear disaster larger than that at Fukushima Dai-ichi. The government instead relocated about 300,000 people, abandoning vast tracts of farmland.
Many Japanese officials believe that they do not have that luxury; the evacuation zone covers about 13,500km2, more than 3 percent of the landmass of this densely populated nation.
“We are different from Chernobyl,” said Toshitsuna Watanabe, 64, the mayor of Okuma, one of the towns that was evacuated. “We are determined to go back. Japan has the will and the technology to do this.”
Such resolve reflects, in part, a deep attachment to home for rural Japanese like Watanabe, whose family has lived in Okuma for 19 generations. Their heartfelt appeals to go back have won wide sympathy across Japan, making it hard for people to oppose their wishes in public.
However, quiet resistance has begun to grow, both among those who were displaced and those who fear the country will need to sacrifice too much without guarantees that a multibillion-dollar cleanup will provide enough protection.
Soothing pronouncements by local governments and academics about the eventual ability to live safely near the ruined plant can seem to be based on little more than hope.
No one knows how much exposure to low doses of radiation causes a significant risk of premature death. That means Japanese living in contaminated areas are likely to become the subjects of future studies — the second time in seven decades that Japanese have become a test case for the effects of radiation exposure, after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The national government has declared itself responsible for cleaning up only the towns in the evacuation zone; local governments have already begun cleaning cities and towns outside that area.
Inside the 19km ring, which includes Futaba, the environmental ministry has pledged to reduce radiation levels by half within two years — a relatively easy goal because short-lived isotopes will deteriorate.
The bigger question is how long it will take to reach the ultimate goal of bringing levels down to about 1 millisievert per year, the annual limit for the general public from artificial sources of radiation that is recommended by the International Commission on Radiological Protection. That is a much more daunting task given that it will require removing cesium 137, an isotope that has a half-life of 30 years, meaning it will remain radioactive for decades.
Trial cleanups have been delayed for months by the search for a storage site for as much as 35.5 million cubic meters of contaminated dirt, enough to fill 33 domed football stadiums. Even evacuated communities have refused to accept it.
And Tomoya Yamauchi, the radiation expert from Kobe University who performed tests in Fukushima City after extensive remediation efforts, found that radiation levels inside homes had dropped by only about 25 percent. That left parts of the city with levels of radiation four times higher than the recommended maximum exposure.
“We can only conclude that these efforts have so far been a failure,” he said.
Minamisoma, a small city whose center sits about 25km from the nuclear power plant, is a good place to get a sense of the likely limitations of decontamination efforts.
The city has cleaned dozens of schools, parks and sports facilities in hopes of enticing back the 30,000 of its 70,000 residents who have yet to return since the accident.
So far, city officials say, only a few hundred have come back.
On a recent morning, a small army of bulldozers and dump trucks was resurfacing a high school’s soccer field and baseball diamond with a layer of reddish brown dirt. Workers buried the old topsoil in a deep hole in a corner of the soccer field because they had nowhere else to put it.
The crew’s overseer, Masahiro Sakura, said readings at the field had dropped substantially, but he remains anxious because many parts of the city were not expected to be decontaminated for at least two years.
These days, he lets his three young daughters outdoors only to go to school and play in a resurfaced park.
“Is it realistic to live like this?” he asked.
Tokio Hayama, a city official in charge of the cleanup, acknowledged such concerns.
“No one has ever cleaned an entire city of radiation before,” he said. “It will probably take 100 years.”
The challenges are sure to be more intense inside the 19km zone, where radiation levels in some places have reached nearly 510 millisieverts a year, 25 times above the cutoff for evacuation.
Already, the proposed repatriation has opened rifts among those who have been displaced. The 11,500 displaced residents of Okuma — many of whom now live in rows of prefabricated homes 100km inland — are enduring just such a divide.
Watanabe has directed the town to draw up its own plan to return to its original location within three to five years by building a new town on farmland in Okuma’s less contaminated western edge.
Although Watanabe won a recent election, his challenger found significant support among residents with small children who were attracted to his plan to relocate to a different part of Japan.
Mitsue Ikeda, one supporter, said she would never go home, especially after a medical exam showed that her eight-year-old son, Yuma, had ingested cesium, making her fearful for his future health.
“It’s too dangerous,” Ikeda, 47, said. “How are we supposed to live? By wearing face masks all the time?”
She, like many other evacuees, berated the government, saying it was fixated on cleaning up to avoid paying compensation that would allow evacuees to move away.
Many older residents, by contrast, said they should be allowed to return, even if at their own risk.
“Smoking cigarettes is more dangerous than radiation,” said Eiichi Tsukamoto, 70, who worked at the Dai-ichi plant for 40 years as a repairman. “We can make Okuma a model to the world of how to restore a community after a nuclear accident.”
However, even Kodama, who supports a government cleanup, said such a victory would be hollow and short-lived if young people did not return.
He suggested that the government start rebuilding communities by rebuilding trust eroded over months of official evasion.
“Saving Fukushima requires not just money and effort, but also faith,” Kodama said. “There is no point if only older people go back.” | <urn:uuid:af2b21b4-45ad-4e87-af99-062db7ff6948> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/print/2011/12/09/2003520279 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398209.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00140-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965637 | 2,035 | 3.09375 | 3 |
News & Events
FDA NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SAMHSA and FDA Join to Educate the Public on the Safe Use of Methadone
The U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today launched an initiative to help ensure the safe use of methadone. A prescription drug best known as a treatment for addiction and dependence on heroin and other narcotic pain medicines, methadone is also prescribed to treat moderate-to-severe chronic pain patients. The campaign responds to concerns about an escalating number of poisoning deaths linked to the improper use of this medication.
The public outreach effort, Follow Directions: How to Use Methadone Safely, is designed to inform consumers, health care professionals and treatment clinics about the safe use and misuse of the drug for both pain relief and drug addiction treatment.
Methadone is a synthetic opioid that has been used for decades to reduce drug withdrawal symptoms. Recently, it has been increasingly prescribed as a pain reliever for patients whose moderate-to-severe chronic pain does not respond to non-narcotic pain medications.
The percentage of all poisoning deaths linked to methadone has tripled in recent years, increasing from 4 percent in 1999 to 14 percent in 2004, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Moreover, the number of poisoning deaths linked to methadone is rising faster than the number of poisoning deaths from any other narcotic drug.
Methadone may be best known for use as an addiction treatment medication, but the bigger problem and concern has been with the more recent use as an analgesic. The risk of methadone overdose is partly due to the way the drug metabolizes in the body. People who take methadone normally feel relief within four to eight hours. However, unlike other narcotic pain relievers a single dose of methadone can remain in the body anywhere from eight to 59 hours. As a result, the drug builds up to toxic levels if it is taken too often, in too high an amount, or with other medications.
"The methadone safety campaign materials provide simple instructions on how to use the medication correctly to either manage pain or treat drug addiction," said H. Westley Clark, M.D., J.D., M.P.H., C.A.S., F.A.S.A.M., Director of SAMHSA’s Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. "Our goal for this training is to support the safe use of methadone by all patients and prescribing healthcare professionals."
Methadone, when used for the treatment of narcotic addiction, must be dispensed by a program/clinic that is certified by SAMHSA and registered with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). But when used as an analgesic, methadone may be prescribed by any healthcare professional registered to prescribe Schedule II controlled substances, and can be dispensed by any licensed and DEA-registered pharmacy.
"Methadone is an important and beneficial drug when prescribed and used properly," said Douglas Throckmorton, M.D., Deputy Director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. "Educational efforts like the one we are announcing today can help prevent the tragedies that occur when methadone is used improperly."
Outreach materials about methadone for the public and health care professionals include a brochure, a poster and a fact sheet, in English and Spanish. In addition, a point-of-sale information sheet will be distributed in pharmacies where methadone is dispensed to pain management patients.
SAMHSA and the FDA will continue to work collaboratively with other federal agencies, states, health professional societies, patient advocacy groups, and other interested parties to develop and implement practical steps to reduce avoidable methadone-associated deaths.
To learn more information about the campaign, visit www.dpt.samhsa.gov/methadonesafety | <urn:uuid:b9989bc7-2e54-4385-a3f0-6bd4e15a5198> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm149572.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402516.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00182-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929257 | 831 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Dangerous Waters: More Pilot Whales Stranded in Florida
On January 22nd eight short-finned pilot whales died near Fort Myers, Florida and another six whales are unaccounted for. Pilot whales are normally deepwater creatures, and can become easily stranded in shallow coastal waters. Unable to escape and lacking the cushioning support of water, the whale’s body starts to collapse under its own weight, or they can even drown if their blowholes are covered by high tide. Many stranded whales have to be euthanized.Florida has seen a large number of pilot whale strandings recently. Earlier this month a group of two dozen whales were found swimming dangerously close to shore near Naples, but officials were able to lead the whales back out to deeper waters. In December, a group of 51 whales weren’t so lucky. At least 22 whales died off the coast of the Everglades National Park.
The Family that Swims Together
Strandings are far from uncommon among whales, and pilots are particularly prone to it. As social creatures, pilot whales move in pods that can be anywhere from usual groups of 10–30 to as many as a hundred. In times of distress pilot whales can emit a special call to bring the other members of their pod for aid. It’s this close social bond that scientists think leads to some mass strandings. If one pilot whale gets sick or confused, the entire pod may follow them. In the Everglades stranding in December, the rest of the pod swam as close as they could to their beached members and simply refused to leave the other whales behind. Other underwater signals such as dolphins or human noise pollution like sonar can confuse whale pods and lead them astray as well.
Something in the Water?There is much we do not know about short-finned pilot whales—the International Union for Conservation of Nature currently lists the species as “data deficient.” The recent rash of strandings have some asking if the Gulf oil disaster could be affecting pilot whales. The short answer: we don’t know. The Deepwater Horizon rig was located in deepwater off the continental shelf, where pilot whales tend to congregate, so it is likely that some of the Gulf’s estimated population of 2,000 pilot whales were exposed to oil.
Since the oil spill, NOAA has been conducting an ongoing investigation into the unusual number of dolphin and whale deaths in the northern Gulf of Mexico, and the short-finned pilot whale is among the species they are studying.
Scientists believe two close cousins of pilot whales—orcas and bottlenose dolphins—are harmed by oil. But if any pilot whales have been affected by BP’s oil we might not know, as the bodies of marine mammals are rarely recovered.
For now, we have to wait on the study of these beached pilot whales to find out what part they play in the larger picture of the species’ health.
UPDATE 1/24: Twenty-five more pilot whales have been found dead near Kice Island, Florida. Apparently these whales were from the same group previously seen near Naples. Sonar is being looked at as a potential contributing factor, but the Navy has reportedly not been using sonar in the area.
Also, early necropsy results from the whales stranded earlier in the week near Fort Myers have been released. Like the whales in the December Everglades stranding, these pilot whales were underweight and had not eaten in several days.
How to Help Stranded Whales
As heartbreaking as it is to find a stranded whale, there is a way to help. If you ever see a stranded whale, contact the Mammal Stranding network immediately. There’s even an app for it. Quick reporting can perhaps help prevent another pod from beaching in a vain attempt to help their friends. | <urn:uuid:2a565190-9a41-43c9-90bd-a576fea23fb8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blog.nwf.org/2014/01/dangerous-waters-more-pilot-whales-stranded-in-florida/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397842.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00089-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975201 | 793 | 2.921875 | 3 |
BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION
THE INTEREST CONVERGENCE DILEMMA
Derrick A. Bell, Jr.
[93 Harvard Law Review 518 (1980)]
[Note: This version is heavily excerpted for easier comprehension by college students.]
IN 1954, the Supreme Court handed down the landmark decision Brown v. Board of Education in which the court ordered the end of state‑mandated racial segregation of public schools. Now, more than twenty‑five years after that dramatic decision, it is clear that Brown will not be forgotten. It has triggered a revolution in civil rights law and in the political leverage available to blacks in and out of court. As Judge Robert L. Carter put it, Brown transformed blacks from beggars pleading for decent treatment to citizens demanding equal treatment under the law as their constitutionally recognized right.
Yet today most black children attend public schools that are both racially isolated and inferior. Demographic patterns, white flight, and the inability of the courts to effect the necessary degree of social reform render further progress in implementing Brown almost impossible. The late Alexander Bickel warned that Brown would not be overturned but, for a whole array of reasons, "may be headed for‑‑‑‑dread word irrelevance."' Bickel's prediction is premature in law where the Brown decision remains viable, but it may be an accurate assessment of its current practical value to millions of black children who have not experienced the decision's promise of equal educational opportunity.
Shortly after Brown, Herbert Wechsler rendered a sharp and nagging criticism of the decision. Though he welcomed its result, he criticized its lack of a principled basis. Wechsler's views have since been persuasively refuted, yet within them lie ideas that may help to explain both the disappointment of Brown and also what can be done to renew its promise.
In this comment, I plan to take a new look at Wechsler within the context of the subsequent desegregation campaign. By doing so, I hope to offer an explanation of why school desegregation has in large part failed and what can be done to bring about change.
1. PROFESSOR WECHSLER'S SEARCH FOR
NEUTRAL PRINCIPLES IN BROWN
THE year was 1959, five years
after the Supreme Court's decision in Brown. If there was anything the hard‑pressed
partisans of the case did not need, it was more criticism of a decision ignored
by the President, condemned by much of Congress, and resisted wherever it was
sought to be enforced.' Certainly, civil rights adherents did not welcome
adding to the growing list of critics the name of Professor Herbert Wechsler,
an outstanding lawyer, a frequent advocate for civil rights causes, and a
scholar of prestige and influence. Nevertheless, Wechsler chose that time and
an invitation to deliver
Here was an attack that could not be dismissed as after‑the‑fact faultfinding by a conservative academician using his intellect to further a preference for keeping blacks in their separate but equal" place. Wechsler began by saying that he had welcomed the result in Brown; he noted that he had joined with the NAACP's Charles Houston in litigating civil rights cases in the Supreme Court." He added that he was not offended because the court failed to uphold earlier decisions approving segregated schools; nor was he persuaded by the argument that the issue should have been left to Congress because the court's judgment might not be honored."
Wechsler did not align himself with the "realists," who "perceive in law only the element of fiat, in whose conception of the legal cosmos reason has no meaning or no place," nor with the "formalists," who "frankly or covertly make the test of virtue in interpretation whether its result in the immediate decision seems to hinder or advance the interests or the values they support."" Wechsler instead saw the need for criteria of decision that could be framed and tested as an exercise of reason and not merely adopted as an act of willfulness or will. He believed, in short, that courts could engage in a principal appraisal" of legislative actions that exceeded a fixed "historical meaning" of constitutional provisions without, as Judge Learned Hand feared, becoming "a third legislative chamber."" Courts, Wechsler argued, "must be genuinely principled, resting with respect to every step that is involved in reaching judgment on analysis and reasons quite transcending the immediate result that is achieved." Applying these standards, which included constitutional and statutory interpretation, the subtle guidance provided by history, and appropriate but not slavish fidelity to precedent, Wechsler found difficulty with Supreme Court decisions where principled reasoning was, in his view, either deficient or, in some instances, nonexistent.16 He included the Brown opinion in the latter category.
Wechsler reviewed and rejected the possibility that Brown was based on a declaration that the Fourteenth Amendment barred all racial lines in legislation." He also doubted that the opinion relied upon a factual determination that segregation caused injury to black children, since evidence as to such harm was both inadequate and conflicting." Rather, Wechsler concluded, the court in Brown must have rested its holding on the view that "racial segregation is, in principle, a denial of equality to the minority against whom it is directed; that is, the group that is not dominant politically and, therefore,does not make the choice involved." Yet Wechsler found this argument untenable as well, because, among other difficulties, it seemed to require an inquiry into the motives of the legislature, a practice generally foreclosed to the courts.
After dismissing these arguments, Wechsler then asserted that the legal issue in state imposed segregation cases was not one of discrimination at all but, rather, of associational rights: "the denial by the state of freedom to associate, a denial that impinges in the same way on any groups or races that may be involved .Wechsler reasoned that” if the freedom of association is denied by segregation, integration forces an association upon those for whom it is unpleasant or repugnant. Concluding with a question that has challenged legal scholars,
Wechsler asked, "Given a situation where the state must practically choose between denying the association to those individuals who wish it or imposing it on those who would avoid it, is there a basis in neutral principles for holding that the Constitution demands that the claims for association should prevail?"
In suggesting that there was a basis in neutral principles for holding that the Constitution supports a claim by blacks for an associational right, Wechsler confessed that he had not yet written an opinion supporting such a holding. "To write it is for me the challenge of the school segregation cases."
11. THE SEARCH FOR A NEUTRAL
PRINCIPLE: RACIAL EQUALITY AND
SCHOLARS who accepted Wechsler's challenge had little difficulty finding a neutral principle on which the Brown decision could be based. Indeed, from the hindsight of a quarter century of the greatest racial consciousness raising the country has ever known, much of Wechsler's concern seems hard to imagine. To doubt that racial segregation is harmful to blacks, and to suggest that what blacks really sought was the right to associate with whites, is to believe in a world that does not exist now and could not possibly have existed then. Charles Black, therefore, correctly viewed racial equality as the neutral principle that underlay the Brown opinion .15 In Black's view, Wechsler's question "is awkwardly simple," and he states his response in the form of a syllogism. Black's major premise is that "the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment should be read as saying that the Negro race, as such, is not to be significantly disadvantaged by the laws of the states." His minor premise is that " segregation is a massive intentional disadvantaging of the Negro race, as such, by state law." The conclusion, then, is that the equal protection clause clearly bars racial segregation because segregation harms blacks and benefits whites in ways too numerous and obvious to require citation.
Logically, the argument is persuasive, and Black has no trouble urging that "[w]hen the directive of equality cannot be followed without displeasing the whitest, then something that can be called a 'freedom' of the whitest must be impaired. It is precisely here, though, that many whites part company with Professor Black. Whites may agree in the abstract that blacks are citizens and are entitled to constitutional protection against racial discrimination, but few are willing to recognize that racial segregation is much more than a series of quaint customs that can be remedied effectively without altering the status of whites. The extent of this unwillingness is illustrated by the controversy over affirmative action programs, particularly those where identifiable whites must step aside for blacks they deem less qualified or less deserving. Whites simply cannot envision the personal responsibility and the potential sacrifice inherent in Black's conclusion that true equality for blacks will require the surrender of racism‑granted privileges for whites.
This sober assessment of reality raises concern about the ultimate import of Black’s theory. On a normative level, as a description of how the world ought to be, the notion of racial equality appears to be the proper basis on which Brown rests, and Wechsler's framing of the problem in terms of associational rights thus seems misplaced. Yet on a positivistic level how the world is‑it is clear that racial equality is not deemed legitimate by large segments of the American people, at least to the extent it threatens to impair the societal status of whites. Hence, Wechsler's search for a guiding principle in the context of associational rights retains merit in the positivistic sphere, because it suggests a deeper truth about the subordination of law to interest group politics with a racial configuration.
Although no such subordination is apparent in Brown, it is possible to discern in more recent school decisions the outline of a principle, applied without direct acknowledgment, that could serve as the positivistic expression of the neutral statement of general applicability sought by Wechsler. Its elements rely as much on political history as legal precedent and emphasize the world as it is rather than how we might want it to be. Translated from judicial activity in racial cases both before and after Brown, this principle of "interest convergence" provides: The interest of blacks in achieving racial equality will be accommodated only when it converges with the interests of whites. However, the Fourteenth Amendment, standing alone, will not authorize a judicial remedy providing effective racial equality for blacks where the remedy sought threatens the superior societal status of middle‑ and upper‑class whites.
It follows that the availability of Fourteenth Amendment protection in racial cases may not actually be determined by the character of harm suffered by blacks or the quantum of liability proved against whites. Racial remedies may instead be the outward manifestations of unspoken and perhaps subconscious judicial conclusions that the remedies, if granted, will secure, advance, or at least not harm societal interests deemed important by middle‑ and upper‑class whites. Racial justice‑or its appearance‑may, from time to time, be counted among the interests deemed important by the courts and by society's policymakers.
In assessing how this principle can accommodate both the Brown decision and the subsequent development of school desegregation law, it is necessary to remember that the issue of school segregation and the harm it inflicted on black children did not first come to the court's attention in the Brown litigation: blacks had been attacking the validity of these policies for one hundred years." Yet, prior to Brown, black claims that segregated public schools were inferior had been met by orders requiring merely that facilities be made equal." What accounted, then, for the sudden shift in 1954 away from the separate but equal doctrine and toward a commitment to desegregation?
I contend that the decision in Brown to break with the court's long‑held position on these issues cannot be understood without some consideration of the decision's value to whites, not simply those concerned about the immorality of racial inequality, but also those whites in policymaking positions able to see the economic and political advances at home and abroad that would follow abandonment of segregation.
First, the decision helped to provide immediate credibility to America's struggle with communist countries to win the hearts and minds of emerging third world people. At least this argument was advanced by lawyers for both the NAACP and the federal government." The point was not lost on the news media. Time magazine, for example, predicted that the international impact of Brown would be scarcely less important than its effect on the education of black children: "In many countries, where U.S. prestige and leadership have been damaged by the fact of U.S. segregation, it will come as a timely reassertion of the basic American principle that ‘all men are created squat' ""
Second, Brown offered much needed reassurance to American blacks that the precepts of equality and freedom so heralded during World War 11 might yet be given meaning at home. Returning black veterans faced not only continuing discrimination but also violent attacks in the South which rivaled those that took place at the conclusion of World War I Their disillusionment and anger were poignantly expressed by the black actor, Paul Robeson, who in 1949 declared, "It is unthinkable ... that American Negroes would go to war on behalf of those who have oppressed us for generations against a country [the Soviet Union] which in one generation has raised our people to the full human dignity of mankind." It is not impossible to imagine that fear of the spread of such sentiment influenced subsequent racial decisions made by the courts.
Finally, there were whites who realized that the South could make the transition from a rural plantation society to the sunbelt with all its potential and profit only when it ended its struggle to remain divided by state‑sponsored segregation." Thus, segregation was viewed as a barrier to further industrialization in the South.
These points may seem insufficient proof of self‑interest leverage to produce a decision as important as Brown. They are cited, however, to help assess‑and not to diminish‑the Supreme Court's most important statement on the principle of racial equality. Here, as in the abolition of slavery, there were whites for whom recognition of the racial equality principle was sufficient motivation. As with abolition, though, the number who would act on morality alone was insufficient to bring about the desired racial reform.
Thus, for those whites who sought an end to desegregation on moral grounds or for the pragmatic reasons outlined above, Brown appeared to be a welcome break with the past. When segregation was finally condemned by the Supreme Court, however, the outcry was nevertheless great, especially among poorer whites who feared loss of control over their public schools and other facilities. Their fear of loss was intensified by the sense that they had been betrayed. They relied, as had generations before them, on the expectation that white elites would maintain lower‑class whites in a societal status superior to that designated for blacks. In fact, there is evidence that segregated schools and facilities were initially established by legislatures at the insistence of the white working class Today, little has changed: many poorer whites oppose social reform as "welfare programs for blacks" although, ironically, they have employment, education, and social service needs that differ from those of poor blacks by a margin that, without a racial scorecard, is difficult to measure.
Unfortunately, poorer whites are now not alone in their opposition to school desegregation as well as to other attempts to improve the societal status of blacks: recent decisions, most notably by the Supreme Court, indicate that the convergence of black and white interests that led to Brown in 1954 and influenced the character of its enforcement has begun to fade. In Swann v. Charlotte‑Mecklenburg Board of Education, Chief Justice Warren Burger spoke of the "reconciliation of competing values" in desegregation cases. If there was any doubt that "competing values" referred to the conflicting interests of blacks seeking desegregation and whites who prefer to retain existing school policies, then the uncertainty was dispelled by Milliken v. Bradley, and Dayton Board of Education v. Brinkman (Dayton 1). In both cases, the court elevated the concept of "local autonomy" to a "Vital national tradition." "No single tradition in public education is more deeply rooted than local control over the operation of schools; local autonomy has long been thought essential both to the maintenance of community concern and support for public schools and to quality of the educational process." Local control, however, may result in the maintenance of a status quo that will preserve superior educational opportunities and facilities for whites at the expense of blacks. As one commentator has suggested, "It is implausible to assume that school boards guilty of substantial violations in the past will take the interests of black school children to heart."
As a result of its change in attitudes, the court has increasingly erected barriers to achieving the forms of racial balance relief it earlier had approved." Plaintiffs must now prove that the complained‑of segregation was the result of discriminatory actions intentionally and invidiously conducted or authorized by school officials." It is not enough that segregation was the "natural and foreseeable" consequence of their policies." Even when this difficult standard of proof is met, moreover, courts must carefully limit the relief granted to the harm actually proved." Judicial second thoughts about racial balance plans with broad‑range busing components, the very plans that civil rights lawyers have come to rely on, is clearly evident in these new proof standards.
There is, however, continuing if unpredictable concern in the Supreme Court about school boards whose policies reveal long‑term adherence to overt racial discrimination. In many cases, trial courts exposed to exhaustive testimony regarding the failure of school officials to desegregate or to provide substantial equality of schooling for minority children become convinced that school boards are violating Brown. Thus far, unstable Supreme Court majorities have upheld broad desegregation plans ordered by these judges," but the reservations expressed by concurring justices and the vigor of those justices who dissent 55 caution against optimism in this still controversial area of civil rights law.
At the very least, these decisions reflect a substantial and growing divergence in the interests of whites and blacks. The result could prove to be the realization of Wechsler's legitimate fear that, if there is not a change of course, the purported entitlement of whites not to associate with blacks in public schools may yet eclipse the hope and the promise of Brown.
111. INTEREST CONVERGENCE REMEDIES
FURTHER progress to fulfill the mandate of Brown is possible to the extent that the divergence of racial interests can be avoided or minimized. Whites in policymaking positions, including those who sit on federal courts, can take no comfort in the conditions of dozens of inner‑city school systems where the great majority of nonwhite children attend classes that are as segregated and ineffective as those so roundly condemned by Chief Justice Warren in the Brown opinion. Nor do poorer whites gain from their opposition to the improvement of educational opportunities for blacks: as noted earlier, the needs of the two groups differ little." Hence, over time, all will reap the benefits from a concerted effort toward achieving racial equality.
The question still remains as to the surest way to reach the goal of educational effectiveness for both blacks and whites. I believe that the most widely used programs mandated by the courts,, antidefiance, racial balance" plans‑may in some cases be inferior to plans focusing on " educational components," including the creation and development of "model" all‑black schools. A short history of the use of the antidefiance strategy would be helpful at this point.
By the end of the fifties, it was apparent that compliance with the Brown mandate to desegregate the public schools would not come easily or soon. In the seventeen border states and the District of Columbia, fewer than two hundred thousand blacks were actually attending classes with white children." The states in the deep South had not begun even token desegregation, 59 and it would take Supreme Court action to reverse the years‑long effort of the Prince Edward County School Board in Virginia to abolish rather than desegregate its public schools. Supreme Court orders and presidential action had already been required to enable a handful of black students to attend Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. 61 Opposition to Brown was clearly increasing; its supporters were clearly on the defensive, as was the Supreme Court itself.
For blacks, the goal in school desegregation suits remained the effective use of the Brown mandate to eliminate state‑sanctioned segregation. These efforts received unexpected help from the excesses of the massive resistance movement that led courts to justify relief under Brown as a reaffirmation of the supremacy of the judiciary on issues of constitutional interpretation. Brown, in the view of many, might not have been a wise or proper decision, but violent and prolonged opposition to its implementation posed an even greater danger to the federal system.
The Supreme Court quickly recognized this additional basis on which to ground school desegregation orders. "As this case reaches us," the court began its dramatic opinion in Cooper v. Aaron, "it raises questions of the highest importance to the maintenance of our federal system of government."" Reaching back to Marbury v. Madison, the court reaffirmed Chief Justice John Marshall's statement that "[i]t is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is. " There were few opponents to this stand, and Professor Wechsler was emphatically not one of them. His criticism of Brown concluded with a denial that he intended to offer "comfort to anyone who claims legitimacy in defiance of the courts. 116' Those who accept the benefits of our constitutional system, Wechsler felt, cannot deny its allegiance when a special burden is imposed. Defiance of court orders, he asserted, constituted the "ultimate negation of all neutral principles."
For some time, then, the danger to federalism posed by the secessionist‑ oriented resistance of southern state and local officials provided courts with an independent basis for supporting school desegregation efforts. In the lower federal courts, the perceived threat to judicial status was often quite personal. Surely, I was not the only civil rights attorney who received a favorable decision in a school desegregation case less by legal precedent than because a federal judge, initially hostile to those precedents, my clients, and their lawyer, became incensed with school board litigation tactics that exhibited as little respect for the court as they did for the constitutional rights of black children.
There was a problem with school desegregation decisions framed in this antidefiance form which was less discernible then than now. While a prerequisite to the provision of equal educational opportunity, condemnation of school board evasion was far from synonymous with that long‑promised goal. Certainly, it was cause for celebration when the court recognized that some pupil assignment schemes," "freedom‑of‑choice" plans, and similar "desegregation plans" were in fact designed to retain constitutionally condemned dual school systems. When the court, in obvious frustration with the slow pace of school desegregation, announced in 1968 what Justice Lewis Powell later termed "the Green/Swann doctrine of 'affirmative duty,' which placed on school boards the duty to disestablish their dual school systems, the decisions were welcomed as substantial Victories by civil rights lawyers. Yet the remedies set forth in the major school cases following Brown‑balancing the student and teacher populations by race in each school, eliminating single‑race schools, redrawing school attendance lines, and transporting students to achieve racial balance ‑have not in themselves guaranteed black children better schooling than they received in the pre‑Brown era. Such racial balance measures have often altered the racial appearance of dual school systems without eliminating racial discrimination. Plans relying on racial balance to foreclose evasion have not eliminated the need for further orders protecting black children against discriminatory policies, including resegregation within desegregated schools, 14 the loss of black faculty and administrators, suspensions and expulsions at much higher rates than white students, and varying forms of racial harassment ranging from exclusion from extracurricular activities to physical violence. Antidefiance remedies, then, while effective in forcing alterations in school system structure, often encourage and seldom shield black children from discriminatory retaliation.
The educational benefits that have resulted from the mandatory assignment of black and white children to the same schools are also debatable." If benefits did exist, they have begun to dissipate as whites flee in alarming numbers from school districts ordered to implement mandatory reassignment plans In response, civil rights lawyers sought to include entire metropolitan areas within mandatory reassignment plans in order to encompass mainly white suburban school districts, where so many white parents sought sanctuary for their children.
Thus, the antidefiance strategy was brought full circle from a mechanism for preventing evasion by school officials of Brown's antisegregation mandate to one aimed at creating a discrimination‑free environment, This approach to the implementation of Brown, however, has become increasingly ineffective; indeed, it has in some cases been educationally destructive. A preferable method is to focus on obtaining real educational effectiveness, which may entail the improvement of presently desegregated schools as well as the creation or preservation of model black schools.
Civil rights lawyers do not oppose such relief, but they clearly consider it secondary to the racial balance remedies authorized in the Swann and Keyes" cases. Those who espouse alternative remedies are deemed to act out of suspect motives. Brown is law, and racial balance plans are the only means of complying with the decision. The position reflects courage, but it ignores the frequent and often complete failure of programs that concentrate solely on achieving a racial balance.
Desegregation remedies that do not integrate may seem a step backward toward the Plessy "separate but equal" era. Some black educators, however, see major educational benefits in schools where black children, parents, and teachers can utilize the real cultural strengths of the black community to overcome the many barriers to educational achievement. As Laurence Tribe has argued, "[J]udicial rejection of the 'separate but equal' talisman seems to have been accompanied by a potentially troublesome lack of sympathy for racial separateness as a possible expression of group solidarity
This is not to suggest that educationally oriented remedies can be developed and adopted without resistance. Policies necessary to obtain effective schools threaten the self‑interest of teacher unions and others with vested interests in the status quo. However, successful magnet schools may provide a lesson that effective schools for blacks must be a primary goal rather than a secondary result of integration. Many white parents recognize a value in integrated schooling for their children, but they quite properly view integration as merely one component of an effective education. To the extent that civil rights advocates also accept this reasonable sense of priority, some greater racial interest conformity should be possible.
Is this what the Brown opinion meant by "equal educational opportunity?" Chief Justice Warren said the court could not "turn the clock back to 1868 when the [Fourteenth] Amendment was adopted, or even to 1896 when Plessy v. Ferguson was written." The change in racial circumstances since 1954 rivals or surpasses all that occurred during the period that preceded it. If the decision that was at least a catalyst for that change is to remain viable, those who re'‑. on it must exhibit the dynamic awareness of all the legal and political considerations that those who wrote it.
Professor Wechsler warned us early on that was more to Brown than met the eye. At one point, he observed that the opinion is "often read with less fidelity by those who praise than by those by whom it is condemned. Most of us ignored that observation openly an: quietly raised a question about the sincerity ‑‑the observer. Criticism, as we in the movement minority rights have every reason to learn, a synonym for neither cowardice or capitulation, may instead bring awareness, always the first step toward overcoming still another barrier ‑‑the struggle for racial equality. | <urn:uuid:80d9838a-b1e2-457e-9e48-b04976afb0eb> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://phobos.ramapo.edu/%7Ejweiss/laws131/unit3/bell.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783400572.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155000-00039-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964963 | 5,732 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Count Your Vegetables!
- Grades: PreK–K, 1–2
New Ways of Looking
An artist creates his or her work by looking at ordinary objects in new ways. When Freymann and Elffers look at fruits and vegetables, they see faces, animals, and underwater sea creatures. Introduce One Lonely Seahorse with this creative visualizing activity. Divide students into small groups and give each group a vegetable or fruit such as an artichoke, a pepper, or a banana. Ask each group to look carefully at the item, turn it over, examine it from different angles. Encourage children to stretch their imaginations to see other images in its shape. Ask: "What else can you see besides a banana?" They might see a crescent moon, a dog's tail, or a snowman's smile. Ask all the groups to share their discoveries.
The Kid's Guide to Fruits and Vegetables
Create an illustrated dictionary with your class while teaching important research, writing, and sorting skills. Each child should choose a fruit or vegetable and prepare one page of the guide that includes a drawing, a description in one or two sentences, information on where it is grown, and what nutrition it provides. Help the children to stay organized by providing a template for this great class book.
Scavenger Hunt to the Supermarket
Encourage children to discover the array of fruits and vegetables available at the supermarket with this scavenger hunt. Using the Reproducible on page 46, children visit the produce section with their parents and check off each fruit or vegetable they find. Ask them to write a few words describing its color, shape, texture, or smell. When the lists are returned to school, ask which items on the list were easy or hard to find. Share and list descriptive words. Use the list as a writing prompt or to build a word wall.
An alternative to the scavenger hunt is to arrange a field trip to your local supermarket. Dole's 5 A Day program sponsors visits to the produce department of local supermarkets to learn about nutritious fruits and vegetables in a fun and memorable way. To find a participating store near you, visit Dole's website. You can also order free kid's fruit and vegetable cookbooks for each child in your class and free 5 A Day Adventure CD-ROMs on the website.
Friends You Can Count On
Surround the lonely sea horse with new friends by creating a "Friends You Can Count On" mural of sea creature friends made with vegetable stamps. Cut hard vegetables such as potatoes and carrots into smaller pieces. Cover the work area with newspaper. Show children how to dip the pieces into paint, blot onto paper towels, and stamp onto paper. Invite them to experiment with the stamps to see what shapes they can make. Challenge the children to combine the shapes to create a sea creature. Ask for volunteers to create underwater scenery, Finally, cut out all the unique sea creature prints and add them to the bulletin board.
Gather children around the bulletin board and ask questions such as:
- How many of Bea's friends are red? (Continue with other colors.)
- How many friends does Bea have altogether? Is that an odd or even number?
Encourage children to come up with their own math questions based on the sea creatures displayed on the bulletin board. | <urn:uuid:5a0044cf-aed9-45bf-8ede-ea0cc1f16f07> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www2.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plan/count-your-vegetables | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395621.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00036-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936811 | 683 | 4.0625 | 4 |
CensusScope is a product of the Social Science Data Analysis Network.
Click on a state to view related charts and data.
Different parts of America are aging in different ways. In some areas, the young
leave for jobs and schooling while older adults age-in-place. In other areas, immigration or
high fertility rates more than offset growth in the elderly population with new children.
Trends like these result in counties' widely divergent age structures, which are reflected
in "population pyramids." Take a look at a few of the examples, below. These charts show the
future: a broad base means fast growth, a straight trunk means slow. Of course, Towner County, North Dakota
is a bit more
Source: Census 2000 analyzed by the Social Science Data Analysis Network (SSDAN).
Home | About | Help | Contact | Use Policy | <urn:uuid:5a9e6d2c-1a18-4e58-b9e4-8a327604203f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.censusscope.org/us/map_generations.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396459.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00030-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.875788 | 180 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Individual differences |
Methods | Statistics | Clinical | Educational | Industrial | Professional items | World psychology |
Musical acoustics or music acoustics is the branch of acoustics concerned with researching and describing the physics of music – how sounds employed as music work. Examples of areas of study are the function of musical instruments, the human voice (the physics of speech and singing), computer analysis of melody, and in the clinical use of music in music therapy.
Methods and fields of studyEdit
- Frequency range of music
- Frequency analysis
- Computer analysis of musical structure
- Synthesis of musical sounds
- Music cognition, based on physics (also known as psychoacoustics)
Whenever two different pitches are played at the same time, their sound waves interact with each other – the highs and lows in the air pressure reinforce each other to produce a different sound wave. As a result, any given sound wave which is more complicated than a sine wave can be modelled by many different sine waves of the appropriate frequencies and amplitudes (a frequency spectrum). In humans the hearing apparatus (composed of the ears and brain) can usually isolate these tones and hear them distinctly. When two or more tones are played at once, a variation of air pressure at the ear "contains" the pitches of each, and the ear and/or brain isolate and decode them into distinct tones.
When the original sound sources are perfectly periodic, the note consists of several related sine waves (which mathematically add to each other) called the fundamental and the harmonics, partials, or overtones. The sounds have harmonic frequency spectra. The lowest frequency present is the fundamental, and is the frequency at which the entire wave vibrates. The overtones vibrate faster than the fundamental, but must vibrate at integer multiples of the fundamental frequency in order for the total wave to be exactly the same each cycle. Real instruments are close to periodic, but the frequencies of the overtones are slightly imperfect, so the shape of the wave changes slightly over time.
Variations in air pressure against the ear drum, and the subsequent physical and neurological processing and interpretation, give rise to the subjective experience called sound. Most sound that people recognize as musical is dominated by periodic or regular vibrations rather than non-periodic ones; that is, musical sounds typically have a definite pitch). The transmission of these variations through air is via a sound wave. In a very simple case, the sound of a sine wave, which is considered to be the most basic model of a sound waveform, causes the air pressure to increase and decrease in a regular fashion, and is heard as a very pure tone. Pure tones can be produced by tuning forks or whistling. The rate at which the air pressure oscillates is the frequency of the tone, which is measured in oscillations per second, called hertz. Frequency is the primary determinant of the perceived pitch. Frequency of musical instruments can change with altitude due to changes in air pressure.
Pitch ranges of musical instrumentsEdit
Harmonics, partials, and overtones Edit
The fundamental is the frequency at which the entire wave vibrates. Overtones are other sinusoidal components present at frequencies above the fundamental. All of the frequency components that make up the total waveform, including the fundamental and the overtones, are called partials. Together they form the harmonic series.
Overtones which are perfect integer multiples of the fundamental are called harmonics. When an overtone is near to being harmonic, but not exact, it is sometimes called a harmonic partial, although they are often referred to simply as harmonics. Sometimes overtones are created that are not anywhere near a harmonic, and are just called partials or inharmonic overtones.
The fundamental frequency is considered the first harmonic and the first partial. The numbering of the partials and harmonics is then usually the same; the second partial is the second harmonic, etc. But if there are inharmonic partials, the numbering no longer coincides. Overtones are numbered as they appear above the fundamental. So strictly speaking, the first overtone is the second partial (and usually the second harmonic). As this can result in confusion, only harmonics are usually referred to by their numbers, and overtones and partials are described by their relationships to those harmonics.
Harmonics and non-linearities Edit
When a periodic wave is composed of a fundamental and only odd harmonics (f, 3f, 5f, 7f, ...), the summed wave is half-wave symmetric; it can be inverted and phase shifted and be exactly the same. If the wave has any even harmonics (0f, 2f, 4f, 6f, ...), it will be asymmetrical; the top half will not be a mirror image of the bottom.
Conversely, a system which changes the shape of the wave (beyond simple scaling or shifting) creates additional harmonics (harmonic distortion). This is called a non-linear system. If it affects the wave symmetrically, the harmonics produced will only be odd, if asymmetrically, at least one even harmonic will be produced (and probably also odd).
- Main article: Harmony
If two notes are simultaneously played, with frequency ratios that are simple fractions (e.g. 2/1, 3/2 or 5/4), then the composite wave will still be periodic with a short period, and the combination will sound consonant. For instance, a note vibrating at 200 Hz and a note vibrating at 300 Hz (a perfect fifth, or 3/2 ratio, above 200 Hz) will add together to make a wave that repeats at 100 Hz: every 1/100 of a second, the 300 Hz wave will repeat thrice and the 200 Hz wave will repeat twice. Note that the total wave repeats at 100 Hz, but there is not actually a 100 Hz sinusoidal component present.
Additionally, the two notes will have many of the same partials. For instance, a note with a fundamental frequency of 200 Hz will have harmonics at:
- (200,) 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1200, …
A note with fundamental frequency of 300 Hz will have harmonics at:
- (300,) 600, 900, 1200, 1500, …
The two notes share harmonics at 600 and 1200Hz, and more will coincide further up the series.
The combination of composite waves with short fundamental frequencies and shared or closely related partials is what causes the sensation of harmony.
When two frequencies are near to a simple fraction, but not exact, the composite wave cycles slowly enough to hear the cancellation of the waves as a steady pulsing instead of a tone. This is called beating, and is considered to be unpleasant, or dissonant.
The frequency of beating is calculated as the difference between the frequencies of the two notes. For the example above, |200 Hz - 300 Hz| = 100 Hz. As another example, a combination of 3425 Hz and 3426 Hz would beat once per second (|3425 Hz - 3426 Hz| = 1 Hz). This follows from modulation theory.
The difference between consonance and dissonance is not clearly defined, but the higher the beat frequency, the more likely the interval to be dissonant. Helmholtz proposed that maximum dissonance would arise between two pure tones when the beat rate is roughly 35 Hz.
- Main article: Musical scale
The material of a musical composition is usually taken from a collection of pitches known as a scale. Because most people cannot adequately determine absolute frequencies, the identity of a scale lies in the ratios of frequencies between its tones (known as intervals).
- Main article: Just intonation
The diatonic scale appears in writing throughout history, consisting of seven tones in each octave. In just intonation the diatonic scale may be easily constructed using the three simplest intervals within the octave, the perfect fifth (3/2), perfect fourth (4/3), and the major third (5/4). As forms of the fifth and third are naturally present in the overtone series of harmonic resonators, this is a very simple process.
The following table shows the ratios between the frequencies of all the notes of the just major scale and the fixed frequency of the first note of the scale.
There are other scales available through just intonation, for example the minor scale. Scales which do not adhere to just intonation, and instead have their intervals adjusted to meet other needs are known as temperaments, of which equal temperament is the most used. Temperaments, though they obscure the acoustical purity of just intervals often have other desirable properties, such as a closed circle of fifths.
- Mathematics of musical scales
- Vibrating string
- Acoustic resonance
- String resonance
- 3rd bridge (harmonic resonance based on equal string divisions)
- Music acoustics - sound files, animations and illustrations - University of New South Wales
- Acoustics collection - descriptions, photos, and video clips of the apparatus for research in musical acoustics by Prof. Dayton Miller
- The Technical Committee on Musical Acoustics (TCMU) of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA)
- The Musical Acoustics Research Library (MARL)
- Acoustics Group/Acoustics and Music Technology courses - University of Edinburgh
- Acoustics Research Group - Open University
- The music acoustics group at Speech, Music and Hearing KTH
- The physics of harpsichord sound
- Visual music
- Savart Journal - The open access online journal of science and technology of stringed musical instruments
- Audio Engineering online course under Creative Commons Licence
|This page uses Creative Commons Licensed content from Wikipedia (view authors).| | <urn:uuid:4a9e25c7-91d2-4a3f-9521-e478739271d2> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Music_acoustics | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396959.83/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00076-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917255 | 2,036 | 3.859375 | 4 |
-- Diana Kohnle
(HealthDay News) -- The common cold is caused by a virus, which
means it shouldn't be treated with an antibiotic. But there are
things you can do to feel better.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers these
suggestions to help calm cold symptoms:
Please be aware that this information is provided to supplement the care provided by your physician. It is neither intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice. CALL YOUR HEALTHCARE PROVIDER IMMEDIATELY IF YOU THINK YOU MAY HAVE A MEDICAL EMERGENCY. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider prior to starting any new treatment or with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
Copyright © EBSCO Publishing. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:443ef73c-9785-4d05-b8b4-b59b575c3140> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.wkhs.com/Cancer/Education-Resources/News.aspx?chunkiid=842200 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00087-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920523 | 171 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Great Influenza, 1918
In 1918 and 1919, a terrible outbreak of influenza occurred, which traversed the globe and killed between 50 and 100 million people worldwide. The Great Influenza of 1918 or the Great Pandemic began its extremely lethal Second Wave from the Port of Boston.
The United States mobilized for World War I during 1917. Encampments were quickly set up throughout the country, supported by a limited number of hospitals, doctors, and nurses. Fighting men from east and west, north and south, farm and city with varying immunity to diseases were placed together in tight quarters in these training camps. A wave of influenza had occurred in early 1918, which became more virulent on a trip from the United States to France and then back to the United States.
It started on August 27, 1918 at Commonwealth Pier in Boston. Sailors fell ill and were sent to the local Chelsea Naval Hospital. At about the same time, ships departed for Philadelphia and New Orleans, transmitting the deadly virus. The flu also quickly spread to nearby Camp Devens in central Massachusetts, devastating the population of soldiers there. At the height of the epidemic at Devens, about 100 soldiers were dying per day.
In September 1918, the constant transfer of troops spread the deadly disease throughout the United States, and then to many parts of the globe. The civilian population was also quickly infected with the flu because of large public mobilization parades, and then later victory parades.
The death toll in Boston was horrific, with schools and draft boards temporarily closed to decrease public gatherings, and even retail stores reduced their business hours to accomplish the same goal. Congestion in the subways was a significant cause of the spread of the airborne virus. As vehicle operators were stricken ill, service was presumably reduced, which caused even greater congestion in the Boston Elevated Railway transit network.
According to the October 11, 1918 Boston Globe, 3,147 people died of influenza or pneumonia in Boston between the dates of September 14 and October 10. The peak in terms of loss of life was October 1, 1918, when 202 died on that day alone. About 195,000 Americans died of influenza or its complication during the month of October, 1918. Tens of millions were struck down worldwide in total.
Great lessons were learned by public health officials—from not mixing diverse populations to effective quarantine procedures—which have greatly reduced the likelihood of a flu outbreak of this scale ever again. | <urn:uuid:5a3727b5-7f6a-4ea9-a262-c18b53c46a58> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.celebrateboston.com/disasters/great-influenza-1918.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396224.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00106-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980216 | 494 | 3.65625 | 4 |
Rutgers University Professor Gordon Schalow's book explores the role male friendship played in the literature of Japan's Heian Court and in doing so, gives the reader an in depth look into the mindset and sphere of influence that helped to define this era's literary output.
Says Schalow, "This study is concerned with clarifying how Heian literature articulates the nobleman's wish to be known and appreciated fully by another man - or what may be termed the hope of transcendence through male friendship." It should be noted that women played a different role in the Heian court and were looked upon as less than equal by their counterparts. A Japanese male wasn't concerned with how he was thought of by women. How he was thought of and regarded by men was a different matter. The court of that era consisted of approximately 5,000 men. A male member of the court therefore had to vie for position, status, rank, and attention. It was a competitive arena. How other males in the court thought of a male made or broke him. And if a lower level aristocrat wanted prominence and respect in the court, literary attainment was a good route to take.
Posits Schalow, "It is from the class of provincial governors, on the periphery of court power, that many of the greatest Heian writers emerged, a result perhaps of the tendency for people on the margins to develop a critical perspective and analytical consciousness towards centers of power. Thus, while a nobleman's aristocratic birth provided little solace in the face of his lack of political clout, at least literary attainments in the Chinese classics and Japanese poetry (or 'Yamato song' waka) could provide the basis for his participation in a cultural and aesthetic regime of power that emerged in relation to political power of the Fujiwara Regency. Verses and narratives depicting a disenfranchised hero who vied for the love of women and the friendship of men show that literature provided the Heian court with a cultural arena of the imagination, where power lost in the public realm might be recouped through the art of writing and reading."
Take, for example, the following waka, expressing male friendship, which is almost indistinguishable from a love poem between a man and a woman:
wakaruredo ureshiku mo aru ka koyoi yori ai minu yori nani o koimashi
although we part / I am filled with happiness / for now I wonder / whom I might have thought I loved / before we two met tonight
Says Schalow, "It expresses feelings of longing for a Prince he has just met. The headnote reads, 'Composed on parting from Prince Kanemi after first conversing with him.'"
How Japanese male members of the Imperial Court viewed one another is culturally different from how modern Japanese men view one another, and even more foreign to Western views. It would be easy for a Westerner, unfamiliar with the text and the culture of that time, to think the author of the waka was expressing something other than heterosexual male bonding:
Lute, poetry, wine—my friends all have deserted me;
snow, moon, flowers—these seasons, I most often think of you.
Bo Ju-yi (Chinese Tang Dynasty poet)
This kind of male bonding wasn't indigenous to Japan. As you can see by the above poem excerpted from Schalow's text, which was included in Fujiwara no Kinto's anthology Wakan roei shu, it was part of the Chinese culture as well. China had a vital influence on Japanese poetry and the way members of the Imperial court viewed and understood the world around them. Aristocrats in the Japanese court were expected to read and write poetry in the Chinese language. Immersion in the mindset and language of another culture cannot help influencing a person's thinking.
Schalow covers in depth the similarity of both cultures in relationship to male bonding and how one influenced the other.
". . . the deepest experience of friendship resides in the friend's absence, not in his presence. In a poem about friends who are absent, the reader is forced to imagine a moment when the pleasure of shared camaraderie is past—whether in the contexts of music, poetry, or wine or in the seasons of snow, moonlight, or flowering trees—and only then is he prepared to comprehend what Bo Ju-yi would have called the 'truth' of friendship."
Schalow's book covers the subject of male friendship in depth. Readers are also given more insight into the contributions of Chinese poetry and philosophy to Japanese poetry.
To fully understand a waka from another era, one must do his homework. And thanks to scholars like Schalow, we have some good reference books to help us in this endeavor. | <urn:uuid:b7fbe630-a4e7-452a-8846-1fe852b0e7a6> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://simplyhaiku.com/SHv5n4/reviews/Schalow.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397842.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00200-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970602 | 989 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Surgical Treatment for Obesity
Weight-loss surgery (bariatric surgery) is the only option today that effectively treats morbid obesity in people for whom more conservative measures such as diet, exercise, and medication have failed.
There are a variety of approaches to bariatric surgery, but all procedures are either malabsorptive, restrictive, or a combination of the two. Malabsorptive procedures change the way the digestive system works. Restrictive procedures are those that severely reduce the size of the stomach to hold less food, but the digestive functions remain intact.
If you cannot find the information in which you are interested, please visit the Online Resources page in this Web site for an Internet/World Wide Web address that may contain additional information on that topic. | <urn:uuid:54aa7dc2-c28d-48d8-af94-7d728c11aac8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.ecommunity.com/health/index.aspx?pageid=P07879 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395620.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00089-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922656 | 151 | 2.625 | 3 |
Posted on New America Media
Chile is experiencing a social earthquake in the aftermath of the 8.8 magnitude quake that struck the country on February 27. “The fault lines of the Chilean Economic Miracle have been exposed,” says Elias Padilla, an anthropology professor at the Academic University of Christian Humanism in Santiago. “The free market, neo-liberal economic model that Chile has followed since the Pinochet dictatorship has feet of mud.”
Chile is one of the most inequitable societies in the world. Today, 14 percent of the population lives in abject poverty. The top 20 percent captures 50 percent of the national income, while the bottom 20 percent earns only 5 percent. In a 2005 World Bank survey of 124 countries, Chile ranked twelfth in the list of countries with the worst distribution of income.
The rampant ideology of the free market has produced a deep sense of alienation among much of the population. Although a coalition of center left parties replaced the Pinochet regime 20 years ago, it opted to depoliticize the country, to rule from the top down, allowing controlled elections every few years, shunting aside the popular organizations and social movements that had brought down the dictatorship.
This explains the scenes of looting and social chaos in the southern part of the country that were transmitted round the world on the third day after the earthquake. In Concepcion, Chile’s second largest city, which was virtually leveled by the earthquake, the population received absolutely no assistance from the central government for two days. The chain supermarkets and malls that had come to replace the local stores and shops over the years remained firmly shuttered.
Popular frustration exploded as mobs descended on the commercial center, carting off everything, not just food from the supermarkets but also shoes, clothing, plasma TVs, and cell phones. This wasn’t simple looting, but the settling accounts with an economic system that dictates that only possessions and commodities matter. The “gente decente” the decent people and the big media began referring to them as lumpen, vandals and delinquents. “The greater the social inequities, the greater the delinquency,” explains Hugo Fruhling of the Center for the Study of Citizen Security at the University of Chile.
In the two days leading up to the riots, the government of Michele Bachelet revealed its incapacity to understand and deal with the human tragedy wrecked on the country. Many of the ministers were gone on summer vacation, or licking their wounds as they prepared to turn over their offices to the incoming right wing government of billionaire Sebastian Piñera, who will be sworn in this Thursday. Bachelet declared that the country’s needs had to be studied and surveyed before any assistance could be sent. On Saturday morning, the day of the quake, she ordered the military to place a helicopter at her disposal to fly over Concepcion to assess the damage. As of Sunday morning, no helicopter had appeared, and the trip was abandoned.
As an anonymous Carlos L. wrote in an email widely circulated in Chile: “It would be very difficult in the history of the country to find a government with so many powerful resources — technological, economic, political, organizational — that has been unable to provide any response to the urgent social demands of entire regions gripped by fear, needs of shelter, water, food and hope.”
What arrived in Concepcion on Monday was not relief or assistance, but several thousand soldiers and police transported in trucks and planes, as people were ordered to stay in their homes. Pitched battles were fought in the streets of Concepcion, as buildings were set afire. Other citizens took up arms to protect their homes and barrios as the city appeared to be on the brink of an urban war. On Tuesday, relief assistance finally began to arrive in quantity, along with more troops and the militarization of the southern region.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, on part of a Latin American tour that was scheduled before the quake, flew into Santiago on Tuesday to meet with Bachelet and Piñera. She brought 20 satellite phones and a technician on her plane, saying one of the “biggest problems has been communications as we found in Haiti in those days after the quake.” It went unsaid that just as in Chile, the U.S. sent in the military to take control of Porte au Prince before any significant relief assistance was distributed.
Milton Friedman’s Legacy
The Wall Street Journal joined in the fray to uphold the neoliberal model, running an article by Bret Stephens, “How Milton Friedman Saved Chile.” He asserted that Friedman’s “spirit was surely hovering protectively over Chile in the early morning hours of Saturday. Thanks largely to him, the country has endured a tragedy that elsewhere would have been an apocalypse.” He went on to declare, “it’s not by chance that Chilean’s were living in houses of brick—and Haitians in houses of straw — when the wolf arrived to try to blow them down.” Chile had adopted “some of the world's strictest building codes,” as the economy boomed due to Pinochet’s appointment of Friedman-trained economists to cabinet ministries and the subsequent civilian government’s commitment to neoliberalism.
There are two problems with this view. First, as Naomi Klein points out in “Chile’s Socialist Rebar” on the Huffington Post, it was the socialist government of Salvador Allende in 1972 that established the first earthquake building codes. They were later strengthened, not by Pinochet, but by the restored civilian government in the 1990’s.
Secondly, as CIPER, the Center of Journalistic Investigation and Information reported on March 6, greater Santiago has 23 residential complexes and high rises built over the last 15 years that suffered severe quake damage. Building codes had been skirted, and “the responsibility of the construction and real estate enterprises is now the subject of public debate.” In the country at large, 2 million people out of a population of 17 million are homeless. Most of the houses destroyed by the earthquake were built of adobe or other improvised materials, many in the shanty towns that have sprung up to provide a cheap, informal work force for the country’s big businesses and industries.
There is little hope that the incoming government of Sebastian Piñera will rectify the social inequities that the quake exposed. The richest person in Chile, he and several of his advisers and ministers are implicated as major shareholders in construction projects that were severely damaged by the quake because building codes were ignored. Having campaigned on a platform of bringing security to the cities and moving against vandalism and crime, he criticized Bachelet’s for not deploying the military sooner in the aftermath of the earthquake.
Signs of Resistance
There are signs that the historic Chile of popular organizations and grass roots mobilizing may be reawakening. A coalition of over 60 social and nongovernmental organizations released a letter stating: “In these dramatic circumstances, organized citizens have proven capable of providing urgent, rapid and creative responses to the social crisis that millions of families are experiencing. The most diverse organizations--neighborhood associations, housing and homeless committees, trade unions, university federations and student centers, cultural organizations, environmental groups — are mobilizing, demonstrating the imaginative potential and solidarity of communities.” The declaration concluded by demanding of the Piñera government the right to “monitor the plans and models of reconstruction so that they include the full participation of the communities.”
Roger Burbach lived in Chile during the Allende years. He is author of The Pinochet Affair: State Terrorism and Global Justice (Zed Books) and director of the Center for the Study of the Americas (CENSA) based in Berkeley, CA | <urn:uuid:1edc8d18-1036-43ac-a302-c0bd834fedcb> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.naomiklein.org/articles/2010/03/social-earthquake-chile | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404382.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00149-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966169 | 1,628 | 2.609375 | 3 |
An image's Aspect Ratio, or AR, represents a comparison of its width to height. Notation for Aspect Ratio is normally in the form of X:Y, where X represents screen width and Y represents height. For example, a standard analog TV has an AR of 4:3 which means that for every 4 units of width it's 3 units high. This could be 4mm wide and 3mm high, 16in wide and 12in high, or 24m wide and 18m high. The exact dimensions aren't important, so long as the ratio between them is correct.
2 examples of a 4:3 image. Although the resolution is different, the ratio of width to height is the same
In order to make it easier to compare different ARs it's common to see the width compared to a set value of 1. Using this convention 4:3 becomes 1.33:1, which may also be referred to as 1.33, with the 1 implied. Although this is somewhat less precise, with only 2 digits of precision (decimal places), the error is very small. And it makes it easy to tell that 16:9 (1.78) is wider than 4:3 (1.33).
Storage Aspect Ratio
For digital files there are really two types of AR. The first, and easiest to understand, is the Storage Aspect Ratio, which is simply ratio of horizontal Resolution to vertical resolution. For example, a standard NTSC DVD has a Storage AR of 1.5:1 (720 / 480 = 1.5), while a typical PAL DVD has a Storage AR of 1.25 (720 / 576 = 1.25). Storage AR doesn't necessarily tell you how the picture will appear when shown on a TV or other display, although when viewing video on a computer you should be aware that some programs will use it to determine the shape of the Frame. Although Signal Aspect Ratio may be referred to as SAR, this is generally a bad idea since it can also stand for Signal Aspect Ratio, which means something very different (see DAR below)
Display Aspect Ratio
For digital files, the most important AR is the Display Aspect Ratio. This is the actual shape a frame is supposed to be displayed with, rather than simply the resolution. For example, the NTSC and PAL DVD-Video resolutions examples above will always have a DAR of either 1.33 or 1.78, depending on whether they're encoded for a Fullscreen (4:3 / 1.33) or Widescreen (16:9 / 1.78) television. This is why an Anamorphic (1.78 AR) DVD always looks squeezed horizontally when viewed on a computer without DAR correction and a Fullscreen (1.33 AR) NTSC DVD looks horizontally stretched, while a Fullscreen PAL DVD looks squeezed. DAR may also be referred to as Signal Aspect Ratio because the file signals the decoder to use a particular AR, regardless of resolution. Signal Aspect Ratio may be referred to as SAR, but to avoid confusion with Storage Aspect Ratio this isn't generally advised. To be as clear as possible it's generally best to stick to using DAR instead.
Pixel Aspect Ratio
Along with DAR, digital video files have a Pixel Aspect Ratio, or PAR. The PAR of a frame is the shape of an individual pixel. For playback purposes it's only important to know the video's DAR, but if only the PAR is stored in the video it can be used to determine the correct Display Aspect Ratio. Likewise, if no PAR information is stored it can be calculated from the video's DAR. PAR is generally used to assist image editing software in making accurate measurements and shapes. For example, if you're trying to make menu button highlights for a DVD and want perfect circles, the software used to create these images will need to consider the PAR so it knows to make it span either more vertical or horizontal Pixels, depending on whether it's Widescreen or Fullscreen, as well as NTSC or PAL.
Resizing DVD-Video To Square Pixels
Digital Video Fundamentals - Resolution and Aspect Ratio | <urn:uuid:ce2daff4-26c4-4c31-a5f9-773a7de12e7b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.afterdawn.com/glossary/term.cfm/aspect_ratio | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396459.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00154-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925842 | 853 | 3.9375 | 4 |
|4th Five Year Plan||
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The volume of cooperative credit (short and medium-term) for agricultural purposes increased from Rs. 203 crores in 1960-61 to Rs. 429 crores in 1967-68 and an estimated Rs. 490 crores in 1968-69. Long-term credit increased from Rs. 12 crores in 1960-61 to about Rs. 120 crores in 1968-69. Appreciable progress took place in the cooperatively organised processing of agricultural produce mainly in the sector of sugar factories, which now account for about a third of the total sugar production. The value of agricultural inputs distributed by cooperatives rose from about Rs. 36 crores in 1960-61 to rbout Rs. 250 crores in 1968-69. Of the inputs, the largest item consists of fertilisers and the value of these distributed by the cooperatives increased from about Rs. 28 crores in 1960-61 to needy Rs. 200 crores in 1968-69, representing about 60 per cent of the total consumption of fertilisers in the country. The total value of agricultural prod 'ce handled by cooperative marketing and processing societies rose from Rs. 174 crores in 1960-61 to an estimated Rs. 583 crores in 1968-69. The value of retail consumer trade undertaken by cooperatives in rural areas recorded an increase from Rs. 17 crores in 1960-61 to Rs. 275 crores in 1968-69. The corresponding figures for turn-over in urban areas were Rs. 40'crores in 1960-61 and Rs. 270 crores in 1968-69.
Apart from quantitative progress, there were several organisational developments
of significance during this period. One of them was the emergence of national
cooperative federations. The formation of the national federations and
the reorganisation of the National Cooperative Union of India at the apex,
added a new dimension to the cooperative structure. Another important
development was the reorganisation of the cooperative training programme.
This had two main aspects. A new stress was laid on instruction in business
management. In pursuance of this objective, a Central Institute was started
at Bombay in 1964 to impart training in business management to key personnel
engaged in consumer cooperation. This was merged in 1967 with
9.3. The cooperative movement has been uneven in i's development in different regions as well as in c'ifferent sectors of cooperative activity. So far as cooperative credit is concerned, inadequacy of development is particularly marked, though in different degrees, in the eastern States of Assam, West ficis'r-i], Bihar and Orissa, and in Rajasthan. The eastern region, with about 27 per cent of the rural popu'ation, accounted for only about 9 per cent of cooperative credit. An informal group, constituted by the Reserve Bank of India, examined the institutional arrangements for agricultural credit in 1964, and in view of the serious gaps which existed pan'cularly in the States mentioned, recommended the establishment of agricultural credit corporations as a transitional arrangement. In pursuance of this recommendation, necessary legislation has recently been enacted by Parliament.
9.4. While, for the country as a whole, cooperative short and medium term agricultural credit nearly doubled during 196068, the progress towards development of a viable structure at the level of the primary credit societies and central cooperative banks has been much below expectations. Two factors have contributed to this situation. The firsf has been the slow progress in the programme of organising viable primary credit societies by amalgamation of the non-viable societies. The second has been the increase in overdues. At the level of (he primary credit societies, the proportion of over-dues to outstandjngs increased from 20 per cent in 1960-61 to 32 percent in 1967-68. For central co-operative hanks, the increase was from 12.4 per cent to 25 per cent. Of 344 central cooperative banl:s, as many as 67 accumulated overdues exceeding 50 per cent of the outstandicgs. This has brought in its wake a new problem of rehabilitation and reorganisation of weak central cooperative banks.
9.5. One of the notable developments of the period has been the organisation of a network of consumer cooperatives in urban areas. The impetus for this development came from the national emergency in 1962. The programme was accelerated during the period following devaluation. Alongside the organisation of consumer cooperatives, arrangements were also made to facilitate flow of supplies directly from the manufacturers. In order to secure working capital accommodation, the Central Government introduced a guarantee scheme under which central or wholesale consumer cooperatives and. consumer federations are eligible for financial accommodation against a margin not exceeding 10 per cent. As a result of these measures, the volume of retail trade handled by consumer cooperatives in the urban areas has vastly increased. The expansion has not been free from adverse features. Many consumer stores are heavily dependent for their business on distribution of controlled items.
Approach to Cooperative Development
9.6. Growth with stability being the key-note of the Fourth Plan, agricultural cooperatives on the one hand and consumer cooperatives on the other will occupy a central position in the strategy of co-operative development. Growth of agriculture is largely dependent-on intensive agriculture and this involves a substantial increase in credit, inputs and services. The aim will be to ensure that the services which the farmer requires are institutionalised to the greatest extent possible. In the process of such instilutionalisation, which will not be to a set pattern, the cooperative form of organisation will have ample opportunities not only to expand but also to establish itself as viable and efficient. It will be part of policy during the Fourth Plan to ensure that the opportunities before cooperatives are as large and varied as they can utilise effectively. While it will be for the cooperatives themselves to make the effort involved and reach those standards of efficiency which will enable them to compete with other forms of organisation serving similar purposes, Government for its part will endeavour to assist the cooperatives +o eouio themselves for the f'-k in important aspects such as finance, organisation and trained personnel. In regard to agro-industries, preference will continue to be given to cooperatives in the matter of licensing and institutional finance.
9.7. The outlays on cooperative development programmes are :
Table 1 : Outlay on Cooperative Development Programmes
In addition a provision of Rs. 90 crores Ins been separately made in the Central sector plan for support to the ordinary debentures of lar.d development banks. Furthermore, provisions have been made in the animal husbandry and dairy plan for development of livestock and dairy cooperatives.
9.8. One of the basic weaknesses of the cooperative credit system is the non-viability of a large number of primary agricultural credit societies, During recent, years, programmes of rationalisation of the cooperative credit structure, at the primary level, have been under way. As a result, the number of primary agricultural credit societies has gone from 212,000 at the end of 1960-61 to 171,800 at the end of 1967-68. However,, a number of non-viable credit cooperatives still continue to clutter up the credit system. It is estimated that as a result of reorganisation, about 120,000 potentially viable societies are likely to emerge and that th; rest of the societies would have to be absorbed in the process of amalgamation. One of the most important tasks before the cooperative credit movement is to accelerate the pace of such reorganisation, so that the ccoperattive short and medium-term credit structure is placed on a viable footing. It is proposed tu accord high priority in the Plan to this reorganisation. Necessary provision has been included in the State Plans for this programme for grant of management subsidy to and share capital contribution in the reorganised society.
9.9. Among the bottlenecks in the flow of adequate cooperative credit is the existence of weak district central cooperative barks in several areas. It is estimated that over one-third of the cooperative banks fall in this category. It is proposed to undertake suitable programmes directed towards rehabilitation and reorganisation of such banks. In the interim period it is proposed to devise measures whereby the primary credit societies within the jurisdiction of such banks may be financed directly by the concerned apex banks.
9.10. Slackness in recovery of loans, resulting in mounting overdues in cooperative credit institutions is undermining the soundness of cooperative credit structure in many areas and has led to stagnation, if not recession, of cooperative credit. The feature of heavy overdues is prevalent not only in comparatively less developed States but also in relatively advanced States. This points to the deficiencies in loaning policies of cooperatives, inadequate arrangements for supervision and weaknesses of internal management of cooperatives. Recurrence of natural calamities in sucessive years has also accentuated the problem of overdues in many areas. Systematic efforts need to be made both by the State Governments and by the cooperative banks towards substantial reduction of overdues. The responsibility for initiating legal action against wilful defaulters rests with the primary credit societies. To meet situations where the managements of primary Credit Societies do not take prompt action, there is provision in the cooperative societies Acts of some Staies enabling the central cooperative bank concerned to initiate action on its own against the defaulting. members of primary credit societies. Incorporation of similar provisions in other Cooperative Societies Acts as recommended by the All India Rural Credit Review Committee will be helpful in dealing with the problem of overdues. Att.n-tion will also be paid to strengthening the recovery stciff in the Department and the Central Cooperative Banks. The State Plans include the necessary provision. Wher and failure to repay the overdues is not wilful but due to natural calamities, conversion of short-term loans into medium-term loans should be taken rp expeditiously by having recourse to agricultural credit stabilisation funds maintained by cooperative banks which have been augmented by Governmer:; as instance through a Centrally sponsored scheme and to the National Agricultural Credit stabilisation Fund maintained by the Reserve Bank. Along with the collection of past overdues, action should be taken to prevent their recurrerce in future through adoption of more rational loaning policies relating to size of credit to production outlay, effective linking of credit with marketing, strict supervision over utilisation of loans and above '^ll the education of members of cooperatives in the rights and obligations connected with their membership.
9.11 Tt is needless to stress the importance of bringing about a substantial increase in deposits at various levels. The urgency of this task arises from a number of considerations. Increasing the deposit resource would help to absorb overdues and keep up the Hew of credit in an uninterrupted manner. Tt will also facilitate increase in loanable resources for meeting the growing demand for credit in areas of intensive agriculture. Deposit mobilisation is reces-sary to mop up a part of the increased income in. the rural areas for productive investment. The cooperative credit structure, therefore, has to make effective measures to increase its deposits. There would also be need for State Governments to undertake necessary enabling legislation to amend the Cooperative Societies Act, so that the Deposit Insurance Scheme could be extended to the deposits of cooperative banks. Cooperative banks will be encouraged and assisted to open more branches in rural areas for facilitating the flow of credit, for rendering services more efficiently and for tapping larger resources.
9.12. The ability of the cooperative short and medium-term credit structure to expand loan operations is dependent on the viability of the structure, the progress in the rationalisation of primary credit societies, reduction in overdues, mobilisation of deno'ils and liberalisation of loan policies. If the programmes mentioned are effectively implemented, it should be possible for the cooperatives to aim ar drbursing short and medium-term credit of the order of Rs. 750 crores in 1973-74.
9.13. One of the striking developments has been the progress of land development banks which handle long-term credit. These banks new function in all the Slates through, a network of 1250 primary banks and branches. It is proposed to accelerate the pace of expansion of land development banking so that adequate support may be forthcoming for schemes of basic importance to agriculture throughout the country such as land reclamation, soil conservation, land shaping, and construction of surface works, lubewells and other works of minor irrigation. Organisationally and administratively land development banks are equipped to handle loan operations of over Rs. 1000 crores. However, in the light of availabie resources, a loaning target of Rs. 700 crores has been fixed for the Plan. This may subsequently be reviewed in case increased resources become available. For a large number of schemes distributed in different States, constituting in each case a sizeable and integrated project and satisfying the criterion of economic viability, the Agricultural Refinance Corporation will be able to provide refinance of ths order of Rs. 200 crores during the Plan period. Provision has been made for lending support to the ordinary debentures and the special debentures of land development banks.
As recommended by ihe Ail India Rural Credit Review Committee, the present
lending policies and procedures of the Land Development Banks have to
be reviewed in a comprehensive manner so a? to bring them in line with
the requirement of so'-ind investment credit and to ensure the optimum
use of scares long-term resources. In the for-mula
9.15. There is need for increasing coordination between the normal lending operations of the Land Development Banks with those pertaining to the Agricultural Refinance Corporation on the one hand and with the operations of the cooperative banks on ihe other. There should be close collaboration between the Land Development Banks and the Cemral Cooperative Banks. Together they should ensure that inputs for production are accessible to the long-term borrower adequately and in time. Coordination should also be ensured in regard to credit for purposes such as the sinking of wells which, depending on the repaying capacity of the borrower, may quality either for a medium-term loan or a long-term one.
9.16. Long-term cooperative credit has hitherto been disbursed to the individual borrowers either by primary land development banks or by branches of central land development banks. In the Fourth Plan, it is proposed to try out on a pilot basis, how far primary credit societies could act as agents of the central land development bank for scrutiny of applications, disbursement of credit, supervision and recovery of instalments. In each State, a limited number of societies satisfying appropriate criteria pertaining to financial strength and operational efficiency wi51 be selected for functioning as agencies of the land development banks in their respective areas. This type of arrangement may be gradually expanded to an increasing number of societies after experience has been gained as a result of this experiment. The bulk of the loans issued by cooperatives is in small amounts of less than Rs. 500 each Even so, farmers with relatively larger holdings are the main beneficiaries of cooperative credit. The traditional emphasis on linking of credit to security offered by a borrower in the form of land and other tangible assets, exclusion of small farmers from the membership of cooperatives, domination of cooperatives by the more affluent and powerful section of the rura! community, absence of tenancy records and prevalence of the system of oral tenancies are among the major factors that have led to denial of adequate credit to small farmers. The crop loan system, recommended for adoption, aims at shifting the emphasis in loaning operations from assets nexus to production potential. The system needs to be implemented in full in all the areas.
9.17. Since 1961, Government has been giving grants to cooperative banks and societies as an inducement to them to give larger loans to small cultivators for production purposes. These amounts are credited to special bad debt reserves of cooperatives. Following a review in 1964, the basis for Government contribution to the bad debt reserve fund has been changed and is now related to additional loans given from year to year to small cultivators. So far, a sum of about Rs. 7 crores has been granted by Government for this purpose and a further sum of Rs. 5 crores is expected to be given in the Fourth Plan.
9.18. Jn the Fourth Plan. one of ihe main endeavours will be to orient the policies and procedures of credit cooperatives and land development barks in favour of small cultivators. The All India Rural Credit Review Committee has made a numb?r of recommendations in this direction. These will be sought fu be implemented, the more important changes being in the following directions :
19.19 Compared to cooperative credit, 'the development of cooperative marketing of agricultural produce is of recent origin. Following the recommendations of All India Rural Credit Survey Report, an integrated programme of cooperative marketing was taken up in the Second Plan and followed up in the Third. As a result, cooperative marketing structure has been built up at various levels. On the eve of the Fourth Plan, there were nearly 3300 primary marketing societies, of which 500 were special commodity marketing societies. The higher level of cooperative marketing structure consists of 20 apex marketing societies and three commodity marketing federations at the State level and one National "Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation at the all India level. There are also 173 central marketing societies including 15 special commodity societies, mainly at the district level.
9.20. Consistently with the programme for increasing agricultural production, steps will be taken to strengthen the existing cooperative marketing structure, "especially at the primary level. Necessary provision for this purpose has been mads in the State Plans. The marketing federations at the State and national level will be strengthened to enable them to reach optimum efficiency and to provide the requisite leadership, financial support aod guidance to their affiliated institutions.
9.21. At present, only marketing cooperatives in Gujarat and a few processing cooperatives in other areas have adopted the system of grading and pooling. Efforts will be made to introduce this and other improved marketing techniques in as many cooperatives as possible. As further measures to improve marketing practices of the cooperatives, the schemes initiated in the previous years for estabiisning grading unics with equipment and suitable trained personnel and for maintenance of price fluctuation funds which enable the societies to make outright purchases of agricultural produce from small growers, will be continued.
9.22. Cooperatives will aim at handling in the last year of the Fourth Plan, 8 million tonnes of foodgrains, 36 million tonnes of sugarcane, 0.6 million tonne of groundnut, 10,000 tonnes of fruit and vegetable and 1.8 million bales of cotton. At current prices, the value of agricultural produce likely to be handled by marketing and processing cooperatives is expected to be of the order of Rs. 900 crores in 1973-74. Cooperatives are also expected to handle agricultural commodities worth Rs. 25 crores in inter-State tsade and Rs. 10 crores in the export trade.
9.23. Considerable success has been achieved in the establishment of sugar factories in the cooperative sector. This was facilitated by the licensing policy of Government and the assistance provided by the Industrial Finance Corporation. A concerted programme to develop cooperative processing of other agricultural produce was taken in hand from Second Plan onwards. It has been accelerated in recent years. By the end of 1968-69, 1596 cooperative processing units had been organised. These included 79 cooperative sugar factories, 237 cotton ginning and pressing units, 26 cotton spinning mills, 784 paddy pressing units, 188 oil mills, and 38 fruit and vegetable units. Recently the need and scope for further developing of cooperative processing in the context of increased agricultural production was examined by an expert committee. Keeping in view its recommendations and the available resources, the Fourth Plan envisages the organisation of additional 550 units. A commodity-wise breakup of these units is given in the Annexure II.
9.24. A review made by an expert committee on planning of cooperative agricultural processing units has indicated that the tendency has been to set up processing units on the basis of stereo-typed schemes. In the Fourth Plan, it is proposed that organisation of new processing units should be preceded by proper feasibility studies, advance locational planning with reference to supply of raw material, storage and marketing of finished products and overall economics of each "projects. Facilities to provide technical advice are already being developed in various apex marketing societies. Efforts will be made to strengthen this technical machinery. Attention will also be paid to the need to consolidate and maximise the operational efficiency of existing units and ensure the fuller utilisation of their installed capacity.
Cooperative Handling of Agricultural Inputs
9.25. With the development of intensive agriculture, there will be a substantial step-up in the demand for inputs such as chemical fertilisers, seeds, agricultural implements and plant protection material. It is proposed lhai cooperatives intensify their activities and enlarge their distribution system. The expectation is that, by 1973-74, cooperatives will be handling fertilisers worth about Rs. 650 crores, improved seeds Rs. 50 crores, pesticides Rs. 50 crores and implements Rs. 15 crores. To enable the cooperatives 10 handle the distribution of inputs of this order, it v/ill be necessary for them to have access to adequate bank finance. For this purpose, a provision has been made to cover a part of the requisite margin money to be provided by the cooperatives.
9.26. Cooperatives have recently made a beginning in ths production or agricultural inputs. Some marketing cooperatives in the States have organised granular fertiliser mixing units. Production and processing of improved seeds, formulations of pesticides, manufacture of small agricultural implements have also been taken up in the cooperative sphere in increasing measure. A major venture is the establishment of the fertiliser project of the Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Ltd. with an investment ol about Rs. 85 crores. This project is proposed as a complex of gas-based ammonia and urea plants at Kalol and phosphate plant at Kandia in Gujarat State. This fertiliser factory is expected to produce 318,500 tonnes of ammonia, 382,000 tonnes of urea and 637,000 tonnes of complex fertilisers per annum. Another factory in the cooperative sector in Maha-rashtra State is also proposed to be set up.
9.27. A network of cooperative godowns has been established during recent years. On the eve of the Fourth Plan, there are 15,000 rural godowns and about 4000 mandi level or rail-head godowns. The total capacity is estimated to be of the order of 2.6 million tonnes. So far, the programme of storage has been financed entirely by Plan funds. In the Fourth Plan. it is expected that cooperatives will, for this purpose, have increasing recourse to bank finance and that the provision made in the Plan will be used essentially as margin money.. On this basis, it is visualised that cooperatives will establish in the Fourth Plan an additional storage of about 2.0 million tonnes.
9.28. The broad institutional framework of consumer cooperatives comprises a National Federation to which 14 State federations are affiliated. The State federations, in turn, comprise 371 central or wholesale consumer cooperative societies. Linked to the central cooperatives are about 2800 branch stores (including department stores). There are also about 14,000 primary consumer cooperatives. Apart fiom the consumer cooperatives organised for the general urban population, cooperatives have also been sat up for specific consumer groups such as employees in industrial undertakings and university students.
9.29. With the organisation of various central and wholesale stores, practically all districts with an urban population of 50,000 or above have been brought wi chin the area of operation of such stores. In the Fourth Plan, therefore, stress will'be laid on consolidation and strengthening of existing consumer cooperatives at difi'erent levels rather than the organisation of new institutions. On the institutional side, the weakest link in the consumer cooperative movement lies at the level of primary consumer cooperatives. While over 14,000 primary consumer cooperatives have been registered, about 3.500 cf them are dormant. The rest are mostly engagsd in distributing rationed and controlled foodgrains and ether commodities. One of the major tasks hereafter to ba undertaken is a survey of the existing primary consumer cooperatives with a view to identifying the institutions that are viable or are potentially viable so that, on a selective basis, such primary consumer cooperatives could be further strengthened and developed.
9.30. Attention will also be paid to the reorganisation and strengthening of central wholesale consumer cooperatives with a view to building them up as large-sized multi-retail unit cooperative societies. The superstructure of the consumer cooperative movement comprising the State federations and the National Federation will have to be strengthened with a view to enabling these institu-tions'to play an effective role in procurement of supplies, besides promotional and service functions. At the retail stage, the structure is lopsidcd. It comprises, on the one hand, big retail outlets in the form of department stores with a large assortment of goods and, on the other, very small retail cutlets in the form of single-roomed shops primarily dealing in rationed and controlled items. The latter category accounts for over 96 per cent of the total outlets tluough which the consumer movement is currently operating. These stores have practically no impact on normal consumer trade. To correct this imbalance, efforts will be made to develop retail outlets of the intermediate size, diversify the range of business of consumer cooperatives and improve their operational efficiency and economic viability.
9.31. In the rural areas, retailing of consumer articles is conceived essentially as the responsibility of primary agricultural credit societies supparted by marketing cooperatives. In this fierd, the expansion in business has been significant. The progress, however, has been largely accounted for by distribution of foodgrains and other controlled articles. Moreover the progress has been extremely uneven an .1 has been confined to a few States. In the Fourth PI in, efforts will be made to spread and diversify this activity with a view to enlarging the number of village and marketing cooperative involved in it. The effort will be develop an effective consumer service so that cooperatives become part of a per-niLnent distributive set up for making available a wide range of essential consumer goods in the rural areas. With the expansion and greater diversity of operations of consumer cooperatives and marketing cooperatives there is need for evolving appropriate working relationships between them. Steps will be taken to this end.
Rural Electric Cooperatives
9.32. One of the significant developments contemplated in the Fourth Plan relates to the involve-in, nt of the cooperative form of organisation in thg programme of rural electrification. Pilot rural electric cooperatives are in the process of being set up in five States. The licencing of these cooperatives is among the functions allotted to the Rural Electrification Corporation. The objectives of the cooperatives include the supply of electricity for agricultural and agro-industrial purposes and the encouragement of active participation of the people by giving them some degree of control on electricity supply.
Urban Cooperative Banks
9.33. In urban areas, the salary earners' societies and the primary urban cooperative banks can make an important contribution to future development. The salary earners' societies have proved highly successful in a large number of governmental departments and organisations and non-official corporations all over the country. They have proved valuable for providing consumption finance and m .ibiiising savings. The primary cooperative banks, in the .selected urban areas in which they have come up, have been financing activities of small producers and traders and are perhaps the most suitable types of organisation for this purpose. It is necessary for cooperative departments and the State Cooperative Banks to take active interest .in ths wider establishment and sound working of these cooperative organisations. It is envisaged that the operations of the urban cooperative banks will be considerably expanded especially in regard to th-. financing of small scale industries and small industrialists. In order to enable urban banks to discharge this responsibility, it will be necessary to strengthen their share capital base. The Reserve Ba.^k has recently approved a scheme for giving loans to the Slate Governments for share capital participation, on a selective basis, in such of these urban banks as are engaged or interested in productive activities related to the financing of small scale industries. It is expected that the State Governments will take advantage, of this scheme.
Other Types of Cooperatives
9.34. While the focus of development will be on the cooperatives concer.sed with agricultural credit, marketing, processing and consumer needs, other types of cooperatives will also continue to receive attention. The programme relating to dairy, poultry and fisheries cooperatives and forest labour cooperatives and industrial cooperatives has been dealt with elsewhere. In cooperative farming, priority will be given to the revkalisation of the existing weak rnd dormant societies. New societies will be organised only in compact areas and if they have a potential for growth. Attention will be given to the strengthening of the labour contract societies and o;her types of non-agricultural cooperatives.
Management, Training and Education
9.35. Placing of adequate, competent and trained staff in key positions in cooperative institutions banking, marketing, processing, consumer stores is crucial for their successful functioning. At present, a majority of these institutions are managed by personnel on deputation from Government, who have no continuing stake in the growth of the institutions and often lack aptitude for business. It is essential for the instiutions to reduce this dependence on borrowed personnel. For attracting the right type of persons, it is necessary to have mangcment pools in different sectors in each State to be operated by the federal organisations like the apex banks, land development bank, apex marketing federation and State federation of consumer cooperatives. In due course, such pools could become the nucleus for establishment of cadres of key management personnel in different sectors. A beginning has been made in recent years in some States. It is proposed to pursue this programme vigorously.
9.36. The programme of cooperative training and education will be increasingly linked with the cooperative activities envisaged. The Vaikunth Mehta National Institute of Cooperative Manage-roens: will be further developed as an apex institute of study and research in cooperation. The cooperative training colleges for intermediate personnel and cooperative training centres for junior personnel will be adequately equipped for training the requisite personnel.
9.37. In a strategy of cooperative development, there is need for continuing to stress the role of a well-informed and enlightened membership in the promotion and working of cooperative societies. A programme essentially directed towards the education of office-bearers and members of primary agricultural credit societies through peripatetic instructors has been in operation for some lime. Of late, there has been a perceptible indication of dissatisfaction with the content and effectiveness of this programme. In some areas and even states, the programme has been curtailed or drastically modified. The programme is proposed to be revised in the light of an evaluation study recenily brought out by the Programme Evaluation Organisation of the Planning Commission. It is necessary to ensure that the peripatetic instructors are liked with the cooperative training centres. Efforts will also' be made to ensure that the member education programme for village cooperatives is supported and supervised by central cooperative banks, marketing societies and other functional federations.
II. COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AND PANCHAYATI RAJ
9.38. The Community Development programme was started in 1952. It now covers the whole country. Its unit remains the block and its aim that of chieving rural development through people's paricipation and initiative. The assistance from Government, so far as resources would allow, took the shape of a budget grant for the block and a team of extension workers under a Block Development Officer. The latter was to coordinate all schemes of a developmental character within the block. In the integrated programme, divided into stages of five years each, agricultural development occupied the foremost position.
9.39. The next step was that of attempting to weld together Panchayati Raj and Community Development. This objective followed from the acceptance of the recommendations of the Study Team of the Committee on Plan Projects (Balwan-trai Mehta Committee). The three-tier Panchayati Raj system, together with its modifications in different States, thus set the pattern of local development administration. At each levelvillage or group of villages, block or group of blocks, and districtthere was to be a link between the administrative apparatus and elected representatives.
9.40. All villages are now covered by blocks. There are some 5265 blocks, including 4S9 tribal development blocks. Of these 999 are in Stage I and 2585 in Stage II. The rest have completed ten years and passed both the stages. Village Pancha-yats exists in all States and most Union Territories. The other tierSamitis at the Block level and Zila Parishads at the district levelhas been constituted in all States except Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Jammu and Kashmir, parts of Bihar and Nagaland. There is not much diversity in the functions and powers of ihe village panchayats and panchayat functions and powers of the Zila Parishads from State to State.
9.41. The working of the programme has thrown up a variety of experiences. The operation of the Blocks in five year-stages, with tapering financial provision from stage to stage, was based on the assumption that, by the end of the initial ten-year period, there would be adequate mobilisation of resources by the local institutions and sufficient channelling of other Plan funds to make any separate provision thereafter for the Blocks unnecessary. Community Development, in other words, would then no longer be assisted and schematic but self-reliant and locally rooted. These assumptions have not proved correct. By and large the programme continues to be dependent on Government initiative and even more so on Government funds. Where funds were lacking, activities languished and the staff remained almost supernumerary. Where, however, administrative and financial support has been forthcoming, che combined contribution of Parcha-yati Raj and Community Development has been significant in the formulation and implementation of local development plans. There has also been a large measure of coordination and integration of the field staff. In certain instances, the Panehayati Raj institutions have, for their part, made attempts to raise increasingly large resources through tax measures. In the majority of cases, however, local finance has continued to play very little part in local Development.
9.42. With all their drawbacks, the Community Development Programme and Panehayati Raj institutions have provided a new dimension to rural development and introduced a structural change of- considerable importance in the district administration. Within the limitations of resources the programme has aitemped to do something which in many cases, had never before been attempted. Improvement of agriculture has remained in the forefront throughout. Investment from the available block funds on agricultural development has over thq years almost equalled the provisions for all other sectors of development taken together. In many States, the block organisation has been virtually the only field agency for carrying out development programmes. There has been sizeable contribution from tlie local communities to the deve-. lopmental effort.
9.43. Some States have recently introduced changes in the pattern of organisation. While there has to be considerable flexibility in regard to the typ^ of. organisation, contents of programme and extent of resources, the need for an integrated approach to rural development, including coordination between otncial and non-official agencies, remains basic. Also important is a continued emphasis on priority programmes such as agriculture and family planning. The State Plans accordingly provide Rs. 84.69 crores for programme of community development. It is necessary to ensure that these funds are supplemented to the largest extent possible by resources mobilised by the Panehayati Raj institutions. Simultaneously, there should be progressively larger devolution of programmes and resources by the States.
Pilot Study on Growth Centres
9.44. As a part of studies on area planning, a Centrally sponsored scheme of Pilot Research Project in Growth Centres is being launched. The aim of the pilot project will be to evolve a broad research methodology and pattern for identifying emerging growth centres, and to indicate how the growtli potential cf these centres could be promoted through comprehensive and scientific study of the overall development needs, and how these centres could be meaningfully woven into the frame of the district plan and thus help in the process of planning from below. The scheme will thus bring under close study action strategies relevant to the acceleration of infergrated area development around potential growth centres. A number of projects will be set up in different areas in the States and Union Territories. A few projects would be located in institutions working on planning methodology. To facilitate integration with district planning, the growth centres will. to the extent possible, be located in districts for which detailed plans in terms of guidelines and norms provided by the Planning Commission are already being drawn up.
9.45. Panchaya-i Raj having been accepted as the pattern for local development administration, fuiler and more active involvement of the institution is necessary in the process of economic development and social advance. The viability of these institutions would depend on the extent to which they can undertake obligations for mobilising should likewise be assisted to build up their own revenue-yielding assvts. The administrative apparatus at the district, block and village level has to be jnt3grated and, where necessary, strengthened. The integration has to comprise not only the staff of the Community Development and Panehayati Raj institutions but also normal departmental staff deal in;; with all development schemes of a local character. At the same time, the administrative, financial and other procedures relevant to these inititutfons call fcr a careful periodical review to ensure that they remain attuned to the responsibilities devolving on them.
Annexure I Physical Programmes- Base Level and Targets
* For the Fourth Plan period as a whole. It excludes loans of the order of Rs. 200 crores on schemes refinanced by Agricultural Refinance Corporation.
Annexure II Type-wise break-up of the New Processing Units proposed for the Fourth Five Year Plan
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One of the primary objections to nuclear powered electricity generation is the fear of it exploding or the massive killing of people with radiation. However, the fact is that nuclear power has proven historically to be the safest and least polluting of all the fuels we use for power generation, even when Chernobyl and Fukushima are considered.
Let’s examine the subject from the perspective of that fear, but using real statistics published by the World Health Organization. It calculated the historical global deaths attributed to the production of a trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity from each of the electricity-producing fuels. WHO called this measure the “deathprint.” The analysis includes all aspects of the creation of each fuel (mining, distilling, construction, etc.), the use of the fuel (burning, maintenance, supply and delivery, etc.) and the side effects of the fuel’s byproducts (exhaust, land loss, health, environmental impact, pollution).
One trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity is about one-fourth of the electricity produced annually in the United States.
According to WHO, coal produces about 50 percent of the world’s electricity and causes about 170,000 deaths per trillion kilowatt-hours produced. Forty-four percent of the electricity in the United States is from coal, and we experience about 15,000 deaths per trillion kilowatt-hours because of it.
Oil causes about 36,000 deaths. Natural gas causes about 4,000. Biofuel/biomass causes about 24,000 — mostly in Third World countries. Solar causes about 440 deaths. Wind causes about 150 — usually from maintenance accidents, but both solar and wind produce a relatively small amount of electricity. Hydro is responsible for 1,400 deaths — mostly from failed dams.
Nuclear kills the fewest, about 90 per trillion kilowatt-hours. This includes the worst-case Chernobyl numbers and Fukushima projections, uranium mining deaths and use of the linear no-threshold dose hypothesis in the calculations.
Using these statistics, we see that coal is 1,889 times more deadly than nuclear generation. Deaths from solar and wind generation are 650 percent greater than deaths associated with nuclear. If we converted all forms of electricity to nuclear, worldwide, we would reduce the deathprint of power generation by a factor of 537.
Unfortunately, facts like these seldom change people’s minds about this issue.
But what if we can find a compromise solution that will satisfy the fears of the public and meet the technical issues of demand, base load and pollution — reducing costs and gaining energy independence in the process? Hydrogen as our new fuel will meet all our demands for energy without the burden of pollution, future scarcity or high prices. Hydrogen has sufficient energy to support both transportation and power production and can be scaled from car and house size to base-load power generation facilities.
Since we can make it from water, and, when burned, it returns to water, it will never become a scarce commodity. Certain new nuclear power plant designs are the only means to “crack” water into hydrogen and oxygen so that more net usable fuel is gained than consumed in the generation process.
So, we have an ideal fuel and a way of making that fuel in a cost-effective manner and we can convert to and burn this fuel without the burden of scarcity or pollution. The social and political barrier of accepting the use of nuclear reactors to generate the hydrogen remains the only obstacle to overcome. It turns out there is a simple solution to that, also.
We could put nuclear reactors at some far-away location — northern Canada, for instance — and use them to create hydrogen and then pipe that gas back to the States. The location would not likely engender a great deal of opposition since it could be placed far away from any population centers — far enough north that it could tap into the Arctic waters. Hydrogen escaping into the atmosphere would be like water escaping into the ocean. It is a natural occurring gas that creates no pollution.
Using recent reactor designs (such as the liquid fluoride thorium reactor) would resolve most of the opposition arguments, since most of these are breeder reactors that reuse 99 percent of the radioactive material they create. They do not use water for cooling — molten salt is used in a closed cycle that resides entirely inside the containment building so it does not need cooling towers — eliminating 80 percent of the plumbing of water-cooled reactors.
These designs are “walk-away safe,” meaning that if all cooling, power, control and maintenance is lost, the reactor will shut itself down. These are high-temperature reactors that can use produced hydrogen with 50 percent efficiency — the highest of any known process.
Once there is a ready and cheap supply of hydrogen, the cost-effective sale of fuel cells for small-scale power production, hydrogen-powered cars and hydrogen-powered base-load electrical power plants would all be viable options. Conversion to hydrogen would smooth the transition from gasoline to electric-powered cars. Fuel cells can be used to produce electricity right in the home, which will reduce or eliminate the need for a $500 billion “smart grid” and reduce the need for large base-load power plants. Fuel cells will also extend the range of electric cars using only hydrogen for power.
The technology to accomplish all this is within our grasp. Fear and misinformation are all that stops us from seriously pursuing a solution like this. It’s worth considering.
Tom Watkins lives in Montpelier. He can be reached at KeepItReal@21vt.us.
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"If your kids are fussing and whining, instead of saying 'Don't whine,' set a formal time for complaining (but put a time limit on it). This way, you can all share, vent and get it out. Give everyone in the family a turn. Be empathetic and try to listen beyond the whining."
John Gottman, Ph.D.
Author of Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child
Let your child express negative feelings without judging them. Imagine if every time you were upset, some bigger, taller, frowning person looked down at you and said, "Don't feel that way," or "Don't tell me that." Would you feel like shutting up or shouting back?
Ask yourself, "Am I really listening to my child or waiting to tell him what I think?" "Children often start to have a tantrum because they don't feel heard. If you are thinking of what you will say while your child is talking, then you know you are not really listening," advises Michael Thompson, Ph.D.
Reflect your child's feelings. You might say, "Boy, are you mad!" to a younger child. To a school-age child you might try, "I can see how frustrated you are. Can you tell me what made you feel that way?" ("What" is always more important than "Why" — it asks for specifics.)
Slow down the process by saying, "I need a moment to think about this." If your child is being rude, or getting ready to have a tantrum, you can slow things down by giving feedback. You might say, "Ouch! That comment hurts my feelings." Or, "I can see you're upset. Let's talk."
Use this opportunity to problem-solve. If kids are fighting, you might say, "In this family (or house) we don't hurt people's feelings. Let's try to solve this problem another way." Then, ask each child for his idea of what would be fair. You might say, "You don't think it's fair that you have to go to bed before your sister. I understand. What do you think should happen?"
Ask your child to explain it again. Even if you disagree, you might say, "Explain to me again why it feels so unfair." This requires a child to settle down and articulate what he feels.
Acknowledge your child's effect on you. Many children will calm down if you acknowledge their impact — and get angrier if you don't. You might stop and say something like, "I've stopped the car," (or "I am off the phone") "and you have my full attention." Then, ask questions like "What don't I understand?"
Focus on your child's behavior, not his character. You might say, "Yelling in the kitchen is not OK right now," instead of "How many times do I have to tell you to stop yelling?" Discuss the consequences of his behavior. You might say, "I can see from your behavior that we may have to stop having play dates after school." This may be more effective than saying, "No more play dates for you!"
Set limits that your child will find comforting. A limit is not a punishment. Limits may help your child learn how to calm himself down. "Kids find the setting of limits comforting and soothing," comments John Gottman. "They need to know that you (the parent) are in control."
Make consequences relevant — and explain them. "Make the punishment fit the crime. If a kid spills milk [on purpose], he has to help clean it up, not get a time out," says Gillian McNamee, Ph.D. | <urn:uuid:79ef0190-d3dd-4913-babf-618cfe190a0f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.pbs.org/parents/talkingwithkids/tantrum_1.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396100.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00102-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975285 | 768 | 3.125 | 3 |
Fascinating. Throwing really does have big gender differences. But … girls can learn to throw like a boy.
It turns out throwing may be the biggest gender difference of all:
Janet Hyde … has studied the gender gap across a broad spectrum of skills. She believes that men and women aren’t as different as they are often portrayed … Hyde found what she defined as a “very large” difference in only two skills: throwing velocity and throwing distance.
At least some of this is cultural. But if you go to a society where both sexes throw a lot, women do much better:
… Thomas studied aboriginal Australian children, who grow up in a culture where both men and women hunt, and both sexes throw from childhood. “Our hypothesis was that [the aboriginal] girls would be better throwers and not as different from the boys as in European, Chinese, Australian and all the U.S. cultures.”
The data bore him out …
But, most of it comes down to boys using different mechanics:
To understand why a girl “throws like a girl,” it’s necessary to define just what throwing like a girl is. According to Thomas, a girl throwing overhand looks more like she’s throwing a dart than a ball. It’s a slow, weak, forearm motion, with a short step on the same side as the throwing hand. A boy’s throw, by contrast, involves the entire body. Thomas describes a skillful overhand throw as an uncoiling in three phases: step (with the foot opposite the throwing hand), rotate (with hips first, then shoulders) and whip (with the arm and hand).
Girls don’t do any of those three steps as successfully as boys, but Thomas zeroes in on one aspect in particular: the rotation.
So, can a girl do all that?
The power in an overhand throw — and in a golf swing, a tennis serve or a baseball swing — comes from the separate turning of hips and shoulders. The hips rotate forward and the body opens, and then the shoulders snap around. Women tend to rotate their hips and shoulders together, and even expert women throwers don’t get the differential that men get. “The one-piece rotation is the biggest difference,” says Thomas. “It keeps women from creating speed at the hand.” Even when women learn to rotate hips and shoulders separately, they don’t do it as fast as men.
There doesn’t appear to be a muscular or structural reason for the difference.
“Men have wider shoulders, which translates to higher velocity at ball release. They’re bigger and stronger, and you could argue they can rotate their body faster, but the women have less mass to rotate,” Thomas says. The difference, he suspects, isn’t in the arm or the torso or the shoulder. “I’d bet my bottom dollar there’s something neurological. It’s the nervous system.”
Even so, girls can learn the motion that boys use and improve quickly:
Thomas warned that simply learning the motion wouldn’t work miracles, so I didn’t expect one. And I didn’t get one. But … That was a 10 percent improvement in just 30 minutes.
I believe this. The vXwife and the vXsister-in-law don’t throw like girls very much at all. And they both spent a lot of time in those early throwing years playing with boys. But, the vXboy, who has never been interested in sports, and so wasn’t pushed, still throws like a girl. | <urn:uuid:a3b27d36-e151-4ef8-b110-79479433e916> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://voluntaryxchange.typepad.com/voluntaryxchange/2012/10/throwing-like-a-girl-and-what-you-can-do-about-it.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783408840.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155008-00193-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958075 | 781 | 3.234375 | 3 |
Soda blasting is the use of sodium bicarbonate ("baking soda") or sodium bicarbonate-based materials as blast media for paint stripping.
Soda blasting is controversial in hotrodding because substrates that have been soda blasted often display poor adhesion characteristics as a result of blasting residue left on the substrate. In addition, even when the residue is completely removed, soda blasting may offer no savings over conventional media blasting, because of the extra steps required to remove the residue.
Nevertheless, in the right conditions, soda is a useful blasting medium.
Soda blasting history
Soda blasting was originally used as a method of stripping/cleaning industrial machinery. It was developed in the 1980's, and was most notably used in the restoration of the Statue of Liberty.
Soda blasting crossed over into the automotive restoration field as somewhat of a miracle process, a misconception that had to be debunked. Although soda has its valid uses as a blast medium, it also has its own set of complexities and nuances that must be taken into consideration.
Soda blasting procedure
Soda blasting is done with a high volume, low pressure wet or dry blasting machine. Soda cleans surfaces not by abrasion, like conventional blasting media, but by the energy released by the tiny explosion that occurs when the soda particles contact the substrate.
Soda blasters
details on exactly how soda blasters work, and their various components goes here. could also include a list of manufacturers and possibly details on a DIY home soda blaster
Soda blasting medium
The sodium bicarbonate used as a blasting medium is chemically identical to "baking soda"; however, the blast medium typically uses larger particles. Some soda blasting media also include additives to prevent caking or help flow, such as tricalcium phosphate or calcium carbonate.
Examples of soda blasting medium
- Natrium -- pure sodium bicarbonate, typical particle size of 290 microns.
- SodaClean Maintenance Plus -- sodium bicarbonate with tricalcium phosphate and TFF: "treated free flowing additive".
- Various media produced by Armex, a subsidiary of Arm & Hammer.
Soda blasting residue removal
Removal of residue is crucial to the soda blasting procedure.
Correct soda blasting procedure may involve the following steps after blasting:
- Blowing dry.
- Sanding with 180 grit sandpaper.
Soda blasting residue removal
- Holdtight 102 has been recommended for use in cleaning soda-blasted surfaces prior to application of primer. More details on Holdtight 102.
- A vinegar and water solution is occasionally recommended, but has also been cautioned against. (needs verification/confirmation)
- Pressure washer and soap (Simple Green or Purple Power). While the car is wet, rinse with a hose. Do this at least 2-3 times. If any of the residue re-dries, water will not neutralize it, and it will have to be retreated.
- Dish soap with warm water and a red scuff pad. Scrub panels and rinse with hose three times.
Reasons in favor of using soda blasting
- Non-destructive, and won't warp panels.
- Doesn't harm glass, chrome, or rubber (but may harm certain types of plastic trim).
- Does not cause heat buildup or sparks.
- Does not abrade or impinge substrate.
- It's water-soluble, and can typically be washed down a conventional drain.
- The soda blasting residue can be temporarily left on the substrate, as a rust-inhibiting protective coating.
- Sodium bicarbonate has a well-known chemistry, and is widely considered safe to use.
- You can soda blast lightly to leave the body filler intact, and then go over it again to remove all filler.
- No pre-cleaning required (prior to blasting, traditional blasting media may require the surface to be thoroughly cleaned to remove salt, carbon, or grease).
- Allows for easier detection of surface flaws. (Traditional abrasive media may peen cracks closed, or fill them with abrasive, whereas soda cleans out the cracks).
For a professional, experienced shop that's well-trained in its use, does all of the finish prep work itself, and has a soda-friendly guarantee from its paint supplier, soda blasting may be a viable choice.
Reasons against using soda blasting
- Difficulty of residue removal, especially on parts with cracks/crevices, such as door jambs, engine bays, trunks. Residue can also hide in and behind fasteners.
- Laborious, time-consuming steps required to prep parts after blasting.
- Only removes light flash rust.
- Because soda is so soft, it does not leave an anchor pattern. For reference, see this Mohs hardness scale abrasive comparison chart.
- Paint manufacturers advise against its use.
- Can't re-use the medium after blasting.
- Soda Blasting will not allow for a high silica count paint to adhere to it after process is complete.
Overall, soda blasting is probably not the best choice for the hobbyist or do-it-yourselfer.
Soda blasting and environmental-friendliness
Soda blasting is frequently touted as an environmentally-friendly blast medium.
However, it's likely no more or less environmentally-friendly than media such as corn cobs, walnut shells, or crushed recycled glass, such as VitroGrit. Aggressively portraying soda blasting as "green" may qualify as green marketing or even borderline greenwashing.
The used soda medium can be screened or filtered, and washed. The water-soluble soda can typically go down a conventional drain, leaving only the blasted particles behind. However, soda blasting medium may contain various flow additives that are less environmentally-friendly.
Published professional opinions on soda blasting
"NEVER use SPI Epoxy over a Soda Blasted vehicle, Acid Etch/Wash Primer, Rust Converter or other Metal Treatments. NEVER!"
This opinion is expanded upon in this discussion in the Southern Polyurethanes forums.
"We don't recommend sodium bicarbonate, because you can’t clean it out of the pores of the metal well enough."
- This post contains secondhand email text purportedly from PPG, indicating that PPG does not warranty anything that has been soda blasted. (still waiting on the exact printed warranty text)
Soda blasting and paint manufacturer warranty voiding
The use of soda blasting is thought to void the warranties of paint manufacturers.
BASF does not have a position specific to soda blasting. If this method is used, after all residue is removed, standard substrate preparation procedures must be performed.
Reprinted with permission:
Kirker does not encourage the practice of using sodium bicarbonate as a means of preparing a surface for refinish work, especially when we’re talking to the non-professional refinisher, which is probably how the majority of your readers would describe themselves.
Sodium bicarbonate is a very reactive material. Therefore, it is imperative to remove all residue before applying any coating over the blasted surface. Should any trace residue remain on the vehicle (most typically this occurs in seams, along trim molding, etc.), there is a good chance it could react with the coating which results in several product performance issues, the most common being delamination. More specifically, the sodium bicarbonate reacts with acids and/or other materials in the coating, which creates a source for carbon dioxide. As the CO2 gasses out from beneath the forming film, it can cause blisters in the surface which potentially give way to more serious delamination issues.
For removing existing finishes to prepare for refinish work, there are better options than soda including organic media like walnut shells and corn cob or more aggressive abrasives like polyester bead. All of this considered, soda blasting can be done correctly with very good results, however we feel that is outweighed by the extra prep steps required and greater potential for delamination issues.
--Matt Panuska, VP Sales & Marketing for Kirker Automotive Finishes
Awaiting clarification and reprint rights.
The use of soda blasting does not nullify Sherwin Williams' warranty. However, Sherwin WIlliams discourages its use.
Michael Pellett, a representative from Sherwin-Williams' Dallas Automotive Training Center has stated:
Like most paint companies, we have experienced poor results in the past regarding this process as a surface preparation step. We actively discourage our customers from utilizing this process by explaining the potential problems and offering other alternatives.
For more detail, see the text of the Sherwin Williams warranty.
Does not recommend Soda Blasting
A firsthand response from the owner of SPI is available here.
Does not recommend Soda Blasting.
Related articles
- Sodium bicarbonate MSDS
- Armex automotive and aerospace case studies | <urn:uuid:cb0e5008-90a9-4931-8281-95c28797fec3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.crankshaftcoalition.com/wiki/Soda_blasting | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783400031.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155000-00192-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.8945 | 1,847 | 2.984375 | 3 |
The tango was born by the end of the 19th century from a mixture of several rhythms that were danced in the suburbs of Buenos Aires. Originally it was almost exclusively connected to cabarets, a sort of contention house for the predominantly male population that was increasingly immigrating to the country. Since only prostitutes would dare performing this dance, in the beginning most couples were formed by two men.
The tango then started to call more and more attention, not only in the obscure areas where it came from but also among working-class neighborhoods. Even respected Argentine families got fascinatated by the dance, especially after it reached great success in Paris and then all over Europe.
Its distinctive sound came to life thanks to the combination of violin, guitar and flute, which was eventually replaced by the "bandoneón" or concertina. Additionally, the immigrants added all their nostalgia to the lyrics and helped to develop tango's unique flavor.
Carlos Gardel was the first and most famous tango singer, who also gave an enormous contribution to spreading this Argentine music overseas until he tragically died in 1935. During the 60's, the tango had been virtually abandoned outside its home country, but it was brought to life again thanks to the more jazzistic traits added by bandoneón genius Astor Piazzolla.
Nowadays, the tango is more alive then ever. Although it is not a massive phenomenon as in its early years, it is still the best way to penetrate the Buenos Aires soul and will always stand as its most genuine symbol. | <urn:uuid:028f222b-a5c2-44e0-bc38-73d803d9cb51> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.mibuenosairesquerido.com/wTango1.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398869.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00197-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986219 | 319 | 3.046875 | 3 |
Crowdsourcing: How much does your ox weigh? Pt. 2 – Finding Success in a Crowd
In September, 2010 Sony set up an online open forum called Open Planet. The public (the crowd) were invited to share their ideas about environmental and sustainability challenges that they found most concerning. Then they were asked to use seven innovative Sony technologies to invent creative and out-of-the-box ways to solve those challenges.
This was the first time Sony had tried an open forum using social networking and crowdsourcing. They were running a huge risk, but one that paid off nicely. The visit times to the site averaged over 10 minutes, which was much longer than would have been achieved using traditional media or communication channels, according to Sony. The results were 400 concepts, 7 of which were selected by a panel, which were then narrowed down to the 3 finalists.
The crowdsource helped Sony discover a new and exciting way to engage with its consumers. Sony gained genuine insights about the concerns of its customers and this understanding was far deeper than it would have been able to achieve through traditional market research and customer surveys.
Sony is just one example of hundreds of successful implementations of crowdsourcing. The biggest and probably best known implementation of crowdsourcing is Wikipedia. Instead of looking at the obvious giant open forum, a.k.a. Wikipedia, let’s take a look at examples from a variety of industries and ones that could possibly help you create your own crowdsource.
Let’s take a look at the 4 types of crowdsourcing to help you understand where some of the upcoming examples fit, and how they are used, in the world of crowdsourcing.
Crowd Creation – Most likely what comes to mind when you think of crowdsourcing. This type of crowdsourcing is what is mostly done through social media and open forums like Sony. Entering a video in a contest to use for a commercial, designing a t-shirt, or writing a piece of content for a company are examples of this. “On the Internet no one knows you are a dog,” which is what makes crowdsourcing possible. Nobody knows whether you are a professional photographer or award winning screenwriter. The only qualification is the work itself. “Crowdsourcing can be effective not only for sourcing new writing, photography, music and film, but for solving real-world scientific problems.” Thinking outside the box is great but being outside the world can sometimes be better. People who don’t attend the same schools, work on all of the similair projects, or are even involved in the field are many times the ones that solve the hardest problems in that industry.
Crowd Wisdom - attempts to harness many people’s knowledge in order to solve problems or predict future outcomes or help direct corporate strategy. According to Jeff Howe, who coined the term “crowdsourcing”, “Given the right set of conditions the crowd will almost always outperform any number of employees – a fact that many companies are increasingly attempting to exploit.” Cal Tech professor Scott E Page has done studies to show that smaller groups of highly intelligent people are consistently outperformed by crowds. We will take a closer look at Crowd Wisdom, successful implementations, and how ClickWrite can help manage you manage your crowd wisdom next week.
Crowd Voting - Crowd Voting asks the crowd to organize, filter and rank content. This includes; movies, music, and blog posts. Voting is the most popular form of crowdsourcing and results in the highest levels of participation. If you think about it Google’s search engine is built on Crowd Voting. Jeff Howe refers to what he calls the 1:10:89 rule. This states that out of 100 people:
1% will create something valuable
10% will vote and rate submissions
89% will consume creation
According to Howe, for the 10% that vote and rate content “the act of consumption was itself an act of creation.”
Crowd Funding - Crowd-Funding is an alternative way of financing a variety of different projects. We will look more at Crowd Funding next week.
So now you know the 4 basic types of crowdsourcing. Let's take a look at some successes from the Crowd Creation and Crowd Voting types of crowdsourcing since we will be looking at Crowd Wisdom and Crowd Funding next week.
How successful was the Life in a Day project? They received 80,000 submissions and 4,500 hours of footage from 192 countries. I would say that it was very successful.
YouTube has turned into a perfect place for innovative crowd creation when it comes to video. Another example of this was the YouTube Symphony Orchestra, which was made up of thousands of video submissions, from different musicians playing the same song, on a variety of instruments. This was turned into a collage, or mash-up, and viewed by millions online. A select group of the musicians were invited to play at Carnegie Hall.
Photography is the “canary in the coal mine” when it comes to crowdsourcing, according to Howe. There have been 3 separate developments in photography that has turned it into one of the biggest pieces of crowdsourced content online:
The affordable digital SLR camera
Photo editing software, like Photoshop, that has become easier to use
The internet, where people can share their photos and download others
So what did this mean for photographers? Well the quality of photographs by amateurs began to rival professionals. This especially affected stock photographers who would sell their photos for up to $400 each. Stock photos were no longer a scarce commodity but instead they were now abundant with amateur photographers around the World posting their photos online. Instead of spending $400 on 1 photo you could now get them each for a dollar online. The demand for stock photos went through the roof and a site called IStockPhoto had positioned itself perfectly. IStockPhoto.com has become the king of the crowdsource by letting users come to the site and buy/license stock photography from other photographers for affordable prices. They recently began offering videos as well.
Crowdspring has taken the crowd creation to another level by having companies ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 post briefs on their site for a fee. These briefs have set payments for the winner and are seen by the whole Crowdspring community. Anyone who wants to submit a design for a website, logo, stationary, or a writing sample can and the company then decides which one they want to use. Many worry that this might cause the same effect that we saw with stock photography. According to Howe, “crowdsourcing doesn’t eradicate a business, it just changes it dramatically.” So it is yet to be seen the full effect on agencies and professional graphic designers from Crowdspring and other sites.
Success with Crowd Voting
If you decide that you like this blog post and want to tweet it or post it on Facebook you have just become part of a Crowd Voting crowdsource. An even better example would be to post it on Digg and then see who votes for it and results in a higher ranking. This type of crowdsource is seen everywhere from social media to brand and product choices to American Idol. People love to vote, rank, make top 10 lists, etc. and all of these can contribute to a Crowd Voting crowdsource.
Let's say you have two logos and just can't decide which one is right for your business. Why don't you turn it over to the people who are most important to that business. the consumer? Put it to a public vote and let them decide which logo is more effective. Things like that engage consumers and turn them into more than just someone who buys your product. It turns the customers into partners and lets them know you value their opinion. You can do this in a variety of ways and it helps you to improve your company, product, or service because your customers help you make the right decision. Does it always work flawlessly? No, but what does? Some of you might remember some of the crowd voting used to name new baby animals at the zoo or a new public building and how the names got a little out of hand. Still, if your customers likes Baby Poop Nugget over Larry the Lion then it might be something to consider.
One of the biggest successes in crowd voting is the reality television explosion where America votes on who they want to go home or move on (depending how you look at it). American Idol is probably the best example and has been the most successful crowd voting reality shows. Millions vote each week through phone calls and text messages.
Google was mentioned in the description of Crowd Voting earlier and is by far the biggest and most successful crowd voting based implementation in history. Of course Google has grown and its rankings of pages has become more complicated (and for most more confusing) but a huge piece of its ranking system is still based off links to your site. Why would somebody link to your site? If they find the information valuable. They might think it is informative, funny, or just so bad they have to use it as an example (still considered a vote though). This helps esentially send votes and let Google know that something valuable is located on your site. The more links the better and this moves your ranking up, which is a crowd voting result. Next time you link to a site think of it as you being part of a crowd who is voting for that site.
Crowd Wisdom and Crowd Funding, how they can both benefit your business
Internal Crowd Sourcing
How to Manage Your Crowdsourcing Project
How ClickWrite can help you with your internal Crowd Sourcing through Crowd Wisdom and Management
Sure your management team might have MBAs from Harvard or have been successful at a Fortune 100 company, but studies still show that smaller groups of highly intelligent people are consistently outperformed by crowds.
“On the Internet no one knows you are a dog,” which is what makes crowdsourcing possible. Nobody knows whether you are a professional photographer or award winning screenwriter. The only qualification is the work itself.
So you have tried everything; Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIN, and yelling at people from your 3rd floor office, but the leads generated and amount of conversions haven’t been what you expected. You ask yourself, "What am I doing wrong?"
Microsites can be as complex or simple as you want and can deliver a targeted message no matter how many pieces of additional information is on the page or pages. The size of the microsite and the content used will depend on what your goal is and who you want to target.
In the first two parts of Successful Franchises Use Microsites we looked at how franchisors, and franchisees, are having a difficult time determining what marketing strategy works best for them, how a microsite can combine different pieces of media within that strategy, and how a franchisor can benefit from creating a microsite specifically for franchise sales. This week we will take a look at the microsite and how content marketing strategy plays a vital role in its success.
Last week we took a look at the crowded media landscape and how franchisors are having a difficult time determining which options are best for them and their franchisees. This week we will look at whether a microsite dedicated to franchise sales is a good move for franchisors. According to the International Franchise Association (IFA) “creating a “microsite” dedicated to franchise sales is a wise move for franchisors.”
The substantial increase in purchase intent, brand favorability, ad awareness and aided brand awareness shows that a microsite experience offers a company or brand an unusual level of engagement with specific targeted users.
We've been offering the ClickWrite Microsite Platform for a good many months now and have seen many light bulbs go off for people once it's explained. Seems the need for such a product is vast and as unique as great marketing minds can make of it.
Microsite networks have terrific potential in obtaining high ranking local search results. A recent change to Google's Place Search provides an even better way to highlight this potential and produce amazing results.
Alex Huff, LoudClick Founder and CEO, has been interviewed on 2 podcasts providing a great overview of what the ClickWrite Microsite Platform is, the ideas that led to its creation and who would benefit from it most Read More | <urn:uuid:eb3a33ac-e44f-4a62-a1d9-f6c8b9a538f0> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.clickwrite.com/Blog/CrowdsourcingPt2FindingSuccessinaCrowd.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397842.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00166-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970021 | 2,537 | 2.53125 | 3 |
The class Date in "java.util" package represents date and time. It's no arguments constructor creates date object specifying current date and time.
U - Java Terms
util Date The class Date in "java.util" package represents date and time.
It's no arguments constructor creates date object specifying current date and
time. It can be created specifying year, month, date.
Java URI Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) is used to name or identify a resource. URI
can be classified as Uniform Resource Locator (URL) and Uniform Resource Name
Java Urlencoder URLEncoder class of "java.net" package provides two static methods
that are used to convert a string into a fully encoded URL string.
Java UDP TCP and UDP are transport protocols used for communication between computers.
UDP(User Datagram Protocol) is a very simple connectionless protocol.
Java 1.4.2 Update 2 provides improved behavior for applets in Safari and
increased stability for desktop Java applications. Java 1.4.2 Update 2 also
includes all the improvements from Java 1.4.2 Update 1.
UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery, and
Integration) is an XML-based registry for Web services on the Internet. A UDDI
registry service is a Web service that manages information about service
providers, service implementations, and service metadata. | <urn:uuid:0b608d44-0b33-4d3c-ae4a-f8d93be4acfe> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.roseindia.net/help/java/u/index.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783408840.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155008-00023-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.715812 | 290 | 3 | 3 |
According to Paul Sclavounos, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture, 4,000 five megawatt turbines could meet New York City’s average annual electric consumption. The city’s five boroughs, plus Westchester, consumed around 60 thousand gigawatt-hours of electricity last year, according to ConEdison. That’s 60 billion kilowatt-hours a year.
This might sound like a lot, but it turns out New York City residents are among the greenest Americans, with households averaging 4,200 kilowatt-hours per year; typical households in less concentrated cities consume two to three times as much power. Still, even with the efficiencies of urban living, when the power needs associated with sweltering summers combine with the needs of bustling industrial and commercial sectors, New York’s utilities struggle to satisfy demand.
Sclavounos has been developing technology for ocean-based windfarms that could really help New York and other coastal cities with growing appetites for electricity. Unlike most offshore installations, which are fixed, bottom-mounted structures near the shore, the windfarms Sclavounos envisions involve a floating array of multi-mega watt turbines located miles from the coastline, and virtually invisible from shore. The absence of any visual impact, believes Sclavounos, lends a critical advantage to his offshore technology, since many coastal property owners object to seeing giant windmills in their “backyard.”
The tower for each turbine would stretch 90 meters above the surface of the sea, supporting blades reaching 125 meters in diameter. The whole apparatus would rest on special buoys, one kilometer apart, with strong mooring systems to take big waves. Sub-sea cables dug into trenches would channel electricity generated by each turbine to the electric grid onshore.
Sclavounos calculates that a windfarm sufficient to power all of New York City would spread over 4,000 square kilometers of offshore terrain — 40 by 40 miles, or a land area roughly equivalent to half of Yellowstone National Park. A windfarm of a more typical size, one rated 300 megawatts, say, would occupy a five by five mile swath of ocean, and could power 1.5% of the city. “That’s a start,” says Sclavounos. —Leda Zimmerman | <urn:uuid:154d85cd-e351-4423-9610-482df7c63825> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://engineering.mit.edu/ask/how-many-wind-turbines-would-it-take-power-all-new-york-city | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393997.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00154-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933906 | 490 | 3.03125 | 3 |
We as humans have always marveled at the sight of birds and insects soaring through the air. But eventually we achieved flight with airplanes and even hovering with helicopters. One comes to think, do birds marvel at the wonder of the hummingbirds?
Hummingbirds are quite a special species of birds. Like many other birds, hummingbirds can fly in the air, however, they have an ability that all other birds do not. Hummingbirds have the ability to hover in mid air for prolonged periods of time.
Why do hummingbirds need to hover? They use their hovering ability to obtain nectar from flowers. As shown in the picture to the left, hummingbirds hover over or in front of a flower and then use their specialized bills to suck out nectar from the flowers. However, hummingbirds expend a huge amount of energy in hovering; they have to eat more food than the weight of their bodies to sustain life.
But how do hummingbirds manage to hover? A hummingbird’s wings are very unique. The joints of the elbow and shoulder of the wings are very close to the body of the hummingbird. What this allows is for the hummingbird to be extremely flexible near its shoulder. To use this ability, the Hummingbird flap their wings in a horizontal eight figure at an astounding rate of 15-80 times per second. What is even more amazing about the wings of the hummingbirds is that the upstroke of the wings produce lift as well. The downstroke accounts for about seventy five percent of the weight of the bird while the upstroke accounts for about twenty five percent of the body weight. What is so special about this is that hummingbirds are quite similar to insects. When insects flap their wings, the upstroke and downstroke account for fifty percent of the insects weight. For regular birds, the downstroke accoutns for one hundred percent of the body weight.
Hoewever, hummingbirds have another trick up their small furry bodies. Recent studies have shown that hummingbirds have an enlarged part of their brain specialized for helping a hummingbird stabilize while hovering in mid air. This enlarged nuclei, which helps birds detect moving objects, is about two to five times larger in hummingbirds than in other birds. They have a certain reflex called the optokinetic response. This response minimizes the speed at which objects will be traveling across the bird’s retina, and essentially stabilizes a hummingbird’s eyesight. This allows them to accurately put their bill into a flower to eat.
Here’s a slow motion video to show how amazing the hummingbird is: | <urn:uuid:8476652f-0a26-47c5-8b67-05261b7004a2> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blogs.bu.edu/bioaerial2012/2012/09/26/the-hummincopter/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393997.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00121-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953835 | 532 | 4.28125 | 4 |
Software and Analysis
Catch the Leak Testing Drift
Measurement equipment needs calibration. That goes without saying. But, when it comes to leak testing equipment, there are two issues to consider regarding regular calibration. One is the calibration of the leak orifice and the second is the calibration of the instrument to the test part and process.
The periodic calibration of the leak orifice is usually performed semiannually or annually, based on companies' ISO standards. This calibration should be performed on a regular basis to assure the accuracy of the leak standard.
However, equally, if not more importantly, the calibration of the instrument to the test part and process should be performed frequently during the day to correct for the changes in the test environment and the part that affect the pressure change measurement. These changes, called drift, can affect test accuracy. An optional process drift correction function within the instrument will automatically make corrections for the cyclical changes in the test conditions.
This correction of the calibration is important because some variations in parts and test environments cause little change to test results while other tests are greatly affected. Some companies are conscientious about periodic calibration and others only worry about it when high reject rates occur.
Using a process drift correction function maintains system accuracy throughout the production period, improves production throughput by eliminating production downtime for frequent recalibrations, minimizes the opportunity to incorrectly calibrate the system, and reduces false rejects and accepts.
Get the drift
Leak testing is a form of nondestructive testing that finds leak sites and measures the quantity of material passing through these sites. When testing a part with pressure and performing a pressure decay test, it is referred to as pressurizing the part. When testing a part with a vacuum and performing a vacuum decay test, it is referred to as evacuating the part.
To verify that a leak testing process is finding a specified hole or leak rate in a product, you must have a calibrated hole or leak that matches the specification. These leak orifices are not certified in terms of hole size but in terms of airflow rate at a specified pressure. A pressure decay or mass flow instrument measures the differences in the pressure change effect on a test part when the part has virtually no leak vs. a part with a leak that is marginally unacceptable as defined by the calibrated leak orifice.
Because a part has normal pressure change effects from being pressurized, the calibration process teaches the leak test instrument how much pressure change is a result of the normal testing process and how much additional change is due to a known, defined leak. With a known calibrated leak, the customer can add that leak to any portion of the direct test circuit and see if the instrument displays that leak rate at the conclusion of its test. Without a calibration process that measures the no-leak pressure change and defines the pressure change or flow change differential due to a traceable leak, there is no direct correlation of any testing process to the actual leak that the customer desires to find.
When a pressure decay or mass flow instrument is calibrated to a part and process, it has a pressure change or flow offset, known as the tar value, that represents a typical signal value measured by the instrument for a part that has no measurable leak. For every test, the instrument subtracts this offset value from the measured test signal and then calculates the corresponding leak rate.
The pressure change or flow offset value is a minute, residual, dynamically changing pressure or flow value caused by gradual temperature or volume changes in the sealed part. The pressure or flow change is measured during a precise time interval in the test procedure that is a dynamic process. Because leak tests are required in a short time cycle to meet production requirements, the test must be performed before the part's pressure completely stabilizes.
Normalization process occurs
The test procedure involves compressing air into a fixed volume. Depending on the test pressure, that compression process creates a level of heat in the compressed air called adiabatic heat effect. Because the temperatures of the air in the part itself and the air outside the part are not exactly the same, they all dynamically try to normalize to some new common temperature.
This normalization process happens in an exponential way. The pressure in the sealed part changes dynamically with the temperature because of the Ideal Gas Law, which is stated as PV = nRT. Likewise, if the part walls move because of being pressurized, the volume of the part changes exponentially as the part stops growing. The pressure again will change dynamically with the volume change because of the Ideal Gas Law. The instruments read the pressure changes at precise time intervals along these dynamically changing pressure curves. If any conditions of the test change, it will alter the shape of the dynamically changing curve.
For example, if a part is tested in a non-air-conditioned factory, the temperature of the air in that factory will change gradually during the day from 70 to 90 degrees and back to 70 degrees. The change in the plant air temperature causes a change in the temperature relationship of the air temperature in the part vs. the part temperature vs. air temperature outside the part. If the differences are greater, temperature change and therefore pressure change will occur at the precise time when pressure loss is measured. Therefore the tar value or pressure offset will not be the same as when the instrument was calibrated. This will cause an error in the calculated leak rate. Because a pressure change of 0.01 per square inch might represent the 10 standard cubic centimeters per minute leak rate, a variation of 0.0005 per square inch would represent a 5% drift in calculated leak rate. This could translate to a difference in temperature change during the test of only 0.001 F.
Temperature sensitive parts, such as heat exchangers, are greatly affected by temperature changes while heavily walled products or plastic products are not. Metal products are less susceptible to elasticity or volume changes than plastic products. For heat exchanger products, drift correction might prevent accepting 10% reject products or rejecting 10% accept products. For less temperature or volume-dependent products, process drift correction could affect the results of 1% to 2% of the products.
If the amount of drift in the leak rate results is unacceptable, the user has the option to recalibrate the instrument as frequently as necessary to track the unacceptable drift in test results.
Some leak test products have a function that tracks the drift and corrects the calculated leak rate. This function keeps the instrument's calibration tuned to the process that includes changes in fill-air temperature, part temperature, ambient temperature, part elasticity, part absorption and seal creep.
Before activating an automatic process drift correction, it is usually best to download a day's production test results and plot them to see just how much drift does occur. Some instruments can store up to 1,000 test results, and most leak test products can download results via a RS232 port. A time plot of the test results will show the cyclical effects of the process drift on the test results. Also, the magnitude of the drift can be evaluated to determine if it adversely affects the test results.
After analyzing the typical pressure change values over a typical production day and determining that most of the pressure loss changes occur in a cyclical fashion, process drift correction can be used to nearly eliminate performing automatic calibration to keep the instrument tuned to the process. A calibration verification will show that the system is accurately reading the leak rate.
- Temperature sensitive parts, such as heat exchangers, are greatly affected by temperature changes while heavily walled products or plastic products are not. Metal products are less susceptible to elasticity or volume changes than plastic products.
- The process drift correction function keeps the instrument's calibration tuned to the process which includes changes in fill-air temperature, part temperature, ambient temperature, part elasticity, part absorption and seal creep.
- Before activating an automatic process drift correction, it is usually best to download a day's production test results and plot them to see just how much drift does occur.
- Most leak test products can download results via a RS232 port. | <urn:uuid:483112cd-f9c3-4ee4-a605-eeb6379052d2> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.qualitymag.com/articles/84309 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397865.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919901 | 1,636 | 2.875 | 3 |
Introduction l True Womanhood l New Women l Growing Up Female l Political Women l Suffrage l Abolition l Women and War l Work Outside the Home l Cookery and Fancy-Work l Work Inside the Home l Mothering l Marriage l Marriage and Divorce l Regionalism l Travel l Bestsellers l Highlights l English 437: Students Research Rare Books
Women and War
For centuries war was considered a male concern. And yet, for some women,war also meant opportunities for experiences and responsibilities that
were usually off-limits. Nursing, spying, and even fighting battles in
male drag, the writers displayed here explored territories new to most
nineteenth-century women. War was also fertile ground for the literary
imagination, offering romance, action, tragedy, and opportunities for
addressing national and political questions.
"Should you, my lord, while you peruse my song,
Wonder from whence my love of Freedom sprung,
Whence flow these wishes for the common good,
By feeling hearts alone best understood,
I, young in life, by seeming cruel fate
Was snatch’d from Afric’s fancy’d happy seat:
What pangs excruciating must molest,
What sorrows labour in my parent’s breast?
Steel’d was that soul and by no misery mov’d
That from a father seiz’d his babe belov’d:
Such, such is my case. And can I then but pray
Others may never feel tyrannic sway?”
Phillis Wheatley, 1753-1784.To the Right Honorable William, Earl of Dartmouth.”
in: Memoir and Poems of Phillis Wheatley, a Native African and a Slave. Also, Poems by a Slave.
Boston: Isaac Knapp, 1838.
Purchased with a gift from Fred and Betsy Miller to the Treasures Acquisition Program.
Phillis Wheatley became in 1773 the first African American woman to publish her poetry. Written on the very eve of the Revolutionary War, her book reflects the emergent nationalism of her time. In the poem quoted here, addressed to the British colonial governor, she poses her own enslaved condition as an object lesson on the universal love of freedom.
“He was born under Washington’s flag, and sucks in independence . . . with his mother’smilk, the little rascal.”
Catharine Maria Sedgwick, 1789-1867.The Linwoods; or, “Sixty Years Since” in America.
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1835.
One of the first U.S. women to make a living by her pen, Sedgwick addressed political and patriotic themes in much of her fiction. In The Linwoods she uses the Revolutionary War as a context in which to explore the emergence of American nationhood, and – as the passage displayed here indicates – to place American womanhood at its origin.
“To the Texan Patriots . . . who wrenched asunder the iron bands of despotic Mexico!”
Augusta Jane Evans, 1835-1909.Tale of the Alamo.
New York: John Bradburn, 1865.
Gift of Mary Rankin Bruce.
Later, Evans would be famous for her pro-Confederacy novels such as Macaria. But her first literary effort, published at the age of 15, was this anti-Catholic love story set against the backdrop of the Mexican-American war.
Nursing the Union
Louisa May Alcott, 1832-1888.
Hospital Sketches and Camp and Fireside Stories.
Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1880.
Anna L. Boyden.
War Reminiscences: A Record of Mrs. Rebecca R. Pomroy’s Experience in War-Times.
Boston: D. Lothrop Company, 1884.
Mary A. Gardner Holland.
Army Nurses. Interesting Sketches, Addresses and Photographs of Nearly
One Hundred of the Noble Women Who Served in Hospitals and on
Battlefields during Our Civil War.
Boston: B. Wilkins & Co., Publishers, 1895.
Thousands of women traveled far from home to nurse union soldiers during the American Civil War. These three texts document some of their stories. Holland gathered first-person recollections from a large and diverse group of former nurses who recounted their experiences in hospitals, home, and battlefields. Boyden recollects her wartime years in Washington, D.C., working in the Georgetown army hospital and socializing at the White House. Alcott’s stories are also set in the Georgetown hospital and based upon her own service. But she casts her experiences in fictional form – perhaps she found it more strategic to tackle controversial issues like Northern racism in the voice of her protagonist, nurse Tribulation Periwinkle, than in her own.
“Northern women are rather deep than violent.”
Caroline M. Kirkland, 1801-1864.
A Few Words in Behalf of the Loyal Women of the United States by One of Themselves.
New York: Loyal Publication Society, 1863.
This pamphlet circulated during the Civil War in response to public insinuations that Northern women were less patriotic and self-sacrificial than their Southern counterparts. Widely respected for her books of frontier life and political journalism, Kirkland made a formidable defender of unionist female patriotism.
Women’s Civil War Diaries
Jessie Benton Frémont, 1824-1902.Souvenirs of My Time.
Boston: D. Lothrop Company, 1887.
Mary A.H. Gay, 1828-1918.Life in Dixie During the War.
Atlanta, Georgia: Fotte & Davies Company, 1901.
Katharine Prescott Wormeley, 1830-1908.The Cruel Side of War with the Army of the Potomac.
Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1898.
“Our Women in the War”: The Lives They Lived; The Deaths They Died.”
Charleston: The News and Courier Book Presses, 1885.
Mrs. D. Giraud Wright, 1846-1893.A Southern Girl in ’61: The War-Time Memories of a Confederate Senator’s Daughter.
New York: Doubleday, 1905.
Francis Lord Collection of the American Civil War.
Mary Boykin Chesnut, 1823-1886.A Diary From Dixie.
New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1905.
Collection of the South Caroliniana Library.
Historians – and especially war historians – often focus on matters that have excluded women: political leadership, battles won and lost, military strategy. Women’s Civil War memoirs and diaries, of which the Hollings Special Collections Library boasts a large array, offer a fascinatingly different perspective on the everyday experiences of loss, hardship, and survival. The best known of these is the diary of South Carolinian Mary Boykin Chesnut, daughter and wife of two South Carolina Senators.
“We rely upon you for precise information”
Rose O’Neal Greenhow, 1817-1864.My Imprisonment and the First Year of Abolition Rule at Washington.
London: Richard Bentley, 1863.
Popular among the elite of Washington, D.C. society before the war, Mrs. Greenhow exploited her connections after fighting began to gather information for the Confederacy. Above, she recounts sending secret intelligence to Southern troops during the battle of Manassas. Captured by and imprisoned for 9 months in a Union prison, Greenhow traveled around Europe after her release to cultivate support for the confederate cause.
“Mrs. Greenhow, the Confederate spy, with her daughter, in the old capitol prison.”]
Sarah Emma Edmonds, 1841-1898.
or, The Female soldier. TheThrilling Adventures, Experiences and
Escapes of a Woman, as Nurse, Spy and Scout, in Hospitals, Camps and
Philadelphia: Philadelphia Publishing Company, 1864.
A popular subgenre of women’s wartime memoir was tales of adventure as spies, smugglers, and more. Edmonds did it all, as her title promises. She claims that she even wore blackface to infiltrate southern troops passing as an escaped slave. What she omits here – and only revealed thirty years later, in a revised version of the memoir – is that she also cross-dressed as a man to serve as a soldier.
Homespun Confederate Flag, ca. 1861-1865.
Collection of McKissick Museum.
During the Civil War, southern women relied on homespun fabric for their own use and for outfitting soldiers. One Confederate soldier carried this hand-stitched homespun flag into battle as a memento of the family he left behind.
United Daughters of the Confederacy Southern Cross of Honor, ca. 1900-1913.
Collection of McKissick Museum.
Long after the Confederacy’s surrender, Southern white women felt responsible for defending the “Lost Cause.” Founded in 1894, the United Daughters of the Confederacy memorializes the Old South. The UDC bestowed its highest award, the Southern Cross of Honor, upon Confederate veterans. This medal’s engraved motto justifies the cause, evoking a higher power: “Deo Vindice (God our Vindicator).” | <urn:uuid:2d3e4f9d-e65b-4d76-9ba0-e5cea2884ae9> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://library.sc.edu/spcoll/BeyondDomesticity/webExhbit/WomenAndWar.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397749.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00052-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.905826 | 2,003 | 3.015625 | 3 |
- A golden feat of architecture
- The Golden Gate Bridge built in 1937, is the most beautiful bridge in the world. It is certainly the most photographed.
- The man blamed for the fall of Tacoma's Galloping Gertie
- Leon Moisseiff, right, a New York engineer and designer of the infamous Galloping Gertie stands alongside construction engineer Clark Eldridge on Nov. 14, 1940, to discuss the reconstruction of the approach to the main span of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.
- The Strangest, Most Spectacular Bridge Collapse (And How We Got It Wrong)
- At 10 a.m. on the morning of November 7, 1940, Professor F.
- No Silver Lining After San Bernardino
- The Manhattan bridge in particular was designed by the suspension bridge engineer Leon Moisseiff. It opened in 1909. When I ride over that Bridge, I forget the increasingly loud, abrasive pandering of the media.
- Makkah tragedy: Grief-stricken but undeterred
- Sadly it also ended the brilliant career of Leon Moisseiff, the bridge engineer. However the lessons were well learnt resulting in many sleek and aesthetical suspension bridges in the world.
Leon Moisseiff is described in multiple online sources, as addition to our editors' articles, see section below for printable documents, Leon Moisseiff books and related discussion.
Suggested News Resources
Great care has been taken to prepare the information on this page. Elements of the content come from factual and lexical knowledge databases, realmagick.com library and third-party sources. We appreciate your suggestions and comments on further improvements of the site.
Leon Moisseiff Topics
Related searchescosts of production
charlie chaplin private life
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deus caritas est summary
ecchi japanese usage | <urn:uuid:068409c8-4d6a-4cf2-b9b7-596f0c7bd5c2> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.realmagick.com/leon-moisseiff/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402479.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00201-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.886031 | 393 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Area of a Sector in Radians.
Hi, I need some help with the following two problems:
1.) Find an exact value for the fraction of the sector represented by the triangle AOB in the sector AOB in the diagram.
The answer is supposedly 3√3/2π.
2). The area of the sector AOB and the triangle AOB are at a ratio of 3:2.
The angle AOB is in radians.
Show that 2θ-3sinθ=0.
I have managed to get:
3=½r²θ and 2=½r²sinθ
½r²θ-3=0 and ½r²sinθ-2=0
But I'm unsure where to go from there.
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks very much. | <urn:uuid:8fd087ba-b8a0-46fe-913f-a738ef6c5a6a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://mathhelpforum.com/trigonometry/100341-area-sector-radians-print.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395166.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00193-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.904877 | 177 | 2.546875 | 3 |
The GCR sites selected for this GCR Block represent the British geological record of Earth history from about 210 to 205 million years ago (Ma). This interval is the last part of the Late Triassic Epoch, which spans from 227 to 205 Ma. Rocks that formed during the Late Triassic Epoch (part of the Triassic Period, 250–205 Ma) constitute the Upper Triassic Series (part of the Triassic System). British rocks of Rhaetian age include the Penarth Group, the formal lithostratigraphical name for rocks formerly called the ‘Rhaetic’ in Britain. However, owing to the formal definition of the Rhaetian Age, British Rhaetian strata include the uppermost part of the Triassic Mercia Mudstone Group, and the lowermost part of the otherwise Jurassic Lias Group. The main focus of this GCR Block is the Penarth Group sediments.
The Penarth Group comprises the Westbury Formation and the succeeding Lilstock Formation. The Group represents a dramatic change in sedimentation style throughout the British Isles and much of western and central Europe at the end of the Triassic Period. The mainly continental, red and yellow mudstones and sandstones of the Germanic Keuper and of the Mercia Mudstone Group, come to an abrupt halt, and are succeeded by grey, marine mudstones, limestones, and sporadic, thin, bone beds. This change has long been interpreted as reflecting a major marine transgression that apparently flooded much of north-west and central Europe a few million years before the end of the Triassic Period, a prelude to the marine Lower Jurassic Series (= Lias).
The change in sedimentary style that marks the onset of the Penarth Group, from red bed to dark-coloured marine sediments, is dramatic, but it is local to central and western Europe, and not a worldwide phenomenon, and it is not associated with major faunal and floral changes. Such changes occur higher in the succession, around the Triassic–Jurassic boundary, as formally defined.
The Penarth Group is noted for its sharp, unconformable boundary with the underlying Blue Anchor Formation of the Mercia Mudstone Group, probably marking the level at which the Rhaetian sea waters flooded across the playas and brackish sabkhas. Penarth Group sediments are marine, as indicated by their fossil content, including, for example, dinoflagellate cysts, corals, brachiopods, bivalves, echinoderm debris and ichthyosaur bones). The sediments consist predominantly of blue, grey, and black shales and limestones, arranged in laterally extensive, but generally thin, units. Bone beds, units containing abundant transported bones, teeth, coprolites, and phosphatic debris of mixed marine and continental derivation occur in places. A basal bone bed occurs at some locations, but there are in fact ‘Rhaetic’ bone beds at several horizons.
The Westbury Formation overlies the Blue Anchor Formation, the uppermost unit of the Mercia Mudstone Group, usually unconformably. In many places, a thin, laterally impersistent bone bed, the ‘Rhaetic bone bed’, occurs at the base of the Westbury Formation. The remainder of the formation consists of dark grey mudstones or shales with subordinate thin limestones and sandstones. The overlying Lilstock Formation is bounded above by the base of the ‘Paper Shale’ of the Pre-planorbis beds of the Lower Lias.
The Pre-planorbis beds and the Triassic–Jurassic boundary
The position of the Triassic–Jurassic boundary has been a subject of debate for many years.
Up to 1980, the base of the Jurassic System in Britain was traditionally taken to be the base of the Lias Group, the succession of generally grey-coloured mudstones and limestones so characteristic of the Lower Jurassic Series throughout much of Europe. This interpretation placed the boundary at the base of the lithologically defined ‘Blue Lias’, in particular placing the Pre-planorbis Beds in the Jurassic System. However, this characterization of the base of the system in Britain was purely lithological, and a formal, biostratigraphical definition has been placed at the first appearance of the ammonite Psiloceras planorbis, which thereby marks the base of the Hettangian Stage. Therefore the Pre-planorbis beds of the Blue Lias Formation are of Triassic, not Jurassic, age.
Palaeoenvironment and palaeogeography
The Penarth Group reflects the widespread establishment of marine environments following a transgression that spread northwards through central and north-western Europe into Britain. At the same time, there was major rifting and volcanism in southern Europe, North Africa, and eastern North America, as proto-North Atlantic rifting opened up linear structures parallel to the current coastline of eastern North America, from Nova Scotia where thick lacustrine sediments of the Newark Supergroup accumulated.
The marine rocks of the Penarth Group succeed the greyish and greenish, dolomitic mudstones of the Blue Anchor Formation, formerly the ‘Tea Green Marls’ and ‘Grey Marls’, the highest formation in the Mercia Mudstone Group. These marine influences in the upper Norian strata in the UK were followed by full-scale marine conditions in the Rhaetian .
The Penarth Group sediments mark the marine transgression proper. The top of the Blue Anchor Formation is often intensely burrowed, and clasts of Blue Anchor Formation mudstones commonly occur in the basal Westbury Formation. The unconformable base of the Penarth Group is also marked here and there by bone-rich arenaceous units, the ‘Rhaetic bone beds’, and these are overlain by beds containing marine fossils such as oysters, pectinid bivalves, and echinoids.
The timing of the transgression is unclear in Britain. It appears to have occurred rapidly, perhaps sweeping from the south to the north. After the initial flooding, dark shales of the Westbury Formation accumulated. This facies is typical of the English Penarth Group, and is also seen throughout the region of the transgression, from the Alps to the Baltic area. The black shales throughout this whole area contain a limited fauna, predominantly the bivalve Rhaetavicula contorta, hence the former name of the unit, the ‘contorta Zone’. Rhaetavicula is a specialized epifaunal bivalve that was presumably adapted to unfavourable conditions, particularly anoxic bottom waters, evidenced by the black colour of the shales and by associated pyrite.
The Westbury Formation bone beds
There are bone beds at several horizons in the Westbury Formation, not just at its base. In all cases the bones are heavily phosphatized and may be in superb and apparently unworn condition, or extensively rolled and abraded. The contrast in styles of preservation is best brought out by a comparison of material from the bone beds at Westbury Garden Cliff, on the north bank of the River Severn, and Aust Cliff, on the south.
In both cases, bones, spines, teeth, and scales, have been swept in by storm activity of some kind. The remains represent aquatic, and presumably marine, vertebrates for the most part (fishes, ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, choristoderes), but there are some unequivocal dinosaur bones. Hence, the bone beds indicate a shallow marine setting, confirmed by the associated trace fossils and shelly fossils. Perhaps the transgressing sea swept over the playas and sabkha plains of the Mercia Mudstone Group, engulfing the remains of dinosaurs and other terrestrial fauna, and mixing them with those of fishes and marine reptiles living in the newly expanding sea.
The Lilstock Formation
The black shales of the upper part of the Westbury Formation are overlain by grey-green and grey marls of the Cotham Member of the Lilstock Formation..
The environment in southern England was probably an extensive inhospitable hypersaline tidal flat. Such conditions are indicated by a range of sedimentary structures in the Cotham Member sediments. In places, domal stromatolites have been reported, formed by the growth of cyanobacteria and calcareous sediments, and indicating desiccating saline conditions. Locally, these form the famous landscape Cotham Marble in the Bristol district.
The Langport Member consists mainly of limestones with dark shales, and indicates a renewal of fully marine conditions. The Langport Member often contains a rich fauna of oysters, pectinid bivalves, echinoids, solitary corals, and trace fossils, all indicative of shallow marine conditions. In Devon, the member is represented by limestones formerly known as the ‘White Lias’.
The Penarth Group sediments document an apparently rapid marine transgression at the base of the Westbury Formation, followed by shallowing and local exposure as hypersaline tidal flats during Cotham Member times, and a further inundation in the Langport Member times. The sea apparently deepened into Jurassic times.
GCR site selection
Penarth Group sediments have been described from a large number of sites, especially in the south-west of England and South Wales, but also from occurrences in Gloucestershire, Hereford and Worcester, Warwickshire, Staffordshire, Cheshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, Yorkshire and Cumbria. The goup was also identified in Scotland (Morayshire, Hebrides, Arran) and in Northern Ireland, as well as from boreholes in the North Sea, the Irish Sea, the Western Approaches, and in south-east England.
GCR sites on the north and south shores of the Severn Estuary, and on the Dorset coast are selected for the GCR to represent the sedimentary, stratigraphical and palaeontological features of the Penarth Group, according to four regional networks:
• South Wales
• South Gloucestershire
• North Somerset
• East Devon.
Palaeontology, fauna and flora
The fossils of the Penarth Group include a range of predominantly marine forms including foraminifera, corals, annelids, gastropods, bivalves, crustaceans, echinoderms, brachiopods, conodonts, and fishes (sharks, chimaeras, bony fishes, coelacanth), and organic-walled microplankton (dinoflagellate cysts and acritarchs), but also including continental organisms (plants, insects, lungfish, dinosaurs).
Fossil fish remains include abundant isolated teeth, dermal denticles, and fine spines (‘ichthyodorulites’) of sharks: Polyacrodus, Lissodus, ‘Hybodus’, Nemacanthus, Palaeospinax, Synechodus, and Vallisia. Rare tooth plates of chimaeroids include the genera Myriacanthus and Agkistracanthus. Bony fishes are represented by teeth, scales, and isolated bones of the actinopterygians Gyrolepis, Birgeria, Severnichthys, and others, a coelacanth, and tooth plates of the lungfish Ceratodus. Amphibians were reported, based on massive teeth with labyrinthine infoldings, and heavy jawbones, but these have been found to belong to the bony fish Severnichthys.
Penarth Group tetrapods are represented mostly by isolated teeth, vertebral centra, limb bones, and occasional ribs. Fossil marine reptiles from the Penarth Group are primarily from the basal bone bed: ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, placodonts, and the choristodere Pachystropheus rhaeticus, a small, superficially crocodile-like animal. Isolated remains of terrestrial reptiles reported from a number of bone-bed sites include the dinosaurs Camelotia and (?) Megalosaurus, and the phytosaur ‘Paleosaurus’. In addition, isolated teeth of mammal-like reptiles and mammals have been noted (the cynodont Tricuspes and the haramiyids Haramiya and Hypsiprimnopsis). These scattered elements of terrestrial animals were presumably washed from landmasses some distance away, and incorporated into the essentially marine bone beds. | <urn:uuid:eca3d268-e418-4415-9a32-f3baca6e5d27> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://jncc.defra.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=4175&block=91 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399106.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00153-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917353 | 2,679 | 3.328125 | 3 |
DOE A to Z:
A B C
D E F
G H I
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M N O
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New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards
CCCS Home | 1996 CCCS Home | 1996 Curriculum Frameworks
Cross-Content Workplace Readiness Standards And Progress
All Students will Develop Career Planning and Workplace Readiness Skills
Descriptive Statement: Students will be expected to develop the
skills to seek, obtain, maintain, and change jobs. These skills are critical
to each student's future ability to navigate in the complex world of work.
Prior to leaving school, each student should possess the skills needed
to sustain him/herself as an adult in the labor force.
Cumulative Progress Indicators
All students will be able to:
- Demonstrate employability skills and work habits, such as work ethic,
dependability, promptness, and getting along with others, needed to
get and keep a job.
- Describe the importance of personal skills and attitudes to job success.
- Identify career interests, abilities, and skills.
- Develop an individual career plan.
- Identify skills that are transferable from one occupation to another.
- Select a career major and appropriate accompanying courses.
- Describe the importance of academic and occupational skills to achievement
in the work world.
- Demonstrate occupational skills developed through structured learning
experiences, such as volunteer, community service, and work-based experiences
or part-time employment.
- Identify job openings.
- Prepare a resume and complete job applications.
- Demonstrate skills and attitudes necessary for a successful job interview.
- Demonstrate consumer and other financial skills. | <urn:uuid:96621c7d-b037-43cc-8335-7697bb2da08f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.nj.gov/education/cccs/1996/05ccwrstan1.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399385.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00193-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.885511 | 374 | 3.3125 | 3 |
A new report available from the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) discusses the risks faced by workers throughout the wind turbine life cycle and outlines challenges for the industry. The report notes that accidents and injuries in the relatively new wind energy sector have increased every year since 2008. The challenges facing the industry include a shortage of adequately trained workers and a lack of international consistency in health and safety practices.
Workers in the wind energy sector face hazards related to diving (at offshore wind turbine facilities), emergency evacuations, exposure to weather extremes, falls, and confined spaces, as well as ergonomic hazards such as awkward postures and manual handling. The report calls for consideration of occupational health and safety concerns during the early stages of a wind energy project so that these hazards can be “designed out” of wind turbine facilities.
The report is available as a PDF from the EU-OSHA website. | <urn:uuid:ac3352dd-a8c4-4649-89cd-601b00729660> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.aiha.org/publications-and-resources/TheSynergist/Industry%20News/Pages/EU-Identifies-Worker-Risks-in-Wind-Energy-Sector.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398075.47/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00003-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953137 | 187 | 2.8125 | 3 |
- freely available
A Food Retail-Based Intervention on Food Security and Consumption
AbstractThe effect of the built environment on diet (and ensuing health outcomes) is less understood than the effect of diet on obesity. Natural experiments are increasingly advocated in place of cross-sectional studies unable to suggest causality. The central research question of this paper, therefore, asks whether a neighborhood-level food retail intervention will affect dietary habits or food security. The intervention did not have a significant impact on fruit and vegetable consumption, and the intervention population actually purchased prepared meals more frequently. More problematic, only 8% of respondents overall regularly consumed enough fruits and vegetables, and 34% were food insecure. Further complicating this public health issue, the new grocery store closed after 17 months of operation. Results indicate that geographic access to food is only one element of malnutrition, and that multi-pronged dietary interventions may be more effective. The economic failure of the store also suggests the importance of non-retail interventions to combat malnutrition.
Share & Cite This Article
Sadler, R.C.; Gilliland, J.A.; Arku, G. A Food Retail-Based Intervention on Food Security and Consumption. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2013, 10, 3325-3346.View more citation formats
Sadler RC, Gilliland JA, Arku G. A Food Retail-Based Intervention on Food Security and Consumption. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2013; 10(8):3325-3346.Chicago/Turabian Style
Sadler, Richard C.; Gilliland, Jason A.; Arku, Godwin. 2013. "A Food Retail-Based Intervention on Food Security and Consumption." Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 10, no. 8: 3325-3346.
Notes: Multiple requests from the same IP address are counted as one view. | <urn:uuid:d20bf1d9-e35e-4fe6-9377-ad4730c9c2fc> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://mdpi.com/1660-4601/10/8/3325 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00017-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.884911 | 391 | 2.828125 | 3 |
1The process of applying gold leaf or gold paint.
Oraciones de ejemplo
- Gold leaf used in gilding is made in much the same way.
- The dome restoration was made possible by two private gifts that funded all of the gold leaf used in the gilding as well as other parts of the restoration.
- With this in mind she was determined to completely remove all dirt and corrosion from the domes before the gilding began and pioneered a method to do so.
1.1The material used in, or the surface produced by, gilding: any flaws in the surface will show through the gilding
Más ejemplos en oraciones
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- The Rococo style, characterized by lavish ornamentation, organic forms and the use of gilding, grew to its height in 18th century France.
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= de moda | <urn:uuid:855b4a57-9de9-4c06-8b30-3df457bba662> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/es/definicion/ingles/gilding | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783400572.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155000-00199-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.762714 | 341 | 2.9375 | 3 |
Latin see in Galicia, suffragan of Lemberg. After conquering Halicz and Wladimir, Casimir the Great suggested to the pope the creation of seven Latin sees in places where, from the beginning of the fourteenth century, schismatics had at least nominal sees: Halicz, Przemysl, Chelm, Vladimir, Lutzk, Kieff, and Lemberg. Franciscans and Dominicans immediately began to establish missions. When the Bishop of Lebus appointed an incumbent for Przemysl, the pope refused to recognize his jurisdiction and designated (1353) as successor the Dominican prior of Sandomir, Nicolaus Ruthenus. The latter was consecrated at the papal Court and the pope declared this diocese directly subject to the Holy See. As the see was insufficiently endowed, the bishop did not reside in his cathedral town. After the death of Nicolaus the Bishop of Lebus again endeavoured to assert jurisdiction over Przemysl, but Gregory XI appointed Eric de Winsen (1377), who became the first actual bishop of Przemysl. Blessed Jacob Strepa rendered important services to the Diocese of Przemysl. In 1237 Boleslas the Chaste had introduced the Franciscans to Cracow; about one hundred years later they came to Lemberg, where, for three years, Strepa was protector of the order. During that time, Archbishop Bernard laid Lemberg under an interdict and excommunicated the town councillors. Strepa took up the cause of the city to protect it from the influence of the neighbouring schismatics. In addition, he had to defend the Franciscans and Dominicans against the accusation of the secular clergy, who maintained that their administration of the sacraments was invalid. In 1391 Strepa became Archbishop of Galicia. In that capacity he adjusted the ancient quarrel between the Dioceses of Halicz and Pzemysl. In 1844 Bishop Franz Zachariasiewicz published the "Lives" (mentioned below), which mention fifty-seven of his predecessors; six bishops have succeeded him (1911). To the "Lives" are prefixed important data concerning the early history of the Latin sees in Russia (pp. xxv-xxxix) and concerning the Latin dioceses of Galicia (pp. xl-lxxxviii). At present the Latin Diocese of Przemysl numbers 1,152,000 Catholics ; 547 secular priests ; 369 religious men in 27 convents, and 698 religious women in 97 (99) convents.
The Catholic Encyclopedia is the most comprehensive resource on Catholic teaching, history, and information ever gathered in all of human history. This easy-to-search online version was originally printed between 1907 and 1912 in fifteen hard copy volumes.
Designed to present its readers with the full body of Catholic teaching, the Encyclopedia contains not only precise statements of what the Church has defined, but also an impartial record of different views of acknowledged authority on all disputed questions, national, political or factional. In the determination of the truth the most recent and acknowledged scientific methods are employed, and the results of the latest research in theology, philosophy, history, apologetics, archaeology, and other sciences are given careful consideration.
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Copyright © Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company New York, NY. Volume 1: 1907; Volume 2: 1907; Volume 3: 1908; Volume 4: 1908; Volume 5: 1909; Volume 6: 1909; Volume 7: 1910; Volume 8: 1910; Volume 9: 1910; Volume 10: 1911; Volume 11: - 1911; Volume 12: - 1911; Volume 13: - 1912; Volume 14: 1912; Volume 15: 1912
Catholic Online Catholic Encyclopedia Digital version Compiled and Copyright © Catholic Online | <urn:uuid:baf14da4-9aae-4e44-9fc4-043568e05369> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.catholic.org/encyclopedia/view.php?id=9713 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396459.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00017-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94594 | 925 | 2.96875 | 3 |
Born: 11 April, 1827
Passed Away: 28 November, 1890
Phule was one of the prominent social reformers of the nineteenth
century India. He led the movement against the prevailing
caste-restrictions in India. He revolted against the domination of the
Brahmins and for the rights of peasants and other low-caste fellow.
Jyotiba Phule was believed to be the first Hindu to start an orphanage
for the unfortunate children.
Jyotirao Phule was born in Satara district of Maharastra in 1827. His
father, Govindrao was a vegetable-vendor at Poona. Originally Jyotirao's
family belonged to 'mali' caste, considered as inferior by the Brahmins.
Since, Jyotirao's father and uncles served as florists, the family came
to be known as `Phule'. Jyotirao's mother passed away when he was nine
Jyotirao was an intelligent boy but due to the poor financial condition
at home, he had to stop his studies at an early age. He started helping
his father by working on the family's farm. Recognising the talent of
the child prodigy, few months later, a neighbor persuaded his father to
send him to school. In 1841, Jyotirao got admission in the Scottish
Mission's High School, Poona. There, he met Sadashiv Ballal Govande, a
Brahmin, who remained his close friend throughout his life. Jyotirao was
married to Savitribai, when he was thirteen years old.
In 1848, an incident took place in his life that later sparked off the
dalit-revolution in the Indian society. Jyotirao was invited to attend a
wedding of one of his Brahmin friends. Knowing that he belonged to
inferior caste, the relatives of the bridegroom insulted and abused him.
Jyotirao left the procession and made up his mind to defy the prevailing
caste-system and social restrictions. He then started his campaign of
serving the people of lower caste who were deprived of all their rights
as human beings.
After reading Thomas Paine's famous book 'The Rights of Man', Jyotirao
was greatly influenced by his ideas. He believed that enlightenment of
the women and lower caste people was the only solution to combat the
social evils. Therefore, in 1848, he along with his wife started a
school for the girls.
The orthodox Brahmins of the society were furious at the activities of
Jyotirao. They blamed him for vitiating the norms and regulations of the
society. Many accused him of acting on behalf of the Christian
Missionaries. But Jyotirao was firm and decided to continue the
movement. Interestingly, Jyotirao had some Brahmin friends who extended
their support to make the movement successful.
Jyotirao attacked the orthodox Brahmins and other upper castes and
termed them as "hypocrites". He campaigned against the
authoritarianism of the upper caste people. He urged the "peasants"
and "proletariat" to defy the restrictions imposed upon them.
In 1851, Jyotiba established a girls' school and asked his wife to
teach the girls in the school. Jyotirao, later, opened two more schools
for the girls and an indigenous school for the lower castes, especially
the Mahars and Mangs.
Viewing the pathetic condition of widows and unfortunate children
Jyotirao decided the open an orphanage. In order to protect those widows
and their children, Jyotiba Phule established an orphanage in 1854. Many
young widows, from the upper-caste spent their days in the orphanage.
Satya Shodhak Samaj
After tracing the history of the Brahmin domination in India, Jyotirao
blamed the Brahmins for framing the weird and inhuman laws. He concluded
that the laws were made to suppress the "shudras" and rule
over them. In 1873, Jyotiba Phule formed the Satya Shodhak Samaj
(Society of Seekers of Truth). The purpose of the organization was to
liberate the people of lower-castes from the suppression of the
Brahmins. The membership was open to all and the available evidence
proves that some Jews were admitted as members. In 1876 there were 316
members of the 'Satya Shodhak Samaj'. In 1868, in order to give the
lower-caste people more powers Jyotirao decided to construct a common
bathing tank outside his house. He also wished to dine with all,
regardless of their caste.
Jyotiba Phule devoted his entire life for the liberation of
untouchables from the exploitation of Brahmins. He revolted against the
tyranny of the upper castes. On 28 November, 1890, the great reformer of
India, Mahatma Jyotirao Phule, passed away.
Jyotiba Phule launched a massive movement against the tyranny of Brahmins that prevailed in the 19th century India. To know more about Jyotiba Phule, read this biography and profile. | <urn:uuid:42ef64ce-7a60-430e-bbcf-71dd45e7d00d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.culturalindia.net/reformers/jyotiba-phule.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393146.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00135-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972851 | 1,168 | 3.28125 | 3 |
Submitted by Eddie Clark.
GIBSON COUNTY is one of the several counties formed in West Tennessee in 1823. It is bounded on the north by Obion and Weakley Counties, on the east by Carroll, on the south by Madison and Crockett, and on the west by Dyer and Crockett. It contains about 550 square miles, and is situated in that portion of West Tennessee, known as "The Plateau." The Eastern part is quite hilly and broken, but toward the western line becomes very level. The soil is a dark loam containing a large quantity of siliceous matter, resting upon a clay subsoil varying in depth from two to twenty feet, and in color from a bright yellowish to a dark brown. There are no strata of hard rock or limestone, but some sandstone, ferruginous rock and lignite are found.
The principal water-courses of Gibson County are the Middle Fork and the Little North Fork of the Forked Deer River; Rutherford Fork, and the South Fork of Obion River. The first named stream enters the county about fourteen miles south of Trenton, and running northwest, enters Dyer County nearly due west of Trenton. It forms in part the southern boundary of the county, while the South Fork of the Obion forms the dividing line between Weakley and Gibson. The Little North Fork of the Forked Deer rises in the southeast part of the county, passes nearly centrally through the county, and empties into the Middle Fork near the Dyer County line. Rutherford Fork of Obion rises in Carroll County, enters Gibson near its northeast corner, ranges north, and passing into Obion County empties into the main stream about seventeen miles north of Trenton. All these streams have many small tributaries, which supply abundant water for stock raising purposes. Away from the creeks, springs are very rare, but a sufficient supply of water is found at a depth of about twenty-five to thirty-five feet.
Nearly two-thirds of the area of the county is still unimproved, and a large portion of it is covered with the most valuable timber known to this latitude. Among the most common varieties are the oak, gum, poplar, hickory, beech, maple, elm, ash, mulberry and cypress. A large number of saw-mills have been put into operation within the past few years, and the manufacture and shipment of lumber and staves has become one of the most important industries of the county.
For agricultural purposes, Gibson County is excelled by no other county in the State, since nearly every farm product, including the various grasses and fruits, is produced with sufficient ease to yield a handsome income. The following table of shipments from the different railway stations of the county for 1884, indicate its productions and varied resources.
Total shipments by railroad: 11,363 bales cotton; 134,142 boxes fruit; 100 barrels apples; 176 crates strawberries; 46,068 bushels wheat; 129,078 head poultry; 16,145 dozen eggs; 1,636 head cattle; 1,545 head hogs; 62,410 bushels cottonseed-, 1,809,000 feet lumber; 7,300 bushels corn; 37 cars of barrel staves; 180 gallons syrup; 3,675 plows; 150 dozen chairs: 1,563 barrels flour; 53 carloads cotton seed meal; 11 carloads cotton seed cake; 34 cars cotton seed oil; 93 bales linters; 700 dozen brooms.
The first white settlement in the territory, comprised within
the present limits of Gibson County, was made in 1819 by Thomas Fite, and his
brother-in-law, John Spencer, and James F. Randolph, who, in that year, came
from Warren County, Middle Tenn., to the western district. They brought an ax, a hand-saw
and an auger, with which tools they constructed the first house in the county, on the
Little North Fork of the Forked Deer River, about eight miles east of Trenton. Having done
this, they retraced their steps to Warren County, and in the spring of the following year
returned with their families. During the same year Luke Biggs located about four
miles northwest of the present site of Trenton, and - Hughbanks settled at a point
about six miles west of Dyer Station.
At about the same time, probably in the spring of that year, Col. David Crockett came from Lawrence County, Tenn. , and located a short distance northeast of Rutherford. In the fall John Bergin, his brother-in-law, came, and with him brought Crockett's family. L. K. Tinkle and H. McWhirter, also brothers-in-law of Col. Crockett, came soon after, and settled in the same vicinity. Others who settled in the neighborhood of where Rutherford now is, were Henry, Jacob, Humphrey and Bryant Flowers, and the Edmundsons: Robert, Allen, Michael and William. A settlement in the vicinity of Yorkville was begun very early by William Holmes, who located two miles south of that place. He was followed by the Reeds: Samuel, James, William, Robert and Hugh, Benjamin Tyson, Benjamin S. White and John W. Needham. John B. Hogg and Col. Thomas Gibson located on the present site of Trenton. David P. Hamilton, in 1822, began a settlement about two miles east of Humboldt. His early neighbors were Davidson Waddell, William P. Seat, George Gentry, W. G. B. Killingsworth and Alexander G. Hamilton, all of whom lived between Little North Fork and Middle Fork of the Forked Deer. The first settler in the vicinity of Bradford Station was Richard Smith, who, with others, subsequently joined the Mormons at Nauvoo, Ill. The settlement in the vicinity of Lynn Point was made by Robert Puckett, Hiram Partee; Samuel, William, Robert and James Baker; Peter Meyers, Dr. Joseph Dean, Joseph Dibrell, "Rutherford" David Crockett and "Little" David Crockett. The early settlers of "Skullbone" were William Goodman, William Stone, James Andrews, John Bryant and several sons, Patterson Crockett and John R. Tedford. This district is said to have obtained the name " Skullbone, " by which it is universally known, from one Allen Maxey. His cranium was exceedingly hard, and his love for the flowing bowl correspondingly strong. Therefore, for the amusement of bystanders, he would allow himself to be struck on the top of the head for a drink of whisky.
Prior to 1824. no roads had been opened in the county. In that year one was opened from the house of W. C. Love in an easterly direction to Huntingdon, and another west to Nash's Bluff. The following year roads were opened from Gibson Port to Jackson, Lexington, Dresden and Obion County.
The first water-mill in the county was built by Thomas Fite and Jeremiah Randolph on the North Fork of Forked Deer River in 1825. The numerous streams of the county furnished mill sites in abundance, and several mills were erected (during the next few years. One was erected by a man by the name of Page about four miles south of Yorkville, while several were built on Rutherford Fork. Among them was Bryant Caraway's, situated about three miles north of Rutherford Station, Keeley's, Crider's and Harrell's further up the stream. Moor's mill and Jackson's mill were both located on the Little North Fork of Forked Deer.
The first cotton-gin in the county was built by Isham F. Davis in 1826. Another was .soon after erected by William McDaniel about two miles south of Yorkville.
In comparison with Obion County, Gibson County developed very rapidly, and even became quite densely populated. The forest growth of the latter was neither so dense nor heavy as that of the former, and to prepare the land for cotton and corn, then, as now, the leading crops, required much less labor. Consequently the pioneer settler chose Gibson County as home in preference to the more fertile but less healthful Obion. In 1824 the number of acres of taxable land in the county was 273,143, while the total tax raised was $885.35. The tax upon the land, as was provided by the old constitution, was assessed at a given rate on each 100 acres, without regard to value. In 1840 the number of acres assessed was 256,086, valued at $894,869. The aggregate value of the personal property was $628,225, and the total tax $6,350.09. In 1860 the number of acres of taxable land was 400,019, valued at $4,238,519. The total value of town lots was $233,765, and the value of personal property, including slaves, $2,993,514, a greater assessed value than it has since attained. At the close of the war, on account of the abolition of slave property and the general demoralization of all industries, the value of taxables was greatly reduced. In 1880, however, so far as real estate was considered in the result, the values of 1860 had been regained, but the aggregate value of taxable personal property has been greatly diminished by the $1,000 exemption. The number of acres of taxable land in 18?? was 361,962, the value of which was reported at $3,693,263. The value of town lots aggregated $884,848, and the taxable personal property $129,459. The total tax collected was, $57,535.84.
The act providing for the establishment of Gibson County was passed on October 21, 1823. The first section is as follows;
On January 5, 1824, the first county court met and organized at the house of Luke Biggs, four miles northwest of the present site of Trenton. It was composed of the following justices commissioned by Gov. Carroll: William P. Seat, Robert Edmunson, 0. Blakemore, Benjamin White, Robert Reid, Yarnell Reese, Abner Bergin, John D. Love. William W. Craig, W. G. B. Killingsworth and Isham P. Davis, who were sworn in by Bartholemew G. Stewart, a justice from Madison County. William P. Seat was chosen chairman and Thomas Fite, clerk. At the same time Alexander G. Hamilton, James B. Blakemore, C. Dowell and Anslem Russell were elected constables.
At a subsequent meeting the commissioners of the town of Trenton were authorized to build a hewed-log court house, 20 x 35 feet, and one story high. Such a building was completed and the first court held in it in April, 1825. It was used until 1829, when it was sold and a two-story brick building, having one court-room below and another above, was erected in its stead, at a cost of $5,988. The first jail was, a log structure, which cost only $121. It was located in the northwestern part, of town and was used until, about 1836, when a brick building was erected on the present site of the colored school. This was destroyed during the civil war, but after the close of hostilities a similar building was erected upon the same site. It served as a jail until 1875, and is now occupied by the colored school. In 1875 a large and more commodious jail was completed on the northeast corner of the square, under the direction of J. J. Wells, A. S. Currey, L. P. McMurray, W. A. Allison and J. T. Cowan. To meet the expenditure for this building, bonds to the amount of $16,700 were issued by the county.
In January, 1881, it was entirely destroyed by fire, and during the following summer the present substantial building was erected upon the same site at a cost of $15,000, for which interest-bearing county warrants were issued to the amount of $14,000. The commissioners who superintended the erection of the jail were S. H. Hale, chairman; T. J. Happel, secretary; H. J. Stroud, John Maclin and I. R. Wright.
The court house mentioned above had been occupied but a short time when it was found to be unsafe, and in April, 1837, the county court appointed commissioners to have it taken down and to have a temporary house erected from the material. The same commissioners were also authorized to let the contract for the new court house. This latter duty was not performed until May 1, 1839, when the contract was awarded to Solomon Shaw and Robert Jetton, who were given until December 25, of the following year, to complete it. This time was afterward extended six months, and in 1841, the building was tendered to the commissioners, consisting, of N. O. K. Cole, A. S. Wallis, N. I. Hess, John H. Raines, L. J. Wilkins and Thomas Fite, who refused to receive it, on the grounds that it was not completed according to contract. The matter was then submitted to a board of arbitrators who allowed the contractors, $111.78 for extra work, making the entire cost about $20,000. This building, which has been occupied by the court for nearly half a century, is in a remarkably good state of preservation, and stands as :a monument to honest workmanship.
Since 1840 the county has maintained a poor farm. In December, of that year, E. Sharp, James A. W. Hess and Samuel Booth, commissioners appointed by the county court to purchase a poor farm, reported that they had bought 100 acres from Augustin Woods, situated about five miles southeast of Trenton. This was fitted up for the reception of paupers, and Allen Parr appointed the first superintendent. The number of paupers was at first quite small, and even now, only average about fifteen. The cost to the county at the present time is about $70 for each inmate. No insane are confined there, these unfortunates being sent to the State asylum, where they are maintained by an appropriation by the county court when the number exceeds twelve.
In 1835 the county was divided into fifteen civil districts, and so remained until 1847, when the Sixteenth District was formed from portions of the Second, Third, Seventh and Twelfth. Three years later the Seventeenth was made by adding a portion of the Thirteenth to the Fifteenth and dividing the combination. In 1848 portions of the First, Second and Twelfth were constituted the Eighteenth, and in 1850 the Nineteenth was formed from portions of the Tenth and Fourteenth. In 1854 the Fourth District was divided, forming the Twentieth, and the Twenty-first was made in a similar manner from the Ninth in 1858. Two years later portions of the Fourteenth, Fifteenth and Seventeenth were combined to form the Twenty-second. The Twenty-third was not established until 1868, when a portion of the Fourteenth was added to the Nineteenth and the combination divided. The Twenty-fourth District was divided in 1871. Upon the organization of Crockett County the Twentieth, Fourth and nearly all of the Sixteenth Districts were cut off, and in 1873 a new Fourth was formed from portions of the Third, Fifth, and the remainder of the Sixteenth. In 1879 a new Sixteenth was formed from parts of the Sixth and Seventh, and two years later a new Twentieth was made out of portions of the Third, Fourth and Seventh.
The following is a list of the persons who have filled the most important county offices, with their term of service:
Clerks of the County Court: Thomas Fite, 1824-36; Allen C. Nimmo, 1836-48; James A. McDearmon, 1848-54; E. W. Raines, 1854-65; J. E. Wood, 1865-70; M. C. Holmes, 1870-82; J. D. Carne, 1882.
Registers: W. W. Craig, 1824-36; W. G. B. Killingsworth, 1836-40; Lucian B. Gilchrist, 1840-60; J. M. McLaurine, 1860-65; J. A. Morrison, 1865-70; William R. Cox, 1870-78; J. F. Jones, 1878-82; W. D. Johnson, 1882-86; Samuel H. Thomas, 1886.
Sheriffs: John W. Needham, 1824-32; M. McLaurine, 1832-49; Luke P. Seay, 1842-48; Johnson Williams, 1848-52; J. A. W. Hess, 1852-58; Johnson Williams, 1858-65; Hugh A. Moore, 1865-70; Johnson Williams, 1870-74; J. B. Arnold, 1874-80; J. H. Hefley, 1880--82; T. J. Parr, 1884.
Trustees: Robert Reed, 1824-26; William Ferguson, 1826-32; Allen C. Nimmo, 1832-36; John H. Raines, 1836-44; William Atchison, Sr., 1844-50; Thomas Cooper, 1850-54; Moses E. Senter, 1854-56; F. G. Goodman, 1856-60; N. J. Hockaday, 1860--; David Thomason, 1865-70; J. A. G. McEwen, 1870-74; J. C. Long, 1874-80; John W. Ramsey, 1880-86; William Gay, 1886.
Clerks of the Circuit Court: Joseph H. Talbot, 1824-25; James L. Totten, 1825-31; John W. Crockett, 1831-36; J. B. Blakemore, 1836-44; Smith Parks, 1844-56; William A. Varner, 1856-60; S. W. Hatchett, 1860-62; Benjamin Landis, 1865-1870; William Moore, 1970-86; J; W. Vick, 1886.
Clerks and Master of the Chancery Court: John A. Taliaferro, 1836-40; John C. Claiborne, 1840-46; Henry C. Levy, 1846-55, James A. McDearmon, 1855-61; J. T. McDearmon, 1861-62; J. A. McDearmon, 1865-71; R. E. Raines, 1871.
The circuit court for Gibson County was held at the house of William C. Love, on May 24, 1824, by Judge John C. Hamilton. Joseph H. Talbott was appointed clerk, and James R. Chalmers appeared as solicitor-general. The following grand jury was empaneled: W. G. B. Killingsworth, Robert Reed, Isham F. Davis, George F. Crofton, William McKendrick, W. W. Craig, Robert Tinkle, Robert Edmundson, John Spencer, Benjamin S. White, William Blakemore, Andrew Cole and John Parker, who reported no indictments or presentments. The only other matter coming from the court at this term was the admission of John D. Love as a practicing attorney. During the first ten or fifteen years the court transacted but little business. The first-case tried was that of James Harbor vs. Jesse Woods, for slander. The defendant at first plead "not guilty," but finally compromised by pleading "guilty" and paying the costs. The first indictment for murder was found in 1832, against Shadrach Madison, a free man of color, who, upon trial, was found "not guilty." The first person sent to the penitentiary from Gibson County was. Thomas M. Watson, who was sentenced at the October term, 1835, to three years' imprisonment for horse-stealing. Only one person has paid the death penalty for crime, under the process of law, In the history of the county. That person was Henry, a negro, the property of Mrs. Ann Kelly. He was hanged at Trenton, on April 4, 1843, by the sheriff, L. P. Seay, who received $12.50 for his services. The negro was convicted at the preceding March term for the murder of William C. Franklin, in May, 1842. The case was prosecuted by John W. Crockett, attorney-general.
Among the earliest attorneys of Trenton were Joseph H. Talbott, James L. Totten, A. W. 0. Totten, James M. Moore and Felix Parker, all of whom were admitted to practice previous to 1831. Talbott soon removed to Jackson, where he was subsequently followed by the Tottens. Moore and Parker were members of the Trenton bar for many years. The former was a quiet, sober and unassuming man, of good intellect and considerable learning, and a fairly successful attorney. Parker was not a profound lawyer, but possessed considerable ability as a speaker, both in the hustings and on the stump, and was several times elected, on the Whig ticket, to a seat in the lower house of the General Assembly.
John A. Taliaferro, John W. Crockett and Rolila P. Raines were admitted to practice during the thirties. Taliaferro became cashier of the Branch Bank of Tennessee, at Trenton, in 1838, and afterward did but little practice, except in cases in which the bank was interested. Crockett, after having represented his district in Congress for one term, was elected attorney-general. He possessed but few of the characteristics of his father, Col. David Crockett, being a quiet, scholarly gentleman, of refined tastes. He removed to New Orleans, but afterward returned to Tennessee, and located at Memphis. Raines occupied a leading position in the profession for several years, and was especially distinguished as a criminal advocate. He was painstaking in the preparation of his cases, and no weak point in the position of his opponent ever escaped his notice. He was a good speaker, and possessed great power before a jury, and, taken all together, was one of the most successful lawyers ever at the Trenton bar.
In 1850 the attorneys of the county, besides Parker, Moore and Raines already mentioned, were James A. McDearmon, M. B. King, H. C. Levy, M. R. Hill, S. Williams, T. J. Freeman, M. J. Clay, R. P. Caldwell and Joshua Richardson. King was an: able advocate and a thorough student. He possessed a rather delicate constitution, however, and died from consumption a few years after locating in Trenton. M. R. Hill had formerly practiced at Dyersburg. He was an eloquent speaker, and ranked as one of the ablest lawyers in the State. He was twice elected to the State Senate, and during one term was speaker of that body. Williams had been located at Troy, Obion County, a short time previous to his coming to Trenton. He was well versed in the law, and was eminently successful as an advocate. In 1858 he succeeded William Fitzgerald upon the bench of the circuit court, a position which he filled with universal satisfaction to the bar. At the breaking out of the war be espoused the Union cause, and went to Illinois, where he died. Richardson, while a man of good ability and considerable personal popularity, on account of intemperate habits did not attain much prominence at the bar. He served one term in the Lower House of the General Assembly. R. P. Caldwell continued a member of the Trenton bar until his death in 1886. He was an excellent jury lawyer, but attained greater prominence as a politician than as a jurist. He served in both houses of the General Assembly, and at one time represented his district in Congress. He was a native of Obion County, and studied law with Judge S. W. Cochran, of Troy.
The firm of T. J. & J. T. Carthel was prominent during the decade preceding the civil war. The former entered the Confederate Army, and was killed in the battle before Atlanta. The latter, at the close of the war, resumed his practice, and in 1878 was elected to a seat upon the bench of the circuit court. In that position he displayed rare ability, and it was universally regretted that he declined to become a candidate for re-election. Gideon B. Black, his predecessor upon the bench, came to Gibson County a short time previous to the war, from Marshall County, Tenn., where he had previously been engaged in the practice of his profession. He was an able lawyer and an impartial judge. He is still living near Trenton, but has retired from the practice of his profession. The present bar, which is one of recognized ability, is composed of the following attorneys: John S. Cooper and Thomas J. Hays, Thomas B. Howard and W. W. Wade, J. C. McDearmon and L. H. Tyree, M. M. Neil and J. R. Deason, J. T. and J. E. Carthel, Le Grand and Paul Jones, John R. Walker, 0. B. Freeman, S. B. Williamson, R. L. Taylor, and A. Killough. J. T. Curtis resides at Rutherford. In 1869 law and Chancery courts having jurisdiction over civil districts One, Two, Three, Thirteen, Eighteen and fractions of Four and Twenty were established at Humboldt. Of the former the clerks have been T. J. Williams, H. C. Burnett and M. H Johnson, the present incumbent. T. J. Williams has been clerk and master of the county court since its organization. The first attorney to locate in Humboldt was H. T ????son, a man of fine intellect, and an excellent advocate. He remained in Humboldt until his death in 1882. S. W. Sharp, for some time a partner of Johnson, located in the town about 1869, and remained until his death. He was also an able lawyer, and a highly respected citizen. The present members of the Humboldt bar are J. F. Rawlins and Samuel C. Williams, W. H. Babbitt and W. I. McFarland, and W. M. McCall. There are also four attorneys who reside at Milan. They are V. L. and W. B. Ware and S. F. Rankin and J. P. Rhodes.
For mention of the judges of the circuit court of Gibson County previous to 1870, see the sketch of Obion County. Of the judges of the supreme court Gibson County has furnished three - A. W. 0. Totten, Thomas J. Freeman and W. C. Caldwell - sketches of whom, with the exception of the last named, appear in another chapter of this work. Judge Caldwell is a native of Obion County, where he began the practice of his profession. About ten years ago he located at Trenton and became a partner of R. P. Caldwell. In 1883 he was appointed one of the judges of the court of referees at Nashville, and so continued until that court expired by limitation in April, 1886. He then became a candidate for a seat on the supreme bench, and, having received the nomination of the Democratic party, he was elected the following August.
Trenton is situated near the center of the county, on the North Fork of the Forked Deer River. The site was selected by James Fentress, Benjamin Reynolds, William Martin and Robert Jetton, commissioners appointed for that purpose by an act of the Legislature, passed September 27, 1824. The land upon which it is located was donated by James Whitaker and John B. Hogg who gave twenty acres, and Jesse Blackburn, James Caruthers and Frank McGavock, who together gave thirty-six and one-fourth acres. John W. Evans, John W. Buckner, William C. Love, Robert Tinkle and John P. Thomas were appointed by the county court to lay off the town site into a public square, streets, lots and a commons, the latter to comprise six and one-fourth acres, and the town plat proper just fifty acres. This was accordingly done, and a board of commissioners, of whom John H. Raines was chairman, was appointed to sell the lots and convey titles. Previous to the location of the town one house had been erected upon the site and was then occupied by Col. Thomas Gibson, who had a small stock of goods which he was selling to the settlers. From this circumstance the place was called Gibsonport, a name which it continued to bear until it was changed, by an act of the Legislature, the following year.
Very soon after the location of the town Robert Seat opened a store on the east side of the square. He had a small stock of such articles as were most needed by the pioneers, and these goods he exchanged for corn, furs and other produce, which he shipped from Eaton by flat-boat down Forked Deer to the Mississippi, and thence to New Orleans. He was afterward associated with Thomas Fite, under the firm name of Fite & Seat. At a little later date Hugh D. Nelsoncarried on quite an extensive business on the east side of the Public Square, as also did Murphey & Cameron. The leading firm in town at that time, however, was Armour, Lake & Caruthers, whose store stood on the lot where the opera-house now is. Brown & Taliaferrohad a small store where Senter & Keenan now are, and the site of the Hick's House was occupied by M. & J. Woodfin. During the decade of the forties the leading mercantile firms were B. Elder & Bros., the senior member of which began business in 1835; Claiborne, Davis & Co., Seat & Morton, A. A. P. Grigsby, Abel Hicks & Co., 0. B. & L. Caldwell, William C. Crawford and L. J. Wilkins, and with a few changes these firms continued through the next decade. Others which may be mentioned are N. T. & J. A. Wilkins, McGee & Scrape, W. H. Thompson & Co., J. J. Hammon, J. L. & R. L. Davis, John S. McCullough and L. Oppenheimer.
The first druggist was W. B. Billingsly, who opened a store in 1845, and the following year was succeeded by Jesse I. Wells.
The first tavern was probably kept by John W. Evans, who was licensed to keep an ordinary in 1829. Robert Seat was granted a license for the same purpose the following year, and in 1831 a similar one was granted to Abraham S. Davidson. At a little later date J. D. Hill opened a hotel on the lot now occupied by J. W. Bigelow. He afterward opened a house on the present site of the Hick's House, and was there succeeded by Goodoe & King. The Hick's House was built soon after the war by G. B. & R. A. Hicks, the present proprietors.
The business interests of Trenton at the present time are as follows: J. W. Hoy, E. Richardson, Davis & Johnson, Smith Bros., J. Freed and L. Oppenheimer, dry goods; Senter & Keenan, J. A. Landis, R. C. Adams, C. C. Gentry & Son, Nettles & Ramsey, Smith Bros., J. W. Hoy, McGee & Harrison, J. W. Bigelow, A. A. Pybass, J. M. Skiles & Co., and Haste & Haste, groceries; Hutchison & Co., Leroy Shackleford, N. L. McRee and A. B. Cooper, drugs; R. E. Grizzard, hardware and notions, and Mrs. William McDearmon and Mrs. J. K. Pierce, millinery.
In 1838 the Bank of Tennessee was established, and one of its branches was located at Trenton. Moses Woodfin was appointed president and John A Taliaferro, cashier. The latter held his office until the beginning of the war, with the exception of about a year, when it was filled by James B. Blakemore. The presidents changed frequently. Among those who held that office were Thomas B. Claiborne, Benjamin Elder, John W. Elder, Z. J. Freeman and John L. Davis. During its existence it was considered one of the best paying branches in the State, and was of great value to: the town and surrounding country. After the war this county was without a bank until 1879, when the Gibson County Bank, with a capital of $50,000, was chartered under the laws of the State. It has since been under the able management of J. W. Elder, as president, and H. M. Elder, as cashier, and has done an excellent business, commanding the confidence of the entire community.
The first manufacturing establishment of importance was founded in 1855-56, by William Jarrell, and consisted of a foundry and plow manufactory. After the war it was reopened by William Jarrell and J. I. Wells, and is now conducted by J. I. Wells & Son, who have added a well equipped machine shop. They also operate on an adjoining lot a saw and planing-mill.
The Gibson County mills were erected in 1861, by William Lovin. In 1871 they were purchased by H. H. Rogers, who operated them until December, 1876, when they were entirely destroyed by fire. The next year they were rebuilt by Mr. Rogers at a cost of $10,000., They were operated with the old process machinery until 1886, when they were refitted with all the latest improvements. The present owners are Taylor, Ramsey Co.
The Trenton flour-mills were erected in 1882, by Jetton and Davis, who still operate them. The building is a three-story brick, and is supplied with the old process machinery.
The Trenton cotton-seed oil-mill was erected and put in operation by an incorporated company, of whom R. G. Taylor was president, in 1883. Four presses are run consuming about twenty-five tons of cotton seed per day, of twenty-four hours, making about 1,000 gallons of oil and nine tons of meal. The capital stock of the company is $30,000.
The Trenton cotton-mills were incorporated in April, 1884, with an authorized capital stock of $100,000, of which $80,000 has been paid in. The president of the company was J. M. Senter, and the secretary, George Everett. The machinery, consisting of 2,440 spindles and eighty-five looms, was put in operation in June, 1885. The present president of the company is J. A. Landis.
A steam cotton-gin, established in 1880 by Ewell and Ellis, is now operated by W. H. Ellis. A planing-mill, established in 1884, is operated by S. A. Higgason. Birmingham Bros. carry on an extensive business in the manufacture of buggies and wagons and general repairing.
The first physician in Trenton was John H. Chrisp, who located soon after the town was established, and continued to practice his profession for many years. He was a graduate of a Philadelphia medical college, and was a man of high attainments. Nelson I. Hess, mentioned elsewhere as a minister of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, was a contemporary of Chrisp, and continued to practice until after the close of the war. William K. Love was a student under Chrisp, and afterward became his partner. He removed from the town about 1845. George B. Peters, who became a physician of high standing in West Tennessee, obtained his professional education in the office of Chrisp & Love. Dr. Lewis Levy located in Trenton about 1843-44, and continued as one of the leading physicians until his death, a period of nearly forty years. W. W. Lea, for many years one of the most eminent physicians of the State, was a resident of the town about the period of the war. He began the practice of medicine at Nashville, but located at Eaton about 1830. Many other physicians have located in the town from time to time, among whom may be mentioned W. D. Scott, William Maclin, Jesse Lassiter, E. T. Taliaferro. The physicians of the present are Robert A. Hicks, G. N. Glenn, Charles Levy, J. T. Shackleford, T. J. Happel and J. D. Butler.
The first newspaper established in Trenton was the Western Union, the first numbers of which appeared in 1836. It was edited successively by J. D. Hill, Thomas Scott and W. E. Brown & Felix Parker. Brown & Parker changed the name to the Polar Star, and soon after, in 1840, sold to J. D. Hill, who established the Trenton Journal, a Whig paper, which, in 1844, was transferred to W. W. Lea, John A. Taliaferro and Thomas Claiborne, who conducted it as a Democratic sheet under the name of the Live American. In 1853 it became the Independent Journal, with H. R. & N. F. Barksdale as proprietors. The next year, however, it was transferred to A. S. Currey, who conducted it as editor and proprietor until 1861. In September, 1847, a Whig paper, the Star Spangled Banner, was established by McGee & Brewer, who continued until February, 1849, when Brewer's interest was purchased by B. Landis. In 1852 the name was changed to the Southern Whig Standard, and so continued until 1861, being successively edited by S. W. Hatchett, J. W. Youngblood and Thomas Parker. In 1865 the Trenton Gazette was established by F. M. Holbrook, who was succeeded by Wise A. Cooper, R. E. Bumpass and Cooper & Glass. In 1871 Mr. Holbrook established the Trenton News, which in 1874 was consolidated with the Gazette under the name of the News-Gazette, and was so continued by Biggs, Holbrook & Co., J. R. Biggs and Holbrook & Shearon until 1881, when it became the Gibson County Mirror. It has since changed editors and publishers very frequently, and has been issued under various names: the Globe, the Recorder, the News and the Republican-Gazette. In February, 1885, E. E. Renton established the Gibson County Herald, a seven-column folio, Democratic in politics, of which he has since been the editor and sole proprietor.
Trenton Lodge, No. 86, A. F. & A. M., received its charter October 4, 1838, at which time Nelson I. Hess, Alexander Baber, Jacob T. Smith and several others were members. The lodge was very prosperous for many years, and a chapter, council and commandery were successively organized, all of which have now surrendered their charters. The following is a list of the members of this lodge: Nelson I. Hess, John W. Crockett, John L. Davis, A. S. Currey, A. C. Levy, P. D. McCulloch, S. W. Caldwell, C. N. Worthington, Z. Biggs, J. L. Strickland, J. P. Grigsby, A. T. Gay, W. 0. Kelly, R. E. Grizzard, J. C. McDearmon.
Friendship Lodge, No. 22, I. 0. 0. F., was organized in 1847, but during the war the hall with its contents was destroyed, and the lodge was afterward reorganized. At one time it had a very large membership, but the interest in it has somewhat declined. William R. Cox is the present Noble Grand.
Excelsior Commandery, No. 16, K. of P., received its charter February 10, 1875. Among the leading members at that time were W. C. Caldwell, P. B. Coppage, L. M. Elder, T. J. Happel, A. J. McDearman, R. H. Nettles, L. Oppenheimer, H. C. Pierce and R. F. Ross. M. M. Neil, of this lodge, is Grand Chancellor of Tennessee.
Peabody Lodge, No. 198, K. of H., was instituted in 1876, the leading members being W. 0. Kelly, W. T. Grigsby, P. D. McCullough, R. A. Hicks, John H. Glass, C. C. Gentry, H. L. Raines, J. J. Brooks, L. S. Wade, J. W. Cox, J. P. McGee, M. M. Neil, J. Freed, W. M. Holt and George E. Glass. The lodge now numbers about fifty-four members.
Trenton Lodge, No. 24, A. 0. U. W., was established in 1877 with about forty members, of whom the following were the officers: W. M. Hall, P. M. W.; S. W. Caldwell, M. W.; R. E. Grizzard, F.; L. H. Tyree, O.; W. C. Caldwell, Recorder; J. D. Hill, Financier; and M. M. Neil, I. W. The present membership is only fourteen.
Humboldt, one of the most flourishing towns of Gibson County, is located at the junction of the Mobile & Ohio and the Memphis & Louisville Railroads. It was laid out in 1858, upon land owned by Sharp, Lannom and Thruston. Previous to this time, however, a large steam flouring and saw-mill had been erected by John A. Taliaferro and W. A. Allison, on the railroad south of the town, and near where the first depot was located. The first business house was built by John C. Gillespie, on the lot now occupied by J. J. Thweatt, and there he opened a store in partnership with his son. At about the same time W. H. & John R. Simmons began business on an adjacent lot. From this time until the beginning of the war the town grew rapidly. Among the business men of that period were J. N. & J. R. Lannom, T. B. Love & Co., McGee & McKnight, Ebert & Co., G. S. Rainey and Clement & Thomas, while W. H. Stillwell and B. F. Landis -were the physicians. During the war business was pretty generally suspended, but at its close it began at once to revive. The first firms to re-enter business were Gillespie, Warren & Co., J. N. & J. R. Lannom. S. D. Waddill and Seward, Ferrill, Scales & Co. From that time the town again began to improve, and, although the growth has been checked by several very destructive fires, its excellent location, combined with an unusually enterprising population, has enabled it to overcome all obstacles, and it is now entering upon an era of renewed prosperity. The present business interests are represented by the following individuals and firms: 0. C. Sharp, J. J. Thweatt, T. J. Dow, A. B. Jones & Co. and T. A. Bond, dry goods; V. Donavan, P. B. Roe, A. L. Fox, I. H. Dugan, W. H. Henry, J. J. R. Adams, S. D. Waddill and E. B. Hart, groceries; W. 0. Penn, gents' furnishing goods; E. T. Transou and F. T. Hofford, furniture; M. T. Cox, saddlery; C. W. Albright, hardware, and J. A. Hamilton, B. F. Watkins, Scales Bros. and W. H. Mason, druggists. The town also has several important manufacturing enterprises. The Humboldt Buggy & Wagon Company was established in 1880, by the consolidation of the firms of Jarrell & Hamilton and Phillips & Scott, with a capital of $11,000, which has since been doubled. They employ from thirty-five to forty hands, and manufacture buggies, the "Charter Oak" wagon and implements. Jarrell & Hamilton formerly operated a steam saw-mill, which was built in 1871. Phillips & Scott established a buggy and wagon shop in 1875.
In 1869 William Jarrell established a foundry and plow factory. Two years later he sold a one-half interest to W. H. Dodson, and the business was conducted under the firm name of Dodson & Jarrell until 1878, since which time Mr. Dodson has been the sole proprietor. From twelve to fifteen hands are employed in manufacturing the "Jarrell Plow," cotton scrapers, and other implements. Until recently a grist-mill was operated in connection with the foundry.
E. W. Ing operates a large steam cotton-gin, which is run to its fullest capacity during the season. In 1880 the Humboldt furniture factory was established by a stock company, of which L.C. Tyler was president. After running very successfully for one year, it, with a large part of the business portion of the town, was destroyed by fire.
Humboldt is located in one of the most important fruit-growing sections of Tennessee, and at present has three large nurseries in successful operation, producing all the varieties of fruit trees, vines and ornamental shrubbery grown in this latitude. The "Humboldt nurseries" were established in 1859 by B. P. Transou, who continued as sole proprietor until 1866, when he was joined by his brother, E. T. Transou. In 1878 the latter sold his interest to M. G. Senter, who, since the death of B. F. Transou, has conducted the business.
In 1874 C. H. Ferrill & Co. established the "Pomona Nursery" about one-half a mile north of the town. It now covers about 120 acres, and from fifty to sixty agents are employed in selling its products in Tennessee and all the surrounding States. Morgan & Murphy are the present proprietors of the "Eureka Nursery," which was established in 1881 by Porter & Brown.
The first newspaper in Humboldt was the Cosmos, a Whig paper, which was established in 1860, and edited by W. H. Stillwell and S. W. Sharp. In 1867 the Headlight was established by Isaac McFarland, who continued its publication but a short time. It was succeeded by the Argus, Journal, Herald and Enterprise, all of which were short lived. In August, 1885, C. H. Ferrill & Co. began the publication of the Messenger, a nine-column folio, which they have since continued with good success.
All the leading secret orders are represented at Humboldt, with the exception of the K. of P. and I. 0. 0. F. The lodge of the latter order, which was instituted in 1868, recently surrendered its charter. Shiloh Lodge, No.202, A. F. & A. M., was organized about three miles north of Humboldt in 1847. In 1859 it was removed to the town, where a hall was erected at a cost of $3,500. This was recently destroyed by fire, and has not yet been rebuilt. The lodge now numbers about forty members. Cosmos Lodge, No. 53, A.O.U.W., was organized in 1878; its present membership is eighteen. Gibson Lodge, No. 454, K. of H., was established in 1878, and has since been highly prosperous, having a membership at present of fifty. Bethsheres Lodge, No. 406, K. & L. of H., was established in 1881.
Humboldt was incorporated in 1868, with Moses E. Senter as mayor. The present city officers are L. K. Gillespie, mayor and recorder; G. B. Hart, marshal; and C. T. Love, S. K. Allen and C. D. Allen, aldermen.
Milan, a town of about 1,800 inhabitants, is situated at the junction of the Memphis & Louisville and the Illinois Central Railroad. It was established in 1858 upon lands owned by B. A. Williamson and John Sanford. In that year a small house was erected and a grocery opened by John G. Shepherd. The first dry goods store was established by George Peeples at about the same time. The following year the post office, which had been located at Shady Grove, was transferred to Milan, and Swinburne Craven continued as postmaster. In 1860 E. A. Collinsbegan business as a merchant. Hansbro & Hillsman and Ferguson & Cooper also located at about the same time. The first physician was W. R. Rooks, who was soon after joined by J. B. Hinson. The town did not attain to much prominence prior to the war, but after the close of hostilities it began to improve rapidly, and in 1873 the completion of the Illinois Central Railroad enhanced its importance as a commercial point. The present business of the town is represented by John M. Dickson, Owen & Co., Jordan & Adams, E. L. Chambers, T. J. Harrison & Co., and W. B. Williams & Bro., dry goods or general merchandise; D. A. Taylor, M. W. Wheeler, Edwards & Shepherd, Lacy & Karnes, M. B. Harris, T. W. Adams and W. G. Vanhook, groceries; G. W. Martin, M. D. L. Jordan and Stewart and Danner, drugs; G. W. Wilson & Co., dry goods and drugs; S. M. Rhodes, tinware and stoves; Joseph Williams, furniture; J. W. Younger and J. H. Holt, undertakers; Mrs. 0. H. Halstrom and Mrs. Clinton Mathis, millinery.
The physicians are L. G. Danner, J. J. Richardson, J. D. & W. H. H. Bledsoe, R. A. Clopton, J. A. Henderson and M. D. L. Jordan. At present Dr. J. M. Glenn is the only dentist.
Since 1874 E. A. Collins has conducted a private bank, which has proved of great value to the business interests of the town and surrounding country. The only manufacturing establishment in Milan is the flouring-mill of Turner & Dodson, which was erected about 1869 by Nesbitt, Douglass & Co.
The first newspaper in the town was the Milan Times, which was established in June, 1869, by Frank Monroe, who continued its publication but a few months. In March, 1874, W. A. Wadeestablished the Milan Exchange, an eight-column folio. In 1878 he changed it to a seven-column quarto, and later to a five-column quarto. With the exception of about three years, when he was associated with L. J. Brooks, Mr. Wade has conducted it as sole editor and proprietor, and it is now one of the best country papers in West Tennessee.
The first hotel was erected by William F. Jackson in 1859. In 1878 the Grand Pacific Hotel, one of the finest railroad hotels in the South, was erected at the junction.
The town contains a large number of lodges, all the leading secret and beneficiary orders being represented. Milan Lodge, No. 191, A. F. & A. M., was instituted at Shady Grove in 1850, where it remained until 1860, when it was transferred to Milan. Milan Lodge, No. 155, I. 0. 0. P. was organized on August 16, 1871, with J. G. Boyd, William Shepherd, John Sullivan, J. T. Anderson, J. H. Holt and S. M. Pearce as charter members. Although at one time the membership reached about forty, it is now quite small. Stonewall Lodge, No. 30, A. 0. U. W., was instituted November 18, 1877, with nineteen members. It now numbers only twelve members. Liberty Lodge, No. 453, K. of H., was organized in 1878, and the following year Eagle Lodge, No. 96, K. & L. of H., was instituted. Prospero Lodge, K. of P., was instituted in May, 1879.
Milan was incorporated by an act of the Legislature passed in 1867, John G. Shepherd being the first mayor.
Rutherford, the fourth town in the county in importance, is situated on the Mobile & Ohio Railroad, eleven miles north of Trenton. It was laid out in 1858 by Thomas Cooper and Joseph Knox, the former acting as agent for the railroad company, which held a half interest in the land. The first building was a saloon erected by Charles C. Thomas on the lot now occupied by Flowers & Hefley. The first store was opened by Thomas D. Locke in the building now occupied by W. P. Elrod. Very soon after, J. E. Kyzer began business where be now is. These stores, with a family grocery by William Yates, constituted the business of the town previous to the war. During the war, business was almost entirely suspended. At its close J. E. Kyzer reopened his store, as also did T. D. Locke & Co. The latter firm was succeeded by Hartsfield, Smith & Co., Blackburn & Thomas and Elrod & Thomas. Miller & Co. and S. Wilson both began business soon after the war. The former has been succeeded by J. C. Holmes & Co., while the latter still continues. A. N. Grier & Bro., J. W. Elrod and W. B. Ward & Bro. were also engaged in business for a time. The merchants of the present beside those already mentioned are R. B. Tinkle. A. J. Fletcher, Flowers & Hefley, Glisson & Canada and R. W. Mullens. Of the manufacturing interests of the town the establishment of B. A. Smith, manufacturer of cotton-gins, is important. It was established in 1870, and since that time about 2,000 gins have been made and sold. Mr. Smith has recently begun the manufacture of coffins, and will soon enlarge his factory for that purpose.
The Rutherford mills were erected in 1876, by Wren & Williamson, and consist of both a saw and grist-mill. In 1884 the grist-mill was remodeled as a roller-mill, with a capacity of fifty barrels per day. It is now operated by T. J. Wren & Son. The first mill in the town was erected by McCain in 1866, but after continuing for a few years it was burned. Two steam cotton-gins are operated by S. Wilson and Kilough and Canada respectively.
A newspaper, known as the Rutherford Gazette, was established by a man by the name of Henderson, in 1880. After publishing it a short time he sold it to J. D. Maclin, who removed it to Trenton.
Bone Lodge, A. F. & A. M., was organized about two miles south of Rutherford on January 10, 1856, and received its charter in October of that year. The members at ???? were A. S. Baldridge, Master; W. J. Davidson, Senior Warden; A. Keathley, Junior Warden; J. T. Grier, B. F. Bobbitt, A. M. Grier, J. Bobbitt, J. N. Grier, J. T, Armstrong D. Halliburton, M. Flowers and B. Arnold. The lodge continued to meet at Pond Hill until 1860, when it was removed to Rutherford. It now has a membership of forty-eight.
Dyer is a village on the Mobile & Ohio Railroad, seven miles north of Trenton. It was established in 1859, when B. F. Bobbitt built a house and opened a grocery store. Soon after, J. T. Mathes & Co. and Etheridge and Grier began business there. Since the war the following firms have been in existence, some of them for only a short time however: Bobbitt & Berry, Berry & Phillips, Davidson & Crank, Crank & Biggs, Biggs & Barnes, Elrod & Anderson, Owen Toombs & Son, Grier & Wilson, and Thomas & Bro.; also J. P. Snoddy, F. M. Snoddy, R. P. Kimbro, G. W. Wyatt and William Howard. The present business interests of the town are B. F. Bobbitt, J. L. Berry, J. Y. Mitchell and Harper, general merchandise; J. W. Wilson and William Maxwell, drugs and groceries; J. M. Hutchison and N. P. Vincent & Co., cotton-gin; J. M. Coulter, saw and planing-mill; W. A. Hearn, foundry; Hearn Bros., carriage and wagon shop; and J. M. Hutchison, grist and saw-mill. The physicians are W. A. Stephenson, J. H. Drane and Frank Overall.
Dyer Lodge, No. 351, A. P. & A. M., was organized in 1868. A hall was built in cooperation with the trustees of Dyer Academy, but it was burned in 1878. A building was then rented, but it, too, burned soon after, and since that time the lodge has had no regular place of meeting.
Yorkville, an interior village, fifteen miles northwest of Trenton. was founded in 1830, when John C. Kuydendall, a native of Yorkville, S. C., built a dwelling there, and opened a store. The town grew quite rapidly, and in 1850 was incorporated, with W. H. Miller as the first mayor. Its period of greatest prosperity was from about 1853 to the beginning of the war. Among those who did business there prior to 1860 were William Miller, John F. Cowan, T. L. Hamilton & Co., D. E. Holmes & Co., Joseph Garwood, Locke & Wyatt, Patton & Bro. Dr. James T. Bone, a prominent physician in the early history of the county, was located here. In 1846 Yorkville Lodge, No. 115, A. F. & A. M., was organized, and four years later a commandery, the second in the State, was instituted, being one of the first in West Tennessee.
Eaton, formerly known as Buckner's Bluff, was established in 1827, and named in honor of John H. Eaton, Secretary of War under Jackson. It is located eleven miles west of Trenton, on the right bank of the Middle Fork of Forked Deer River. Before the days of railroads it was an important shipping point for Dyer, Obion, Gibson and Carroll Counties, as keel and flat-boats, and occasionally small steam-boats, were navigated on the Forked Deer. A post office was established in 1830, with Dr. W. W. Lea, one of the first merchants, as postmaster. Other merchants who were in business there for several years were Jas. A. Harwood & Co., Shaw & Edwards and Shaw & Bradshaw. The village saw its best days during the thirties.
Brazil, an interior post village, nine miles southwest of Trenton, was established about 1869, at a time when great excitement existed. in the neighborhood, concerning proposed emigration to Brazil, South America. It was at first called Poplar Grove, but it was incorporated and its name changed by an act of the Legislature of 1869-70. W. T. Banks was chosen the first mayor. At that time there was a prospect of its obtaining a railroad, and the town grew rapidly, but it has now considerably declined.
Gibson, a station on the Memphis & Louisville Railroad, about midway between Humboldt and Milan, was established in 1870, and the first business house built the following year.
South Gibson, for several years a village of some importance, was established some time during the thirties. The first store was opened by W. P. Williams. who was afterward succeeded by Weston & Green Williams. Since the completion of the railroads the village has become extinct.
Medina, a station on the Illinois Central Railroad a short distance north of the Madison County line, was established in 1873. The first business house was erected by J. J. Birdsong, who opened a family grocery. The business of the town at present consists of Laws & Bynum and Marks, dry goods; L. Olmstead, William Rust and H. House, groceries; Hudson & Andrews, drugs, and William Watt, steam-mill and cotton-gin. Dr. Dallas Richardson is the only resident physician.
Bradford, a station on the Illinois Central Railroad in the northeast part of the county, was built partly upon land belonging to Robert Bradford, and partly upon laud bequeathed to the Vanderbilt University by W. D. Scott. The first business house was erected by A. J. Little, who opened a saloon and family grocery in 1873. The first merchants were J. G. Phipps & J. E. White and J. N. Alexander. The present business of the town is as follows: J. D. Williams & Bro., J. N. Alexander, James W. Womack and Casey & Michael, general merchandise; J. P. Martin, dry goods, and G. W. Nowlin & Co., drugs. J. N. Alexander also operates a steam cotton-gin. A hotel, which Is now conducted by Stephen A. Smith, was built in 1875 by Phipps and White. The first physician to locate in the town was A. J. Baker. He has since been succeeded by J. D. and J. A. McKenzie. Rolla Lodge, No. 465, A. F. & A. M., was instituted at Bradford in 1874, and during the following year a hall was built in co-operation with the Baptist Church. This lodge has a membership at present of about forty.
Idlewild is a station on the Illinois Central Railroad south of Bradford. It was established in 1873, but it has never attained much importance.
North Gibson and Lynn, the former about two and one-half miles east and the latter three miles west of Bradford, were formerly places of some prominence, each having a post office and two or three stores: but since the completion of the railroad they have declined and Bradford has succeeded them as a shipping and commercial point.
Gibson Wells, situated in the southwest portion of the county, constitutes a summer resort of considerable note. They were discovered in 1843, by a Mr. Blaine. Two or three years later they were sold to Norman and Calvin Cherry, who in 1849 provided accommodation for 200 boarders. After changing hands several times the buildings were burned, in 1875. They have since been rebuilt, however, and are now annually visited by a large number of people.
The part taken by Gibson County in the late civil war was important. It is doubtful if any other county of equal population furnished so large a number of troops, or so great a number of commanding officers. The work of recruiting and equipping companies was begun immediately after the call for troops by president Lincoln in April, 1861. At the session of the county court, held the following June, a tax of 5 cents was levied on each $100 worth of property, and 10 cents on each poll to defray the expenses of families of needy volunteers, and commissioners were appointed for each civil district to superintend its distribution. At the same time ten men were appointed in each district to constitute a company of Minute Men or Home Guards, and E. W. Raines was chosen to command it.
The1 first company organized was Company F, of the Fourth Tennessee Infantry. R. L. White was chosen captain; A. S. Currey, first lieutenant; Charles Elder, second lieutenant; William R. Cox, third lieutenant; and Clarence Bright, orderly sergeant. Upon reorganization an entire change of officers was made. J. L. Lett became captain; Uscor Gilchrist, first lieutenant; B. H. Raines, second lieutenant; Joseph Baker, third lieutenant, and J. B. Davis, orderly sergeant.
1The movements of the various regiments are traced in another chapter of this work.
Of the Twelfth Regiment of Tennessee Infantry six companies were from Gibson County. Company F was organized at Rutherford, with Joseph A. Knox as captain; Robert McNeil, first lieutenant; M. Stephens, second lieutenant; Samuel K. P. House, third lieutenant, and George E. Rust, orderly sergeant. It was reorganized at Corinth, with Thomas Mathes, captain; S. K. P. House, first lieutenant; Thomas Rison, second lieutenant; James Armstrong, third lieutenant, and Abraham Hancock, orderly sergeant. Company C was organized at Dyer Station, with J. N. Wyatt as captain: J. T. Mathis, first lieutenant: Robert Atkinson, second lieutenant, and James Armstrong, third lieutenant.
Company G was recruited in the vicinity of Lynn Point, and organized with R. P. Caldwell as captain; J. 0. Hartsfield, first lieutenant; William A. Allen, second lieutenant. Charles N. Wade, third lieutenant, and J. C. Gibbs, orderly sergeant.
At the reorganization Charles N. Wade became captain; Rufus Mathis, first lieutenant; James Ross, second lieutenant, and Richard Johnson, orderly sergeant.
Soon after, at the consolidation with the Twenty-second Regiment, the company was consolidated with Company D, and was known thereafter as Company E. The officers elected were Charles N. Wade, captain; Richard Rogers, first lieutenant; Morgan Lane, second lieutenant; James Fielder, third lieutenant, and R. R. Wade, orderly sergeant.
Company H, the Gibson Stars, was organized at Trenton, with R. M. Russell as captain. He was soon after elected colonel, however, and the officers of the company, after the promotion, were Benjamin Sandiford, captain; W. W. McDowell, first lieutenant; James Jackson, second lieutenant; James Houston, third lieutenant, and Frank Sinclair, orderly sergeant. Capt. Sandiford was killed at Shiloh, and was succeeded by Lieut. McDowell, who continued in command until the reorganization, when James Clark was elected captain; Gus Williams, first lieutenant; W. Wade, second lieutenant, and John Barksdale, third lieutenant. At Tupelo, Miss., the company was consolidated with Company K, with James Clark as captain; L. K. Gillespie, first lieutenant; Gus Williams, second lieutenant.
Company K was organized at Humboldt, with A. B. Cannon as captain; W. H. George, first lieutenant; L. K. Gillespie, second lieutenant, and Capt. Roe, third lieutenant. At the reorganization L. K. Gillespie was elected captain, and so continued until the consolidation.
Company E was recruited in the vicinity of Eaton, where it was organized with John H. Williams as captain; W. C. Oliphant, first lieutenant; B. T. Dodd, second lieutenant; Peter Moore, third lieutenant, and M. Lane, orderly sergeant. Upon reorganization Richard Rogersbecame captain; M. Lane, first lieutenant; B. 0. Carlton, second lieutenant; James Fielder, third lieutenant, and Thomas Carlton, orderly sergeant.
Company I was organized at Milan, with Edward Williams as captain; Thomas Hutchinson, first lieutenant; Thomas Drake, second lieutenant; J. J. Richardson, third lieutenant, and Stephen Hale, orderly sergeant. At the reorganization Archibald Jordan was elected captain, but did not serve, and from that time until the surrender at Greensboro, N. C., the company was led by Stephen Hale.
The regiment was organized at Jackson. R. M. Russell was elected colonel; T. H. Bell, lieutenant-colonel, and R. P. Caldwell, major. After the consolidation at Tupelo, the command passed to Col. Bell, and finally, after the second consolidation, to W. M. Watkins.
A company was raised in the vicinity of Milan, and organized with J. B. Robinson as captain; A. T. Gay, first lieutenant, and R. H. Goodman, second lieutenant. It formed apart of Bradford's Thirty-first Tennessee Infantry.
Company D, of the Thirteenth Tennessee Infantry, was organized at Yorkville in May, 1861. The commissioned officers were as follows: John A. Wilkins, captain; John Cunningham, first lieutenant; William Cowan, second lieutenant; John A. McCorkle, third lieutenant, and Samuel Brewer, orderly sergeant.
Company F, of the Twenty-second Tennessee Infantry, was organized at Trenton in June, 1861, with L. P. McMurray as captain; B. T. Davis, first lieutenant; T. W. Williams, second lieutenant; John P. Fewell, third lieutenant, and "Ferd" Hall, orderly sergeant. The next year, the regiment having been consolidated with the Twelfth, the company was reorganized as Company B. T. W. Williams became captain; T. H. Marshall, first lieutenant; James Clark, second lieutenant, and F. M. Donaldson, orderly sergeant. At the organization of the regiment T. J. Freeman, of Trenton, was elected colonel; T. H. Bell, of Dyer County, lieutenant-colonel, and - Stewart, major. When the regiment was consolidated with the Twelfth, at Tupelo, Miss., T. H. Bell became colonel, and L. P. McMurray, lieutenant-colonel. Bell was soon after transferred to the cavalry service, and was succeeded by L. P. McMurray, who continued in command until the consolidation with the Forty-seventh Regiment, at Shelbyville, when W. M. Watkins was placed in command of the consolidated regiments.
Of the Forty-seventh Tennessee Infantry, four companies were raised in Gibson County, as was a considerable part of the Fifth. Company G, of this regiment, was organized at Trenton in November, 1861, with Joseph Carthell as captain; G. M. Hopkirs, first lieutenant; John Hartsfield, second lieutenant; George Elam, third lieutenant, and J. 0. January, orderly sergeant. The company was a very large one, containing about 125 men. At the reorganization Carthell was re-elected captain, while John Hartsfield was chosen first lieutenant, and Syd. Thomas second lieutenant. Capt. Carthell was killed in the battle before Atlanta, and George R. Booth assumed command.
Company K was organized at Yorkville, with Green Holmes as captain; Thomas Cummings, first lieutenant; J. H. Lasley, second lieutenant; David Pierce, third lieutenant, and J. C. Holmes, orderly sergeant. Capt. Holmes soon after became disabled by sickness, and was succeeded by Thomas Cummings, who was afterward killed.
Company B was organized at Donaldson's, in the Fifth Civil District. The officers chosen were William Gay, captain; J. H. Sinclair, first lieutenant; R. B. Patterson, second lieutenant; J. B. Smith, third lieutenant, and L. J. Nicholson, orderly sergeant. It was reorganized at Corinth with J. H. Sinclair as captain; R. B. Patterson, first lieutenant, and H. J. Ballentine. second lieutenant.
Company F was organized at Humboldt, with J. L. Branch as captain; B. F. Roe, first lieutenant; F. M. Newhouse, second lieutenant; W. J. Penn, third lieutenant, and J. H. Rust, orderly sergeant.
The regiment was organized with M. R. Hill as colonel; B. E. Holmes, lieutenant colonel, and T. R. Shearon, major.
On June 22, 1861, the First West Tennessee Battalion, consisting of seven companies, was organized at Trenton. At Columbus, Ky., on February 22, 1862, it was organized as the Fifty-fifth Tennessee Infantry, under the command of A. J. Brown, with G. B. Block, of Trenton, as lieutenant-colonel. The latter had been captain of Company D, which was organized at Trenton, with J. M. Hutchinson as first lieutenant; S. B. Jones, second lieutenant, and H. J. Ferguson, orderly sergeant. Upon the organization of the regiment S. B. Jones succeeded Black as captain; H. J. Ferguson became lieutenant, and B. M. 0. Daniel succeeded him as orderly sergeant. At Mobile, in 1863, Ferguson became captain, and at Port Hudson, La., the company was consolidated with Bledsoe's company.
In 1863, the Twelfth Infantry having been consolidated with the Twenty-second, Col. R. M. Russell returned home for the purpose of recruiting and organizing a regiment of cavalry. As the territory was held by the Federals, the recruits were compelled to escape in squads, and organize after reaching Alabama or Mississippi. In the fall of 1863 a sufficient number of companies having been raised, they were organized at Oxford, Miss., as the Twentieth Tennessee Cavalry, under the command of Col. R. M. Russell. Of this regiment three companies were recruited in Gibson County. Company A was organized on August 24,1863, on Shoal Creek, Alabama, with William Gay as captain; J. H. Blakemore, first lieutenant; James M. Gay, second lieutenant; R. H. Goodman, third lieutenant, and William Hunt, orderly sergeant. On September 16 Capt. Gay was promoted to major, and was succeeded in the command of the company by Lieut. Blakemore. The company served without consolidation to the close of the war.
Company C was recruited in the vicinity of Dyer Station, and organized with J. T. Mathis as captain; J. P. Armstrong, first lieutenant; J. C. A. Grier, second lieutenant; "Pink" Bradbury, third lieutenant, and Robert A. Overall, orderly sergeant. It was afterward consolidated with Shaw's company from Dyer County.
The other company was recruited in the south and southeastern part of the county, and was commanded by J. A. Shane, with J. R. Dance and Tobe Herron as lieutenants.
Bennett's battalion of four companies of cavalry, three of which were from Gibson County, was organized in the fall of 1863 at South Gibson, with G. W. Bennett as major. Company H. was organized at Hope Hill, with J. J. Richardson as captain; W. A. Elam, first lieutenant; Joseph Elam, second lieutenant; I. C. Haynes, third lieutenant, and Robert James, orderly sergeant. Company A was organized at Humboldt. Its officers were William Massey, captain; Peter Wade, first lieutenant; A. House, second lieutenant, and L. Cherry, third lieutenant. The other company was recruited in the vicinity of Brazil, and organized with Wise A. Cooper as captain, and John Dance and Aaron Bowers, lieutenants. At Como, Miss., in March, 1864, the battalion was consolidated with the Twelfth Tennessee Cavalry, under the command of Col. Green. Company B, of the Fourteenth Tennessee Cavalry, was organized at South Gibson College. The officers were John Duberry, captain; N. A. Senter, first lieutenant; John L. Fly, second lieutenant, and LaFayette Harder, orderly sergeant. It was afterward consolidated with Harris' company, with John Duberry, captain; N. A. Senter, first lieutenant; Gideon Hicks, second lieutenant; John Holt, third lieutenant, and George Rucker, orderly sergeant.
Company K, of the Ninth Tennessee Cavalry, was
organized in June, 1863, with Robert Sharp as captain; Robert Clark, first
lieutenant; Edward Cannon, second lieutenant, and John Rust, orderly
sergeant. All of the above troops served in the Confederate service.
One company was raised for service in the Federal Army, and many individuals joined companies from other counties. Company E, of the Seventh Tennessee Infantry (Federal), was recruited in the northeastern part of Gibson County, and organized at North Gibson in August, 1862, with W. C. Holt as captain; T. C. McMahan, first lieutenant; I. W. Johns, second lieutenant, and James H. Sergeant, orderly sergeant. In the spring of 1863 it was transferred to the cavalry service and became Company 31, of the Sixth Tennessee Cavalry.
The early schools of Gibson County were of the same character as those of every new country, and furnished the pioneer youth with only the rudiments of an education. As the early teachers usually lived a somewhat peripatetic life it is difficult to name and locate them. One of the first schools in the vicinity of Yorkville was taught by an old man by the name of Hubbard. He was followed by a Mr. Blackwood, and later by Robert Thomas and Abner D. Thomas, a Cumberland Presbyterian minister, who afterward taught in the neighborhood of Dyer Station. Larkin Harvey, Cornelius Dickey and Henry Bradley also taught schools in or near Yorkville. In 1852 the Yorkville Academy was established, with Alexander Vick as the first teacher, and for several years it enjoyed a wide reputation. In 1835 Daniel W. James taught a school at Antioch Church. He was followed by Thomas C. James and John I. King. One of the first schools in the "Skullbone" district was taught by John Isbel, in a small house, with neither a floor nor a fire place, located near where G. W. Robinson now lives. William Stone and Abner Martin were also teachers in that neighborhood. Alexander Shane and Levi Wright were teachers nearly half a century ago, in the southeastern portion of the county.
Soon after the organization of the county, under the law for the establishment of county academies, the Trenton Male Academy was incorporated. By an act of the Legislature, passed in 1842, it was required to pay over one-half of its funds to the trustees of the Trenton Female Academy, which had been established. These two institutions continued to furnish instruction to the youth of Trenton until 1852. In that year Andrew College, under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church, succeeded the Trenton Male Academy, and to it the funds of the latter institution were transferred. Rev, A. L. Hamilton was installed as the first president. He was succeeded by Gilford Jones, who continued in that position until the beginning of the war. In 1866 the institution was reopened under the management of S. W. Moore, who conducted it for a short time, after which, in 1875, the college property, which was encumbered with debt, was sold to the directors of the public school. Contemporary with Andrew College was the Odd Fellow's Female Collegiate Institute, which was incorporated in 1852 with the following trustees: Joseph D. Hill, John D. McDowell, Robert Seat, Luke P. Seay, H. C. Levy, G. S. Rainey, R. B. McGee, R. P. Raines and M. B. King. The institution was established and sustained by Friendship Lodge, No. 22, I. 0. 0. F., and, under the presidency of Dr. J. E. Bright, attained a high position among the educational institutions of the State. During the war the buildings were occupied by the Federal troops as a hospital, and while so used were accidentally burned. At the close of the war W. K. Jones established the Melrose Female Institute, which was afterward consolidated with Andrew College to form the Peabody High School. This latter institution was organized and went into operation in 1875, under the management of Gentry R. McGee and lady, who have since continued at its head.
In 1860 the Humboldt Female College was incorporated, with J. P. Sharpe, Thomas J. Williams, John A, Taliaferro, Joseph N. Lannon, John C. Gillespie, L. M. Caldwell and W. H. Stillwell, as trustees. A large two-story brick house was erected and the school opened. After the establishment of the public schools it was conducted as a consolidated school until 1885, when the building was sold to the city.
South Gibson Institute was incorporated by an act of the Legislature, passed January 30, 1860, the trustees being Samuel P. Cole, John Green, Benjamin Seward, J. H. Scales, Thomas Walker, A. J. Williams and Green Williams. A good building was immediately erected, and the school opened under the management of Allen Scott, who was afterward succeeded by Isham Burrow. The school continued until 1866, when the building was burned.
Milan College was incorporated in 1868. The trustees were W. B. Dickinson, B. A. Williamson, E. A. Collins, J. H. Yancey, W. L. Horner, Z. G. Jacbkson and M. D. L. Jorbdan. A large brick building was erected, at a cost of $10,000. The school was opened under the management of Daniel Lisle, who was soon succeeded by J. D. Anderson. In 1880 the building was leased to the town for a long term of years, and the school is now conducted under the supervision of the board of education.
In 1849 Shiloh Academy was established by the Presbyterian Church, and continued as a successful parochial school for several years. An academy, which is still in existence, was incorporated and established at Dyer Station, in 1868.
Under the school law of 1867 an attempt was made to establish public schools, and W. H. Stillbell was installed as superintendent of public instruction. Nothing of importance, however, was accomplished. In 1870, under a new law which referred the regulation of the schools to the counties, A. S. Currey was appointed superintendent, and to him is largely due the establishment of the present excellent school system of Gibson County. He continued to hold the office until March, 1875, when he was succeeded by W. C. Oliver. Others who have held the office are James M. Coulter, Joseph R. Deason and A. Killough. The following statistics indicate the improvement in the public schools of the county since the adoption of the present system: In 1874 the scholastic population was, white, 6,656; colored, 2,414; the total enrollment was 7,278, and the number of teachers employed, 144. In 1885 the scholastic population was, white, 9,135; colored, 3,695; the total enrollment, 8,441, and the number of teachers employed, 169.
The religious denominations of the county did not begin the organization of societies until about 1825 or 1826, when each began the work of erecting churches, and providing for regular service. The first Methodist Episcopal organization was made near Olive Branch, and services were held for a time at the house of James Latta, who was chosen the first class leader. The county at that time belonged to what is known as the Forked Deer Circuit, and Pleasant Robinson and Thomas Neely were the first circuit riders, while Thomas Smith was the first presiding elder. The latter was a typical pioneer preacher, as bold and fearless as he was earnest and conscientious, and many reminiscences of his camp-meeting and revival experiences are still related. The first camp-meeting was held at Richardson's camp ground, seven miles east of Trenton, in 1827, at which time there were 107 conversions. During the same year a society was organized at Trenton, and a board of trustees appointed, who proceeded to raise means to build a church, which was completed in 1834 by Thomas Fite. At about this time, Trenton Circuit was formed, including Olive Branch, Clements (situated about three miles east of the present site of Humboldt) and Richardson's Camp Ground. In 1839 Trenton became a station, with Benjamin H. Hubbard as pastor. A church known as El Bethel was organized at the house of William Goodman, four miles north of Milan, as early as 1826 or 1827. Services were then held in a schoolhouse until about 1832, when a building was erected. This church is now known as Walnut Grove. Other early churches were Stanley's Camp Ground, Oak Grove, Zion, Wright's Chapel, Hope Hill, Antioch, Eastwood, Corinth, Wyatt's Chapel, China Grove, Round Pond and Salem, all of which were organized in the thirties. Some time in the forties Rigsby's Chapel was built on the present site of Bradford. It is now located two miles southwest of that place, and is known as Chestnut Hill. A church was built at Milan in 1867, and one at Humboldt was erected at a little later date, although services had been held at both places prior to the war. The following are the remaining churches of this denomination in Gibson County, with perhaps one or two omissions: Rutherford, Dyer, Bower's Chapel, Harper's Chapel, Union, Gibson, Pleasant Hill, Beech Grove, Good Hope, Nebo, Hopewell (formerly Crenshaw's Chapel), Moore's Chapel, Poplar Grove. The aggregate membership of the Methodist Episcopal Churches in the county, according to the latest report, falls little short of 2,500.
The first Protestant Methodist Church was organized by William Elliott about 1831. Among its principal members were Thomas D. Stanley, Luke Biggs, E. Biggs, Zach Biggs, Norton Oakes and Willie Blount. Another society was organized in the vicinity of Milan by Allen Blankenship, and about 1847 a third was established at Poplar Grove. The only one in the county at present is Holly Springs, situated about four miles west of Dyer Station.
No Christian Church was established in Gibson County until during the forties, the first preacher being Elder Tolbott Fanning, of Nashville. Previous to the war three societies had been organized. They were Concord, situated about two miles west of Milan, Trenton and Liberty Grove. Since the war three others have been established: Walnut Grove, Nebo and one near the Obion County line.
Hopewell Presbytery, of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, was organized at Bethel Meeting-house, in Carroll County, in April, 1825, at which time representatives of only two societies, Bethel and Bethlehem, were present, although the entire territory of West Tennessee was included within the bounds of the presbytery. The ministers present were William Barnett, Samuel Harris, Richard Beard and John C. Smith. Harris was chosen moderator, and Smith, clerk. The first church within the limits of Gibson County, which was represented at a meeting of the presbytery, was known as Pleasant Green Camp Ground. The representative, John Harrall, was admitted in 1827. The second was Concord, which was organized at Yorkville in 1827, and its representative, Samuel McCorkle, admitted at the spring session, in 1828. At the same time John A. Miller appeared as the representative of Hopewell. The next year the church at Trenton sent its first representative in the person of George F. Crofton, and at the same session Elijah Gassett represented Antioch. At the fall session of 1829 the presbytery met at Trenton for the first time. Other churches were organized and admitted to the presbytery as follows: Center, 1831; Union, 1840; Pleasant Grove, 1842; Good Hope, 1853; Cool Spring, 1853; Emmaus. 1857; Rutherford, 1859; Davidson's Chapel, 1861; Humboldt, 1866; Eaton, 1868; Milan, 1874; Beech Grove, 1874; Bell's Chapel, 1875, and Mount Olive, 1878. Medina, Oakland and Union Grove have all been recently organized. Sine--- 1881 that portion of the county west of the Mobile & Ohio Railroad has formed a part of the Obion Presbytery. The aggregate membership of the societies within the bounds of the county, according to the latest reports, is 1,022.
Of the early ministers of this denomination in Gibson County, none was more beloved and honored than the venerable Nelson I. Hess. He had served in the Creek war as the surgeon of a regiment, and stood high in the medical profession, but it was his dignified bearing and kindness of heart that endeared him to the people to whom he ministered. Among the other pioneer members of Hopewell Presbytery, well known to the early residents of the county, were Robert Baker, Cullin G. Cribbs, Reuben Burrows, Israel Pickens, Samuel Y. Thomas, John M. Grier, Abner C. Cooper and Daniel Lisle.
The first Presbyterian Church in the county was organized at New Shiloh in April, 1826, and at the same place, on November 6, 1829, the presbytery of the western district was organized. The ministers present were Samuel Hodge, John Gillespie, David Weir and Thomas Lynch. Their churches, New Shiloh, Jackson and New Providence, were represented by Joseph Allison, James Grier and James Thompson, respectively. Samuel Hodge was chosen moderator and David Weir stated clerk. There were twelve churches under the jurisdiction of the presbytery at this time, only one of which, New Shiloh, was in Gibson County. The second church organized was Zion, in the southwestern part of the county in 1833. During the following year a church known as West Bethel was organized in the northwestern portion of the county by the Rev. A. G. McNutt, and one, at Trenton, was organized by Dr. Alexander A. Campbell. A few years later Concord church was established, and in 1853 a church was organized at Eaton. The next society formed was at Hebron, near Rutherford, in 1860. These were all of the churches organized prior to the war. In 1866 Rev. E. S. Campbell organized a very flourishing congregation at Humboldt. All of the above churches are still in existence, with the exception of West Bethel.
Among the well known ministers, besides those already noticed, were A. T. Graves, Thomas I. Newberry, J. E. Bright and David Cochrane.
The First Baptist Church was organized in that portion of the county which now constitutes a part of Crockett County about 1826 by Z. N. Murrell, and among its members were James Ferrill, James Fields, Solomon Shaw, Isham F. Davis and William Moore. In 1828 Eldad Church was organized, six miles east of Trenton, and in 1832 Spring Hill Church was established, one mile north of Eaton. Enan, now Bethlehem, two miles southwest of Rutherford, and Bethel, about one mile south-of Yorkville, were also organized about this time.
In 1825 the Forked Deer Association, which included Carroll and Gibson Counties, and the counties south and west, was organized with fifteen churches and 200 members. Two years later the number of members had increased to over 1,000 and the number of churches to thirty, but at that time thirteen of these churches were formed into a new association known as Hatchie, thus reducing the Forked Deer Association to seventeen. This loss, however, was soon supplied, and in 1833 the organizations numbered thirty-three and the members 1,025. At the next meeting in 1834 the schism growing out of the "anti-mission" and "two seed" doctrines reached the Forked Deer Association and resulted in its dissolution. Soon after, fourteen of these churches opposed to the "two seed doctrine" met at Eldad Church, and reorganized under the name of the "Forked Deer Revival," but when the new body came to adopt a constitution, an article declaring against fellowship with those who united with missionary and Bible societies was inserted whereupon the Eldad, Spring Hill, New Hope, Clark's Creek and Pleasant Grove societies declined to become members of the new body, and in 1836 they met at Eldad Church and organized the Central Association. This body has since experienced uniform prosperity, and from time to time has furnished churches to form other associations. It now numbers thirty-eight churches, of which eighteen are in Gibson County. The following are the names, together with their membership: Beech Grove, 71; Bradford, 112; Center, 102; Chapel Hill, 136; Clear Creek, 46; Dyer, 29; Eldad, 165; Gibson, 119; Hickory Grove, 59; Humboldt, 90; Milan, 173; Mount Pisgah, 112; Mount Pleasant, 34; New Bethlehem, 80; Oak Grove, 132; Salem, 177; Spring Hill, 156; Trenton, 127. Poplar Grove, with 122 members, and Bethel, with 65 members, belong to Friendship Association, and the following to Beulah Association: Bethlehem, 130; Rutherford, 51; China Grove, 54, and Walnut Grove, 166, making a total of twenty-four societies and 2,508 members in Gibson County.
Among the earliest ministers of the Central Association may be mentioned David Halliburton, David Wagster, I D. Shipman, J. M. Hurt, M. Fly and M. Flowers. Others who have distinguished themselves by efficient service during the past half century are J. H. Borum, M. Hillsman, D. Haste, M. E. Senter, G. E. Thomas, S. K. Tigrett, M. H. Neal, John Selvage, D. H. Selph, W. M. Lee, William Hill, George Glover, S. E Gardner B. F. Bartles, S. P. Clark, J. W. Carter, R. A. Coleman, H. Conlee, R. Day, E. Dodson, W. E. Fawcett, W. C. Gilbert, W. W. Gardner, W. C. Grace, C. S. Gardner, C. R. Hendrickson, S. P. Jones, R. W. Norton and J. P. Weaver.
As was stated above, the churches organizing the Central Association withdrew from the Forked Deer revival. This left eight small churches in the latter association. A part of these, however, adhering to the "two seed doctrine," organized a small association, calling it "Predestinarian." These two "anti-missionary" bodies, after lingering in a declining state for several years, became extinct, although there are still two or three congregations in the county.
Of the General Baptists, there is but one organization in the county. This is located a short distance east of Bradford, and is a revival of the old Shiloh Church, which was established by the Primitive Baptists, about 1835.
The church of the Holy Innocents is the only organization of Protestant Episcopals in the county. It was established at Trenton, on February 12, 1878, with a membership of twenty-five, of whom J. H. Glass, J. W. Cox, J. S. Dickason, J. W. Westerbrook and Lewis Glass were the vestrymen. Joseph R. Gray was chosen rector, and so continued until 1879, when he resigned, and the church was without a rector from that time until 1883. Since that date the position has been filled by C. F. Collins. An elegant brick church has recently been erected, at a cost of about $4,000.
The Roman Catholics also have but one congregation in the county. This is located at Humboldt, where they have erected a neat frame house. They have no resident priest, but are supplied from Jackson.
Return toGibson County or Go to Gibson County Goodspeed Index of Families | <urn:uuid:1ddbed11-436a-480b-86c3-ea26d40c1f63> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://tn-roots.com/tngibson/GS/gspintro.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397428.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00048-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977586 | 20,515 | 3.125 | 3 |
Another term for monochord.
- The differential sonometer was invented by the French acoustical apparatus manufacturer, Marloye, ca. 1840.
- The two sonometers were disposed in planes forming 90 degrees with the vacuum cleaner.
- They are looking for a sonometer for automatic interaction with an automatic pager, to implement dynamical noise maps automatically.
For editors and proofreaders
Line breaks: son|om¦eter
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:a6be4093-1112-45e6-8ca6-8ca62d21602f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/english/sonometer | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393332.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00148-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.890856 | 123 | 2.65625 | 3 |
“We can’t afford more top-down economics. What we need are policies that will grow and strengthen the middle class.” — Barack Obama
“Top-down economics” is a hijacked phrase. Objectively, it should be the label assigned to rule-of-czar capitalism steered by government officials. Instead, campaign rhetoric has been assigning it to rule-of-law capitalism driven by consumers and entrepreneurs—supposedly a system steered by the already-rich, in which money gradually trickles down to the middle class.
As vivid as that image may be, it is a false depiction of what really happens in a properly functioning private sector. But once the false image captures the attention of enough voters, it’s a simpler step for political entrepreneurs to sell themselves as the better alternative—simpler, that is, than having to compete against the way a vibrant private sector actually works.
Entrepreneurs cause money to gush outward, not to ‘trickle down’
There is little disagreement that today’s economy needs more private-sector jobs, and there should be little disagreement that private-sector entrepreneurs are more effective creators of new jobs than politicians are. But entrepreneurial success requires three ingredients: New ideas, sufficient drive, and adequate funding. With all three, entrepreneurs can develop new products and bring them to market, creating lasting new jobs when that process succeeds.
Unfortunately, it’s the rule rather than the exception that the typical entrepreneur lacks the third necessary ingredient: Adequate funding. He or she may possess the idea and the initiative, but the necessary funding must come from an outside source.
At the macro level, solving the problem of creating millions of new private-sector jobs requires matching thousands of potentially successful entrepreneurs with the funding they need. When this match is made, the typical entrepreneur—far from starting out rich and then deciding to let money “trickle down”— starts by deciding to take on a big risk, then obtains the funding, and then dishes out a gusher of other people’s money to new suppliers and new employees. If unsuccessful, the entrepreneur is the first one to go broke; if successful, he or she is the last one to benefit. In short, the money gushes outward long before success or failure for the risk-taker becomes evident, and therefore long before the entrepreneur can be judged “rich” or “poor.”
Two ways to source seed money for entrepreneurs
The primary sources of entrepreneurs’ startup funds are—unsurprisingly—family, friends, and the already-prosperous. If family and friends are not an option, a matchmaker is needed to connect the entrepreneur with someone else’s accumulated capital. So the key question is: Who should fill the role of matchmaker?
We have two choices: Either the government assumes the role of matchmaker, or the private sector does.
More specifically: Should the government use higher taxation to forcibly extract additional money from the already-prosperous, then somehow allocate it back into the private sector as the bureaus and agencies see fit? Or would it be more effective to trust private-sector intermediaries—such as private equity firms—to select which specific entrepreneurs should be matched up with capital that the already-prosperous voluntarily make available through those intermediaries? Those who prefer government-allocated funding (“stimulus”) for job creation prefer top-down economics. Conversely, those who prefer privately allocated funding prefer bottom-up economics.
Real top-down economics is the political equivalent of “intelligent design”: Trusting the superior abilities of government experts to ensure that the right things happen and the wrong things don’t. It requires faith that a president-appointed car czar can produce better results for auto-company bankruptcies than can a century of bankruptcy case law evolved from the bottom up. It requires faith that today’s government regulators can predict—accurately and without bias—which energy technologies and corporations deserve taxpayer subsidies and which competing technologies and corporations government should therefore discourage or demonize. It requires faith that macro decisions by a few thousand government appointees can allocate healthcare better than micro decisions by millions of sufficiently insured healthcare consumers. Top-down economics is government-knows-best economics.
Real bottom-up economics is a system that emphasizes trust in the private sector to evolve organically, independently, and in desirable directions, within a tested and evolving legal framework. Bottom-up economics—a.k.a. “emergence” or “complexity economics”—cannot and does not dictate which technologies and firms will (or should) be the winners and losers; instead, it places heavy emphasis on trusting consumers and rule of law to sort them out—in the auto industry, for example. It trusts the private sector to evolve in the favorable direction of a higher aggregate standard of living, to allocate capital from those who have it to those who need it, to add new jobs that require new, higher-level skills, and to jettison or outsource obsolete jobs that require only yesterday’s lower-level skills. It trusts adequately funded entrepreneurs to continue surprising the world with innovations rivaling those of the past and present—such as the Internet search algorithms of Google, the horizontal drilling technologies of Big Oil, the instant-communication platform of Twitter, the slicker-than-cash payment system of Square, and the low-cost mega supply chain of Wal-Mart. It trusts consumers to sort out winners from losers in a trial-and-error process. Bottom-up economics is consumer-knows-best economics.
Which path to job creation and prosperity do we prefer: A continued emphasis on trusting government with top-down economics, or greater emphasis on trusting consumers and entrepreneurs with trial-and-error bottom-up economics?
This article reprinted from The American magazine, a publication of the American Enterprise Institute. Web address: www.american.com. | <urn:uuid:3b10b14e-3d9a-4f20-a219-8debe01082d3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.free-eco.org/insights/article/%E2%80%98top-down%E2%80%99-vs-%E2%80%98bottom-up%E2%80%99 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399425.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00162-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.91882 | 1,246 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Primary prevention is "specific practices for the prevention of disease or mental disorders in susceptible individuals or populations. these include health promotion, including mental health; protective procedures, such as communicable disease control; and monitoring and regulation of environmental pollutants. Primary prevention is to be distinguished from secondary prevention, which is the prevention of complications or after-effects of a drug or surgical procedure, and tertiary prevention, the amelioration of the after-effects of a disease."
Regarding the opportunity cost of primary prevention of diseases, one analysis concluded, "opportunities for efficient investment in health care programs are roughly equal for prevention and treatment."
- Anonymous (2015), Primary prevention (English). Medical Subject Headings. U.S. National Library of Medicine.
- Cohen JT, Neumann PJ, Weinstein MC (February 2008). "Does preventive care save money? Health economics and the presidential candidates". N. Engl. J. Med. 358 (7): 661–3. DOI:10.1056/NEJMp0708558. PMID 18272889. Research Blogging.
- Yarnall KS, Pollak KI, Østbye T, Krause KM, Michener JL (2003). "Primary care: is there enough time for prevention?". Am J Public Health 93 (4): 635-41. PMID 12660210. PMC PMC1447803. | <urn:uuid:c0c9ebcf-42ef-45bc-aa6b-19498406da62> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Primary_prevention | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395546.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00034-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.868263 | 293 | 3.203125 | 3 |
A very popular party game
played in Japan
mostly during summer
and outside, especially at beach
es - a trip to the beach is not complete without a round of suikawari.
The word translates quite literally as watermelon splitting ("suika" means watermelon, "wari" is a nominalized form of the verb waru, "to split").
And this is how you play it:
- The watermelon is placed on the ground
- Each player in turn is blindfolded and given a stick (often a bokken)
- He or she is disoriented by spinning.
- The player then tries to find and split the watermelon, helped (or hindered) by shouted hints from the others
- Everyone gets only a single whack at a time
- When someone finally manages to split open the melon,
everyone gets a share | <urn:uuid:3200da8c-a368-4cdd-af7b-b7bb94748c69> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://everything2.com/title/suikawari | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396959.83/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00011-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948754 | 183 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Mayaweckelia cenoticola Holsinger, 1977
Mayaweckelia cenoticola: after Holsinger, 1977
Taxonomic Characterization: Small to medium-sized amphipod without
eyes or pigment. Antenna 1 is as long or slightly longer than the body. Distal
10-12 flagellar segments of antenna 1 with aesthetascs (1 each); pereopod 6 up
to 15% longer than pereopod 7; dactyls of pereopods 5-7 with row of fine setae
(pubescence) on distal half of upper margin and 2 sets of setae each on lower
margin (Holsinger, 1990). Characterized by the absence of mandibular palps and a
second (terminal) segment on the outer ramus of uropod 3. Lacks basofacial
spines on uropod 1.
Disposition of Specimen: National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, catalog numbers USNM 151181; Museum of Texas Tech University; and the private collection of John Holsinger.
Ecological Classification: Stygobitic
Size: Adult males are up to 4.0 mm in length, while largest adult females are 6.0 mm
Number of Species in Genus: Two, both stygobitic.
Species Range: Recorded in many caves in Yucatan, Campeche and
Quintana Roo. Collection sites in Quintana Roo included: Carwash Cenote, Cenote
de San Martin, Cueva de Tancah, Cenote de Las Ruinas, and Cenote de Santa
Domingo (Holsinger, 1990); Yucatan sites include Cenote Xtacagiha and Cueva de
Orizaba. Rocha et al., 2000 reported M. cenoticola from Grutas de Santa
Maria and Grutas de Tzab-Nah, both in Yucatan.
Closest Related Species: Mayaweckelia cenoticola closely resembles M. yucatanensis, known from a single cave in the state of Campeche.
Habitat: Freshwater and anchialine limestone caves
Ecology: Mayaweckelia is predominantly a freshwater inhabitant, and only three of its eleven known populations are recorded from cave waters that are, at most, slightly brackish. In Carwash Cenote, it was found with Tuluweckelia cernua. Initial collections came from small pools isolated from water bodies in the caves (Holsinger, 1977).
Life History: A strongly skewed sexual ratio favoring females may be present for this species.
Evolutionary Origins: Mayaweckelia is related to both Mexiweckelia and Hadzia but differs from these genera in several important ways. It has taxonomic affinities with marine forms and inhabits caves situated between the Pliocene and Pleistocene shorelines of Yucatan. Holsinger (1977, 1990) concluded from this that Mayaweckelia originated from a marine ancestor by "stranding" in newly developing freshwater habitats following the regression of sea water during the late Tertiary or early Quaternary times.
Conservation Status: Widely distributed in freshwater and anchialine caves from Yucatan, Quintana Roo and Campeche, Mexico.
Contributor: John Holsinger, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA
|Please email us your comments and questions.||Last modified:| | <urn:uuid:57c2054f-6c55-4507-9a5b-7996a01ba336> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.tamug.edu/cavebiology/fauna/amphipods/M_cenoticola.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396029.85/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00174-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.860655 | 758 | 3.0625 | 3 |
Click Image to Enlarge
The lining of the uterus is called the endometrium. Cancer of the endometrium, the most common cancer of the female reproductive organs, is a disease in which malignant (cancerous) cells are found in the endometrium. Endometrioid cancer is a specific type of endometrial cancer.
Cancer of the endometrium is different from cancer of the muscle of the uterus, which is called sarcoma of the uterus. About 75 percent of all endometrial cancers are adenocarcinomas. Endometrial cancer is highly curable when found early. According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), about 41,200 cases of cancer of the uterine body will be diagnosed in the US during 2006. Approximately 95 percent of these uterine body cancers are endometrial cancers.
A risk factor is anything that may increase a person's chance of developing a disease. It may be an activity, such as smoking, diet, family history, or many other things. Different diseases, including cancers, have different risk factors.
Although these factors can increase a person's risk, they do not necessarily cause the disease. Some people with one or more risk factors never develop cancer, while others develop cancer and have no known risk factors.
But, knowing your risk factors to any disease can help to guide you into the appropriate actions, including changing behaviors and being clinically monitored for the disease.
The following have been suggested as risk factors for endometrial cancer:
- early menarche - starting monthly periods early - before the age of 12
- late menopause (after the age of 52)
- infertility (inability to become pregnant)
- never having children
- being treated with tamoxifen for breast cancer
- estrogen replacement therapy (ERT) for treatment of effects of menopause
- diet high in animal fat
- age 40 or over
- Caucasian women
- family history of endometrial cancer or colon cancer (hereditary nonpolyposis colon cancer (HNPCC)
- personal history of breast cancer
- personal history of ovarian cancer
- prior radiation therapy for pelvic cancer
Consult a physician if you experience any/all of the following symptoms:
- bleeding or discharge not related to your periods (menstruation)
- post-menopausal bleeding
- difficult or painful urination
- pain during intercourse
- pain and/or mass in the pelvic area
- weight loss
The exact cause of endometrial cancer is not known, and there is no medical cure for it at this time. However, physicians believe that avoiding the known risk factors, when possible, using oral contraceptives, controlling obesity, and controlling diabetes are the best ways to lower the risk of developing endometrial cancer.
Diagnosis includes a medical history and physical exam, including a pelvic exam to feel the vagina, rectum, and lower abdomen for masses or growths. A Pap test may be requested as part of the pelvic exam. Several additional tests may be used to diagnose endometrial cancer, including:
- internal pelvic examination - to feel for any lumps or changes in the shape of the uterus
- Pap test (Also called Pap smear.) - a test that involves microscopic examination of cells collected from the cervix, used to detect changes that may be cancer or may lead to cancer, and to show noncancerous conditions, such as infection or inflammation. However, because cancer of the endometrium begins inside the uterus, problems may not be detected using a Pap test. Therefore, in some cases, an endometrial biopsy will be performed.
- endometrial biopsy - a procedure in which an endometrial tissue sample is obtained by using a small flexible tube that is inserted into the uterus. The tissue sample is examined under a microscope to determine if cancer or other abnormal cells are present. An endometrial biopsy procedure is often performed in a physician’s office.
- dilation and curettage (Also called D & C.) - a minor operation in which the cervix is dilated (expanded) so that the cervical canal and uterine lining can be scraped with a curette (spoon-shaped instrument). The pathologist examines the tissue for cancer cells.
- transvaginal ultrasound (Also called ultrasonography.) - an ultrasound test using a small instrument, called a transducer, that is placed in the vagina. The physician may perform a biopsy if the endometrium looks too thick.
Specific treatment for endometrial cancer will be determined by your physician(s) based on:
- your overall health and medical history
- extent of the disease
- your tolerance for specific medications, procedures, or therapies
- expectations for the course of the disease
- your opinion or preference
The choice of treatment depends on the stage of cancer - whether it is just in the endometrium, or has spread to other parts of the uterus or other parts of the body. Generally, treatment for patients with cancer of the endometrium includes one or more of the following:
- surgery, including:
- hysterectomy - surgical removal of the uterus
- salpingo-oophorectomy - surgery to remove the fallopian tubes and ovaries
- pelvic lymph node dissection - removal of some lymph nodes from the pelvis
- laparoscopic lymph node sampling - lymph nodes are removed through a viewing tube called a laparoscope, which is inserted through a small incision in the abdomen
- radiation therapy
- hormone therapy
Click here to view the
Online Resources of Gynecological Health | <urn:uuid:9ab922aa-0a57-4020-be3e-e596ab432938> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.ecommunity.com/health/index.aspx?pageid=P00558 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00057-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931723 | 1,172 | 3.21875 | 3 |
Apples and Apple Trees in Western European Myths, Legends, and Folklore
In British myth and legend, apples are most identified with the Island of Avalon, whose name is derived from the Welsh word for apple: afal (pronounced aval). In some cases Avalon is believed to be in the North Atlantic beyond the setting sun, in others it is associated with the town of Glastonbury, Somerset, UK. It is the place where the mortally wounded Arthur is taken to be healed by Morgan le Fee and her sisters. Avalon is a place where there is ever sunlight and warm breezes, the land is lush with vegetation, and the inhabitants never age nor know pain or injury.
Some British folklore about apples from the Mystical
World Wide Web:
- If the sun could be seen shining through the branches of an apple tree on Christmas day, then the owner, if a farmer, would have a healthy crop the next summer. To insure that this would happen, he would have to put a piece of toast in the fork of the tree or in the largest apple tree in his orchard.
- If a crab apple tree grew near to and overhung a well while blossoming out of season, then there would be more births and marriages than deaths in a community.
In Ireland the apple identifies the people of the Sid. When one such comes to invite a human to the Land of Youth, he might carry a branch of an apple tree with him, often described as silver with white blossoms and/or with golden apples. These would make a tinkling sound that put one to sleep or banish pain. Likewise, a silver branch bearing three golden apples is brought to King Cormac and an apple branch from Emain Ablach (the plain? of apples) is brought to Bran MacFebal. In yet another legend, an Otherworldly woman brings a apple to summon Connla on which he lives for a month without other food. Other Irish legends involving apples are the “Voyage of Maelduin” and the story of “Finn and the Man in the Tree.”
The tale of the Sons of Tuirenn combine both Irish and Graeco-Roman elements. The Sons of Tuirenn killed Lugh’s father, Cian. Lugh demanded that they do eight “impossible” tasks as blood-price for his father’s life. The first of these was to bring back three apples from the Garden of the Hesperides (see below) in the east of the world. They would know these apples from the following characteristics: they were the size of a one-month-old child, the color of of burnished gold, and they tasted of honey; eating them healed all wounds and diseases and the apples would not be diminished by being eaten; and if thrown, they would rebound to the thrower’s hands. The Sons of Tuirenn managed to accomplish all eight tasks, but were mortally wounded while doing the last one. Lugh refused to allow them to use the healing powers of another object they captured in the second task, a magical pig skin, so they died shortly thereafter.
In the legend of Thomas the Rhymer (13th century),Thomas Learmont, laird of the castle of Ercildoune, is accosted by a hag who takes him on a journey. He is shown three paths, one of leads to the land of the Fay. While ravenously hungry, he passes by luscious fruits of all kinds, but he is warned not to eat of any of them, for he would then be trapped there forever. He is also told that his hunger would soon be relieved with an apple. When they reach a certain spot, the hag climbs down off the horse and offers Thomas an apple from a small yet perfect tree. She tells him that after eating it he will be graced with the gift of Truth. At that time the hag turns into a beautiful woman and together they go to a castle where they feast for three days. At the end of that time, the woman tells him that he must return to his own world where seven years have passed. When he returns home, he finds that he is given the gifts of prophesy, poetry, and an enchanted harp. He becomes a wise ruler of his territories and is, in time, called back to Fairyland where he remained.
Iduna, wife of the Norse God of poetry, Bragi, kept a box of apples. If any of the Gods felt the approach of old age, they only had to taste of one of these apples to remain young. She was abducted by a giant (aided by Loki) and, in time, the other Gods realized that they were aging rapidly. Loki was sent to rescue her so that she might restore youth to the Gods.
The apple as a symbol of fertility appears in the Volsunga Saga. Here an apple was dropped by a goddess into the lap of a king who prayed for a son. The son who was then born had a great apple tree in the center of his hall symbolizing the continuance of the family.
Pomona was the Roman Goddess of fruit trees, especially of apple trees, and was also know as the “Apple Mother” who gave the “apples of eternal life.” Roman banquets ended with apples and an invocation of Pomona’s blessing.
Pomona had a special priest appointed to her service. Her sacred grove was called the “Pomonal” and was located on the road from Rome to Ostia.
The Hesperides were three virgin sisters who, along with a dragon, guarded the tree of golden apples Gaea had given to Hera as a wedding gift in their garden. These were reputed to bring beauty and health. It was the eleventh of the twelve labors of Heracles that he bring back the golden apples to the world.
In another myth, Atalanta was a powerful warrior who would only marry the man who could outrun her. Desperate to win, Hippomenes prayed to Aphrodite for aid, and she gave him golden apples from her garden which he was to throw into Atalanta’s path. The apples did distract Atalanta and he won the race, but he forgot to give due honor to Aphrodite afterwards and as punishment, both he and Atalanta were changed into lions.
All web sites were active as of 1 July 2003. Subjects of the synopses are listed after the source.
Bulfinch, Thomas. Bulfinch’s Mythology. New York: Avenel, 1978. Golden Apples of the Hesperides, Atalanta, Pomona, Iduna.
Campbell, Joseph. The Masks of God: Occidental Mythology. New York: Penguin Books, 1964, reprint: 1981. Golden Apples of the Hesperides, Atalanta, Avalon.
Campbell, Joseph. The Masks of God: Creative Mythology. New York: Penguin Books, 1968, reprint: 1976. Golden Apples of the Hesperides, Atalanta, Avalon.
Rowen Fairgrove’s Celtica site — site no longer contains the pages from which this information was drawn. Golden Apples of the Hesperides, Atalanta, Avalon, Irish legends.
The Gathering of the Clans. Thomas the Rhymer.
Davidson, H. R. Ellis. Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe: Early Scandinavian and Celtic Religions. Syracuse, N.Y: Syracuse University Press, 1988. Iduna, Volsunga Saga, Cormac, Bran MacFebal, Connla and other Irish apples/apple branches.
Encyclopedia of the Celts. Avalon, British, Irish.
Squire, Charles. Celtic Myth and Legend Poetry and Romance. New York: Bell Publishing Company, 1979 reprint of 1901 edition. Sons of Tuirenn.
Mythography Web site. Pomona.
Yeats, W. B. Irish Fairy & Folk Tales. New York: Barnes and Nobles Books, 1993 reprint. Irish legends. | <urn:uuid:56a57d08-18e8-468a-bede-1cb1412ec623> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.silver-branch.org/ssbapple.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397695.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00048-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970201 | 1,696 | 3 | 3 |
Lung disease is any problem in the lungs that prevents the lungs from working properly. There are three main types of lung disease:
- Airway diseases -- These diseases affect the tubes (airways) that carry oxygen and other gases into and out of the lungs. They usually cause a narrowing or blockage of the airways. Airway diseases include asthma, emphysema, bronchiectasis, and chronic bronchitis. People with airway diseases often say they feel as if they are "trying to breathe out through a straw."
- Lung tissue diseases -- These diseases affect the structure of the lung tissue. Scarring or inflammation of the tissue makes the lungs unable to expand fully (restrictive lung disease). This makes it hard for the lungs to take in oxygen and release carbon dioxide. People with this type of lung disorder often say they feel as if they are "wearing a too-tight sweater or vest." As a result, they are not able to breathe deeply. Pulmonary fibrosis and sarcoidosis are examples of lung tissue disease.
- Lung circulation diseases -- These diseases affect the blood vessels in the lungs. They are caused by clotting, scarring, or inflammation of the blood vessels. They affect the ability of the lungs to take up oxygen and release carbon dioxide. These diseases may also affect heart function. An example of a lung circulation disease is pulmonary hypertension.
Many lung diseases involve a combination of these three types.
The most common lung diseases include:
Kraft M. Approach to the patient with respiratory disease. In: Goldman L, Schafer AI, eds. Goldman's Cecil Medicine. 24th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Saunders Elsevier; 2011:chap 83.
- Aspiration pneumonia
- Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
- Coal worker's pneumoconiosis
- Collapsed lung (pneumothorax)
- Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis
- Lung cancer - small cell
- Lung metastases
- Pleural effusion
- Pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia
- Pneumonia - adults (community acquired)
- Pneumonia - weakened immune system
- Pulmonary actinomycosis
- Pulmonary alveolar proteinosis
- Pulmonary arteriovenous fistula
- Pulmonary aspergilloma
- Pulmonary edema
- Pulmonary embolus
- Pulmonary hypertension
- Pulmonary nocardiosis
- Pulmonary tuberculosis
- Pulmonary veno-occlusive disease
- Rheumatoid lung disease
- Simple pulmonary eosinophilia
Update Date 8/25/2014
Updated by: Denis Hadjiliadis, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Isla Ogilvie, PhD, and the A.D.A.M. Editorial team. | <urn:uuid:baf9d1d3-73f9-40e8-9200-a37f8c09f9fb> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000066.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00067-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.877976 | 625 | 3.515625 | 4 |
Mosaic pictures are a really simple and lovely art activity for children. For younger children it’s an opportunity to learn about the rainbow and colours as well as being creative and having fun! Mosaic Rainbows fit nicely into weather topics and make a great follow on activity from our Puffy Paint Clouds.
Age: Age 3+
Time: This activity needs to be done over two sessions.
One to make the mosaic pieces and one to create a mosaic rainbow.
For full instructions head over to Daisies & Pie :) | <urn:uuid:ae51f929-7246-4020-87da-9385d4350055> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://mombloggersclub.com/profiles/blogs/happy-mosaic-rainbow-art | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403825.35/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00126-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.905991 | 110 | 2.546875 | 3 |
What is better than the drowsiness that eases you into sleep? It’s such a guiltless, hedonic experience: muscles relax, eyelids flit then shut, consciousness slips. Soon you’re in the early stages of dreamless, non-rapid eye movement sleep, when slow-moving delta waves of electrical activity wash across your brain.
That’s good drowsiness.
Then there’s the bad kind, when your neurobiology is insisting that it’s time to sleep, but circumstances simply can’t—or shouldn’t—allow it. You might be driving a car or operating on a patient or banging away on a keyboard.
That drowsiness starts a tug-of-war between wake and sleep that makes it difficult to maintain attention—especially in monotonous situations—and slows down reaction times. “Wake state instability” is David Dinges’s term for it, and few people know more about sleep deprivation and the drowsy brain than Dinges, chief of the division of sleep and chronobiology at the University of Pennsylvania. “You get to the point where you’re fine one second. The next second, you’re lapsing. You’re fine again, then you lapse again,” he explains.
More people are spending more time in this herky-jerky state of mind than ever before. Survey after survey indicates that people are sleeping less and less. Last year, for example, the Centers for Disease Control reported that 30% of employed Americans said they sleep six hours a night or less. Fifty years ago, those people were a tiny minority. While some people are true “short sleepers,” genetically endowed so that they hold up well when sleep deprived, hundreds of sleep lab studies and 40 years of epidemiological data show that six hours is not enough for most people, and that bad things—depression, metabolic maladies, heart disease, premature mortality—start to happen outside the range of seven to eight hours of sleep per night.
Researchers like Dinges are slowly piecing together the puzzle of what happens inside a drowsy brain. PET imaging has shown a general decrease in brain activity after sleep deprivation, with larger reductions in some areas like the thalamus, which helps to regulate sleep. Functional MRI (fMRI) has painted a more complicated and nuanced picture. While lack of sleep results in less activity in the fronto-parietal parts of the cortex—those needed for task-specific attention—increased activity in the thalamus, anterior cingulate, and other arousal structures can get busy in attempt to compensate.
In the last several decades, the drowsiness problem has swelled to epidemic proportions, but collectively, we’re only dimly aware of its depth and extent. The fight against it has been hampered by both societal misunderstandings and a lack of scientific knowledge. Drowsy driving legislation is on the books or has been proposed in about a dozen states, but because there isn’t an objective measure of drowsiness, it’s difficult to draft and enforce stricter laws. Work rules and regulations are another stumbling block because they’re rooted in the mistaken notion that fatigue from working long hours is where the danger lies. In reality, Dinges says, work hours are only part of the equation. Commute times and personal habits outside of work are just as important. “You’ll find people who work 80 hours a week and get plenty of sleep. You’ll also find people who work 30 hours a week and don’t,” Dinges says. “The whole culture is using a set of rules that don’t apply.”
Technology might ride to the rescue. Automated cars could turn drivers into just another passenger, removing drowsiness and its risks from the equation entirely. In the meantime, car companies are loading up their vehicles with safety features that, for the most part, monitor the car and correct its course or warn the driver. Monitoring the driver has taken a back seat, which some safety experts say is a missed opportunity.
Dinges’s ambitions run higher than mere monitoring. He wants an all-fronts attack that would predict, prevent, and detect drowsiness and then intervene if necessary—not just in cars but in any circumstance where inattention can cause significant harm. But first, he and his colleagues have to understand what’s happening in our brains during the flickering moments between wake and sleep.
Paying Attention to Attention
In the early 1920s, the founding father of sleep research Nathaniel Kleitman discovered as a young researcher that it wasn’t easy keeping six University of Chicago male students awake for three straight nights. Observers had to keep them moving all night long or else they’d conk out. Some would try to slip the watchful eye of their minders, pretending to go for a walk in a corridor so they could “walk over to some corner, sit down, and fall asleep almost immediately.”
Sleep researchers have come up with other means for keeping their subjects awake, but Kleitman’s 1923 account of his classic “experimental insomnia” study includes observations about the effects of sleep deprivation that still ring true. During the day, for example, circadian rhythms kicked in, and the overwhelming desire to sleep eased up. But Kleitman’s study volunteers couldn’t listen to a lecture or take notes without words turning into unintelligible scribbling, and on the day after the third sleepless night, taking notes was “entirely impossible.” Yet their ability to name letters and do mental arithmetic wasn’t affected.
Research has since confirmed that the effects of sleep deprivation and subsequent drowsiness are uneven. A few areas of high-level thinking, such as logical reasoning, is left pretty much intact when people stay up all night, while multitasking and flexible thinking end up in shambles. Some researchers pushed the idea that sleep deprivation has a particularly pronounced effect on working memory and executive function—all the processing power needed for planning, plotting, and coordinating. But others—including Kleitman, back in the day—have noted that it is monotony and inherently less-engaging tasks that are the real snoozers for the sleep deprived. Boredom makes rested people annoyed and frustrated, Dinges says. But it puts tired people right to sleep.
By dint of hundreds of experimental results and review articles, Dinges has advanced the notion that lack of sleep most reliably and fundamentally affects attention and vigilance—our ability to focus in a stable way on one aspect of the external world swirling around us. If economics is the science of scarcity, then attention is brain economics: “It allocates processing resources to the stimulus of interest,” explains Michael Chee, a sleep researcher at the Duke-National University of Singapore Medical Graduate School. The things that don’t have our attention receive fewer cognitive resources.
While learning, executive function, and short-term memory are all affected by sleep deprivation, Dinges argues that attention is “foundational,” the base layer of cognition upon which those and other types of thinking are built. If attention is shaky, then they’ll wobble, too. Several years ago, Dinges reviewed papers published on 70 short-term (less than 48 hours) sleep deprivation studies that included a total of 1,533 study subjects. He crunched the results of the individual studies and concluded that, of the cognitive domains, sleep deprivation affects simple, sustained attention the most.
Lapses—errors of omission—are one way we experience this flickering attention. But Dinges’s own experiments, where participants pressed a button in response to a cue, suggest it may also cause us to overcompensate. “You know you’re supposed to not be lapsing, so you compensate by pressing the button too soon. So now you’re committing errors of commission, too,” he says.
Sleep deprivation amps up risk taking, too. Chee says that in two of the gambling studies he conducted, he discovered what casino owners probably figured out long ago—brains short on sleep are more likely to hope for big gains and undervalue losses. Functional MRI of sleep-deprived brains showed that the ventral striatum, a part of the brain that serves to anticipate gain, was more active, while the insula, where many emotions are processed, was less active. Because other types of decisions fraught with risk don’t produce these effects, Chee is now testing various types of gambling games to tease out more precisely which aspects are affected by sleep deprivation.
“The brain can’t tell”
Of course, people can and do recognize when they’re nodding off. Often, though, people push themselves to stay awake. Those motivational thoughts can dominate their self-awareness. That’s part of why drowsiness can be so dangerous. If people are driving drowsy, the desire to stay awake until they reach their destination may push them to drive faster so they can get there quicker, Dinges says. Now they’re driving drowsy and speeding. Not a good combination.
In Dinges’s pioneering studies, which restricted sleep to four or six hours per night over several weeks, he found that people are actually pretty good at judging their impairment during the first few days of sleep restriction. But as the number of short-sleep nights piles up, people grow more impaired and their judgment worsens. At that point, they think they’ve adapted to getting a few hours of sleep a night, but they haven’t. “Humans are abysmally poor judges of their true incapacitation from sleep loss,” Dinges says. “Our subjective sense of ourselves is very much dependent upon acute, immediate changes, not chronic conditions,” he adds. “At some point, a brain can’t tell.”
Yet Dinges has also noticed that people respond to sleep deprivation differently. We generally fall into three categories, he says. Type 1s keep it together and continue to perform well on various cognitive tests, though like others, they do notice that they’re sleepy. Most people are type 2s: sleep deprivation causes deficits, but circadian rhythms perks them up. Type 3s have little tolerance for sleeplessness. After about 16 hours of being awake, they experience cognitive deficits, too, but don’t benefit from “circadian rescue.”
These divisions may have a genetic underpinning. Researchers have identified “sleep genes” and polymorphisms associated with differences in how people respond to sleep deprivation, though there are probably not just one or two. At least in the experimental setting, the type 1, 2, and 3 groupings follow a normal distribution, suggesting that a number of genes are involved in susceptibility to sleep deprivation.
Under the Hood
Though the genetic picture remains hazy, our understanding of what’s happening inside the brain is growing sharper. Imaging technology is allowing researchers to see what’s going on in drowsy brains. Sleep researchers have had the most luck recently with fMRI, which measures neuronal activity indirectly by measuring oxygenated blood flow. No radiation is involved, and it can be repeated under many different conditions.
Drowsiness studies using fMRI have also revised our understanding of how the brain focuses our attention. Attention has been viewed as very much a top-down, frontal lobe–directed phenomenon—essentially, that we must actively boss it around. But Chee’s fMRI-enabled research of visual processes has shown that the parietal lobe, which processes sensory information, is consistently affected by sleep deprivation. Research by Govinda Poudel and colleagues at the New Zealand Brain Research Institute has shown that the task-oriented parts of the mildly sleep-deprived brains start out okay, but as they work neuronal activity drops off. Meanwhile, activity is high in the arousal network, including the thalamus and anterior cingulate, reflecting the drive to stay awake.
Other fMRI-enabled research has shown the consequences of sleep deprivation at the brain’s network level, particularly the default mode network, which comprises areas of the brain that are active during inward cognitive experiences (like daydreaming and remembering) but go off-line during external tasks. If you prevent a sleep-deprived brain from following its natural instinct to sleep, the lively “talk” among the various parts of the default mode network grows sparse, as does the communication between the default mode network and its counterpart, which activates during externally oriented tasks.
Findings like these, which identify very local spots of decreased neuronal activity, support an explanation of sleep put forward by James M. Krueger, Giulio Tononi, and others. Sleep, Krueger explains, is not orchestrated by one particular part of the brain but is instead a dynamic, bottom-up process, analogous to a flock of birds changing direction. Small networks of neurons, called cortical columns, tip into a sleep-like state—Krueger is careful to avoid using the word sleep—depending on how active the neurons have been. As more and more cortical columns go into this sleep-like state, sleep occurs as an emergent property.
The mental fumbling that occurs when you haven’t had enough sleep is a matter of not having enough “awake” cortical columns, Krueger says. “When 5,000 of the 10,000 columns go into a sleeplike state, your performance will drop just because you don’t have as many columns involved in fulfilling the performance.”
Living With Less
The thing about sleep deprivation and drowsiness is that we know it’s bad for us but we cheat on sleep anyway. Dinges thinks our brains are a house divided, wired so that the higher parts flout what our mid- and lower-brain biology is trying to tell us. “Our brains elect to use time as a commodity and violate this neurobiology that regulates the timing of wake and sleep in all other species.”
Occasionally, ignoring those signals can have catastrophic consequences. The Exxon Valdez oil spill, where a drowsy captain ran his supertanker aground, is one example, the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster another. But more often, the consequences are smaller in scale and underplayed. For example, for years government reports and independent research estimated that 3-4% of fatal car crashes involved drowsy drivers. But when Brian Tefft, a researcher at the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, filled in the gaps in the data using statistical techniques, he calculated that 16.5% of fatal car wrecks in the United States—resulting in about 4,000 deaths—involved a drowsy driver. Clearly it’s more than a minor problem.
Drowsy driving legislation is on the books or has been introduced in roughly a dozen states. Many of these states have laws that are on the innocuous end of the spectrum, emphasizing awareness and education. At the other end is New Jersey, which has one of the toughest. “Maggie’s Law,” named for a college student who was killed by a driver who hadn’t slept for 30 hours, allows prosecutors to charge drivers with vehicular homicide if they cause a fatal crash after not sleeping for 24 hours. Still, prosecutions under such statues are rare and difficult. Drunk driving laws might be a model for driving while drowsy laws, but without an easy, objective test for drowsiness like blood alcohol content for drunk driving, it’s hard to imagine how they’d work.
Mitigation is a more practical—and consequential—strategy than criminalization. Some like rumble strips and guard rails, are already in place. Others, like that being developed by Azim Eskandarian, are on the near horizon. Eskandarian, a professor of engineering and applied science at George Washington University and director of the school’s Center for Intelligent Systems Research, has created a system for detecting the small, moment-to-moment corrections drivers make to stay in their lane. When drivers are alert, those “lane keeping” corrections are continual, he explains, but when they’re drowsy, they occur less often and are more drastic.
While you can’t buy Eskandarian’s system in a car today, manufacturers currently offer other collision-warning and automatic braking systems. Such monitoring and warning systems are a bridge, keeping us safe until driverless cars becomes a reality. For now, Dinges says, “you’ll still have the joy of driving, but there will be increasing protections against the catastrophic event.”
Not all drowsiness mitigation needs to be engineered: A good nap can work wonders. A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association last year showed that a “protected sleep” policy for medical residents that involving taking away cell phones for a five-hour sleep period not only increased the amount of time they actually slept, it also improved their alertness when they woke.
Despite such measures, we shouldn’t expect the problem of sleep deprivation and drowsiness to go away, Dinges says. Our modern, stimulated brains do not go gentle to bed. “I think we want more time awake and alert and able to do things. We love it,” Dinges says. “We’ll sit up at night, whether it’s playing video games or shopping on the computer or doing work off hours. We love cognitive flexibility.” | <urn:uuid:e00dbafd-ea7b-421c-96df-aad7e1ddf936> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/body/science-of-drowsiness/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397748.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00186-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948741 | 3,705 | 2.84375 | 3 |
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Will the U.S. Drought and Tropical Storm Isaac Trigger a Food Crisis in Haiti?
By Mina Remy
September 10th, 2012
The United States is facing its worst drought in nearly 50 years. Not alone in its extreme weather, parts of Africa, Australia, Europe, Asia (especially India) and South America are in the same boat. And while the drought certainly affects people in these nations directly, the impact may be felt as much – if not more – in the small Caribbean nation of Haiti, for reasons as complex and numerous as import-dependent food systems, lack of agricultural investment, and just plain bad luck and timing (from earthquakes to floods to global climate disruption).
Let’s start with the impact of global and climate disruption.
Right now, 33 states across the U.S. have reported drought conditions in at least one county. Most of these states fall into what is considered the United States’ breadbasket—the Midwest—where corn, soy and wheat are grown for domestic and international consumption. Though the majority of these crops feed people domestically and internationally (the U.S. is the largest grain exporter in the world), over the past few decades an increasing percentage of the soy and corn yield also feed livestock and produce biofuels (corn for ethanol). Experts now predict that not only will the drought persist through at least late October, but it will also spread – depleting farm yield and ultimately reducing food available to people in Haiti.
It’s too soon to determine the causes of this year’s drought, but climate experts have been warning us for years that drastic weather patterns will make life extremely difficult if the causes of climate change are not addressed -- including droughts as well as increasing hurricanes and tropical storms, such as Tropical Storm Isaac that inundated Haiti with drenching rain.
In the Western Hemisphere, no other country seems more exposed to the vagaries of nature and humankind. In the summer and fall Haiti is vulnerable to tropical storms and hurricanes. For instance, August 24-25, 2012, Tropical Storm Isaac wreaked havoc throughout Haiti – flooding neighborhoods, destroying homes and farms, and leaving 24 people dead in its wake. In 2010, Haiti suffered a massive earthquake (from which it is still trying to recover), and we learned that the nation sits on several fault lines. Shortly thereafter, U.N. peacekeepers introduced cholera into Haiti (the recent storm-induced flooding raises concern that incidences of cholera will spike). And, Haiti’s environment through a combination of poor governance and extreme poverty is at risk of soil erosion and mudslides both of which stem from intensive, widespread deforestation throughout the country.
As if that were not enough, Haiti faces a chronic agricultural problem. Namely, the inability of successive governments to develop a comprehensive national agricultural policy in conjunction with peasants and small producers and the peasant organizations that works with them. For the past 17 years, Grassroots International partner Haitian Platform to Advocate Alternative Development (PAPDA) has championed greater investment in the agricultural sector and the small farmers and peasants who produce 50 percent of Haiti’s food. Real investment in Haiti’s agricultural sector would include land reform, irrigation networks, agricultural credit, insurance, education, and higher taxes on artificially cheap agricultural imports. Haiti currently has the lowest agricultural tariffs in the Caribbean, which means Haitian farmers are forced to unfairly compete with cheap, and heavily subsidized agricultural imports from the U.S.
Since Haiti produces only 50 percent of its food domestically, the remaining 50 percent is imported predominantly from the U.S. and to a lesser extent from neighboring Dominican Republic. Therefore, the current drought in the United States will be felt acutely throughout Haiti. Poor yields this agricultural season in the United States will result in decreasing agricultural export from the U.S. and potentially higher costs of foodstuff internationally.
The ripple effects are significant. As other countries grapple with higher than expected prices, countries that would normally export their surplus will hedge against another bad agricultural season by keeping their surplus at home. As more and more countries follow suit, what could have been a simple (for those who can accord it!) increase in food prices transforms into a global shortage in essential grains and other foodstuff. This is what happened in 2007-2008, when food prices skyrocketed globally. Back then, the combination of rapid increase in grain prices and shortage of grains, especially rice, led to food riots in Port-au-Prince and other parts of the country, which almost destabilized the country by toppling then-president Rene Preval.
The conditions which led to the food riots in Haiti in 2007-2008 have only been exacerbated by the earthquake. Now, nearly 400,000 people are essentially homeless, barely able to purchase food at current prices, let alone any increases that will result from the U.S. drought. Moreover, Chavannes Jean-Baptiste of the Peasant Movement of Papaye (MPP), a Grassroots International partner, reports that the yields from Haiti’s first planting season this year, March, fell below expectations because Haiti, too, experienced lower than expected rain levels during that period.
Farmers were hoping that yields from the August planting season would be more abundant, but it all depended on slow, steady rain. In that regard, Tropical Storm Isaac was devastating. Isaac left no part of the country untouched, but the brunt of the storm washed away homes, farms, trees and livestock in the south and southeast. MPP and other peasant organizations are still assessing the damage from the storm. But, according to Chavannes, this planting season is essentially lost; especially considering hurricane season ends in November. A preliminary report released by the Government of Haiti seems to support Chavannes’ view. According to the report, Tropical Storm Isaac affected 81,250 hectares of farmland nationally. Another related report estimates the agricultural sector suffered $242 million in damages from the storm.
Losing this planting season on the heels of poor yields from the first planting season could be catastrophic for Haiti. This year more than ever, Haiti’s domestic agricultural production needed to hit or slightly surpass 50 percent in case imports fell short due to drought in the U.S. and elsewhere. A food shortage in the country could quickly lead to malnutrition and starvation. It’s unclear if Haitian farmers will have any surpluses from 2011 that survived the hurricane season. Chavannes thinks the real danger now lies in “a food crisis induced by U.S. drought, flooding in Haiti and rapid increase in food prices due to food speculation.”
Haiti’s dependence on food imports is a national crisis—a crisis that the First Lady of Haiti, Sophia Martelly, acknowledged during an interview with Voice of America on August 8, 2012. The interview, conducted in Haitian Creole, is available here. For years, Grassroots International partners and grantees, including PAPDA, MPP, National Congress of Papaye Peasant Movement (MPNKP), Tet Kole Ti Peyizan (Tet Kole) and Coordination of the Organizations of the South-East (KROS) have demanded that the Haitian government and people take the issue of food sovereignty seriously. As they see it, a sovereign nation cannot depend on others to feeds its people. What happens when the imports don’t arrive or the prices of those imports are beyond the reach of 90 percent of the population?
In Haiti, we may learn the answer to that question all-too-soon.
Photo by: HL/ HaïtiLibre | <urn:uuid:8fb1091f-82ea-4c1e-94ba-64f5b60def9a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.grassrootsonline.org/news/articles/will-us-drought-and-tropical-storm-isaac-trigger-food-crisis-haiti | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403508.34/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00087-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950499 | 1,587 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Waterbirds At Risk
|Despite their value, or perhaps because of it, waterbirds
have not always fared well at the hands of humans. In
one case, the harm was irreversible. The last sighting of
the Great Auk in 1852 heralded the extinction of this
colonial waterbird species through direct hunting
impacts. Fortunately, the mass destruction of egrets by
market hunting in the late 1800s and early 1900s was
stemmed in time, and in fact, led to the modern conservation
movement in North America. Yet as illustrated
by the crash of the Brown Pelican population in the
Gulf of Mexico due to contaminants, waterbirds are
still at risk due to human activities.
Some waterbirds continue to be threatened by direct impacts of human activities. Longline and gill net fisheries kill large numbers of seabirds through entanglement and
drowning. Oil spills from ships and chronic bilge discharge sicken and kill hundreds of thousands of waterbirds. Impacts from exposure to pesticides and other chemicals, which caused population declines in Double-crested Cormorants and Brown Pelicans in the 1960s and 1970s, continue to threaten waterbirds in places throughout the Americas.
||Food concentrated in aquaculture ponds and hatchery facilities attracts herons, cormorants, terns, and pelicans, and may result in illegal killing by distressed fish farmers. Citizens sometimes look upon waterbirds with disfavor when nesting or roosting congregations in urban and suburban environments conflict with aesthetic standards. Public disaffection with waterbirds, warranted or not, may be among their greatest long-term threats.
The habitats of waterbirds—the important sites on which they depend for nesting, feeding and wintering—are also at risk due to human related and natural threats. Hydrologic change of freshwater wetlands, degradation of coastal and marine habitats, introduction of exotic and invasive species, and depletion of the food base all adversely affect waterbirds. Habitat loss and degradation can cause population declines. | <urn:uuid:fddb9fa8-bfb9-4eed-b71c-36b55397fb2b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/nacwcp/atrisk.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398869.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00137-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92102 | 422 | 3.59375 | 4 |
An urban legend is simply a modern folktale – it is a myth or legend that carries enough significance to make people today intrigued to hear it and motivated to pass it on to others. The story persists regardless of whether it is true and is usually recounted as happening to a ‘friend of a friend’. Despite the name, urban legends do not have to take place in an urban environment; instead the term refers to the fact that the story is set in post-industrial times when most people live in cities. The term was first used by Professor Jan Harold Brunvand of the University of Utah, in 1981, to emphasise that legends and folklore do not occur exclusively in what are thought of as traditional societies.
Some urban legends, like the Hitchhiker, are updates of older legends set in a modern context. Others like the ‘Kidney Heist’ (where a person wakes up from an ambush minus a kidney taken for transplantation), could only have come into being in more recent years, since certain advancements in technology or science. Most urban legends have one or more of the following in common:
An element of caution or warning
An element of mystery or intrigue that often plays on our worries or fears. Urban legends can range from mildly spin-chilling to outright horrific
An element of surprise or shock
An element of humour
The sense that it could happen to anyone in a similar situation. Although often bizarre, urban legends use modern circumstances or elements from modern life that encourage people to believe the story could be true. For example, many are set in cars or involve electronic devices like phones or computers
The content of these legends is very diverse: there are urban legends about alligators in the New York Sewers, spiders killing a woman by nesting in an elaborate hair do, a message that must not be typed into a computer, a game of hide and seek gone wrong and even an exploding Yucca plant!
What is the Vanishing Hitchhiker and when was the story first told?
The most common version of the legend involves a driver who stops for a strange girl on a highway; during the course of the ride he realises the hitchhiker has disappeared and later learns from her relatives that she has been dead for years.
Vanishing hitchhikers have been around, it seems, for centuries. The story is found across the world, with many variations. The modern version of the story, dates back to the turn of the 20th century but the concept goes back much further. Originally it was a stage coach, or wagon and horses, or even a loan traveller or horseback that picked up the ghostly passenger. Indeed, perhaps one of the first vanishing hitchhikers was the Apostle Philip. In the New Testament (Acts 8:26-39), it describes how an Ethiopian driving a chariot picks up Peter; the Apostle baptizes him and then disappears.
One of the most reported versions occurred just after Pearl Harbour in the USA. In this story, a man gives a lift to a woman and when he refuses to let her pay for the fuel she offers to tell his fortune. She tells him that he will have a dead body in the car before he gets home and that Hitler will die within six months, then vanishes. On his way home, he sees an accident and rushes the victim to hospital in his car but the passenger dies before arrival - the implication being that the Hitler part of the prophesy would also come true. The story spread rapidly, due largely to wishful thinking – so many people wanted it to be true! Public knowledge of the Vanishing Hitchhiker story expanded further in 1981 with the publication of Brunvand's book The Vanishing Hitchhiker. It is still one of the most popular and enduring urban legends and continues to be adapted for a modern audience. Its simple formula means that it is highly customisable. “My friend’s friend Joseph told him” can easily become “My friend’s friend Callan told him”. Similarly, the address can be anywhere and the hitchhiker could be child of anyone who has lost a daughter in a vehicle accident. The mode of transport can evolve with technology.
Do the stories have elements in Common?
Nearly all the stories follow similar formula. There are common features that regularly crop up. Most stories will contain at least a number of the following features:
A motorist (usually a man), picks up a lonely hitchhiker. Most often, but not always, a young female.
The Driver lends the hitchhiker an item of clothing and hence has a reason to find her or him
The hitchhiker issues some kind of warning about the future
Before, or on, reaching their destination the hitchhiker vanishes
The hitchhiker leaves behind some item that needs to be returned. This item may help the driver to identify their (former) residence. Or if they disappear at the destination, the driver wants an explanation
When the driver explains the reason for their visit, they are met with confusion
A picture on the wall confirms the driver is in the correct location
The driver learns from the grieving loved one that the hitchhiker died several years ago (the number of years vary)
The item the driver lent to the Hitchhiker is found on a grave stone
Other variants include hitchhikers who utter prophecies before vanishing in front of the driver (typically of pending catastrophe such as natural disasters or other evils). These are usually old women and, again, subsequent inquiries reveal them to be deceased. Very occasionally the ghost is an unsettling or threatening presence. In some stories the girl is met at some place of entertainment, for example, a dance, instead of on the roadside. In Hawaii, the story involves the ancient volcano goddess Pele, travelling the roads incognito and rewarding kind travellers.
Why is the story told so often?
For people to want to retell a story they must identify with it in some way. The story has elements that we can all easily identify with and a character, that although doing something silly or thoughtless, we can sympathise with - and even think ‘that could be me’. Hitchhiking was a fairly common practice, and, although less so now with constant warnings about picking up strangers, is still well known from TV and the movies. The driver is an ordinary person. There is nothing extraordinary or heroic about them, suggesting the story could happen to anyone – even you and me! The driver is basically a good person; they want to help the hitchhiker and keep them safe, but like most people, they are not perfect and they may be doing something thoughtless – like driving too fast or not paying attention. The shadowy presence of the Ghost reminds us all that if we indulge in that kind of behaviour, we too could end up with the same fate as the hitchhiker.
The story also appeals to our enjoyment in being shocked or in hearing about something horrific as long as it is at arm’s length. A lot of these stories are told, or passed on, by young people at sleepovers, around the camp fire or over the Internet. Although the ghost is usually benign and often helpful, the resolution, when it comes, is still spin-tingling, just because it happens in such a normal setting. The ghost is not met in a creepy house or graveyard at dead of night but gets into a car. Furthermore the interaction with the ghost occurs not because the young man went looking for the supernatural, but because it came to him, suggesting that ghosts could be encountered at any time and by anyone. Even more chilling is that the driver does not recognise the passenger as a ghost during their time together, so would we recognise a ghost if we met one?
People tend to pay more attention if a story seems familiar and if it’s somewhat tragic or frightening. There are scary stories, in many cultures, reserved just for frightening children to ensure they behave. And such stories work at some conscience level with all ages. They tell us a lot about our collective fears and our society. So maybe there is a lot that can be learned from modern folklore. | <urn:uuid:c80b1ad6-210b-433c-9f43-28def15eb27e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://myths.e2bn.org/mythsandlegends/origins13483-the-hitchhiker.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399425.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00088-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960677 | 1,675 | 2.984375 | 3 |
Emerging Infections of International Public Health Importance
Emerging Infectious Diseases
Worldwide and in the Americas
David Brandling-Bennett, MD
Overview of infectious diseases
This slide shows the leading infectious killers worldwide from 1998.
The graph is divided into age groups (over 5 years and under 5 years). We can see from this graph that of the top 6 diseases, one of these is AIDS, a new infection that emerged in the past 20 years. Infectious diseases account for 25% of deaths worldwide, a higher proportion in developing countries than developed countries. The primary deaths for children are from respiratory and diarrheal illnesses and measles. For adults, primary deaths due to infectious diseases are from AIDS and TB.
This graph breaks down the deaths in children under age 5 by the actual numbers of deaths for this year period.
Of the half million deaths occurring each year, 1/3 of them are due to 3 of the top 6 infectious agents. This slide shows the infant mortality and proportion of deaths in this age group in the Americas, by country.
It is broken down into infant mortality on the left and proportion of deaths from infectious diseases in children under 5 on the right. You can see that the death rates vary widely based on the country, the lowest in Canada and the highest in Bolivia.
One of the agents of respiratory illness is Streptococcus pneumonia which can cause severe pneumonia, meningitis and sepsis. Surveillance for S. pneumonia has been ongoing. This graph shows the rates of penicillin resistance among the S. pneumonia isolates between 1993-1999 from the Americas.
Both high level resistance (HR) and low level resistance (LR) have increased over the years.
Another major cause of illness for children and adults is tuberculosis. One third of the world’s population is infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis. This map shows the estimated rates of TB by region of the Americas.
Some of the highest rates are seen in Peru and Ecuador. An emerging problem with tuberculosis is the rapid rise of drug resistance.
This map shows where studies have been conducted into TB drug resistance in the Americas. Here, you see the results of these studies for primary TB drug resistance.
The highest rates of resistance are seen in the Dominican Republic, with over 40% primary resistance. Uruguay has some of the lowest rates, at 1-2% resistance.
Primary resistance is designated if the patient has not received drug therapy for TB in the past. Usually primary resistance is to only one of the TB medications such as isoniazid. Multi-drug resistance (MDR) is resistance to both isoniazid and rifampin, both potent first line agents for treatment of TB. The rise of MDR-TB worldwide has led to WHO supporting a DOTS strategy. This slide shows the MDR-TB prevalence for several countries.
As you can see, Dominican Republic is the fifth in this list with 8% MDR-TB.
The cost of treating MDR-TB is significantly higher than drug sensitive TB and can cost upward of $100,000 per patient to treat. It can also carry a higher mortality rate especially among persons with HIV/AIDS.
Reintroduction of cholera into the Americas
Cholera is a disease that has been around for centuries. Epidemic cholera had been eradicated from the Americas since the 19th century. However, in January 1991, cholera cases were reported in Peru for the first time in the 20th century. The disease spread very quickly from Peru and then to neighboring countries. There were tens of thousands of cases in the early 1990’s. It has been suggested that this epidemic was part of the cholera pandemic that affected Indonesia in 1961. Reintroduction of cholera occurred from the port in Lima, Peru, then entered the food supply and water, and spread throughout South America. This slide shows graphically the number of cases of cholera reported to the WHO from 1990-1998.
You can see that there were no cases of cholera reported from the Americas in 1990, but a very large number of cases in 1991 and 1992. The cases from the Americas surpassed both Asian and African cases during those years. We don’t know why the epidemiology of cholera has changed but it now has a more permanent presence in many parts of the world, including the Americas again.
These two maps show the incidence rate of cholera for 1999 and 2000 in the Americas.
The decreasing rate of cholera in South America was due to improved water sanitation. Both improved water systems and improved chlorination were utilized to help control the cholera epidemic.
An additional concern for cholera is the increase of drug resistance.
Treatment for cholera is primarily supportive with fluid and electrolyte rehydration and resuscitation. Some health care workers use antibiotics for this disease although it is unclear if it has any significant public health benefit; considering the resistance level there could be more harm by increasing drug resistance in a community.
HIV/AIDS in the Americas
Global estimates for HIV/AIDS worldwide range from 34 to 46 million persons infected.
There were an estimated 4-6 million new HIV infections in 2003 among adults and children. HIV/AIDS was responsible for 3 million deaths in 2003. The Caribbean has the second highest rates of HIV based on population, following behind some sub-Saharan African countries.
This study among pregnant women in selected Caribbean countries shows the prevalence of HIV.
Haiti (not shown) has the highest burden of disease with 10-15% prevalence in their pregnant women. The Caribbean region does not have a broad economic base; much of their economy is based on tourism and export of agricultural products. HIV/AIDS affects the most productive age groups which impacts the economy even further. Treatment, while available, is expensive and complicated, but could help lessen the epidemic in these regions. Developing and continuing prevention programs along with treatment programs are essential to reduce the burden of this disease on their communities.
Vector-borne diseases in the Americas
We will briefly touch on four vector-borne diseases that affect the Americas: malaria, dengue, yellow fever and hantavirus.
The major vector-borne disease concern for the Americas is similar to Africa and Asia--the increase of drug resistant malaria. These two slides show the level of chloroquine resistance in Plasmodium falciparum from 1960 and 1999, respectively.
P. falciparum is the most lethal form of malaria. The spread of chloroquine resistance likely occurred after its appearance on the Kenyan coast. While Africa still carries the highest burden of resistance, this slide
shows an increasing level of both chloroquine and sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine resistance worldwide.
Dengue is a viral infection spread from the vector mosquito Aedes aegypti or Aedes albopictus. This slide shows the course of Aedes aegypti eradication efforts--you can see that in the 1930s there was extensive infestation of the dengue vector, and by 1970, the vector had almost been completely eradicated through public health measures of vector control.
However, Aedes has made a comeback and has reinfested the Americas, at even greater concentration than in the 1930s. These mosquitoes are present in the tropics and subtropics.
Dengue cases have also been increasing from the 1980s-2001.
This slide shows the number of dengue epidemics over two years in Central and South America.
Dengue has four subtypes. The more dangerous form of dengue is dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF), which can have death rates up to 10%. There has been a marked increase in DHF from 1980 to 2001.
DHF is more commonly seen when a person is infected with a second type of dengue. Most areas that are endemic for dengue (Asia and the Americas) also have all four subtypes present; this can increase the risk of DHF.
Yellow fever is present in two parts of the world currently, Sub-Saharan Africa and South America. This map shows the geographic distribution in South America for yellow fever.
In the Americas, the disease is endemic in the rural setting--the main host is the monkey and the vector is Aedes aegypti (the same vector as dengue). There is no possibility of eradicating yellow fever because of this “jungle” transmission. Humans come in contact primarily when they enter an endemic region. There is concern that the number of urban cases could increase in the Americas, as it has in Africa. This graph shows the urban yellow fever cases from 1980-1998 in both Africa and the Americas.
These yellow fever epidemics can be controlled with the use of yellow fever vaccination of the population at risk. It has been recommended to add yellow fever vaccine to the EPI vaccination schedule for children. Yellow fever vaccine is one of the more effective vaccines and has good longevity. To date, this recommendation has not been adopted by WHO. The vaccine is used by many countries as a control measure during large outbreaks.
Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome was first identified in the four corners region of southwestern United States in 1993. This map shows the hantavirus pulmonary syndrome cases during 1993-2000.
There have been cases of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome in South America. It is thought that this is unlikely to be from spread from the United States; it appears that HPS is an indigenous disease to this region that is either truly new or has recently been discovered.
Emergence of antimicrobial resistance
Another major factor for emergence of disease is the microbial adaptation to change. One organism, Salmonella, has been shown to have significant resistant patterns. Salmonella species cause a variety of intestinal and systemic disorders such as typhoid fever. They can commonly be found in the food supply and cause diarrhea. The majority is self limiting and requires no treatment. However, untreated S. typhi could lead to a carrier state or more serious illness. This map shows the countries with presence of drug resistant Salmonella.
The resistance is to multiple antibacterials including sulfa, macrolides and chloramphenicol. These are the least expensive medications.
Newer antibiotics, such as the quinolones have been effective, but resistance has also been increasing. This graph shows the level of quinolone resistance in humans based on their use in animal husbandry and veterinary practices.
Based on this increase of resistance, the UK banned quinolones from being used in animal husbandry to prevent further resistance from occurring.
Foot and mouth disease is a disease of cattle and other hooved animals. It is a vesicular disease that can cause high mortality among susceptible animals. It is a major concern in South America, especially in Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil, which are major exporters of beef. This world map shows the global distribution of Foot and Mouth disease.
The potential to spread this disease by bioterrorist means is a concern as it could devastate an industry and food supply for a large numbers of people.
Infectious Disease Successes
Two serious childhood diseases that have been effectively eradicated or markedly diminished in number are polio and measles.
Polio eradication in the Americas started in 1988 and was completed by 1991. The Americas have been free of wild polio since 1991. This slide shows the efforts toward global polio eradication from 1988 until today.
You can see that there are a few remaining countries in the world that still have endemic polio: Nigeria, India, Egypt, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Efforts continue to complete the eradication of this disease; it is hoped to be completed by the end of 2005. This would mark the second disease eradication of the 20th and 21st centuries (smallpox being the first).
The infrastructure and collaboration among countries was necessary to complete this eradication. Poliomyelitis laboratory network for PAHO (Pan-American Health Organization) exist throughout the Americas.
This network was used to help identify any suspect cases and determine if it was wild type polio or vaccine strain type.
Building on the success of polio eradication, PAHO decided to undertake measles eradication as well. The decision was made in 1994. Measles had been reduced at that time through increasing immunization coverage. In 1994, PAHO moved to a two-tiered strategy of routine immunization: the initial immunization occurs as part of the EPI vaccines at age 15 months, the second tier entails periodically giving an additional dose of vaccine to children under 15 years of age.
This slide shows the vaccine coverage and reported number of measles cases from 1980-2001.
You can see that starting the two-tiered system led to even further decline of measles cases. Since 2002, there have not been any endemic, indigenous measles cases in the Americas. This graph shows the vaccine coverage and measles rates from 1990-2003.
There are still a few cases that could have been imported from elsewhere in the world or due to partial immunity. Since measles presents as a rash, it could be confused for other diseases with similar presentation--an expanded laboratory network is necessary to do accurate testing on suspected cases
The future of emerging infections
This map of the Americas shows the emerging infections of the past decade.
What will we see in the next decade? The factors that lead to emerging infections--decay of public health, continued population growth and urbanization, international trade and travel, increase in microbial resistance and change in land use and others--will continue to exist.
What is our situation?
What can we conclude from this? | <urn:uuid:f4214f0b-d97f-4357-b6ed-c834777a6a3c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://depts.washington.edu/eminf/2004/mod1topic2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393463.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00088-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952333 | 2,830 | 3.203125 | 3 |
Protesters challenge Israeli troops in the West Bank while commemorating the Nakba, or “day of catastrophe” in Arabic, which marks the day when Israel declared its statehood in 1948—an act which forced thousands of Palestinians out of their homes and into a life of exile
May 15, 2012
Bernat Armangue / AP
Masked Palestinians hurl stones at Israeli troops, during clashes outside the Ofer military prison, near the West Bank city of Ramallah, May 15, 2012 during the 64th anniversary of the "Nakba", Arabic for catastrophe, the term used to mark the events leading to Israel's founding in 1948. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were forced from their villages during the war over Israel's 1948 creation, an event they commemorate every year as their "Nakba". | <urn:uuid:00097994-25a6-4de2-b23b-daec9833b684> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://world.time.com/2012/05/15/palestinians-mark-their-day-of-catastrophe/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783408828.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155008-00018-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965161 | 168 | 3.125 | 3 |
was the 9th century father of García Jiménez of Pamplona
. In spite of various biographical details having been created, there are no unambiguous records of his existence except in the patronymics
of his sons, García and Íñigo Jiménez
, indicating a father named Jimeno. In 850, the French court received envoys from Induo
, "dukes of the Navarrese", and it has been supposed that these names represent those of Íñigo Arista
and Jimeno, The location of his hypothetical principality has been placed around Álava
, where a count Vela Jiménez, traditionally thought to have been his son (again based on patronymic), held sway.
He has sometimes been described as Jimeno the Strong, but this results from confusion with a much earlier man of that name. Likewise, he sometimes appears as Jimeno Garcés due to hypotheses about his origins. The belief that he was kinsman of Íñigo I Arista has led to various... Read More | <urn:uuid:d3c3e01e-e32a-4505-bd1a-bc1f924b66e8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://pages.rediff.com/jimeno-of-pamplona/825357 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396147.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00055-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983436 | 225 | 2.828125 | 3 |
The facts surrounding the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912 have long been fodder for discussion. The disaster permeates popular culture and has spawned a myriad of books, television specials, and movies -- perhaps none more famous than James Cameron's recently re-released Titanic. As we commemorate the 100th anniversary of the tragedy and pay tribute to the passengers and crew on board that fateful night, here's a quick look at some of the lesser known facts that have been lost to history.
By the Numbers
The $7,500,000 (now $400,000,000) Titanic could hold a maximum of 3,547 people, but had 2,223 aboard when tragedy struck four days into its maiden voyage. There were six warnings of icebergs before the collision and it took 160 minutes for the boat to sink into water that was negative two degrees centigrade. Just 31.6 percent of the passengers and crew survived, however experts say 53.4 percent should have survived given the capacity on the Titanic lifeboats. Just 28 people were on board the first lifeboat, which had a capacity of 65. Today, the ship sits at 12,600 feet below sea level.
Titanic's Near Collision
Long before it struck an iceberg in the Atlantic, the RMS Titanic ran into trouble with another object: the steamer New York. A much smaller ship, the New York was sucked into the Titanic's wake and its mooring snapped, spinning her around stern-first toward Titanic. A nearby tugboat, the Vulcan, came to the rescue by taking the New York under tow. The two ships avoided collision by a matter of about four feet and the incident delayed Titanic's departure for about an hour.
Continue Reading Below
Canceled Lifeboat Drill
A lifeboat drill was planned for the Titanic on April 14, 1912 - the day it struck the iceberg. For reasons that remain murky, Captain Edward John Smith canceled the drill. Some say it was canceled to allow passengers to go to church. Several historians believe that had the drill taken place, many more lives could have been saved. There were not even close to enough lifeboats on board to hold all passengers and crew, but when they were launched, they were not filled to capacity.
Nearly every passenger on the Titanic had to share a bathroom as only the two promenade suites in first class had private facilities. However, the third class passengers had it rough. There were just two bathtubs for the use of more than 700 passengers.
The Atlantic Daily Bulletin
The Titanic was so impressive for its time that it even had its own newspaper on board. The Atlantic Daily Bulletin was printed every day on the Titanic. The newspaper included news, advertisements, stock prices, horse-racing results, the day's menu, and society gossip.
The Richest Man On Board
The wealthiest passenger aboard the Titanic was Lt. Col. John Jacob Astor IV. Astor, whose family made its fortune in opium, fur trade, and real estate, went down with the ship after helping his pregnant wife escape into the last lifeboat. Traveling with the Astors was their valet, maid, nurse, and pet Airedale. The nurse and maid survived with wife Madeleine, the rest perished. The Astors were returning on the Titanic from an extended vacation in Europe and Egypt where they waited for gossip to calm down over their recent marriage. Madeleine was one year younger than Astor's son Vincent from his first marriage.
The Titanic Orchestra
All eight members of the Titanic orchestra perished in the disaster, though just three of the bodies were found. According to those rescued, the all-male group played until the ship went down. It's been suggested that the last tune was the hymn Nearer My God to Thee. I shall never forget hearing the strains of that beautiful hymn as I was leaving the sinking ship, an unnamed rescued sailor told the Western Daily Mercury in 1912. It was always a favorite hymn of mine, but at such a time and under such tragic circumstances it had for me a solemnity too deep for words. On May 9, 1912, a concert was held at the Apollo Club in Brooklyn, N.Y. to aid the families of the musicians who died in the disaster.
The Mystery Ship
According to newspaper reports from 1912, the SS Californian was just eight to 15 miles away from the Titanic as it sank, but failed to respond to distress calls. Several Titanic buffs believe another ship, the 254-ton Samson, was just five to eight miles away, between the Californian and Titanic. The SS Californian's crew claimed that this mystery ship, which some believe to be the Samson, was steaming away, confusing them into thinking the rocket-flares came from a ship that was, in fact, in fine working order. For its part, the Samson may not have been eager to identify itself because of illegal seal hunting.
Ten Titanic survivors would later commit suicide. The first was stewardess Annie Robinson who was sailing across the Atlantic to visit her daughter in Boston two years after the tragedy and jumped overboard. The last was Frederick Fleet, the lookout on the Titanic who first spotted the iceberg. He hung himself from a clothesline in his garden in 1965.
The Lost Titanic Film
One of the roughly 700 survivors of the Titanic voyage was silent screen star Dorothy Gibson. Gibson burst to superstardom in 1911 and her film The Lucky Hold Up was released on April 11, 1912 while she was on the Titanic. Surviving the disaster on the first lifeboat launched, Lifeboat No. 7, she convinced her manager to appear in a film based on the sinking. She went on to write the scenario and star in the one-reel drama Saved from the Titanic wearing the very clothes she wore on the night of the tragedy. The film was hugely successful on both sides of the Atlantic, but the only known prints were destroyed in a 1914 fire at the Éclair Studios. Many film historians consider this the greatest loss of the silent era. Gibson abruptly ended her film career soon after the film's release. At the time, she was the highest paid movie actress in the world.
MORE ON THE TITANIC: | <urn:uuid:738fb568-d950-4293-9531-f7112f68f4be> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.ibtimes.com/titanic-facts-10-things-you-didn%E2%80%99t-know-about-ship-timeline-events-survivors-435770 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402479.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00005-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984457 | 1,276 | 3.234375 | 3 |
1 Answer | Add Yours
Since you've asked this a number of times, I'll give it a shot. But I'm not guaranteeing that I understand what's going on here.
Overall, what Walcott seems to be doing in this part of his essay is talking about his feelings about his ancestors and what they did to one another. He is talking about his white and his black ancestors both.
I believe that's what he's talking about when he says he gives the thanks that you mention. I think that he can give such thanks because the deeds of his ancestors made him what he is and made his world what it is -- "soldering" the halves of the fruit with its "bitter juice." So he's thankful that his world exists, but he's kind of bitter because he doesn't exactly like the world that was built by slavery and exploitation.
As far as forgiveness or pardon, I think he's saying that it's not his role to judge them and therefore he can't forgive or pardon. I also think that part of it is that pardon and forgiveness are too personal of things for him to give them because he feels no love for them and they are "anonymous and erased."
I hope that makes sense and/or helps...
We’ve answered 328,308 questions. We can answer yours, too.Ask a question | <urn:uuid:a34d21cf-3b5e-4b2d-b03b-e692fdecd850> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/muse-history-why-does-walcott-argue-that-there-no-117975 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783408828.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155008-00177-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.99531 | 278 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Teams of middle school students use the engineering design process to design, build, and test a pair of wearable platform or high-heeled shoes, taking into consideration the stress and strain on the wearer’s foot. They activity concludes with a “walk-off” to test the shoe designs and discuss the design process.
In this activity, teams of middle school students express their creativity while learning the fundamentals of engineering design, sustainability, and the basic physics of forces and motion by building a vehicle out of recycled trash that is capable of transporting liquid over rough terrain with as little spillage as possible.
Note: This activity can be scaled for high school or upper elementary students.
Students in grades 6 to 8 investigate the accuracy of sundials and the discrepancy that lies between “real time” and “clock time.” They track the position of the sun during the course of a relatively short period of time as they make a shadow plot, a horizontal sundial, and a diptych sundial. In the process, they learn that time is among the criteria that engineers must factor into their designs.
Students in grades 5 to 7 use Bernoulli’s principle to manipulate air pressure in a series of fun activities so its influence can be seen on the objects around us.
In this collaborative math and art lesson, students in grades 4 through high school explore central ideas in industrial engineering – including productivity, efficiency, and quality – by designing their own assembly line and working together to mass produce greeting cards.
Tags: Art, assembly line, Class Activities, Common Core State Mathematics Standards, girls in STEM, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Grades K-5, greeting card, Industrial engineering, Lesson Plans, Math, STEAM
In this activity, students in grades 2 to 8 learn about applied forces and elements of the engineering design process by creating a pop-up card or book.
Student teams in grades 3 to 7 learn the key role that smell plays in being able to recognize foods by conducting taste tests while holding and not holding their noses. They then create bar graphs comparing the number of correct identifications.
In this NASA activity, students in grades 1-8 learn about the challenges of space nutrition and designing food packaging by observing, measuring, comparing, and contrasting the ripening of fruits and vegetables when exposed to air and the effect of chemical treatments to inhibit ripening.
The year is 2032 and your middle-school explorers have successfully achieved a manned mission to Mars! After establishing criteria to help look for signs of life, they conduct a scientific experiment in which they evaluate three “Martian” soil samples and determine if any contains life. | <urn:uuid:b899bc49-8870-4005-87ab-d5f2cbeb1187> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://teachers.egfi-k12.org/category/lessons/grades-6-8-lessons/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393442.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00167-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946939 | 555 | 3.84375 | 4 |
Meth Lab Photos
As you can see in our meth lab photos, a meth lab is a clandestine drug lab. It is a collection of materials and ingredients used to manufacture illegal drugs. Methamphetamine is made mostly from common household ingredients as seen below in these meth lab photos. When these ingredients are mixed and "cooked" together they make a dangerous drug and potentially harmful chemical mixtures that can remain on household surfaces for months or years after "cooking" is over. There may be health effects in people exposed to lab chemicals before, during and after the drug-making process. Therefore, each meth lab is a potential hazardous waste site, requiring evaluation, and possibly cleanup, by hazardous waste professionals.
Meth labs have been discovered in hotel and motel rooms, restaurants, barns, private homes and apartments, storage facilities, fields, vacant buildings and (moving or stationary) vehicles like the ones below in our meth lab photos. A minimum of 5 to 7 pounds of chemical waste are produced for each pound of meth manufactured.
After a lab has been abandoned or shut down by law enforcement, the property is usually found to be contaminated with hazardous chemicals. Methamphetamine is made (or ‘cooked’) from common, easily-available materials, using one of several basic chemical processes. There are hundreds of chemical products and substances that are used interchangeably to produce meth. The substitution of one chemical for another in meth recipes may cause the cooking process to be more hazardous (resulting in fire or explosion) or may result in a finished product with unwanted or dangerous effects. Many dangerous chemical ingredients are used to make meth. Also, chemical by-products such as toxic phosphine gas may be formed during meth manufacture. This may occur through planned chemical interaction, or by processing errors, such as increasing cooking temperatures too rapidly. | <urn:uuid:691903f7-a497-47be-970a-539a962f89ca> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.stopmethaddiction.com/Meth_Lab_Photos.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396455.95/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00088-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949743 | 368 | 2.875 | 3 |
“The town in which I live is very small. All the other farmers raise pigs and cattle, and making a living from bees does give them something to talk about down at the cafe other than fescue foot and the price of pork bellies. Cows and pigs are large animals, and the farmers keep track of them by putting a numbered ear tag on each beast’s ear. It tickles their fancies that someone can make a living with a bunch of wild bugs who can’t be penned and marked, but who fly everywhere, unruly but helpful, pollinating plants and making honey.”
— Sue Hubbell
A Book of Bees
It is in the heat of summer that I can’t help but stop to consider the honey bees.
Love ’em or hate ’em, we would all certainly be in a mess without them. Respect is what all of those worker bees have earned, but rarely get. Unless you are a beekeeper or know one well, it is easy to take the work of bees for granted.
Sue Hubbell wrote several books during her years of living in the Ozark Mountains of southern Missouri. She kept about 300 hives, some on her own farm and others in the surrounding farm country. She would pay other farmers rent in the form of a gallon of honey a year, and grew to know them all well.
In her words
The farmers grew to like the honey, but liked having the bees on their farm land even better, as the clover in their pastures grew “more luxuriant because the bees are there to pollinate it, and the vegetables in their gardens and the fruit on their trees benefit from the bees, too.
“My best and most productive beeyards, however, are those near towns, because townspeople plant flowers and water both their flowers and clover-scattered lawns, providing the bees with a constant supply of fresh blossoms to secrete nectar which they turn into honey,” Hubbell writes.
‘We talk weather’
In this dry summer, so many things concern us: the threat of fire, the fear of crop failure, the oppressing heat drying up the creeks and tributaries and our drinking water supplies. We don’t often think about the honey bees and how much their survival is tied to moisture, and how much their work is tied to plant proliferation.
Hubbell writes, “The ranch hands and I started talking weather because it is of real concern to all of us. It determines their hay crop and my honey crop. In 1980, a year of searing drought, I was able to harvest only six thousand pounds of honey from my three hundred hives and lost bees to starvation in midsummer.
“In another year, when the rains came at the right time, those same three hundred hives gave me thirty-three thousand pounds.
“So we talk weather. We talk hay. We talk bees. We talk farm prices and shake our heads sadly.”
Bees play a large part in our farming world, but their work is needed everywhere. New York’s Central Park relies on many city beekeepers to keep the beauty and balance thriving.
Mature adult bees are protein feeders, thriving on nectar and honey. But young bees need protein to develop, and it is pollen that supplies it.
I have come to know several people who work hard at keeping bees, and know others who receive bee venom therapy for arthritis and other health issues, and it is just another statement for the amazing power of nature, and man’s ability to play a part in the give and take of it all.
We need to keep in mind that bees often struggle, even on a good year, since overgrown, unused pastures filled with wild mint, sweet clover and wildflowers are becoming a thing of the past. Fence rows are kept neat and weed-free in many areas, a fact that has cut out good sources of nectar for bees.
So, plant some wildflowers and let them go. The bees will thank you, and will certainly pay you back in all sorts of ways! | <urn:uuid:53af4145-1401-482d-b3c2-487d162fa926> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.farmanddairy.com/columns/easy-to-take-bees-work-for-granted/39122.html?icn=related-stories&ici=int-articles__related-thumb__187x125__single-footer | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397213.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00197-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973257 | 876 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Major Achievements in Science & MedicineErrungenschaften der Naturwissenschaft und Medizin
Réalisations en sciences et médecine
Pierre Eugène Marcelin BERTHELOT
Born in Paris, Berthelot proposed a thesis about synthesis of fats and the constitution of glycerine and thanks to this, he had his doctorate in 1854. In 1856 he managed to synthesise the first hydrocarbons : the methane and other like benzene, butane in the following of his works. He worked also with explosives and dyestuffs and on the heat produced by chemical reactions. Thus he created the thermochemical.
I chose this chemist because he was the first one to discover the synthesis of many organic substances. He was very logical and cortesion because he back the theory about the question that organic coumpounds could be created only from living organisms.
The origins of alchemy (1885)
Practical creatise on chemical (1883)
Experimental enquiries (1901) | <urn:uuid:b27ced7f-66c8-48b3-9a21-53214a84bb2d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.hh.schule.de/comenius/montargis/berthelot.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402746.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00107-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.915382 | 220 | 2.921875 | 3 |
Many women have heard the term ‘estrogen dominance’ (ED) but are not sure of the meaning. Estrogen Dominance is a term every woman should be familiar with. PMS, infertility, post menopausal symptoms, and breast cancer often relate to ED. Estrogen Dominance doesn’t mean that a woman is high in estrogen. Rather, it means that the estrogenic effects are stronger than the (counterbalancing) progesterone effects. If we think of the analogy of the body as a car, the estrogen would be the accelerator (stimulant) and the progesterone (calmer) would be the brakes. We could have too little ‘accelerator’ function and still be crashing into cars because our ‘brakes’ are even weaker.
DEFINITION: Estrogen and Progesterone work with each other either as opposites or as complementing hormones. Estrogen is a stimulant (anxiety, insomnia, cellular proliferation at breast, uterus etc) and Progesterone is a calmer (patience, sleep, inhibits cell division). They also complement each other (Estrogen decreases bone loss while Progesterone promotes bone growth).
CONCEPT: Estrogen dominance is a condition in which a woman can have deficient, normal, or excessive levels of estrogen, but has too little progesterone to balance the estrogen level. It means a predominance of estrogenic effect as opposed to progesterone effects. It is the balance of the two that matters more than how much we have. A woman can have a low estrogen but a lower progesterone (re. effects) and be estrogen dominant.
Common symptoms of Estrogen Dominance : Anxiety, irritability, anger, agitation, Cramps, heavy bleeding, prolonged bleeding, clots, Water retention/weight gain, bloating, breast tenderness, lumpiness, enlargement, fibrocystic breasts, mood swings, depression, weepiness, headaches/migraines, food cravings, sweet cravings, chocolate cravings, Muscle pains, joint pains, back pain, acne, foggy thinking, memory difficulties, fat gain, especially in abdomen, hips and thighs, cold hands and feet (i.e., stressed adrenals), blood sugar instability, Insulin Resistance/syndrome X, irregular periods, decrease sex drive, Gall bladder problems, infertility, insomnia, osteoporosis, endometriosis, polycystic ovaries, uterine fibroids, cervical dysplasia (abnormal cells on PAP smear), allergic tendencies, autoimmune disorder, breast-uterine-cervical-ovarian cancer.
What causes Estrogen Dominance? In a word, STRESS. Lets define stress. Stress is anything that causes us to adapt or threatens our survival. The source can be emotional (e.g., difficult people or circumstances), physical (injury/pain, noise), chemical (pesticides, heavy metals etc.), hormonal (non-bioidentical hormones, excessive thyroid replacement etc) or biological (e.g. bacterial, viral, parasitic).
How to fix Estrogen Dominance: Remove or reduce the stressor as you can. Avoid re-exposure. Support adequate progesterone levels (natural/bio-identical only!). In my next blog, I’ll give information on how to sensibly balance the progesterone. A good book that teaches how to balance female hormones is Natural Hormone Balance for Women by Uzzi Reiss. If you’re not sure of what you’re doing, a safe way (only if you’re not pregnant) is to use Chaste Tree or Vitex (same thing) 1-2 tabs daily, 1st thing in the morning.
Appearance of Estrogen Dominance on thermogram:
Thermographic (infra-red) image of the back. The colorized shows regional heat patterns best (red is hot and blue is cold). Thus the right shoulder has more red because there is inflammation there. The grey scale shows vascular patterns best. The leopard spot pattern is one of several patterns suggestive of estrogen dominance. On day 2 of hormonal balancing we already see a disappearance of the estrogenic leopard spot appearance, thus we can see the estrogen. | <urn:uuid:1116b70d-5d6c-4126-845f-ce56e1c70209> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://info.nihadc.com/integrative-health-blog/bid/53256/Estrogen-Dominance-Doesn-t-Mean-What-You-Think | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395620.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00102-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.886824 | 893 | 2.734375 | 3 |
The Battle for the Cosmic Center
by D. Russell Humphreys, Ph.D.
Biblical teaching places man at the center of God's attention. Recent astronomical evidence restores man to a central place in God's universe. Over the last few decades, astronomers have become convinced that the red shifts of light from distant galaxies (figure 1) occur in distinct, evenly spaced groups. I discuss these "quantized" redshifts and their implications in a forthcoming technical journal article.1 See endnote 2 for more details.
Figure 1. NGC 4414, a typical spiral galaxy is 60 million light-years away, about 100,000 light-years in diameter, and contains hundreds of billions of stars. (Photo: Hubble Space Telescope Science Institute/NASA.)
The Hubble Law (which says that redshifts tend to be proportional to distance) offers a simple explanation: galaxies are, perhaps expanding in evenly spaced spherical shells around our point of observation, the Milky Way Galaxy, as figure 2 illustrates. This concentric pattern implies our galaxy is very near the center of the cosmos.
"Of course," says the average non-astronomer, "that sounds very reasonable. Who could have a problem with that?" The average astronomer, that's who! To the informed devotee of the big bang theory, the very idea of the universe having a center is anathema. The big bang cosmology has assumed from the outset that there were no special locations, such as a center. To visualize it the way the experts do, the computer-animated creationist video, "Starlight and Time," is very helpful.3 The bottom line is that the big bang theory can't tolerate a center. So quantized redshifts are evidence both against the big bang cosmology and for "galactocentric"4 creationist cosmologies.
But to the secularist seeking to avoid any hint of God, there is a further heresy: we are much too close to the center. The quantized redshift data imply that we are within about 100,000 light-years of the center, a very small distance compared to the diameter of all the matter in the cosmos, at least 40 billion light-years. The probability of us being so close to the center by accident is less than one out of a quadrillion, implying we are where we are as a result of purposeful design. Not liking these high odds for God, the secularists have sought other explanations for the redshift quantization, without much success so far.The Long War against a Center
Our being near the center of the cosmos is an idea of such great importance that scholars have fought over it for centuries. In the third century before Christ, Aristarchus of Samos suggested that the sun is the center of our solar system.5 But the earth-centered solar system propounded by other Greek philosophers won out, culminating in the detailed cycles within cycles of Claudius Ptolemy (~100 to 170 A.D.).6 Then in 1543, Nicolas Copernicus revived the idea of a sun-centered solar system. He believed that the universe has a center. He simply proposed that the sun, not the earth, was closer to the center, and that the sun was motionless with respect to the center. As did most other scholars of that period, Copernicus thought the universe is finite in size. But it was not long before philosophers such as Thomas Digges (1576) and Giordano Bruno (1583) began modifying Copernicanism by claiming the universe is infinitely large. A science historian summarizes Bruno's view:
The sun was, he thought, merely one of an infinite number of stars scattered through the infinite expanse of space; some of the other bodies in the infinite heavens must be populated planets like the earth. Not only the earth but the sun and the entire solar system were transformed to insignificant specks lost in the infinitude of God's creation....7
Matter in an infinitely large cosmos would not have any boundary, and so could not have a center. Isaac Newton went along with the idea of an infinite cosmos to prevent it from collapsing, since, as one modern cosmologist put it, "...if matter were evenly dispersed through an infinite space, there would be no center to which it could fall."8
Modern secular cosmologies have continued in the same tradition. In 1917 Albert Einstein set the pace by postulating his "cosmological principle" that matter is uniformly distributed throughout all space.9 This resulted in a non-expanding cosmos with space curving back on itself. Others modified Einstein's equations to allow expansion, but kept his starting assumption. The version that eventually won popularity is what we now call the big bang theory. Again, its starting point is Einstein's cosmological principle. Stephen Hawking and George Ellis renamed it the "Copernican principle" and sought to make it more plausible with these words:
In the earliest cosmologies, man placed himself [not "God placed man"] in a commanding position at the centre of the universe. Since the time of Copernicus we have been steadily demoted to a medium sized planet going round a medium sized star on the outer edge of a fairly average galaxy, which is itself simply one of a local group of galaxies. Indeed we are now so democratic that we would not claim that our position in space is specially distinguished in any way.10
Actually Hawking and Ellis are making a very strong claim: that we are not in a special position in the cosmos. Another astrophysicist reveals the motive:
The idea that we are not located in a special spatial location has been crucial in astronomy, leading directly to the [big bang theory]....In astronomy the Copernican principle works because, of all the places for intelligent observers to be, there are by definition only a few special places and many nonspecial places, so you are likely to be in a nonspecial place.11
The word "likely" I have emphasized above shows that the secularists want to have us be where we are by accident, not by the deliberate intention of a God who might have put us in a special place. The big bang theory satisfies their desire by doing away with special places altogether. So we see that over the past four centuries, secularists have sought to move us further and further away from the center of God's universe, finally denying that there is a center at all.Why a Center Is Crucial to You
The intense struggle for centuries over this issue is a clue that it is very important, emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually. One reason is that the Bible is quite clear about the centrality of our planet in God's plans. Genesis mentions the earth on the first day (1:1,2) and third day (vv. 10-12), well before God made the sun, moon, and stars on the fourth day (vv. 14-18). It was a sin on this planet (3:6) that subjected the whole universe to groaning and travailing (Romans 8:22). It was to this planet that the Creator came (John 1:9,10) to die on the cross and deliver not only us, but also the entire physical cosmos (Romans 8:21,23) from the consequences of that first sin. God's eternal throne will be on earth (Revelation 21:2,3). To escape consciousness of the scrutiny of such a God, secularists have worked hard to belittle our location and us, as the following words from Carl Sagan show:
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena....Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light [an image of earth taken by Voyager I]. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.12
To the Christian, however, close attention from our Creator and Savior is not terrifying, but encouraging. To know, from this new redshift evidence, that God has given us prime real estate in His vast universe astounds and awes us, as Psalm 8:3,4 says:
When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
- D. Russell Humphreys, "Our Galaxy is the Center of the Universe, 'Quantized' Red Shifts Show," TJ (vol. 16, no. 2, 2002).
- The wavelengths of light from atoms in distant galaxies are usually shifted (from their normal values) toward the red side of the spectrum. In 1929, Edwin Hubble showed that the percentage of red shift for each galaxy tends to be proportional to its distance from us. The new evidence is that redshifts are "quantized", tending to be in distinct, evenly spaced numerical groups, such as: 0.024, 0.048, 0.072, 0.096, . . . (percent). Hubble's law implies that these percentages correspond to evenly spaced distances: 3.1, 6.2, 9.3, 12.4, . . . (million light-years). Since galaxies are evenly distributed in all directions, these distances imply that galaxies tend to form evenly spaced spherical shells around our home galaxy, the Milky Way, as figure 2 idealizes.
- Mark DeSpain, "Starlight and Time" (Albuquerque, Forever Productions, 2001), 27 minute video. Based on the book by D. Russell Humphreys, Starlight and Time (Green Forest, Arkansas: Master Books, 1994) 137 pp. Both available through ICR customer service 1/800-628-7640.
- "Galactocentric" (not "geocentric") here means a cosmology having a center and our home galaxy near it. Examples are my own (see above), and one by Robert V. Gentry, in Creation's Tiny Mystery (Knoxville, Earth Science Associates, 3rd edition, 1992), p. 180.
- Arthur Koestler, The Sleepwalkers (London: Penguin Books, 1959), pp. 50-52.
- Michael J. Crowe, Theories of the World from Antiquity to the Copernican Revolution (New York: Dover Publications, 1990), pp. 45-68.
- Thomas S. Kuhn, The Copernican Revolution (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1957), p. 235.
- Steven Weinberg, The First Three Minutes (New York: BasicBooks, 2nd paper edition, 1993), p. 32.
- Albert Einstein, "Cosmological Considerations on the General Theory of Relativity," in The Principle of Relativity (New York: Dover Publications, 1952), pp. 177-198.
- Stephen W. Hawking and George F. R. Ellis, The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1973), p. 134.
- J. Richard Gott, III, "Implications of the Copernican Principle for our Future Prospects," Nature 363:315-319, 1993.
- Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot (New York: Random House, 1994), p. 9.
* At time of publication, Dr. Humphreys was Associate Professor of Physics for ICR.
Cite this article: Humphreys, D. R. 2002. The Battle for the Cosmic Center. Acts & Facts. 31 (8). | <urn:uuid:8959b6d5-cde7-4ddd-901a-4676f0d752eb> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.icr.org/article/304/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00038-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929404 | 2,415 | 2.890625 | 3 |
Available from garden centres now, colchicums and autumn crocus are a welcome spring-like surprise at this time of year.
Colchicums have enough resources to flower on a sunny window sill without soil or water.
As soon as they've finished flowering, plant them out in the garden.
Alternatively, you can plant them outside as soon as you buy them. Plant 4in deep in a fertile, humus-rich soil that does not dry out completely.
A sunny, open position is ideal, although dappled shade would be acceptable if you have high-canopied trees to plant beneath.
Colchicums produce large, lush leaves in winter which remain until midsummer, so allow them plenty of space to prevent neighbouring plants from being smothered.
Try naturalising the robust C. autumnale (meadow saffron) and C. speciosum in grassland for an unusual "exclamation mark" to end the gardening year.
Crocus sativus, also known as autumn crocus or saffron crocus, are a true crocus and need a gritty, poor or moderately fertile soil in a sunny position.
Plant them 4in deep and cover the planted area with pegged-down chicken wire if mice are a problem.
These autumn-flowering bulbs can look wonderful when placed with grasses such as pennisetum or perennials such as purple-leaved heuchera, deeply coloured sedums and low-growing Verbena rigida.
- For events, advice and information on the benefits of RHS membership, visit www.rhs.org.uk | <urn:uuid:b9189b80-b1e0-4eeb-a3d8-70eae2ca2455> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/howtogrow/6162118/Bulbs-for-autumn-colour.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00019-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923816 | 340 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Peripheral Blood Smear
peripheral blood smear
A procedure in which a sample of blood is viewed under a microscope to count different circulating blood cells (red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets, etc.) and see whether the cells look normal.
Last updated: 2016-01-06
Source: The National Cancer Institute's Dictionary of Cancer Terms (http://www.cancer.gov/dictionary) | <urn:uuid:a203697a-f72f-4098-b9ee-a3f3793e1bea> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.vicc.org/cancers/disease-info.php?xml=xml-files/glossaryterm/CDR0000390307.xml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396872.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00041-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.781454 | 87 | 3.78125 | 4 |
Website Detail Page
written by Fu-Kwun Hwang
sub author: Gary Richert
This applet presents a graphical, interactive picture of relative motion. It illustrates how an object may appear to have different motions to different observers, depending on how the observers are moving with respect to one another. Included are examples of how this applet may be used, and a worksheet from a different author.
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NTNU Java: Relative Motion (frame of reference):
Same topic as Einstein Light: Inertial frames and Newtonian mechanics
This is an animation-based tutorial designed to introduce relativity to beginners. This segment uses a merry-go-round to explore inertial and non-inertial frames of reference.relation by Caroline Hall
Know of another related resource? Login to relate this resource to it.
Physics To Go | <urn:uuid:9011e4dc-50b4-4291-8242-12322ded2bb3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.compadre.org/PSRC/items/detail.cfm?ID=1147 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392099.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00201-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.862134 | 285 | 3.0625 | 3 |
The role and the policies of the Museum regarding the exhibition, education and research, affect directly the design of the storage policies, facilities and systems. In designing the storage areas, several factors had to be considered, such as the nature of the collection’s artifacts and the space required to store them, the collection’s safety, the control of environmental conditions and the protection of the items from natural disaster or man-induced damage.
The modus and frequency of use of the collection is a direct result of the Museum’s choices on matters of education, research and exhibition planning, which also affected the design of the storage facilities. They determined how visible and accessible the collection should be, to allow, among other things, the periodic inspection of all items.
Another factor was the Museum’s plans to enrich and expand the collection and the need for direct access to and communication with areas of activities related to the collection. One such example is the area of documentation and recording, the immediate proximity of which greatly contributes towards the safety of the collection, in more ways than one. | <urn:uuid:afc2ae22-f284-4dd0-9b1c-f9006d0bfcef> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.jewishmuseum.gr/en/collection/collections/storage.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397749.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00115-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947225 | 220 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Carlow County - Ireland Genealogical Projects (IGP TM)
Ballymoon Castle (14th century).
Like so many Irish castles, Ballymoon has no recorded history, but on architectural grounds it must have been built c.1290-1310. The most likely builders were the Carew family, who evidently by this time had acquired the district (Idrone) from the Bigods, Earls of Norfolk. The castle - as striking as it is unusual - comprises a courtyard about 80 feet square, delimited by granite walls, 8 feet thick and 20 feet high. No doubt these walls had alures or wall-walks with crenellations, but these do not survive. Some flanking protection was provided by oblong latrine turrets projecting from three of its faces; the fourth curtain on the west has no such defence, though the gateway on this side, a plain arch with portcullis grooves, may origin ally have had a barbican in front.
The interior is now bare, but the walls' many embrasures, loops, fireplaces and doors bear witness to the former presence of two-storey ranges, some with cellars, that delimited the enclosure. The fine double-fireplace on the north belonged to the great hall, while such features as the cross loops with expanded terminals and "Caernarvon arches" allow us to date the castle to the turn of the thirteenth century. The castle may not have been in use for very long; indeed, some argue it was never finished. Otherwise little or nothing is known of its history, though in the past it has been wrongly associated with the Knights Templars.
- The information contained in these pages is provided solely for the purpose of sharing with others researching their ancestors in Ireland.
- © 2001 Ireland Genealogy Projects, IGP TM By Pre-emptive Copyright | <urn:uuid:f3f64875-545a-4aa1-8abf-cfe69c55a868> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~irlcar2/Ballymoon_Castle.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395546.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00169-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971849 | 388 | 2.703125 | 3 |
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