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Two kinds of Metal, Ferrous and Non-Ferrous
Whenever you discuss scrap metal, you will find two differing types which are regularly known to Ferrous, and Non-Ferrous metals. In the following paragraphs you'll comprehend the fundamental variations between these metals, how to look for the variations on your own, plus some assets how to locate them.
We'll first discuss ferrous metal. Ferrous metal is mainly employed for such things as machinery, cars, motors, farm implements, along with other uses for example home appliances, like ovens fridges, washing machines, hairdryers, and freezers. Lawnmowers are often produced from a mix of both ferrous and non-ferrous metals. Much of your more compact push type lawn mowers, in most cases, the motors are often produced from aluminum (a non-ferrous metal) however, when and take care of set up are manufactured from ferrous metals.
How you can Determine whether the Metal You're Searching at is Ferrous or otherwise
Two the best way to discern if a bit of metal you're searching at consists of ferrous metals or otherwise are these: Will a magnet stay with it? And, whether it's a mature bit of metal, can there be any rust onto it?
Will a magnet stay with it?
The greatest component in ferrous metal is iron, or iron ore, that is a very magnetic material. Therefore, should you always have a magnet around along with you, you know immediately when the bit of metal is ferrous or otherwise. Obviously, you will find exceptions to each rule, and stainless (another non-ferrous metal) is among individuals exceptions. Despite the fact that the primary component to make steel is iron, top quality stainless has great nickel inside it (another non-ferrous metal) and, therefore, a magnet won't stay with it.
Can there be any rust onto it?
The 2nd in most cases more prevalent method to see whether the metal you've just discovered is ferrous or otherwise is if you're able to noticeably use whatever rust anywhere around the item. Rust will especially become more prevalent on any areas which were touching the floor. Clearly, if the old bit of ferrous metal continues to be omitted within the elements, it's often covered in rust, usually. Non-ferrous metals don't rust. They are doing, however, sometimes oxidize. We'll go through that later in the following paragraphs.
Scrap Metal Purchasers Must Always Have a Magnet
Non-ferrous metals (there a number of to go over here) tend not to contain any, or only small traces, of iron, and therefore aren't magnetic. If you're into scrap metal recycling or are planning or beginning a scrap metal business, your very close friends ought to be a magnet. I suggest one that's on the chain, and something which has Quite strong magnetic charge, because that's what you will see everyone in the scrap yards using. An inadequate magnet can occasionally fool you, since you are strong, and also the magnet is weak, you are able to touch it rapidly and pull it away rapidly, and think that you've a bit of non-ferrous metal much more fact the metal you simply found is really ferrous metal. That's also why I suggest that the magnet should dangle from the chain, simply waving the magnet before a ferrous bit of metal may cause the magnet to "sway" or perhaps be "affected" through the ferrous metal in some manner.
Instead of its ferrous counter parts, non-ferrous metals, as pointed out earlier, don't rust. However, some non-ferrous metals do oxidize. Oxidation is the procedure where there's a layer created around the outdoors of a bit of metal. Aluminum is a metal particularly that has a tendency to oxidize instead of rust. Oddly enough enough, it's roughly exactly the same process however, with the possible lack of iron within the metal, the oxidation looks whitened and flaky instead of red and porous searching.
Here's a listing of non-ferrous metal which are probably the most generally found:
Where are you finding Copper?
Usually, you'll usually find copper in plumbing and refrigeration type programs, like air conditioning units, fridges, freezers. Even just in such as the small window type ac models there's a good quantity of copper tubing there too.
In roughly 2009, once the economy really was inside a bad way, there is a rash of robberies, particularly large commercial ac models. I had been told one doctor's office had their ac models stolen two times. Just the moment the brand new models were installed and changed after being stolen the very first time, these were stolen again! It grew to become this type of large problem that scrap yards were needed legally to prevent taking aluminum/copper radiators (ACR's) altogether without written evidence of where they originated from, and just how you came by them, should you be attempting to drive them in as scrap metal.
How to locate Aluminum...
If this involves aluminum, a few of the initial things people consider is aluminum cans, siding from houses, and window and door trim. In the 1960's and 70's aluminum it had been popular for substitutes home windows, before the window manufactures beginning using vinyl. Today you will find individuals who have aluminum doorways and home windows being changed, so be looking for possibilities to make the most of if this involves getting that kind of scrap aluminum.
You will find a number of other programs where aluminum can be used, but among the finest assets I'm able to advise someone to think it is is motors. You will find many components underneath the hood of the vehicle which are manufactured from aluminum. Most radiators and ac condensers are constructed with aluminum. The casings for that alternator are constructed with aluminum, and lots of intake manifolds are constructed with aluminum, in addition to anchoring hardware connected to the engine.
Another wealthy source for locating aluminum is lawnmower engines. Not every the various components on the motor are manufactured from aluminum, therefore, that kind of a mixture of both ferrous metals and aluminum in scrap metal terms is known as "irony aluminum."
Most lately, you will find some vehicle manufactures which are also using aluminum to create cars parts like hoods, doorways, and truck tailgates from. Whenever you generate a vehicle for scrap metal recycling, it might be a sensible practice to place a magnet to individuals parts and find out if stays or otherwise, because there's no sense to get compensated ferrous scrap metal prices for non-ferrous scrap metals.
What Exactly Are Good Sources to locate Stainless?
The very best resource that i've ever found for locating stainless is restaurants and also the food industry. Health codes require that restaurants use stainless due to the way it cleans up very well, which is often a germ-free atmosphere. The healthcare market is another source where you will find stainless very popular.
In early a part of 2012, I'd the fortune to be selected to haul off scrap metal for around 90 Hamburger King locations across New York, these were setting up a brand new drink fountains. I was hired to haul from the old soda fountain machines. In individuals machines along with other various scrap metal products we hauled off were lots of copper and brass, and large levels of stainless!
You have to exercise some caution, however, when you are coping with stainless. Sometimes the metal looks the same as stainless, but there's insufficient nickel content inside it to really make it stainless, so a magnet will stay with it. That's one greatest causes of ensuring if you are planning to become purchasing scrap metal, or selling it to some scrap yard, you'll want a magnet, or you'll pay an excessive amount of for this, or be look foolish, being unsure of your metal product.
If this involves finding brass, the most typical application will probably be plumbing fittings such things as taps, drains, plus some plumbing pipes. Valves and pumps are also good sources for locating brass. Mentioning to the Hamburger King jobs we did, there have been lots of brass fixtures, valves and pumps that people introduced to the scrap yard.
How Can You Find Lead?
The main source which i are conscious of for locating lead is batteries.
Vehicle batteriesGolf buggy batteriesSupport computer batteriesBatteries from fork liftsLarge diesel truck batteries
I believe you see what i mean. The batteries contain large amounts of lead.
You've got to be careful whenever using batteries because there's "battery acidity" in many batteries. Many scrap yards are careful about accepting batteries. For instance, where I bring my scrap cars, battery should be removed before you bring the vehicle in no exceptions!
I Figured Platinum Was Utilized for Jewellery?
While that's true, platinum can be used for jewellery, it's not only at getting used for jewellery. The most typical spot to find platinum is really in catalytic converters.
Once more, what the law states makers needed to step-up and set into position laws and regulations regulating who are able to recycle or scrap catalytic converters. For some time there have been vehicle shops which were getting catalytic converters stop their automobiles, dozens at any given time, directly on the car dealership vehicle lot!
The police force agencies and law makers needed to move rapidly before more vehicle lots were hit. Now you will find laws and regulations is place barring scrap yards from purchasing catalytic converters unless of course the individual getting them in has recorded evidence of the way the catalytic ripper tools was acquired. Often even the recorded proof isn't even adequate. Within this situation, what the law states makers were very positive to try and safeguard business proprietors from would-be crooks because catalytic converters are extremely costly to exchange. In addition, they convey a good buck in the scrap yard, if you possess the right documentation that's.
That's it, a complete set of scrap metal and also the variations between ferrous and non-ferrous metals how you can differentiate between them as well as some sources to obtain the best ones. | <urn:uuid:a6c805b6-82e8-46ae-89dc-70f4778eb464> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://usedwasherdryercombo.blogspot.com/2013/05/scrap-metal-ferrous-and-non-ferrous.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00041-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964557 | 2,097 | 2.75 | 3 |
When someone is experiencing classic symptoms of a heart attack (chest pain or pressure, pain spreading to the neck, jaw or arms, nausea or abdominal pain, shortness of breath, sweating, fatigue, dizziness), immediate action is called for.
An article in the Western Journal of Emergency Medicine (Dec. 2015) offers the evidence supporting the use of aspirin to improve the likelihood of surviving a heart attack:
“There is high-quality evidence demonstrating benefit of aspirin administration (162.5mg) in improving mortality among patients with an acute myocardial infarction (MI) [heart attack]. This reduction in long-term mortality is greatest when the aspirin is administered early.”
Fast Aspirin Action:
Q. Why isn’t there a soluble aspirin tablet available in the US? I carry two 325 mg tablets in my coin purse at all times and have read that one should take aspirin at the first sign of a heart attack, while simultaneously calling 911.
Is it better to dissolve the aspirin in my mouth or in water before ingesting it? Would soluble aspirin be more effective? Or is simply swallowing one or two aspirin with a glass of water equally effective?
A. We are not sure why soluble aspirin has never caught on in the United States the way it has it has in Europe, Australia and New Zealand (by the brand names Aspro and Disprin). Dissolvable aspirin is available in the U.S. only in combination products such as Alka-Seltzer or BC Powder.
You may be pleased to learn, however, that simply chewing a standard 325 mg aspirin tablet for 30 seconds and then swallowing it with four ounces of water is the best way to get its effects quickly (American Journal of Cardiology, Aug. 15, 1999). This technique produces measurable anti-clotting benefits within five minutes, compared to 12 minutes after swallowing an intact pill. Here is the conclusion:
“…many physicians and emergency medicine personnel have instructed patients with myocardial infarction to chew their initial dose of ASA [aspirin], and the 1996 ACC/AHA guidelines have encouraged this practice. The present pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic study now provides compelling scientific evidence to support this recent recommendation.”
If chewing regular aspirin is challenging, you can buy flavored chewable low-dose aspirin and achieve a similar effect. The recommendation of 162 mg would achieved with two baby aspirins (81 mg each).
Many people have enteric coated aspirin on hand. There are many brands that are designed to dissolve in the small intestine rather than the stomach. This is supposed to protect the stomach from irritation, but if such pills are swallowed whole, absorption will be delayed significantly. Chewing an enteric coated aspirin tablet, however, will speed things up considerably. A study from Japan found that chewed enteric coated aspirin tablets exerted an anti-clotting effect within 20 minutes (Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Sept. 2011).
There is more information on aspirin in our free Guide to Key Aspirin Information.
Revised, February 18, 2016 | <urn:uuid:a78caec1-b1c8-4f00-8ac5-dcc234ac8225> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.peoplespharmacy.com/2012/10/29/best-way-to-take-aspirin-for-a-heart-attack/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396538.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00181-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922771 | 635 | 2.609375 | 3 |
B CUSP 118
Evaluates progress at the conclusion of the first year through the construction of a portfolio and offers an experiential learning opportunity, either on- or off-campus. Prerequisite: either B CUSP 115, B CUSP 116, or B CUSP 117; may not be repeated. Offered: Sp.
This course aims to explore the relationship between information technology and society, particularly computer based information technologies and the ways in which it affects economic and social development in the world. We focus on the relationship between such technology and development in the Global South. The rise of information and communication technology (ICT) in the western industrialized nations has been accompanied by a more democratic and easier access to information, allowing people to participate more fully in decisions pertaining to their own development. The apparent benefits of this new information technology also raised concerns among policy makers about the so-called ‘digital divide’; i.e. the gap between people with access to information and communication technologies and those without. The United Nations, for example, declared closing the digital divide a priority in the beginning of the new millennium; arguing for the potential of information and communication technologies in addressing economic and social development in the poorer countries of the world. Since then there has been an explosion of donor sponsored telecentres and other venues which offer people in poorer societies access to ICT. In this course we analyze the effects of a global emphasis on ICT and the effects of such a policy in terms of development. We examine issues such as -
Does access to ICT in fact benefit poorer sections of societies in the Global South? What relationships of power are engendered by the developmental aid provided by agencies in the West? Is access to information in fact democratized through ICT; or can it be argued that ICT forms yet another bridge for the cultural and knowledge domination of the West? What attempts at local knowledge creation does ICT sustain? What is the nature of economic relations engendered by the globalization of the ICT industry? What development agendas are enforced through attempts to bridge the digital divide? What are national debates around ICT policy in countries in the Global South? What social changes relating to class, gender, etc are being affected due to ICT? What opportunities for local resistances are created through ICT?
Student learning goals
1. Understand the development of information technology in modern times
2. Understand what is meant by the digital divide
3. Enumerate the reasons for said digital divide
4. Analyze role of aid agencies in the problems and solutions of the digital divide
5. Analyze the philosophical importance of the technological solution to social inequity
General method of instruction
Lectures, group work
Class assignments and grading
Group project, design project, midterm, final
Engagement with reading material, creativity, critical inquiry skills. | <urn:uuid:c883998f-b8e9-4675-a899-d86ca1487be2> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.washington.edu/students/icd/B/bcusp/118rucha.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783400572.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155000-00020-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923205 | 583 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Posted by rahul on Friday, June 16, 2006 at 6:20am.
How to write a report on topic 'Internet'? Suggest report outline
Thank you for using the Jiskha Homework Help Forum. Here are some things to consider in writing a typical five-paragraph paper.
Five-Paragraph Essay Structure
The introductory paragraph begins with a general statement. This paragraph has the purpose of interesting the reader in your topic. It will also give a short history or statement of relevance. This will show the readers why the topic is of importance to them personally. The last sentence of the introduction is your thesis: a concise statement of what you are going to prove or explain. For the first paragraph, think of an inverted pyramid, from a general statement to the focus point, the thesis.
Before writing the middle paragraphs, think of three main ideas that will support your thesis statement. Each of these three main ideas will be the topic sentence of one of these paragraphs. Essentially, you are saying that if points A, B, and C are true, then my thesis statement is true.
In writing one of these middle (body) paragraphs, begin with the topic sentence. Then think of three pieces of supporting evidence that will prove that idea correct. Quotations, statistics, examples, and analogies are all good support. Then the last sentence of each paragraph is a discovery or conclusion that you can make based on the support. Make sure that you do not wander in your paragraph; stick to the topic sentence.
Use a transitional word to begin the third and fourth paragraphs. some examples of transitional words and phrases are these:
All these are a few of the ways to link the first idea to the second idea.
The final paragraph can be called the Big E: epiphany or discovery. Based on paragraphs, A, B, and C, what did you discover about your thesis or what kind of conclusion can you make? This paragraph is constructed from the specific to general. How might the discovery made here affect a larger venue, audience, or longer time?
The key to good five-paragraph essay writing is structural integrity. If every topic sentence is tied to the thesis, every paragraph discovery statement is tied to the conclusion, and every sentence inside a paragraph supports the topic sentence of that paragraph, then you will have a focused, well constructed paper. You should be able to read your paper backward or forward and see the logical progression of thought.
The second aspect of writing is much more subjective. You have to be in your paper. Your humor and your perspective will make the paper more interesting. Writing is an extremely personal mode of expression, not just stringing impressive words together.
Paradigm Online Writing Assistant
This website provides excellent assistance in writing various types of papers.
OWL at Purdue University
This website provides links to pages that explain all facets of the writing process.
SraJMcGin has given you excellent directions and websites to help with the writing of such a report.
If you need help on the topic itself, here's a good website, too:
(Broken Link Removed)
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- History - I'm writing a paper based on the life of General Douglas MacArthur; ... | <urn:uuid:915defbb-35d4-42ac-9b76-6a88b39f370f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.jiskha.com/display.cgi?id=1150453208 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395560.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00107-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928309 | 845 | 3.3125 | 3 |
(1911 - 1996)
Adolf Galland, the son of an estate manager, was
born in Westerholt, Germany
on March 19, 1911. As a young man he learnt to fly gliders and as soon
as he was old enough he joined the Luftwaffe.
In October 1934,
he was commissioned as a lieutenant and led a squadron during the Spanish
Civil War. In the Asturias campaign in September 1937,
he experimented with new bombing tactics. This became known as carpet
bombing (dropping all bombs on the enemy from every aircraft at one
time for maximum damage). He also took part in the bombing of Guernica
on April 26, 1937. Between May 1937 and July 1938 he carried out 280 combat missions in Spain.
On the outbreak of the Second
World War he was placed in charge of a ground support unit and during
the blitzkrieg in Poland he
won the Iron Cross and was promoted to captain.
Flying a Messerschmitt Bf109 he obtained his first
three kills on 12th May, 1940. This was followed by ten more during
the Western Offensive. During the Battle
of Britain he was Germany's highest scoring pilots with 57 victories.
On the death of Oberst Moelders on November 22, 1941,
Galland succeeded him as General of the Fighter Arm.
On November 19, 1942 Galland became Germany's youngest general. He also commanded the German
fighters that opposed the Allied landings in Sicily in July 1943.
In 1943, Galland began to argue that the Luftwaffe
needed to change to a more defensive strategy. Adolf
Hitler and Hermann Goering disagreed and after a series of arguments Galland was sacked as General
of the Fighter Arm in December 1944.
Galland returned to front-line duty and now flying
the Messerschmitt Me 262 shot down two more Allied aircraft on April
26, 1945 bringing
his score to 103.
At the end of the war, Galland was captured and spent
two years as a prisoner of war. After his release he became a military
adviser in Argentina (1947-55) and published his autobiography, The
First and Last (1954).
Galland returned to Germany in 1955 and was employed
as a aerospace consultant, airline president and business executive.
Adolf Galland died on March 9, 1996. | <urn:uuid:c09ba5e3-eaf3-41ed-a42d-705c27f21426> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Galland.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396100.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00033-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976171 | 503 | 3.21875 | 3 |
Canadian researchers say they have found a solution to the humble condom’s fatal flaw: nanoparticles.
Condoms have a 15% failure rate, so a University of Manitoba team tried soaking condoms in a solution packed with “remarkable,” microscopic silver nanoparticles, and the treated devices appeared to kill all HIV and herpes in lab experiments, the scientists report.
“Till now, there has been no single condom with additional protection against sexually transmitted infections available on the market,” noted the group’s paper just published in the International Journal of Nanotechnology. But when their novel nanoparticle condoms contacted HIV, “the infectiousness of the virus could be completely inactivated.”
It has long been known that silver has disinfectant powers, prompting people in the early 1900s to put it in milk to stave off spoilage, and in eye drops to try to prevent infection. Its effectiveness, though, was less than reliable.
The new technology has changed that. Nanoparticles are tiny clusters of atoms created by scientists, so small that it would take thousands of them to equal the dimensions of a human red-blood cell. The unique qualities that nano-sizing gives to substances are the subject of intense study in a number of fields, and many of the particles are already used in consumer products ranging from scratch-resistant eyeglasses to better-gripping car tires.
When silver is turned into nano-sized bits, it seems to become more effective at combating bacteria and viruses, said Dr. Xiaojian Yao, lead author of the study. “At such nanoscale, the extremely small size of silver particles exhibits remarkable, unusual physio-chemical properties and biolgical activity,” he said.
At the end of the day, if they stay in the pocket, it’s not going to do the job
Their tiny dimensions also mean they can be plastered on something like a polyurethane condom without changing its size or shape.
Yet how, exactly, the silver nanoparticles neutralize HIV and other viruses is still a bit of mystery. It could be the particles or the silver ions they release attach to the virus and prevent it from binding to cell “receptors” in the host’s body, said Dr. Yao, a medical microbiologist. Or they could actually change a key protein on the virus’s surface, and in that way stop it from sticking to host cells. Some condoms are now treated with an anti-microbial substance, called Nonoxynol-9. Recent studies, though, have shown that N-9 can trigger inflammation and ulceration in the genitals, actually making infection more likely.
The silver nanoparticles do not cause inflammation, said Dr. Yao. And the nano-treated condoms have the added advantage of being quickly discarded, meaning the potentially toxic metal does not linger in users’ bodies, the study notes.
The research is still in its early stages, however, with animal studies on the nanoparticle contraceptives the next step, and possible entry on the market relatively far off.
Dr. Julio Montaner, one of Canada’s leading HIV scientists, said the idea is “intriguing” and welcome in the field.
Meanwhile, though, the most significant problem with condoms is not the 15% that fail to prevent STIs, but the fact many people simply neglect to use them, said the head of the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS.
“Unfortunately, at the most critical moment when these decisions are so important, people’s judgment may be impaired,” said Dr. Montaner. “At the end of the day, if they stay in the pocket, it’s not going to do the job.”
As well as providing extra protection to sexual partners when a condom fails, nanotechnology could have other benefits, too, said Dr. Yao. There are reports from developing countries such as India of children and others finding and touching used condoms, then contracting STIs, he said. Treated with nanosilver, the chances of discarded condoms infecting anyone might be greatly reduced. | <urn:uuid:b960b181-359c-4982-9836-8636bf62fa41> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://news.nationalpost.com/news/condoms-treated-with-silver-nanoparticles-could-completely-inactivate-hiv-other-stds-researchers | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392099.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00190-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943975 | 870 | 3.203125 | 3 |
"Lady Justice, Goddess Of Law And Order 30 Inch Statue" was forged in cold cast bronze and stands 30 inches tall.
The origin may be Themis, a Greek mythological goddess. One of the Titans, pre-Hellenic nature deities born to Uranus and Ge, she remained and advised Zeus after his purge of the old Pantheon. In depictions of her, she carries the scales of justice in one hand and a sword in the other, her eyes covered. She became an oracle at Delphi, and became known as a goddess of divine justice.
A daughter of Themis and Zeus, Dike, known as a Goddess of Justice but not Divine Justice, presided over the apportionment of things among mortals, the protection of individuals and the keeping of social and political order. She carried a sword without a Scale of justice. At times Dike is said to be the same (or is she confused with?) Astraea. Astraea is also said to be a daughter of Themis and Zeus and is known as a Goddess of Justice. Also known as daughter of Eos and Astraeus, her head was crowned with ears of grain and for its measure carried a balance or scale. Astraea was the last of the immortals to leave earth after the Golden Age. She has also been called a Goddess of Purity and Innocence. She became the constellation Virgo. Dike left earth when the Race of Bronze was born.
Allow up to 6 weeks for delivery | <urn:uuid:b5dd8333-4f9a-4e88-a136-c127e3e1e703> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://evaflorence.com/lady-justice-goddess-of-law-and-order-30-inch-statue/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397567.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00190-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9845 | 309 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Skip to comments.Moral Conscience [Ecumenical]
Posted on 09/05/2011 3:09:27 PM PDT by Salvation
From the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Simplified
Deep within his conscience, man discovers a law which he must obey, namely to do good and to avoid evil. In his conscience (man's most secret core) he is alone with God whose voice echoes within man.
Moral conscience urges a person to do good and avoid evil. It even judges his particular choices (past, present, and future) and shows God's authority. The prudent man hears God speaking in his commandments.
By conscience, the person's reason judges the morality of his actions (past, present, or future). In this judgment, man sees God's law. "Conscience is a messenger of him who speaks to us behind a veil and teaches us by his representatives. Conscience is the aboriginal Vicar of Christ" (John Cardinal Newman).
Every person must have sufficient interior awareness so he can hear and follow his conscience. "Turn inward, brethren, and in everything you do, see God as your witness" (St. Augustine).
Human dignity requires an upright conscience which knows moral principles and applies them in each circumstance. Truth is recognized by prudent judgments. Whoever follows his conscience is indeed prudent.
By conscience, a person assumes responsibility. Even in evil deeds, conscience remains an inner witness to truth that the choice was evil. This true judgment makes clear that the person must seek forgiveness and choose good in the future. "Whenever our hearts condemn us, we reassure ourselves that God is greater than our hearts and he knows everything" (1 Jn 3:19-20).
Man has a right to make his own moral decisions. He cannot be forced to act contrary to his conscience, nor be prevented from acting according to his conscience, especially in religious matters.
The person has a duty to have a true conscience which is formed by reason and seeks to know God's will. Only the educating of conscience can overcome negative influences and temptations.
This lifelong task begins with awakening the child to know and practice God's law. A prudent education teaches virtues, cures selfishness, and guarantees peace of heart.
The Word of God guides this education. Man must examine his conscience before the cross, seek the advice of others, and learn the Church's authoritative teaching.
Conscience can make a right judgment (in accord with God's law and reason) or an erroneous judgment (not in accord).
In some situations, moral judgments are difficult. However, in every case, the person must seek God's will in accord with his law.
The person must interpret the data, assisted by his own prudence, competent advice, and the help of the Holy Spirit.
In all cases, evil can never be done so good can result. "Whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them" (Mt 7:12). "Do nothing that makes your brother stumble" (Rom 14:21).
Although a person must always obey the certain judgments of his conscience, he might be in ignorance and make erroneous judgments.
Sometimes, the person is to blame for having an erroneous conscience because he took no effort to discover the truth. In this case, he is responsible for the evil he commits.
There are several sources of these errors in judgment: ignorance of Christ and of his Gospel, bad example from others, enslavement to passions, lack of conversion of heart, and rejection of the Church's teaching.
Sometimes, the person is not responsible for his erroneous judgment because he cannot overcome the obstacles to truth. This is called "invincible ignorance." Although evil is present, the person is not blameworthy. He should work to correct his errors.
Conscience must be enlightened by faith so that persons and groups will turn aside from blind choices.
Whenever man deliberately chooses, he is the "father of his acts." These freely chosen acts can be morally evaluated as good or evil.
Advent -- A Season of Hope
Modesty En Vogue [Another one of the virtues]"
Prudence: Mother of All Virtues
The Virtue of Confidence
Is Courage a Masculine Virtue?
Cardinal Virtues: Obama and the Real American Infrastructure Part One
Cardinal Virtues: Obama and the Real American Infrastructure Part Two
Morality is Habit-Forming: The Cardinal Virtues
The Cross Exemplifies Every Virtue [St. Thomas Aquinas]
Living the Virtue of Humility
Got a serious question for you, Salvation. Recently experienced something I never had happen before, betrayal. Betrayal on a scale that includes myself & potentially millions of others who’ve been prescribed antidepressants for many years will & do experience now; anti-depressant withdrawal.
Now with that in mind, we are taught & I believe God exists out of time. He see’s everything that was, that is and that is to come.
What does the Church say to the following question: When God sees that a betrayal of trust that will cause many years of earthly harm, harm that will make it near to impossible for many people to worship Him because of cognitive issues from the withdrawal & brain damage...WHY DOESN’T HE STOP IT!
If this is off topic, I am sorry. The hurt & news is very recent. I am VERY angry with God and those on down the line who either allowed or perpetuated this atrocity.
Here’s a link describing what I and millions of others are going through purely because we put our trust in medical professionals & med companies were allowed to create a new addiction to keep the $$$ rolling in: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/side-effects/201107/antidepressant-withdrawal-syndrome-findings-recommendations-and-resources
Again if this is OT, I am sorry. I jumped at the 1st Catholic thread I saw.
Valium was prescribed for my mom and somehow I have always suspected that this drug compounded the effects of her over weight and diabetes problems.
Now for your link....Yikes!
**”The symptoms of discontinuation syndrome could be fierce,” Stutz added, as he recounted in considerable detail, at varying doses, his own harassing problems with “brain zaps,” panic attacks, insomnia, and despair on lower and lower doses of Effexor. Fava, he noted, went on to publish in 2006 a paper citing further withdrawal symptoms, such as “agitation, anxiety, akathesia, panic attacks, irritability, aggressiveness, worsening of mood, dysphoria, crying spells or mood lability, overactivity or hyperactivity, depersonalization, decreased concentration, slowed thinking, confusion and memory/concentration difficulties.” To the authors, these symptoms and their widespread recurrence looked increasingly like a drug-related syndrome.**
Some doctors are going to hurt for a long time after they pass from this life for passing on such pain to patients....that’s about all I can say, because I really don’t have the medical background.
Were these drugs prescribed before adequate testing and withdrawl testing.
Are the drug companie at fault here.
This sounds like a horrid scene for a family to cope with.
I was 1st prescribed prozac in 1990. Took it for a few months. Quit due to cost. 4 Years later had horrible panic attacks and was put back on. Was on it for 15 years. 2008 due to family tragedy I experienced a severe depressive episode and was one prozac + many other anti-depressants before I leveled back out. Then in 2010 I found out the hard way prozac “poops out”, stops working as it should.
Spent last 13 months in a terrible depressive state, always going up on one med while coming off another. Finally a few weeks ago as a psychiatrist was telling me she wanted to take me off Effexor and start Zoloft, a bell went off in my head. I went off the Effexor as prescribed and BOOM bad things started happening. Did some research & found that link.
Sometimes I have the emotional control of a 4 yr old. Snapping and cursing at people who I have no reason to ever speak that way. I may have alienated my priest for good. Best case I start getting better in 6 weeks. Might take 6 years.
Why God? Why? I need to know why.
Upside is and wife concurs as does my therapist. I am no longer showing signs of depression. Go figure.
Of course. Now, you are asking of the purpose in the act, or in this case, in the inaction (God did not make these men to act in the evil way that they acted, he merely did not prevent them from acting), -- of another person. That is always difficult. Moreover, that person is also the Divine Persons of God. Understanding God is not going to be complete or easy. But God is also not irrational; He is in fact the source of our rationality. So some understanding is possible.
To begin to understand the purpose of God as He allows evil one needs to look at the Cross.
Here we have Evil allowed to happen, even sought to happen. "That which thou dost, do quickly" and "behold the Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of sinners" are words from the mouth of God.
Well, we know the purpose of allowing THAT evil: the Cross of Christ gives us our salvation. What purpose has a cross of mere man? St. Paul writes: "[I] now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ, in my flesh, for his body, which is the church" (Col. 1:24). Our suffering unites us to Christ. So that is the purpose. Christ could have chosen to restore man to his sinless condition right then on the Cross; He could even do so as He restored countless sick people to health. He did not choose to do that: rather, He went to the Cross Himself and now He wants us to imitate Him even on the Cross. We cannot be restored to heavenly life magically; it takes a lifelong work. Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect is spoken as a directive. Not behold, I make you perfect but behold, I go to the Cross and you be (or become) perfect.
On the psychotropic drugs, in particular, there is a reason in this object lesson. Modernity teaches us that there is a magical cure, a pill, for everything, -- and it comes from technology, by human effort alone. Instead of becoming perfect by imitating Christ, we want to be made well by eating a pill. This error: that we want the cure but not the Christ offering a cure, -- cannot be overcome by preaching. It has to be a life experience of our technological society, that peace of mind, wholeness of body cannot come without wholeness of souls. Christ does not want us to suffer; there are many pills that benefit man, and we should not refuse them just because they are "technological". But he does not want us to be shaped by pills. Hence the failure of Prozac that you experienced.
It looks that you also on the mend. Praise the Lord.
God gave man free will. Man chose evil and because of this evil was allowed into the world. Evil is here because of man allowing sin and Satan helping - If God had not allowed us our intellect, will and reason, we would be no different from his other creatures (as in creations).. God wanted us to be special.
Of course God did not abandon us afterward and sent us the Redeemer. It is still a fallen world, however, and Christ opened the gates of heaven for us. This world won’t be perfected until the second coming and the new Jerusalem.
The point is we must not blame God for man’s follies. When tragedy happens we must remember that we (mankind) ourselves are responsible because of collective disorder brought about by our own disruption of God’s perfect order. This is not on a personal level, of course!! This is collective. In otherwords, once evil was introduced, helped by Satan, it became a sort of general infestation, kind of like Pandora’s box.
Also God does hear prayer and does work miracles - He does listen.
If we hadn’t had free will we would have just been robots/ ants, creatures with instinct only.
I have experinced depression myself and will pray for you. | <urn:uuid:02e84d23-f882-491f-b3a2-9ad38d72eb13> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2774007/posts | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392159.3/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00163-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966081 | 2,651 | 2.96875 | 3 |
2010 Winners of the Dalton Camp Award
Street Gospels: Political Cartoons and Their Role in Canadian Democracy [i]
By Ethan Georges Rabidoux
"Stop them damn pictures! I don't care so much what the papers write about me. My constituents can't read. But, damn it, they can see pictures." [ii]
William Magear Tweed understood the power of a cartoonist's pen. Tweed was a wealthy New York politician during the 1870s and a character in the 2002 movie Gangs of New York. He was also the target of vociferous attacks by Bavarian-born cartoonist Thomas Nast when he made this statement.
Tweed and his acolytes at Tammany Hall stole between $40 million and $200 million tax dollars in their day (between $1.5 billion and $8 billion today when adjusted for inflation). [iii] The New York Times ran a story detailing their graft. The public never caught on until Thomas Nast's political cartoons brought the information to the commoners in a language they understood. Tweed was convicted of larceny and spent the rest of his days in prison. It could not have been done without Nast's work. The powerful were brought to their knees when their corruption was exposed through cartoons.
Canada's first original political cartoonist, John Wilson Bengough was heavily influenced by Nast. [iv] In his day, Bengough savaged Canadian leaders with political drawings and started a tradition of satiric artistic commentary that continues to this day.
Political cartoons in Canada have served as the outlet for the working folk of our country to strike back at the elite and to extract a pound of flesh from the judges, politicians and industrialists who held the power. The nineteenth century French art critic Jules François Felix Fleury-Husson, under the pen name Champfleury, described caricature as "le cri des citoyens." [v] He was right. Canadian political cartoons gave and continue to give a voice to regular citizens against the powerful.
William Tweed's observation about the power of political cartoons is supported by Professor David Spencer at the University of Western Ontario. According to Spencer, good artists in Tweed's era were invaluable because they could "communicate messages to even the partially literate... that would be missed in the columns of wordy dialogue that shared the pages." [vi]
This was especially important in early Victorian Canada when literacy rates were low. It was in this environment that Canadian cartooning developed its form. Four recurring themes emerged: Canada/US relations, French/English relations, federal/provincial relations and corruption among the powerful. Through it all, cartoonists provided scathing and relentless criticism of those involved at the highest levels of these disputes. While historians and academics wrote volumes of in-depth, erudite and often boring analysis of the issues, cartoonists portrayed "the situation as it appeared to a gifted and irreverent man in the street." [vii]
Spencer notes that "Victorians used their cartoons to synthesize otherwise complex issues into a visual interpretation." [viii] This tradition continues in Canada today. Unique to Canada is the transcendent nature of the issues lampooned by our cartoonists. Usually, a political cartoon must either be viewed in the era to be understood or viewed by someone knowledgeable of that era. In Canada, the work of early cartoonists remains timely and important to understanding ongoing issues like Quebec nationalism and Canadian autonomy. For this reason, Canadian political cartoons have achieved a level of timelessness unequalled in the United States, Great Britain and elsewhere. They have also enriched our democratic heritage through the creation of an independent, non-partisan media.
John Henry Walker pioneered political cartooning in Canada in 1849 with his magazine Punch in Canada. The magazine emerged at a time when newspapers were mere organs of the various political parties. Punch in Canada refused to adopt any partisan allegiance and it provided savage commentary on Canada/US relations. The magazine did not last long but its legacy was huge:
"The eighteen-year-old Walker took the first of many steps by himself and others throughout the Victorian Age to separate journalism from the rabid political party partisanship that afflicted much of the press in nineteenth-century Canada. In effect, Canada's Victorian political cartoonists were the nation's first independent editorialists." [ix]
Walker was not a fan of the United States. His drawings reflect the early fears amongst Victorian Canada of American annexation. Before Punch in Canada, journalists were obligated to choose a political allegiance. Cartoonists focused on Canada/US relations because it transcended partisan lines.
Walker was the first to depict the United States as Uncle Sam (otherwise known as Brother/Cousin Jonathan) in Canadian political cartoons. The portrayal was never flattering. Uncle Sam was drawn as a slippery, greedy, conniving egomaniac hell bent on deflowering (annexing) a young, virginal Miss Canada. Walker, as editor of Diogenes, published one such cartoon in 1869 showing Mrs. Britannia chastising Miss Canada for giving her cousin encouragement that they could ever be united. Miss Canada vehemently denies the charge while a shady Cousin Jonathan, leaning against a post behind her, picks his teeth with a knife. [x]
This portrayal of the United States lingers on. The history of Canadian political cartoons is littered with examples of the symbiotic relationship between the pure Miss Canada and the dirty Uncle Sam.
During the free trade debate in 1987, Aislin (Terry Mosher) published a cartoon in the Montreal Gazette. It had three panels. The first two showed Sir John A. Macdonald and John Diefenbaker standing protectively in front of two prim, proper young ladies each dressed immaculately for the different periods both men held office. Both Prime Ministers declared defiantly, "Canada is not for sale!" The third panel showed Brian Mulroney dressed like a pimp behind a young female prostitute ordering her to "get busy." The caption reads, "Two Great Canadians...Macdonald, Diefenbaker ... and Mulroney." [xi]
Two cartoons, separated by 118 years, tackling the same issue with the same attitude. Canada was sweet and innocent while the USA was some kind of dirty fornicator; the implication being that political or economic cooperation with America would defile Canada.
Neither cartoon provides a thorough examination of Canada/US relations or the merits and drawbacks of free trade. However, both provide a humourous, simple critique of the establishment that could be immediately understood by every citizen.
John Wilson Bengough is considered Canada's first distinctly Canadian political cartoonist. Bengough built his entire career by attacking Sir John A. Macdonald with his satirical magazine Grip. This established the master pattern of Canadian politics. Every Prime Minister since Macdonald has had a chief antagonist amongst the country's cartoonists.
Sir Wilfrid Laurier endured Henri Julien, Mackenzie King faced Arch Dale, John Diefenbaker contended with Duncan Macpherson, Pierre Trudeau with Jean-Pierre Girerd, Terry Mosher savaged Brian Mulroney, and Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin were the target of Serge Chapleau's wrath. [xii]
One of Bengough's most famous political cartoons shows Macdonald standing on two horses moving in opposite directions. One has "French" written on it, the other, "English." Sitting on Macdonald's shoulders is a brooding Louis Riel. The caption reads, "A Riel Ugly Position." It is dated August 29th, 1885.
This cartoon has proven immortal in the annals of Canadian history. Every Prime Minister since Macdonald has had to keep the French and the English happy while simultaneously dealing with aboriginal issues. This cartoon captures the ongoing balancing act required of Canadian leaders. If any citizens today were to be shown this cartoon, they might not know all the details or even all the characters, but they would understand the message it conveys.
Attacking corruption in high places has endured as another recurring theme in Canadian political cartoons. Bengough was a relentless thorn in Macdonald's side over corruption. Macdonald's most extravagant scandal was the Pacific Railway scandal of 1873. He was caught lining the pockets of Tory supporters with lucrative contracts to build the Canadian Pacific Railway. Bengough published another famous cartoon of then Liberal leader Sir Alexander Mackenzie in an aggressive, accusatory pose while the Prime Minister shrugged with indifference. [xiii]
Some things never change. In 2004, the Martin government called an inquiry into the sponsorship scandal after it was revealed the Chrétien government lined the pockets of Liberal supporters with tax dollars who then donated money back to the Liberal Party of Canada. Same basic scandal, different political party, separated by 130 years. The investigation cost taxpayers another $80 million in addition to what was lost by the actual scandal. [xiv] Graham Harrop's cartoon in the Vancouver Sun on February 24, 2005 depicted an inquiry into the Gomery Commission due to its hefty costs.[xv] When politicians showed apathy to revelations of corruption, cartoonists attacked them. When they investigated revelations of corruption, cartoonists attacked them. It was the corruption that mattered because regular citizens had to pay for it all through their taxes.
After Macdonald's death and the rise of Laurier to power, Bengough lost his relevance. He printed flattering images of Laurier charming Brother Jonathan [xvi] and creating harmony between Catholics and Protestants. [xvii] Bengough's career suggests that cartoonists cannot do propaganda. They are antagonistic by nature. Cartoonists are attackers, not defenders. They thrive during chaos and crisis but they do not advance solutions. The cartoonist's role is to expose political differences and social conflicts, not to fix them. [xviii]
Federal/provincial relations represent the final perennial issue for Canadian cartoonists. This predates Confederation. Jean-Baptiste Coté depicted Confederation as a seven-headed snake in 1864 in Quebec's first comic journal La Scie-The Saw. [xix] Duncan Macpherson mocked Pierre Elliott Trudeau 104 years later in the Toronto Star. He drew Trudeau playing the cello while ten orchestra conductors (the ten provincial Premiers) each tried to lead from their own music book. [xx]
Macpherson, widely regarded as Canada's all-time finest political cartoonist, lampooned everything from Dalton Camp's insurrection against John Diefenbaker [xxi] to René Lévesque and the Parti Quebecois' economic policy. [xxii] He described his own role as that of a heckler:
"Macpherson's initial approach to a political event is instinctive rather than intellectual, and aggressively critical. "You're a heckler, basically," he has said. "It's the same as the old political meetings when you'd hire a couple of fellows to go into the hall and raise hell." [xxiii]
Raising hell is a good summary of the role Canadian cartoonists have played in our democracy. As Mark Twain has written, "a discriminating irreverence is the creator and protector of human liberty."[xxiv] In that sense, political cartoonists have expanded the boundaries of freedom by attacking orthodoxy, elitism and corruption in a way easily understood by the commoners of society. They satirized issues specific to Canadians like Canada/US relations, French/English relations and the ever acrimonious tensions between Ottawa and the provinces.
Cartoonists were also average citizens. William Murrell wrote that of all the artists, the cartoonist is closest to the people. They were drawn from ordinary levels of society, rarely highly educated and earning salaries that would possibly grant them entrance to the middle class. [xxv] They could draw their pictures on behalf of regular citizens because Canadian cartoonists were drawn from these ranks.
Perhaps there is another reason why political cartoons have prospered in Canada, and will continue to do so in the digital age. George Munro Grant was the Principal of Queen's University from 1877 until 1902. In 1886, Grant wrote the preface for J.W. Bengough's Caricature History of Canadian Politics. He wrote; "Grip (Bengough's magazine) not only hits the nail on the head but sometimes hits like a blacksmith - and we belong to a race that loves to see a blow well struck." [xxvi]
We do love a blow well struck, especially when it is delivered by the little guy to his rulers. There have never been more than two dozen cartoonists employed in Canada at any given time.[xxvii] This is already changing. The rise of the Internet and citizen journalism have empowered the rabble to circulate information beyond mainstream media conglomerates. Canadian political cartoons will continue to flourish as the doors open for greater involvement from the gifted and irreverent man in the street. Tomorrow's cartoonists will follow the example of their predecessors; they will critique the establishment with simple yet brilliant pictures - but there will be more of them.
[i] My title was inspired by Bedouin Soundclash's 2007 album of the same name.
[ii] Bruce Jackson, "Lazio's Finger," Artvoice. November 2nd, 2000. http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~bjackson/lazio.html
[iii] Excerpt from "BossTweed: The Rise and Fall of the Corrupt Pol who Conceived the Soul of Modern New York" by Kenneth Ackerman. An interview with the author was published in The Gotham Gazette. July 4th, 2005.http://www.gothamgazette.com/article//20050704/202/1467
[iv] Peter Desbarats and Terry Mosher. The Hecklers: A History of Canadian Political Cartooning and a Cartoonists' History of Canada. (McClelland and Stewart Limited, 1979), 31.
[v] Jean-François Nadeau. "Les charges de la caricature, d'hier à aujourd'hui," Le Devoir, February 11-12, 2006. http://pages.usherbrooke.ca/sodrus/pdf/pdf_dossiers/Devoir%20caricatures%20Nadeau.pdf
[vi] David R. Spencer. The Yellow Journalism: The Press and America's Emergence As A World Power. (Northwestern University Press, 2007), 206.
[vii] Desbarats and Mosher, 17.
[viii] David R. Spencer, "The "Art" of Politics: Victorian Canadian Political Cartoonists Look At Canada-U.S. Relations," (2003) http://facstaff.elon.edu/dcopeland/mhm/mhmjour6-1.pdf
[ix] Spencer. "The "Art" of Politics," 5.
[x] Diogenes. June 18, 1869.
[xi] J.L. Granatstein and Norman Hillmer. Prime Ministers: Ranking Canada's Leaders. (HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. 1999), 199.
[xii] The Canadian Encyclopedia website: http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=a1ARTA0001442
[xiii] J.W. Bengough/Library and Archives Canada/C-78604
[xv] Graham Harrop. Vancouver Sun. February 24, 2005. http://edocs.lib.sfu.ca/cgi-bin/Cartoons?CartoonID=4461
[xvi] Bengough/National Archives of Canada C-17201
[xvii] Bengough/Globe/September 1st, 1897
[xviii] Desbarats and Mosher. The Hecklers, Pg 18.
[xix] Jean-Baptiste Cote/La Scie/December 2, 1864.
[xx]Duncan Macpherson. The Toronto Star. February 14th, 1978.
[xxi] Ibid. November 17th, 1966.
[xxii] Ibid. The Toronto Star. February 3, 1977.
[xxiii] Desbarats and Mosher. The Hecklers, 149.
[xxv] Ibid, 17.
[xxvi] J.W. Bengough. Caricature History of Canadian Politics. (The Grip Printing and Publishing Co. 1886), 7. http://www.archive.org/stream/cihm_07442#page/n9/mode/2up (accessed February 28, 2010).
[xxvii]The Canadian Encyclopedia Website: http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=a1ARTA0001442
Ackerman, Kenneth. Boss Tweed: The Rise and Fall of the Corrupt Pol who Conceived the Soul of Modern New York. Carroll and Graf Publishers, 2005.
Bengough, J.W. Caricature History of Canadian Politics. The Grip Printing and Publishing Company, 1886. http://www.archive.org/stream/cihm_07442#page/n9/mode/2up
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, "Gomery inquiry could cost $80 million: report," http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2005/02/20/gomery-budget050220.html (accessed, February 28, 2010).
The Canadian Encyclopedia, "Cartoons, Political," http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=a1ARTA0001442 (accessed, February 28, 2010).
Castonguay, Dennis, Deborah McNeill and Douglas Schoenherr, comp., Daily Smile: A Travelling Exhibition of Original Duncan Macpherson Cartoons. McClelland and Stewart Limited, 1979.
Desbarats, Peter and Terry Mosher. The Hecklers: A History of Canadian Political Cartooning and a Cartoonists' History of Canada. McClelland and Stewart Limited, 1979.
Granatstein, J.L. and Norman Hillmer. Prime Ministers: Ranking Canada's Leaders. HarperCollins Publishers Limited, 1999.
Harrop, Graham. Vancouver Sun. February 24, 2005.
Jackson, Bruce. "Lazio's Finger," Artvoice. 2 November, 2000.
Nadeau, Jean-François. "Les charges de la caricature, d'hier à aujourd'hui," Le Devoir, February 11-12, 2006.
National Archives of Canada
Spencer, David R. "The "Art" of Politics: Victorian Canadian Political Cartoonists Look At Canada-U.S. Relations," University of Western Ontario. 2003. http://facstaff.elon.edu/dcopeland/mhm/mhmjour6-1.pdf
Spencer, David R. The Yellow Journalism: The Press and America's Emergence As A World Power. Northwestern University Press. 2007. | <urn:uuid:a8a4c9dd-c3a4-45da-8fc0-2764a4d33852> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.friends.ca/DCA/2010_winners/EthanRabidoux | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399425.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00102-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943797 | 4,006 | 3 | 3 |
This week, a 26-year-old American woman was awarded $3.5 million to write a book of advice for young women. And a 16-year-old fan-fiction writer was mocked for striking a deal to turn her One Direction fantasies into published reality. Also this week, New Yorker writer Joan Acocella read author Belinda Jack’s sweeping history of women’s literacy, “A Woman Reader,” and wrote all about it in one of the most respected magazines in the world. This could not have happened at any other point in history.
For the first thousand years of the historical beef against women readers, as Jack’s book documents, most women were barred from reading entirely, and the ban was a powerful tool in their subjugation. “In thinking about wisdom, it helps to read about wisdom—about Solomon or Socrates or whomever,” Acocella writes. “Likewise, goodness and happiness and love. To decide whether you have them, or want to make the sacrifices necessary to get them, it is useful to read about them. Without such introspection, women seemed stupid; therefore, they were considered unfit for education; therefore, they weren’t given an education; therefore they seemed stupid.”
Once women were allowed to learn to read—as light and leisure time and printed religious indoctrination spread, it became harder to keep them from it—social campaigns against women readers and writers mutated with the millennia, their justifications shifting to suit the era. After the fall of the Roman Empire, reading among both men and women was restricted to noble elites and religious figures, people with the time and privacy to pick up a book. But when Charlemagne took over the Frankish empire in 800, he decreed that both men and women under his rule would be educated, though women still read in the vernacular, while men were more likely to be schooled in Latin. And so the stigma against chick lit was born. Popular books written in words that women could understand were shunned by men as “sentimental and realistic” stories “about love and friendship and animals and magic potions,” Acocella says. When women began writing themselves, female authors were often deemed insane, or else secretly male.
As the marketplace for words increasingly skewed female, men started trolling, claiming that women’s novels were sexually corruptive, dangerously distracting, and hopelessly unrealistic, or even damaging to women’s mental health. (One 19th-century doctor, faced with a novel-reading woman, prescribed a book on beekeeping instead.) Male authors adapted by publishing helpful advice for women targeted at keeping them in their place. Women—and the market—fought back. As early as the 16th century, publishers began offering small, cheaper versions of books that could be easily hidden away from husbands. Book clubs formed, where women talked among themselves. “What was it that men feared about women’s reading?” Acocella writes. “A big fear was that it was something they could do alone, without anyone to guide their thinking. They would learn to think independently.”
We all know how that shook out. Pocket novels and book clubs have given way to a bustling publishing market for chick-lit novels, where the voices of male writers are not valued; endless fan-fiction boards, where women log on to draft their own fantasies in their spare time; and social networking sites, where women—who regularly make up over one-half of users—are empowered to document their lives in real-time, one navel-gazing status update at a time.
But the fear of educated women—women who might learn to think for themselves—still persists in many parts of the world. This is why universities across Iran recently banned women from studying dozens of subjects, including English literature. This is why Afghan girls face acid attacks while walking to school. And this is why the Taliban targeted the 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai, who penned a pseudonymous diary for the BBC, beginning at age 11, where she detailed her struggle to be educated under terrorist rule. So they shot her in the head. Now she’s in the hospital, not the classroom.
Even in countries like the United States, where the lucrative market for women readers is happily exploited, the stigma against women and books takes on new and exciting permutations. Female authors like S.E. Hinton, J.K. Rowling, and Curtis Sittenfeld (given name: Elizabeth) still truncate their names to appear more masculine.
But why? Women today make up more than half of the population, and 80 percent of the fiction market, yet we are still considered a niche. The fact that ladies read is still somehow news, and whenever too many of us pick up one particular book, like 50 Shades of Grey, commentators dissect the contents for clues as to what women (all of them) are thinking. As Jessica Grose detailed in Slate earlier this month, books written by women—like her own debut novel, Sad Desk Salad—are often instantly subjugated as “for-girls-only,” marketed as something lesser-than, and then unfairly scrutinized. “[W]hy, for instance, was a series like Twilight so much more critically derided than Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy? Both sets are huge best-sellers, and both are horribly written (unless you like elaborate, repetitive descriptions of sandwiches). But Larsson’s were never painted as embarrassing, pathetic props for bored housewives (or their husbands),” Grose wrote. “Larsson’s weren’t sneered at by the critical class the way that popular books in women specific genres tend to be.”
This seems to be just another iteration of that old fear: What specialized knowledge might women be absorbing, alone in their rooms? And, yes, sometimes the books we’re reading do provide peeks into the social and political realities that women face today. But other times, we’re just reading because we can. “A great virtue of Jack’s book is that she repeatedly reminds us of the internal pleasures of reading,” Acocella writes. It is “not so much the acquisition of ideas or information as just the pleasure of going to new places in one’s mind.” | <urn:uuid:76ffe66f-b22d-473f-b948-6bb98e6fe480> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2012/10/11/a_woman_reader_by_belinda_jack_women_s_books_have_always_been_marginalized.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398209.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00094-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976952 | 1,339 | 2.515625 | 3 |
That theory holds that populations of Homo sapiens left Africa 100,000 years ago and wiped out existing populations of humans. Templeton has shown that the African populations interbred with the Eurasian populations ?thus, making love, not war.
"The 'Out of Africa' replacement theory has always been a big controversy,," Templeton said. "I set up a null hypothesis and the program rejected that hypothesis using the new data with a probability level of 10 to the minus 17th. In science, you don't get any more conclusive than that. It says that the hypothesis of no interbreeding is so grossly incompatible with the data, that you can reject it."
Templeton's analysis is considered to be the only definitive statistical test to refute the theory, dominant in human evolution science for more than two decades.
"Not only does the new analysis reject the theory, it demolishes it," Templeton said.
Templeton published his results in the Yearbook of Physical Anthropology, 2005.
He used a computer program called GEODIS, which he created in 1995 and later modified with the help of David Posada, Ph.D., and Keith Crandall, Ph.D. at Brigham Young University, to determine genetic relationships among and within populations based on an examination of specific haplotypes, clusters of genes that are inherited as a unit.
In 2002, Templeton analyzed ten different haplotype trees and performed phylogeographic analyses that reconstructed the history of the species through space and time.
Three years later, he had 25 regions to analyze and the data provided molecular evidence of a third migration, this one the oldest, back to 1.9 mill ion years ago.
"This time frame corresponds extremely well with the fossil record, which shows Homo erectus expanding out of Africa then," Templeton said.
Another novel find is that populations of Homo erectus in Eurasia had recurrent genetic interchange with African populations 1.5 million years ago, much earlier than previously thought, and that these populations persisted instead of going extinct, which some human evolution researchers thought had occurred.The new data confirm an expansion out of Africa to 700,000 years ago that was detected in the 2002 analysis.
"Both (the 1.9 million and 700,000 year) expansions coincide with recent paleoclimatic data that indicate periods of very high rainfall in eastern Africa, making what is now the Sahara Desert a savannah," Templeton said. "That makes the timing very amenable for movements of large populations through the area. "
Templeton said that the fossil record indicates a significant change in brain size for modern humans at 700,000 years ago as well as the adaptation and expansion of a new stone tool culture first found in Africa and later at 700,000 years expanded throughout Eurasia.
"By the time you're done with this phase you can be 99 percent confident that there was recurrent genetic interchange between African and Eurasian populations," he said. "So the idea of pure, distinct races in humans does not exist. We humans don't have a tree relationship, rather a trellis. We 're intertwined." | <urn:uuid:59e8a559-1612-4fe0-9534-ea78c2653475> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.bio-medicine.org/biology-news/New-analysis-shows-three-human-migrations-out-of-Africa-2636-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783408840.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155008-00100-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95243 | 639 | 3.421875 | 3 |
Formation of lava tubes requires a special kind of volcanic eruption: those where fluid lava flows down the sides. The more explosive type of eruption known as pyroclastic, where rocks, cinders, and ash are ejected, donít form tubes. Within fluid lava flows, there are two main mechanisms for forming tubes. In one type, the upper surface of the lava flow begins to cool, and the lava beneath continues to flow in tubular conduits beneath the surface. In another common scenario, channels carrying lava become roofed over as material accretes to the side, eventually forming a solid roof.
Due to the insulating effects of the hardened lava above, molten lava is able to travel considerable distance underground with very little cooling. In Hawaii, lava tubes have carried fluid lavas 50 or more miles from their source and thereby played a large role in shaping the islands.
Whether on the surface or underground, flowing lava behaves like most rivers would, flowing downhill, around obstructions. Lava flowing underground sometimes returns to the surface through existing skylights, or ruptures the surface when the flow volume becomes too high, creating a breakout entrance.
All the photos on this page, except for the top one, were taken by scientists working for the U.S. Geological Survey based at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, and are used by permission of the USGS.
|Above: Skylights indicate an active tube flowing under a hardened crust, and below, a closer view of an active skylight.|
|Above: Channelized lava with a large piece of hardened crust wedged in the center, which is one way in which a channel can roof over to form a tube. Below, another mechanism for a channel to roof over is by accretion of material along the edges that can coalesce to form a roof.|
Choose a thumbnail above to zoom in on more images of active skylights from the USGS archives.
New! Watch a video clip of lava flowing inside an actively flowing lava tube!
Clip size: 3 Mb
Created: December 11, 2008 | <urn:uuid:b5fe9202-a602-4886-85ec-b8a3aed879a7> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.goodearthgraphics.com/virtual_tube/birth.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783408840.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155008-00033-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928259 | 427 | 4.125 | 4 |
Voice control may be the way of the future, but a new study finds that using voice-to-text is just as unsafe as texting behind the wheel.
The study, conducted by Texas A&M’s transportation institute, had 43 participants drive a closed course. Then they drove the same course while typing a text, then they drove it using a voice-to-text system. The results: Driver response times were delayed no matter what method was used.
The drivers in the study used Siri (iOS) and Vlingo (Android), with researchers measuring the amount of time their eyes were on the road, along with response time to a light that would glow randomly during the tests.
During testing, drivers were asked to maintain a speed of 30 mph while staying straight in their lane, and required to complete the same five text messaging tasks: send-only, read-only and three “read and replies”.
For every minute of baseline time behind the wheel, drivers would spend an average of 37.3 seconds looking forward at the road (obviously, that doesn’t include checking the speedometer, mirrors and dash-mounted light). When texting manually, that average dropped to 27.2 seconds. When using Siri, drivers were looking up for an average of 28.6 seconds, while the Vlingo method dropped it down to 25.8 seconds.
What’s even more interesting in A&M’s findings is that manual texting sometimes took less time than using a voice-to-text system, although according to the study, “driver performance was roughly the same with both.”
More damning is that driver’s felt safer when using the voice-to-text system compared to the standard manual input of text, despite reaction times plummeting no matter what method was used.
While no automaker currently offers a system that translates voice messages into text, a number of automakers are experimenting with the systems for future models. This study might put the kibosh on such systems, particularly after the recent release of NHTSA’s guidelines for limiting driver distraction. It also calls into question the efficacy of systems smartphone manufacturers have been pushing that claim to be safer for drivers, specifically Apple’s Siri Eyes Free, which it announced at its Worldwide Developer Conference last June.
However, this is just one study, and as Christine Yager, the researcher in charge notes, “Understanding the distracted driving issue is an evolving process, and this study is but one step in that process.”Go Back to Top. Skip To: Start of Article. | <urn:uuid:b2583775-7c42-4900-b991-af76a16e481c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.wired.com/2013/04/voice-texting-unsafe/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397111.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00037-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965933 | 537 | 2.84375 | 3 |
On April 17, 15 people were killed and more than 160 injured when a fire caused ammonium nitrate stores to explode at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas. In the wake of the accident, Reuters uncovered evidence that the plant had been a regular target for intruders who tampered with chemical tanks on at least 11 separate occasions.
These burglars weren’t after ammonium nitrate, the volatile chemical that can quickly turn explosive in the wrong hands (like that of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh). They were siphoning anhydrous ammonia, another nitrogen fertilizer with a nefarious side gig: it’s a prime ingredient in illicit methamphetamine manufacturing.
According to John Donnelly, resident agent in charge of the DEA office in Fresno, anhydrous ammonia is used in a meth-making process called the Birch reduction or the “Nazi cook” (in honor of the meth distributed to German soldiers by Nazi leaders during World War II).
“In the early to mid-90s, the anhydrous method began to appear in the Midwest. I’ve heard it was Kansas, I’ve heard it was Missouri, everyone claims their state was the first,” says Donnelly.
Thieves siphoned the dangerous liquid gas from nurse tanks left on farmer’s fields and used ephedrine from over-the-counter cold medicine to synthesize the drug. “They’d take the ephedrine from cold tablets, crush them up and separate out the binding agent. Then they’d add the anhydrous ammonia and a couple other ingredients. This method was so volatile that it will just react with itself with no heat source needed.” That reactivity is also the reason clandestine meth labs notoriously go boom.
White cylindrical tanks holding anhydrous ammonia can be spotted in fields all over the country. The fertilizer is loved as an efficient and cost-effective way to implant nitrogen into the soil, but it’s loathed for being one of the nastiest treatments on the farm. Chemically, it’s the same ammonia used in cleaners around the house, minus the water (thus, it is “anhydrous”). The vapor is corrosive to human skin and aggressively seeks out water wherever it can find it, which means that anhydrous leaks can result in horrific injuries to the eyes, throat, sinuses, and lungs.
The vapor is corrosive to human skin and aggressively seeks out water wherever it can find it, which means that anhydrous leaks can result in horrific injuries to the eyes, throat, sinuses, and lungs.
To remain in liquid form it must be stored under high pressure and released under tightly controlled circumstances. But while farmers and distributors resort to goggles, rubber gloves and respirators when handling the chemical, thieves on the hunt for anhydrous often use no protection and rudimentary equipment.
“It’s the craziest thing,” says Tommy Farmer, director of the Tennessee Methamphetamine Task Force. “We’ll see them standing over it, no protection, in shorts and flip-flops, cutting the line off and draining it into a bucket with exposed hands and no protection. We’re expecting to go down there and find them dead.”
Often the thieves use bicycle tubes or hoses to siphon the chemical into makeshift containers. Rick Smith of Riley Brothers Farm in Adams, Tenn. says that since they found a tank with a garden hose attached to it with duct tape, they’ve taken precautions. “We leave the tanks where they can’t be seen from the road, like behind a tobacco barn, or we try to take them back to the station that refills them at night.”
Smith says they’ve haven’t had as many problems with anhydrous thieves as they used to, but others are still dealing with frequent theft.
Keith Everhart, general manager at Laughery Valley AG Co-op in Osgood, Ind., says that they catch three or four people stealing anhydrous every couple months. “We see it quite a bit,” he says, but thinks most of the theft goes unnoticed. “They only steal about three to four gallons at a time, and the gauges on the tanks really won’t pick that up.” Everhart says that motion-activated lights don’t deter the thieves, and he’s hesitant to use the valve locks that police recommend. “The problem is if they break in there and mess around too much then you’ve got a 1,000 gallon tank venting liquid gas. You’ve got to evacuate people. If they want it bad enough they’re going to try to get in there somehow.”
Even though Everhart says the problem has been going on for a long time, the danger still keeps him up at night. “You’re wondering, one of these nights when they do it, are they going to forget to shut the valve off? It’s scary sometimes.”
Anhydrous theft peaked in the early nineties, when ephedrine was still readily available in pharmacies. Since then, farmers say it’s leveled off a bit. Legislation restricting the sale of over-the-counter cold medicine containing ephedrine and better security on farms has contributed to make the birch reduction less popular among meth cooks. A newer method, called “one pot” or “shake and bake,” has become the go-to for meth cooks. It’s easy enough to make in the back seat of a moving car and uses ammonium nitrate from cold packs in place of anhydrous ammonia.
Even if anhydrous theft is waning, the repercussions of illicit meth labs continue to affect farmers. Disused sheds and other structures on farmers’ property are vulnerable to being used as temporary labs, and the toxic byproducts of meth manufacture can be dumped on and around fields. The Pennsylvania Farm Bureau advises that farmers maintain locks on all sheds and barns and keep an eye open for suspicious vehicles, tracks, or trash that could signal meth manufacture, such as laboratory glassware, Sudafed boxes, and 2-liter plastic bottles containing residue. Farmers should call law enforcement immediately if they encounter evidence of meth manufacture on or near their property, and should never confront suspected meth cooks themselves.
Farmer says that if there’s one thing the meth epidemic has taught him, it’s that farmers have to stay vigilant. “I couldn’t have imagined when I was a kid running around on a farm, that anhydrous ammonia would be used to make drugs,” he says. “Times have changed. Where we’re at as a society has changed. When I was growing up we didn’t lock our front door. Those days are over.”
(Photo: Bill Whittaker/Wikimedia Commons) | <urn:uuid:05059afe-26b0-41c0-bf6f-a013c71be95f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://modernfarmer.com/2013/05/how-a-common-fertilizer-became-a-meth-magnet/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393518.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00056-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951916 | 1,459 | 2.59375 | 3 |
See NJEA health and safety publications:
- The brochure, “School Renovation,” details various hazards and a local association approach.
- Two NJDOHSS factsheets, “Mold in the Workplace: Prevention and Control” and “Renovation and Construction in Schools” are in the NJEA Health and Safety Manual appendix on pages 130 and 147 respectively.
- NJEA Health and Safety Manual, Appendix 5 includes walk-through checklists on Mold, IAQ and Construction/Renovation, pages 214-221.
- Find NJEA Reporter articles in the index, including “Your Best Solution: A Health and Safety Committee,” October, 2012; “A damp NJ spells mold in schools,” October, 2011; and “Clear the air during roofing projects: Good indoor air quality should be maintained,” November, 2007.
- The PEOSH Indoor Air Quality Standard (N.J.A.C. 12:100-13) requires that:
◦ Renovation or new construction that produces health hazards to be safeguarded by local ventilation or other controls.
◦ Renovation areas in occupied buildings must be isolated, dust and debris must be confined to the renovation area and good housekeeping practices must be used in the work area. Good practices for dust control include wetting or using local exhaust ventilation during work and vacuuming and wet mopping/wiping for cleanup.
◦ Before using materials such as particle board, plywood, floor coverings and carpet backing, the employer must obtain toxicity information and use it to select products and to determine protective measures.
◦ The employer must notify employees at least 24 hours in advance, or promptly in emergency situations, of potentially hazardous renovation work to be performed in a school building.
- PEOSH Hazard Communication standard (N.J.A.C. 12:100-7), gives staff right to know their chemical exposures.
- Asbestos cleanup must follow the Asbestos Hazard Abatement Subcode, N.J.A.C. 5:23-8, of the Uniform Construction Code. | <urn:uuid:3e9df431-efcf-461f-ab4e-f6ed1379b9d0> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.njea.org/issues-and-political-action/health-and-safety/reporter-articles/sandy-is-it-safe-to-come-back/for-more-information | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392159.3/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00151-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.885068 | 445 | 2.546875 | 3 |
As part of its ongoing research to better understand the complexities of the human brain, the Allen Institute for Brain Science is embarking on the first effort to map connectivity patterns across the whole brain in mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease, through its recent award of a $3.4 million grant over five years from the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health.
“Many studies on Alzheimer’s disease focus on just one or a small number of areas in the brain, such as the hippocampus, for its role in memory,” says Julie Harris, Assistant Investigator at the Allen Institute for Brain Science and primary investigator on the grant. “By studying connections across the entire cortex in both normal mice and mouse models of the disease, we hope to finally make the breakthroughs that will help us understand the pathways through which Alzheimer’s disease spreads, and what interventions we can make against its progression.”
According to the National Institute on Aging, Alzheimer’s disease is characterized by diminishing memory and thinking skills, affecting as many as 5.1 million Americans, most over the age of 60. The causes of Alzheimer’s disease are still largely unknown, though they are likely a combination of genetic, environmental and other factors.
So far, clinical trials for drugs developed in mouse models that typically focus on individual brain areas have yielded poor results. “Our expanded view of the disease that looks at connections across the whole brain will hopefully improve mouse models and their use in translational research to identify drugs and treatments that work in humans,” said Harris.
The whole-brain model of Alzheimer’s builds on the Allen Mouse Brain Connectivity Atlas, recently profiled in the journal Nature, which allows researchers to quantitatively analyze connections across the entire mouse brain.
Harris and her colleagues plan to expand the resource by focusing on areas of the brain that are hardest hit early in the disease. They will work backwards first, using viral tracers to discover which regions of the brain send their neurons to those hard-hit areas. Then, they will follow the other projections from those source regions to different parts of the brain, ultimately creating a detailed map showing how and which brain regions are interconnected, and how these connections are altered by disease. In the spirit of other Allen Institute resources, they plan to make the data publicly available through the Allen Brain Atlas data portal at brain-map.org.
“This is the kind of meaningful research that can only be done at a place like the Allen Institute,” said Allan Jones, CEO of the Allen Institute for Brain Science. “Our ability to process enormous amounts of exceptionally high quality data makes us uniquely equipped to develop this valuable new perspective on a disease that has troubled researchers for decades, and that will hopefully yield new insights that will lead to effective treatments.”
Date: June 4, 2014 | <urn:uuid:7e1d7cc3-c904-448d-a431-bea2f9f7dd5f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.dddmag.com/news/2014/06/new-approach-alzheimers-disease-research | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398516.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00091-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948325 | 586 | 2.859375 | 3 |
Date: December 1947
Creator: Young, W. H. & Anderson, R. L.
Description: Report issued by the U.S. Bureau of Mines discussing bituminous coal and lignite seams found in the United States. The thickness of seams from several U.S. states is compared, as well as the mining methods employed. This report includes maps, tables, and illustrations.
Contributing Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department | <urn:uuid:b5aaba8c-4855-4d19-9a40-b56e33c2d910> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://digital.library.unt.edu/explore/partners/UNTGD/browse/?fq=str_location_country%3AUnited+States&fq=untl_collection%3ATRAIL&fq=str_location_state%3AWyoming&fq=str_location_state%3AKentucky | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783400572.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155000-00133-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931648 | 94 | 3.046875 | 3 |
In which Scrabble dictionary does LAUGH exist?
Definitions of LAUGH in dictionaries:
- noun -
the sound of laughing
- noun -
a facial expression characteristic of a person laughing
- noun -
a humorous anecdote or remark intended to provoke laughter
- verb -
To express certain emotions, especially mirth, delight, or derision, by a series of spontaneous, usually unarticulated sounds often accompanied by corresponding facial and bodily movements.
To show or feel amusement or good humor: laughed to herself at the memory; an experience we would laugh about later on.
To feel or express derision or contempt; mock: We used to laugh at their provincial manners.
To feel a triumphant or exultant sense of well-being: You won’t be laughing when the truth comes out.
To produce sounds resembling laughter: parrots laughing and chattering in the trees.
To affect or influence by laughter: laughed the speaker off the stage; laughed the proposal down.
To say with a laugh: He laughed his delight at the victory.
The act of laughing.
The sound of laughing; laughter.
Something amusing, absurd, or contemptible; a joke: The solution they recommended was a laugh.
Fun; amusement: decided to go along just for laughs.
verb - to express emotion, typically mirth, by a series of inarticulate sounds
There are 5 letters in LAUGH:
A G H L U
Scrabble words that can be created with an extra letter added to LAUGH
All anagrams that could be made from letters of word LAUGH plus a
Scrabble words that can be created with letters from word LAUGH
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SCRABBLE is the registered trademark of Hasbro and J.W. Spear & Sons Limited. Our scrabble word finder and scrabble cheat word builder is not associated with the Scrabble brand - we merely provide help for players of the official Scrabble game. All intellectual property rights to the game are owned by respective owners in the U.S.A and Canada and the rest of the world. Anagrammer.com is not affiliated with Scrabble. This site is an educational tool and resource for Scrabble & Words With Friends players. | <urn:uuid:cbb6380d-3e1e-4a1d-901a-574e652150ce> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.anagrammer.com/scrabble/laugh | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00059-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.905221 | 501 | 2.53125 | 3 |
EU has to choose its model: Italy or Yugoslavia
The European Union has rarely looked so united. The disparate members have joined up to mount a strong defence of the region’s single currency. But the EU has also never looked so close to dissolution, divided by tensions between more and less fiscally responsible and economically successful countries. The fate of the union could follow either of two historical precedents with starkly different outcomes.
Exactly 150 years ago, on May 27, 1860, Giuseppe Garibaldi started to besiege Palermo. The city was the capital of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, which had lasted in roughly the same form for almost six centuries. Most of the establishment at the time, including the Pope and Emperor Napoleon III of France, dismissed the notion of an Italian nation.
The romantic nationalist Garibaldi proved them wrong. Italy was unified under the Turin-based king of Sardinia. Huge regional differences in history, economy and culture have been diminished by the flow of people from south to north and of government money and bureaucracy in the other direction. The unified Italy has survived and prospered.
The less optimistic precedent is Yugoslavia. An expansion of the Kingdom of Serbia, the country was created after the First World War. Strong Slavic ethnic identity made it only slightly less likely to succeed as a nation than Italy. And Yugoslavia’s disparate peoples seemed on the path to unity for most of the following six decades.
But everything fell apart quickly 30 years ago, after the May 1980 death of Marshall Tito. Without Yugoslavia’s longstanding autocratic leader, the Serbian nationalism that had supposedly been crushed proved a potent divisive and destructive force.
Overall, the last two millennia of European history look more Yugoslav than Italian. But the last half-century has been more Italian, helped by the increasingly free movement of ideas, money and people.
For the future, much depends on the region’s collective memory, a term coined by Maurice Halbwachs, a French — or is that European? — sociologist. Europeans may choose to read their history as an inevitable movement towards unity. If they do that, Athens and Berlin may prove no more distant than Palermo and Turin. | <urn:uuid:21c48c7e-eb58-4cb7-a584-fafd627094b9> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blogs.reuters.com/breakingviews/2010/05/28/eu-has-to-choose-its-model-italy-or-yugoslavia/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399106.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00107-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965121 | 459 | 2.765625 | 3 |
( Originally Published 1939 )
The typical big-city department store is really a host of individual shops brought together under one roof and single management. Commonly located in a congested urban center and offering its customers a wide range of goods and services, it is one of the more costly forms of retail distribution. The largest department stores-those with annual sales of more than $10 million, for example-show an average expense ratio of more than 35 per cent of net sales, nearly twice that of combination grocery and meat stores.
However, as indicated in a study of the Harvard Bureau of Business Research, from which these figures are taken, cost ratios de-cline steadily as the size of store declines. Operating costs in stores with annual sales of $1 million to $2 million amounted to less than 34 per cent, while the smallest stores-with less than $150,000 volume-paid only thirty cents out of each sales dollar for expenses.
Since the big stores are usually in the large cities and the smaller stores in the smaller centers, the size of the city rather than the size of the store is probably the most important influence on operating expenses. Payroll and real estate costs per dollar of sales are higher in the larger cities, while the big stores spend up to twice as much for advertising as the smaller ones. Another important element in the higher cost of big-city department store operation is the fact that returns and allowances in the largest stores amounted to 14.5 per cent of sales, as compared with only 7.7 per cent for stores in the $1 million to $2 million class. In spite of higher expense ratios the big stores made the biggest profits. Profits measured against sales rose steadily from zero in the two smaller size-classes to 2.4 per cent in the largest.
Other surveys tend generally to confirm the figures quoted above. Average operating expenses of department stores of all sizes were 34.9 per cent of net sales in 1936 and 35.8 per cent in 1935, according to the Harvard studies. Average expenses of 34.2 per cent in 1936 and 33.9 per cent in 1935 were reported by Dun & Bradstreet on the basis of data from the Controllers' Congress of the National Retail Dry Goods Association. The slight difference in the figures from the two sources is due to the fact that the Harvard figures include items-especially financial expenses-which are not covered by the Controllers' Congress. In both cases, however, the figures are larger than the 1935 Census figure of 29.2 per cent, which is probably partly due to the comprehensive cover-age by the Census of a very large number of small department stores. These have the lowest expense ratios. Also the fact that the typical store reporting to the Census does not keep detailed records or a close check on costs may result in some understatement.
While total costs of department store operation range from 30 to 35.6 per cent, according to size of store, payroll costs run from 15.7 to 17.9 per cent of sales. But the latter do not consistently increase with the size of the store. Except for the smallest size-class, and the two largest, payroll expense is uniformly close to 17 per cent of net sales. Real estate costs, however, show a fairly consistent rise with increasing size, running from 3.3 to 5.4 per cent of sales, which doubtless reflects the higher rentals of the big cities, where most of the large stores are located.
Department Store Chains
A further interesting expense comparison was made for 1934 by the Harvard Bureau of Business Research between two types of firms commonly referred to as department store chains, but with quite different characteristics. The first type, called ownership groups, includes mostly large-city department stores which are linked together in common ownership, but which perform most of the important operating functions independently. The second class (called chains by the Bureau) comprises companies in which there is much more central control and whose stores are usually distinctly smaller than those of the ownership groups.
The chains showed a much lower cost of operation, with a ratio of 23.9 per cent of sales in 1934 compared with 37.5 per cent for the ownership group-a remarkable spread. Moreover, the chains had a gross margin of 28.3 per cent, and therefore a profit of 4.4 per cent on sales, compared with 36.3 per cent, and a 1.2 per cent loss for the ownership group.
Although all items of expense were lower for the chain department stores, it was in payroll costs that their advantage was greatest over the ownership group. The differential was 6.3 per cent of sales. The higher personnel costs of the ownership groups may have been partly due to the fact that they perform several functions, such as delivery service and extensive granting of credit, not performed to the same extent by the chains. Also the clientele of ownership stores demand more personal service from more capable and highly paid individuals than do chain store customers. These chains, in contrast with the situation existing in other lines of trade, operate primarily in smaller communities, where wage rates are lower. The ownership groups place more emphasis on fashion merchandise than do the chains, and fashion merchandise always involves higher salesmanship costs.
These reasons obviously raise no presumption that the lower personnel expense of the chains is due primarily to their form of organization. Nevertheless this possibility seemed to the author of the report "sufficiently great to encourage the executives of department store ownership groups to continue and to intensify their experiments in centralized buying and merchandising and in centralized control of operations.
American versus Foreign Costs
American department store costs appear to be higher than those of department stores in foreign countries, notably England and Germany. A comparison for 1930 shows that in the United States expenses were 33.9 per cent of sales, as against 26.7 per cent in Germany. Payroll and advertising costs were noticeably higher in the United States: payrolls amounted to 17.3 per cent of net sales and advertising to 3.5 per cent in this country, as compared with 13.5 per cent and 2.15 per cent, respectively, in Germany.
English department store costs appear to be even lower. A study made by Philip J. Reilly of the Associated Merchandising Corporation shows that in 1933 British costs were 24.7 per cent as against 35.5 per cent for the United States in that year. In this study the figures for American and English stores were adjusted to make them as comparable as possible. The greatest differences in expenses were found to be in rents and taxes and in the costs of buying and selling.
Both the American and the English figures are for 1933, a depression year with exceptionally high costs in the United States, but of more nearly normal volume in England. Average American department store costs showed a decline of nearly 2 per cent of sales from 1933 to 1934 while expenses of English stores were virtually the same in both years.
Reasons for Low Costs in England
Among the reasons given by English department store managers for their low expense rates are "that they have tried to keep their top executive organization simple and free from the over-specialization that exists in American department stores, and that they have persistently challenged the introduction in their management routine of any extraneous `system' unless it virtually can be proved beforehand that such system will assist management in the maintenance of a low expense rate, or in the elimination of such wastes in merchandising or operation as to more than compensate for its cost.""
Other reasons for smaller running expenses of English stores are that the amount of charge business is lower than in the United States, which results in smaller losses from bad debts; rentals and rates (taxes) are lower in England than in America and more restricted advertising space is used and smaller publicity organizations are needed. Newspaper rates in England are relatively much more expensive; no radio publicity expense is incurred, since commercial broadcasts are not permitted in Great Britain; customer returns and adjustments average less than 5 per cent in England as compared with 12 per cent of gross sales in the United States; and employees' duties are more comprehensive and their rates of pay lower.
A common salary for an assistant buyer in England is $30 a week; and, besides their buying activities, many of them also act as floormen or sales clerks as well as being responsible for a simple form of unit stock control. Likewise, buyer specialization has not been carried as far as in the United States. Central buying has made notable progress in England in recent years, however, and according to this report the trend undoubtedly will be to develop the department manager type of buyer who will be obliged more and more to take over direct responsibility for all selling activities. | <urn:uuid:d97e0b27-42c2-41b5-9f6f-da8b04fe1afd> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.oldandsold.com/articles11/distribution-20.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402516.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00055-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971363 | 1,758 | 3.140625 | 3 |
Factors affecting shrinkage Powers; Meininger; and Tremper and Spellman are the three references I have used most to explain the causes of drying shrinkage. Each of them point out that water demand of the separate materials used in concrete is the major determinant of the shrinkage of concrete. I maintain that variations in water demand caused by the separate concrete ingredients has a far greater effect on concrete shrinkage than does the common concern overthe variation in slump.
Powers, and Tremper and Spellman both emphasized the cumulative effect on shrinkage of making poor choices in the selection of material to be used. Powers’ shrinkage results, clarified by Mather in the form shown in Table 1, show the individual and cumulative effects of the most unfavorable versus the most favorable material choices with regard to six factors influencing the amount of shrinkage. Powers assumed a constant water-cement ratio, and concluded: “Wrong choices of alternatives (with respect to volume change) can result in about seven times as much shrinkage as would result from best choices.”
Table 1 below shows that concrete with ¾ in. (19 mm) maximum sized aggregate will shrink about 30 percent more than concrete with 1 ½ in. (38 mm) maximum sized aggregate. But, concrete placing costs may increase slightly when larger aggregate is used. Designers therefore should specify that the maximum sized coarse aggregate be slightly less than ? the slab thickness, with the understanding that the small increase in cost will be offset through lower shrinkage and a more productive floor slab.
If you have questions about your industrial concrete floor contact one of our sales engineers today. | <urn:uuid:269f1e19-b366-46f4-94f7-bf97d2870dca> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://kalmanfloor.com/powers-on-factors-affecting-shrinkage/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395992.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00132-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923802 | 333 | 2.75 | 3 |
Citrus x jambhiri Lush
The Rough lemon tree is a cross between a mandarin orange and a citron. Citrus x jambhiri Lush fruit is of low quality so this lemon tree is used mainly as a rootstock for other citrus trees.
This tree grows wild in the Himalayan foothills of India where it is believed to have originated. Portuguese explorers introduced it into Africa around the year 1500 from whence it spread to the New World. It has since naturalized in Africa, Florida and the West Indies.
The fruit looks like a grocery store lemon with a skin condition. The rind is full of lumps and bumps. Each bears a sunken nipple at its apex (the end opposite the stem). It turns bright golden to orange yellow when ripe.
There are different strains of rough lemon. The taste of the fruit differs from somewhat unpleasant to just like a
It is invariably less juicy than
which are cultivated for fruit production. It is, however, easy to grow and home growers in Hawaii and other tropical locales where other lemons perform poorly will sometimes use it as a dooryard lemon tree.
The tree bears heavily and the fruit can be left on after it ripens for ornamental purposes but the flesh will dry out.
What Makes it a Good Citrus Rootstock?
This is a 2 year old seedling.
It grows vigorously to 30 feet, develops an extensive root system, which will grow well in sandy soil, is tolerant of drought, salt and alkaline soil.
Citrus trees of many types--not just lemons--are commonly grafted onto it for these reasons. It is the fastest growing citrus rootstock and is easy to grow from seed.
It is compatible with lemons, grapefruit, tangelos, oranges and most mandarins. It is used primarily in Australia, Florida and Arizona.
Because of its quick growth, citrus grafted onto Rough lemon will need to be regularly fertilized but will produce large crops.
Rough lemon is vulnerable to citrus blight, phytophthora, citrus
and, in high rainfall areas, lemon scab.
To the plus side, it is tolerant of citrus tristeza.
Trees more than 15 years old may begin to bear fruit in alternate years.
The Lisbon lemon is the most widely sold lemon variety in the world. It is the sour lemon most often carried by U.S. supermarkets. Its only rival for top spot is the similar Eureka lemon.
The pink lemons produced by the variegated pink Eureka lemon tree will supply you with pitchers of pink lemonade all summer. The lemon of pink lemonade fame has a bumpy green and yellow striped rind. Only the flesh is pink.
Go from Rough Lemon to Botanical Journeys Plant Guides Home | <urn:uuid:ab700b43-90b8-4355-8d53-66ff5d62f4af> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.botanical-journeys-plant-guides.com/rough-lemon.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402746.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00177-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.915669 | 587 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Delaware facts - about Delaware fun facts for kids
Delaware facts - How did Delaware get its name - top 10 interesting Delaware fun facts for kids - first state - random amazing cool Delaware facts
Delaware Fun Facts | Questions & Answers | States A-D
Delaware Fun Facts : Questions & Answers This category is for questions and answers related to Delaware, as asked by users of FunTrivia.com. Related quizzes can be ...
Delaware Colony - History and Information
Learn more about the Delaware colony which was founded in 1638 as New Sweden, and was later part of New Netherland before being claimed by the British
Fun Facts About the Middle Colonies - 2020site.org
Fun Facts About the Middle Colonies. The middle colonies refer to five of the original thirteen colonies established under British Rule in the seventeenth century ...
Delaware State Facts - 50States.com
delaware fun facts and trivia ... Delaware was the first state to ratify the United States constitution. It did so on December 7, 1787.
Facts About the New Jersey Colony - About.com Education
Learn more about the colony of New Jersey including its significance and important people.
Pennsylvania Colony Facts - Softschools.com
Interesting Pennsylvania Colony Facts: The land that became the Pennsylvania Colony had been in dispute for many years by the English, Dutch, and the Swedes.
New York Colony Facts - Softschools.com
Interesting New York Colony Facts: The New York Colony was originally called the Province of New York (from 1664), and later New York. The original boundaries of the ...
Fun Facts and Daily Trivia - Fun Facts by Wayne Geiger
Fun Facts, this day in history, history, trivia ... On July 4, 1776, the same day America's thirteen separate states united to declare themselves an independent ...
PA Fun Facts - Pennsylvania Visitors Network, Visitors ...
Fun Facts: Nickname: Keystone State - During colonial times Pennsylvania was the middle colony of the original 13 colonies. It held the colonies together like the ... | <urn:uuid:b0c1980d-17ab-4c42-8a12-80f5e0caca7b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.webdirectory.com.np/Category/Fun_Facts_Delaware_Colony.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395620.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00127-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.857144 | 423 | 2.890625 | 3 |
UNH And Applied Geosolutions,
Llc, Offer New Urban Planning Tools For Rockingham And Strafford
Contact: Dolores Jalbert
March 30, 2005
DURHAM, N.H.--- A new set of urban planning tools, developed by
researchers at the University of New Hampshire and Applied GeoSolutions,
LLC, of Durham, is transforming the hindsight of historic patterns
of development into a 20/20 vision of the future for Seacoast communities.
researchers have integrated aerial maps and land use data from Rockingham
and Strafford counties into a digital Geographic Information Systems
(GIS) archive that tracks changes in the region’s residential,
industrial and agricultural development from 1962 to 1998. They
also created a computer model that forecasts where and how future
growth will take place—information that communities need to
better manage watersheds, estuaries, open land and other resources.
The project is funded through the Cooperative Institute for Coastal
and Environmental Estuarine Environmental Technology (CICEET), a
partnership between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA) and UNH, dedicated to creating technology for cleaner water
and healthy coastal environments.
“Planners need better ways of understanding past and current
patterns of development if they are to make decisions that accommodate
future growth while protecting water quality and natural resources,”
says Fay Rubin, the scientist in UNH’s Complex Systems Research
Center who co-leads the project with William Salas of Applied Geosolutions.
“They can use these tools to understand and manage growth
in a way that reduces water pollution, whether it comes from urban
stormwater runoff, or an industrial or municipal source.”
For example, parking lots, roads, buildings and other impervious
surfaces associated with development threaten water quality by increasing
polluted runoff and reducing groundwater recharge. Planners can
use the GIS archive as the basis to estimate the impact of impervious
surfaces on water quality, and with this benchmark in hand, forecast
how impervious surface associated with future growth might further
Rubin, Salas, and a team of associates including David Justice,
GIS project manager, and Sam Lingeman, GIS analyst, have scanned,
processed and archived more than 1,400 photos to create the archive.
What the archive reveals about Seacoast development will not surprise
anyone who has lived through the boom—farmland is disappearing,
and acreage developed for suburban, urban and industrial use is
on the rise.
Accessible through the GRANIT web site (http://www.granit.sr.unh.edu),
workshops and by CD/ROM, the archive offers the first comprehensive
“snapshot” of the Seacoast region at three points in
time: 1962, 1974, and 1998. The high level of detail in the photography
makes it possible to distinguish farmland from wetland, commercial
from residential developments, and even make out structures as small
as a pier.
To inform a predictive computer module that planners can use to
forecast future development pressures, Salas has used this archive
to compare historic development patterns to economic, demographic
and transportation data, as well as biophysical information such
as soil type, topography and proximity to water bodies.
“The model identifies how access to economic opportunities
and local biophysical conditions influenced historic development,
and uses this knowledge to predict where the development pressures
will be greatest,” explains Salas. “It is assumed that
land will be used for whatever brings the highest value, but ‘value’
can vary. Land that is relatively closer to Boston, for example,
is more likely to have a higher value as a residential property
and be developed.”
While the archive and the predictive model have been tailored to
support Seacoast communities, the project methodologies also will
be useful for statewide agencies, as well as for other regions in
need of a model to develop similar planning tools.
“When you are planning a major initiative, like the Interstate
93 expansion, it is critical to coordinate with land use and transportation
planners at the community level,” says Ansel Sanborn of New
Hampshire’s Bureau of Transportation Planning. “Tools
like these can inform their planning process so that they understand
the larger impact of a local decision.”
Editors: High-resolution photos of Rockingham County Land Use
in 1962 and 1998 are available for download at: | <urn:uuid:1604cdc7-02b0-4278-b298-6af992ef1624> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.unh.edu/news/news_releases/2005/march/dl_033005granit.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397865.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00127-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.8672 | 974 | 2.6875 | 3 |
I'm afraid that you're facing a difficult problem. Magnetic levitation involving permanent magnets is inherently and unavoidably unstable for fundamental reasons. One permanent magnet suspended above another permanent magnet will always crash. That's why all practical maglev trains use either electromagnets with feedback circuitry (magnets that can be changed electronically to correct for their tendencies to crash) or magnetoelectrodynamic levitation (induced magnetism in a conducting track, created by a very fast moving (>100 mph) magnetized train). There are no simple fixes if what you have built so far is based on permanent magnets alone. Unfortunately, you have chosen a very challenging science fair project.
While the full answer to this question is complicated, the most important issues are the strengths and locations of the magnetic poles in each magnet. Since each magnet has north poles and south poles of equal strengths, there are always attractive and repulsive forces at work between a pair of magnets—their opposite poles always attract and their like poles always repel. You can make two magnets attract one another by turning them so that their opposite poles are closer together than their like poles (e.g. by turning a north pole toward a south pole).
To maximize the attraction between the magnets, opposite magnetic poles should be as near together as possible while like magnetic poles are as far apart as possible. With long bar magnets, you align the magnets head to toe so that you have the north pole of one magnet opposite the south pole of the other magnet and vice versa. But long magnets also tend to have weaker poles than short stubby magnets because it takes energy to separate a magnet's north pole from its south pole. With short stubby magnets, the best you can do is to bring the north pole of one magnet close to the south pole of the other magnet while leaving their other poles pointing away from one another. Horseshoe magnets combine some of the best of both magnets—they can have the strong poles of short stubby magnets with more distance separating those poles.
Returning to the paper question, size is less important than pole strength and separation. The stronger the magnets and the farther apart their poles, the more paper you can hold between them.
If you are asking why doesn't the earth itself get pulled up toward a large magnet or electromagnet that I'm holding in my hand, the answer is that the magnetic forces just aren't strong enough to pull the magnet and earth together. I'm holding the two apart with other forces and preventing them from pulling together. The forces between poles diminish with distance. Those forces are proportional to the inverse square of the distance between poles, so they fall off very quickly as the poles move apart. Moreover, each north pole is connected to a south pole on the same magnet, so the attraction between opposite poles on two separate magnets is mitigated by the repulsions of the other poles on those same magnets. As a result, the forces between two bar magnets fall over even faster than the simple inverse square law predicts. It would take an incredible magnet, something like a spinning neutron star, to exert magnet forces strong enough to damage the earth. But then a neutron star would exert gravitational forces that would damage the earth, too, so you'd hardly notice the magnetic effects.
The earth is a huge magnet and it is made out of metal. The earth's core is mostly iron and nickel, both of which can be magnetic metals. However, the earth's magnetism doesn't appear to come from the metal itself. Current theories attribute the earth's magnetism to movements in and around the core. There are either electric currents associated with this movement or some effects that orient the local magnetization of the metal. I don't think that there is any general consensus on the matter.
Actually, if you drive fast over a real speed bump, it's not good for your wheels and suspension. The springs in your car do protect the car from some of the effects of the bump, but not all of them. However, imagine driving over a speed bump on a traditional bicycle—one that has no spring suspension. The faster you drive over that bump, the more it will throw you into the air.
First, magnets don't involve charges, they involve poles. So the question should probably be "are all metals magnetically poled?" The answer to this question is that they are never poled—they never have a net pole. They always have an even balance of north and south pole. However, there are some metals that have their north and south poles separated from one another. A magnetized piece of steel is that way. Only a few metals can support such separated poles and we will study those metals in a few weeks.
Yes, but only if some of the poles are weaker than other so that when you sum up the total north pole strength and the total south pole strength, those two sums are equal. For example, you can make a magnet that has two north poles and one south pole if the north poles are each half as strong as the south pole. All magnets that we know of have exactly equal amounts of north and south pole. That's because we have never observed a pure north or a pure south pole in nature and you'd need such a pure north or south pole to unbalance the poles of a magnet. A
The absence of such "monopoles" is an interesting puzzle and scientists haven't given up hope of finding them. Some theories predict that they should exist, but be very difficult to form artificially. There may be magnetic monopoles left over from the big bang, but we haven't found any yet.
While metal detectors can easily distinguish between ferromagnetic metals such as steel and non-ferromagnetic metals such as aluminum, gold, silver, and copper, it is difficult for them to distinguish between the particular members of those two classes. Ferromagnetic metals are ones that have intrinsic magnetic structure and respond very strongly to outside magnetic fields. The non-ferromagnetic metals have no intrinsic magnetic structure but can be made magnetic when electric currents are driven through them.
Good metal detectors produce electromagnetic fields that cause currents to flow through nearby metal objects and then detect the magnetism that results. Unfortunately, identifying what type of non-ferromagnetic metal is responding to a metal detector is hard. Mark Rowan, Chief Engineer at White's Electronics of Sweet Home, Oregon, a manufacturer of consumer metal detecting equipment, notes that their detectors are able to classify non-ferromagnetic metal objects based on the ratio of an object's inductance to its resistivity. They can reliably distinguish between all denominations of U.S. coins—for example, nickels are relatively more resistive than copper and clad coins, and quarters are more inductive than smaller dimes. The primary mechanism they use in these measurements is to look at the phase shift between transmitted and received signals (signals typically at, or slightly above, audio frequencies). However, they are unable to identify objects like gold nuggets where the size, shape, and alloy composition are unknown.
A rail gun is a device that uses an electromagnetic force to accelerate a projectile to very high speeds. This acceleration technique is based on the fact that whenever an electrically charged particle moves in the presence of a magnetic field, it experiences a force that pushes it perpendicular to both its direction of travel and the magnetic field. In a rail gun, this perpendicular magnetic force—known as the Lorentz force—pushes the projectile along two metal rails and can accelerate it to almost limitless speeds.
The rail gun's projectile must conduct electricity and it completes the electric circuit formed by two parallel metal rails and a high current power source. During the rail gun's operation, current flows out of the power source through one rail, passes through the projectile, and returns to the power source through the other rail. As it passes through the two rails, the electric current produces an intense magnetic field between the rails. The projectile is exposed to this magnetic field and as charged particles pass through the projectile, they experience a Lorentz force that pushes them and the projectile in one direction along the rails. The projectile picks up speed as it travels along the rails and doesn't stop accelerating until the current ceases or it leaves the rails. In practice, the power sources used in most rail guns is a large bank of capacitors. These devices store separated electric charge and supply enormous currents to the rails for a brief period of time.
As long as the track is straight enough that the train doesn't experience severe accelerations up, down, left, or right, there is no limit to how fast it can go. In fact, the levitation process becomes more and more energy efficient as the speed increases. However, the moving train does experience a pressure drag force (a type of air resistance) that increases roughly as the square of the train's speed. The power needed to overcome this drag force increases as the cube of the train's speed, making it impractical to propel the train forward above a certain speed.
Copyright 1997-2016 © Louis A. Bloomfield, All Rights Reserved | <urn:uuid:ebb0abed-b2c1-43c5-b170-83eeda2f6296> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.howeverythingworks.org/magnetically_levitated_trains.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00026-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95616 | 1,850 | 3.078125 | 3 |
Stomach virus going around, local officials warn
Then the diarrhea kicks in for two or three days.
And by that time, you’ve likely passed on the fun to someone else in your household.
Health officials say that pattern has been repeated throughout Rock County the last few weeks as a viral gastroenteritis, or stomach flu, goes around.
Urgent Care at Mercy Health Mall in Janesville sees about 75 people a day, and for the last three to four weeks, at least 10 people a day have come in with stomach flu symptoms, said Dr. Catherine Onsrud, a nurse practitioner.
At Mercy’s emergency room, nine to 10 cases of the stomach flu came in Wednesday.
Most people seeking medical attention have been throwing up every two hours for about 12 hours before having diarrhea for two to three days, along with abdominal cramps and generally feeling miserable, Onsrud said.
The stomach flu is different from the seasonal flu, which is respiratory and preventable with the seasonal vaccine. Symptoms of the seasonal flu include a fever, chills, sore throat, runny nose, cough and fatigue.
The stomach virus can spread through households quickly, and doctors who see a patient with the stomach flu are likely to see one of the patient’s family members two to three days later.
“If you get it in your family, it’s going to be hard to prevent it from anybody else getting it,” Onsrud said.
By the time symptoms arrive, the person already has exposed everyone for a couple days.
Not everyone needs to go to the doctor, however.
“If they are able to tolerate it, it’s better to stay at home,” Onsrud said.
People who get dizzy, weak, have intense abdominal pain or blood in their vomit or stool should seek medcial attention, she said.
Patients seeking medical care have been treated with IV fluids and anti-nausea medication, she said.
Doctors recommend patients stay on a clear liquid diet for the first 24 hours after vomiting, then go to the BRAT—bananas, rice, applesauce and toast—diet for the next 24 hours, she said. After that, patients can eat whatever they want.
Eating a healthy diet and staying hydrated helps protect your body from the flu, officials say, and of course, good hand washing is important, too.
The stomach flu usually circulates more in spring and fall, Onsrud said.
The good news is that cases of the seasonal flu have been very low in the region and statewide, health officials say.
Urgent Care has seen only about three cases of seasonal flu, compared to 300 to 500 at this time last year, Onsrud said.
That could be because of the number of vaccinations given or because the flu just isn’t yet here, Rock County Health Officer Karen Cain said.
“We still have a lot of winter to go,” she said. “It might peak in March.”
Last updated: 3:42 pm Thursday, December 13, 2012 | <urn:uuid:53250274-20ce-425a-bf2e-6c2658248505> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.gazettextra.com/news/2010/dec/31/stomach-virus-going-around-local-officials-warn/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397749.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00174-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960273 | 653 | 2.53125 | 3 |
WAR, MOTHER OF ALL POVERTY
In the understanding that the Community of Sant'Egidio has progressively developed, conflict and poverty are increasingly intimately linked. War is the "mother of every poverty", destroyer of the humanitarian commitment for the future of entire populations; civil war in which members of the same population no longer recognize each other as brothers.
War is also the absence of every justice, as seen in so many countries where conflict makes the defense of the most basic human rights impossible, as in Latin America and Africa. The civil populations are the first victims of conflict, crushed in the vise of opposing sides. And among civilians those most affected are the poor, those without means whom no one defends, often victims of violence from both sides.
In countries and lands upset by such events development cannot occur while justice is made subject to the logic of violence.
In 1981 Father Jesus Delgado was invited by Sant'Egidio to bring the testimony of Msgr. Oscar Arnulfo Romero, martyr of peace and justice and archbishop of San Salvador, the capital of a little country in Central America where a civil war raged. The words of the bishop's secretary described the drama of El Salvador as that of a small population abandoned to itself amidst a long war; a war looked upon by the chanceries of the great powers and of Europe as a war of "low intensity" and therefore acceptable.
From this and other testimonies from the mid eighties Sant'Egidio increased its reflection on the value of peace with special attention to the South of the world, where conflicts seem to magnify the terrible damage caused by hunger and famine, as in Africa, or where they are rooted in the injustice of the exclusion of entire sections of the population forced to live in great misery, as in Latin America.
The cry of pain that comes from the Southern hemisphere, and in particular from Africa, are brought through the requests and tales of bishops, of missionaries and friends of the community. The Community brings humanitarian aid to many countries in the Southern hemisphere. However, war is a brutal reality that annihilates any effort at cooperation.
For Sant'Egidio, the history of solidarity with Mozambique represents this Africa abandoned and vulnerable to a conflict that, besides creating innumerous victims, made initiatives to alleviate the suffering of the population during the famines of the latter half of the 80s difficult. The community's friendship with Bishop Jaime Gonçalves, archbishop of the central city of Beira, helps to understand the suffering of a people caught between war and famine. Furthermore, in those years the Mozambican Church suffered repression by the Afro-Marxist regime.
Ship of aid for
In a short time, three airplanes and two ships full of food, clothes, primary need supplies and even work tools, arrived to the country. The humanitarian effort was also useful in melting the icy relations between the state and the Catholic Church, until then considered the "enemy of the people". But each effort to help seemed to get swallowed up by the vicissitudes of the war that wiped out the attempts to reconstruct the future of the country. The necessity of confronting the primary problem of the reconciliation between the government, Frente de Liberaçao de Moçambique (FRELIMO) and the guerilla, Resistencia Nacional de Moçambique (RENAMO), became increasingly clear.
The passage of Sant'Egidio from the field of humanitarian work to the contradictory one of politics came about at this point: many western chanceries at the time thought that the Mozambican conflict could not be dealt with until after the resolution of apartheid in South Africa. The result was a paralysis in the face of a conflict that had by then gone on for more than 10 years creating an enormous number of victims and displaced people. Sant'Egidio perceived the situation differently: Despite the historical references to the general picture of Southern Africa, one sees in both rival groups a progressive exhaustion in the faith of military solutions while, at the same time, Sant'Egidio identified the endogenous reasons of the conflict which cause its unending continuation.
After various attempts to search for institutional support, the Community of Sant'Egidio offered itself as "mediator". They established certain contacts with the RENAMO guerillas. The negotiations took their start amidst great difficulties: there was a problem of recognition so that the negotiation did not assume the characteristic of a reciprocal tribunal; there was also a problem of communication between the negotiators and the leadership in Mozambique. The FRELIMO government wanted an immediate ceasefire, the only strong bargaining chip of RENAMO. Furthermore it was necessary to create a climate of trust that would make it possible for the talks to continue.
The Negotiations for Peace in Mozambique
Together with Bishop Jaime Gonçalves and the representative of the Italian government, Mario Raffaelli, Andrea Riccardi and Matteo Zuppi inaugurated the negotiation table in July of 1990 at the headquarters of the Community located in a Roman district called Trastevere. On that occasion Andrea Riccardi made a speech to the two delegations which established the foundation of the “method” of the talks:
"This house, this ancient monastery, opens itself in these days to Mozambicans as a Mozambican house (…) We are aware of being before Mozambican patriots, truly African, without any external presence. Each one of you has deep roots in the country. Your history is called Mozambique. Your future is called Mozambique. We ourselves are here as hosts of an event and a meeting which we feel is completely Mozambican. From this perspective the intention of our presence is to be strong in that which regards friendship, but discrete and respectful".
Riccardi also underlined the principle which would be then the basis of the long negotiation:
"Many serious problems exist in the past and in the future. We are aware that every problem can give rise to misunderstanding and that the interpretations which are made are very different. Will we be able to resolve them and overcome the human and political difficulties which are on the field? An expression of the great Pope John XXIII, which was also his working method, comes to mind: “let us strive to find that which unites rather than that which divides”. The desire for that which unites can also suggest to us a working method, the spirit of this meeting. That which unites is not little, rather there is a great deal. There is the great Mozambican family, with its very ancient history of suffering (…) The unity of the Mozambican family has survived this history of suffering. We find ourselves today, if you will allow me to say, before two brothers, truly part of the same family, who have had different experiences in these last years, who have fought each other. (…) Conflicts with outsiders pass, between brothers it always seems more difficult. Nevertheless brothers will always be brothers, notwithstanding all the painful experiences. This is that which unites, to be Mozambican brothers, part of the same great family".
The echo of these words are found in the first document jointly signed by the parties: both recognized each other “compatriots and members of the same great Mozambican family”. This fraternal mutual recognition, children of the same people, is decisive: it recalls the biblical story of Joseph and his brothers, cited by Andrea Riccardi in his introductory speech. There is a deep separation: the brothers do not recognize Joseph, minister in Egypt. At a certain point Joseph, crying, goes to find his brothers and reveals himself. To objectively be brothers but not to recognize each other as such: it is a central point which must be overcome in every negotiation.
The Mozambican negotiations lasted 27 months, with 11 sessions of work. Between the highs and the lows a truly constructive climate had begun between the parties and the choice for a negotiated solution grew stronger until it made irreversible progress. In order to observe and support the Mozambican process several representatives of western and neighboring governments were invited, as well as an UN delegation. The general peace accord, signed in Sant'Egidio on October 4, 1992, today still remains one of the few examples of an African conflict brought to an end through peace talks in the past decade.
Rome, October 4, 1992
The signing of the Mozambican peace accord
The peace in Mozambique has become an example of how a non-institutional reality, the Community of Sant'Egidio, can successfully bring a mediation process to an end with a mixture and a synergy of responsibilities between governmental entities and non-governmental organizations. | <urn:uuid:d3f13728-474f-48af-883f-23d3503b8a56> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.santegidio.org/en/pace/pace3.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783400031.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155000-00143-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962306 | 1,810 | 2.71875 | 3 |
The Fall web-worm is another of the tent caterpillars that get mislabeled by the general public when they see these hairy creatures crawling everywhere. The Eastern Tent Caterpillar, the Forest Tent Caterpillar and the Gypsy Moth Caterpillar all seem to be the same at a quick glance. Not so.
"The fall webworm, Hyphantria cunea (Drury).
The pale yellow, black-spotted, hairy caterpillars of this species hatch from eggs deposited on leaves by the satiny white moths. The larvae feed gregariously on foliage of many different host species from inside an unsightly web.
The larvae are hairy and tan to brown in color. The 1 inch in length caterpillars feed upon the surfaces of leaves for four to six weeks, then spin cocoons in which they pass the winter.
These cocoons are found under trash on the ground or sometimes under bark. Two to five generations occur each year. Two generations occur on pecan, one in May-June and another in July-August. Nursery trees are usually attacked in September- October.
The larvae are heavily parasitized, but may completely defoliate small trees in a short time.
Removal of the larvae in the web or by pruning is an alternative to control with insecticides." Courtesy of the University of Florida | <urn:uuid:9ecdb963-8d1b-4ba6-88f2-2bc3e16e27b0> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.pestcontrolrx.com/david_somlcom/2008/08/fall-webworm-ho.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00121-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942028 | 280 | 3.25 | 3 |
The Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Yunnan province, China. It lies within the drainage basins of the upper reaches of the Yangtze (Jinsha), Lancang (Mekong) and Nujiang (Salween) rivers, in the Yunnanese section of the Hengduan Mountains.
The protected areas extend over 15 core areas, totalling 939,441.4 ha, and buffer areas, totalling 758,977.8 ha across a region of 180 kilometres by 310 kilometres. Here, for a distance of over 300 kilometres, three of Asia's great rivers run roughly parallel to one another though separated by high mountain ranges with peaks over 6,000 meters. After this area of near confluence, the rivers greatly diverge: the Nujiang River becomes Salween and empties out at Moulmein, Burma, into the Indian Ocean, the Lancang becomes the Mekong and south of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, empties out into the South China Sea and the Yangtse flows into the East China Sea at Shanghai. Selected nature reserves and places of scenic beauty in this unique region were collectively awarded World Heritage Site status in 2003 for their very rich biodiversity and outstanding topographical diversity. Running parallel to these three rivers, but to the west inside Burma, is the river gorge of the N'Mai river, the main tributary to the Irrawaddy River.
Due to its topography and geographical location, the Three Parallel Rivers region contains many climate types. Average annual precipitation ranges from 4,600mm in the Dulongjian area in the west of Gongshan county to 300mm in the upper valleys of the Yangtse river. The protected areas are home to around 6,000 species of plants, 173 species of mammals, and 417 species of birds. Many of the flora and fauna species are endemic to the region.
Although this region has been acknowledged as a natural World Heritage Site, its demographic make-up also is highly interesting as it contains many of the twenty-five minorities found in Yunnan province including the Derung, the smallest of all of China's minority groups. Some of the other minorities found in this region are the Tibetan people, the Nu people, Lisu, Bai, Pumi and Naxi. Many of these minorities still use traditional costumes as their normal daily attire.
In the same region as the Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas lies the Old Town of Lijiang, which is also a World Heritage Site in its own right.
We don't currently have any Travel Helpers for Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas
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Wildlife Research and Management - Wildlife Research
Date Published: 2001
Number of Pages: 4
Author(s): Todd E. Cornish, Mary J. Linders, Susan E. Little, and W. Matthew Vander Haegen
From February 1998 to July 1999, 65 western gray squirrels (Sciurus griseus griseus) were trapped at three sites in Klickitat County, Washington (USA) as part of a home range and habitat use study. No squirrels (0/9) with mange lesions were identified in the initial trapping session (February and March 1998). During all subsequent trapping sessions (August 1998 through July 1999), squirrels with lesions consistent with notoedric mange, caused by the mite Notoedres centrifera (douglasi), were captured or recaptured at all three study sites. The diagnosis was confirmed by histopathology and examination of mites obtained from skin scrapings from two affected squirrels. Of the 56 squirrels captured from August 1998 to July 1999, 33 (59%) had characteristic mange lesions, and 14 (42%) affected squirrels died directly of mange or of secondary complications of mange. Only four breeding females of 22 radio-collared animals (males and females) in the study population were known to have survived the mange outbreak (12 died, 6 missing). Factors potentially contributing to this mange outbreak include a mast crop failure in the fall of 1998 and transmission of mites from animal to animal during trapping and processing sessions.
Cornish, T. E., M. J. Linders, S. E. Little, and W. M. Vander Haegen. 2001. Notoedric mange in western gray squirrels from Washington. Journal of Wildlife Diseases. 37: 630-633.
Persons with disabilities who need to receive this information in an alternative format or who need reasonable accommodations to participate in WDFW-sponsored public meetings or other activities may contact Dolores Noyes by phone (360-902-2349), TTY (360-902-2207), or email (email@example.com
). For more information, see http://wdfw.wa.gov/accessibility/reasonable_request.html | <urn:uuid:63ed5311-0fa6-44db-833f-d4ccd6558935> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://wdfw.wa.gov/publications/00120/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397695.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00050-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923403 | 480 | 3.15625 | 3 |
“I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.” ― Atticus Finch
“The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.” ― Coco Chanel
Clearly, I could talk forever and a day about courage, and lots of people have already spoken their piece about it.
But I don’t want to go on and on, ad infinitum without hearing from you!
I want to know how you define courage.
I enjoy blogging because of the continuous feedback loops. It’s a social medium meant to connect and engage people in dynamic dialogue.
So, leave a comment with your definition of courage.
Your definition may be short or long; descriptive, narrative, or expository; a personal example or an intellectual philosophy.
You can quote others or write a poem.
Feel free to post more than one.
I’ll also be asking the same question of Facebook and Twitter, so you can read what others have to say on those networks as well.
You can tweet to @SLWrites or post to my Facebook page.
You can attach appropriate (PG) images or links to relevant content.
Like, retweet, or reply to other definitions that appreciate.
Do what you feel as long as you answer the question:
How do you define courage?
I’ll be doing a follow up post compiling all of the favorite quotes. Come back to see what’s made the list. | <urn:uuid:2234f652-2542-4b61-9358-bf24e7851046> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.slwrites.com/how-do-you-define-courage/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393997.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00061-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933041 | 354 | 2.875 | 3 |
Ghost ship series: River Styx ferry: surreal art-print, poster, book, desktop-wallpaper NeoSurrealismArt.com
In classical Greek mythology, Styx is a river of the underworld that the souls of the dead had to cross on their journey from the realm of the living. It was a sacred river, and by its name even the gods took their most solemn oaths. The ancients believed that its water was poisonous and would dissolve any vessel except one made of the hoof of a horse or an ass.
Styx - the abhorrent, the principal river over which the souls of the dead were traditionally said to be ferried by Charon. Charon is the aged ferryman of the Greek underworld. A coin was put into the mouth of the dead in order to meet Charon's fee for conveying a shade across the rivers of Hades. Those who could not pay the fee, or those whose bodies were left unburied, had to wander the shores for one hundred years. He continues in modern Greek folklore as Charos, or Charontas, the angel of death.
According to Hesiod, Styx was one of the river-spirits who were daughters of Oceanus and Tethys. According to the Greek historian Herodotus, people swore solemn oaths by a small river of this name in Arcadia which still falls from a tall cliff (the Mavroneri falls), leaving a black stain on the rocks. Plutarch and Arrian report that Alexander the Great was poisoned by this water, sent to him in a mule's hoof (which withstood its reputedly corrosive nature). According to some versions, Styx had miraculous powers and could make someone immortal/invulnerable. Achilles may have been dipped in it in his childhood, acquiring invulnerability, with exception of his heel, which was held by his mother in order to submerge him. His exposed heel thus became known as Achilles' heel, a metaphor for a weak spot.
George Grie, October 2006
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Terragen by PlanetSide is a landscape generator with controllable parameters that allow extremely varied terrain shapes and photorealistic rendering.
Poser by Curious Labs. Poser is the 3D figure design tool for artists, illustrators and animators that enables you to create easily 3D figures.
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CommentsArtwork has 9 comments Your opinion is important, please be considered while expressing your view. We have zero tolerance to profane and curse language.
Zazzle Associate / United States / Feb 12th
We greatly value your feedback and input, and hope to send more of these surveys to our Associates throughout the year, to give everyone the opportunity to share their thoughts and experiences with us.
Charles ODonnell / United States / Dec 30th
May I use your River Styx Ferry in one of my gothic books.
Dimitris Gialavouzis / Jun 20th
I would be more than happy to add a thumbnail of your work as a reference in a track of mine at http://soundcloud.com/flevario/styx, It is a non-commercial work of art. Just a demo. No plans to release an official record yet.
NFL Jersey / Bhutan / Aug 9th
Thank you for helping me blog!
Augustine Wiafe / Ghana / Jan 28th
i like this type of art and would like a poster of this nature.
kimotheraphy / Malaysia / Jan 7th
Hmmm.. this piece is not that great..
Thomas / United States / Jun 26th
I was curious if you'd allow me to use one of your ghost ship pictures as an album cover for my band. We're re building a new site, with a new name, and we'll be recording soon, and this one picture is absolutely perfect!
Frank Bell / United States / Feb 25th
I am a fan of this type of art!
jayanta das / India / Feb 22nd
it is a fantactic software ,be ready to be griped in your fantacy
original image size: 203.6 KB dimensions: 1280 x 768 pix picture downloads: 25336
Score: 69 Votes: 14 | <urn:uuid:159c0116-6658-4f87-acaf-a0f332705be5> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.neosurrealismart.com/modern-art-prints/?artworks/ghost-ship-series-river-styx-ferry.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396959.83/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00044-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934193 | 1,391 | 2.78125 | 3 |
The Oracle at EI
By Paul Driessen
In ancient times, priestesses at the Oracle at Delphi often answered important political questions with enigmatic predictions derived from dreams, signs, casting lots or reading animal entrails. Today, in the realm of climate change, that function is served by scientific priests and priestesses who offer forecasts of dubious value, derived from computer models.
Investing in the stock market, like planning next summer's vacation, is a dicey proposition. But if someone offered to eliminate the uncertainty – by using computer models to pick surefire investments and perfect weather windows at idyllic resorts – few would jump at the chance.
Most people know complex markets and weather defy such predictions. Computers certainly help understand and analyze these systems; they can even forecast trends, if they've been tested against actual data. However, even predicting tomorrow's IBM closing price or hurricane path is iffy, and attempts to do so months or years in advance are meaningless.
Thus the rapt attention that certain academics, journalists and policymakers give to climate models is truly astounding.
The latest example comes from Columbia University, where the Earth Institute asserts that its new "Climate Change Information Portal" will enable people to assess, avoid and adapt to "the problems that climate change and variability can cause" – and can even do so years into the future for regions as small as the tri-state New York metropolitan area. The Institute begins by assuming that human-induced global warming of alarming proportions is a fact. It then offers computer-driven guidance as to how we should respond.
Several computer models have presented "scenarios" of what might happen if temperatures really do increase 5 or 10 degrees in 100 years. These dire projections garner extensive coverage. However, the models fail miserably when tested against actual data, and there is simply no evidence to support theories of catastrophic climate change.
Indeed, satellite and weather balloon measurements have found little or no warming over the past 25 years, and other climate models project only modest warming – a degree or two over the next century. Such warming would be mostly beneficial, by bringing us longer growing seasons and lower heating bills. This kind of change people and planet can readily adapt to.
World-class geologists and climatologists emphasize that Planet Earth has been buffeted by numerous natural climate shifts for millions of years. The shifts often come in 50, 500 and 1,500-year cycles, they say.
For instance, our Earth went through a 500-year Little Ice Age – then warmed about a degree since that era ended around 1850. Nearly half of this warming occurred before 1940 – long before carbon dioxide began building up in the atmosphere. Other past climate swings also show there is little cause for alarm.
Wild weather whipsawed Detroit awhile back, according to news accounts. Six snowstorms hit during April of '68, frosts in mid-August of '69, ice in mid-May and a 98-degree heat wave in June of '74, and ice-free lakes in January of '77 and '79. But that was 1868 to 1879!
New England saw average annual temperatures increase by about 2.5 degrees F over a half century. But that was 1904-1954.
Arctic temperature increases between 1971 and 2003 might spell trouble if they continued, even though the rise was below what computer models had predicted: 1.4 degrees F per half century. However, between 1938 and 1966 average annual arctic temperatures fell 6 degrees F. Had that trend continued, temperatures would have plummeted 10.7 degrees F in 50 years!
Moreover, the CO2 that is supposedly causing "catastrophic" warming represents only 0.00035 of all the gases in the atmosphere (1.25 inches out of a 100-yard football field), and proposals to control this vital plant nutrient ignore a far more critical greenhouse gas: water vapor.
There are at least three reasons the debate has nonetheless focused on carbon dioxide – though some are now talking about dandruff as a possible source of global warming!
CO2 is easy to measure, villainize and regulate. It would be extremely difficult to sequester water vapor, without draining the Great Lakes and turning the planet into a vast Sahara Desert . And water vapor doesn't come out of tailpipes, smokestacks and chimneys. It isn't an unwanted bastard child of the hated fossil fuel industries that radical greens want to relegate to the ash heap of history.
Certainly, human pollution and land use activities can and do affect climate. But overall that influence is minor, except sometimes locally. So we should resist calls for immediate drastic action, especially the kind that would take a wrecking ball to our economy.
Natural climate change will always be with us – driven by variations in the sun's energy output and other factors over which we have no control. For this reason, and because huge countries like China and Brazil would not be bound by their restrictions, proposals like the Kyoto Protocol would have almost no effect on future temperatures. Even treaty proponents admit that, at best, the treaty might lower the Earth's temperature by 0.1 degrees over the next half century.
That's why hardcore eco-activists now insist on a series of treaties, each one more restrictive – and more destructive – than the last. Ultimately, they would force signatory nations to slash their fossil fuel use and air emissions by up to 80 per cent over the next 50 years. But even this wouldn't stop Mother Nature.
However, it would devastate our economy, and Europe's. Manufacturing jobs would head to countries that are not governed by the treaties. Prices for gasoline, heating, air conditioning, food and consumer goods would skyrocket – hurting our poor most of all. And government tax revenues would fall precipitously, even as demand for welfare and unemployment benefits soars.
A far better alternative is to continue improving fuel efficiency and pollution control. This would conserve resources, improve people's health and reduce potential impacts on our climate.
As poor countries adopt these technologies, their reliance on wood and animal dung would decline – protecting habitats and reducing pollution. They would also expand their economies, ensuring greater opportunity for their people and improved health, transportation and early warning systems that would help them avert or minimize the damage and death toll from natural disasters.
Meanwhile, we can also continue funding climate research by alarmists, skeptics and fence-sitters alike. At the very least, we may learn much more about what to expect from the next natural climate cycle – and how to adapt to the changes it will bring.
Those scary dinosaurs in Jurassic Park sure did look real. So do the frightening scenarios conjured up by outliers in the computer modeling and climate change catastrophe industries. The challenge is separating fact from probability, possibility and agenda-driven fantasy.
Paul Driessen is senior policy advisor for the Congress of Racial Equality and Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow, and author of Eco-Imperialism: Green Power · Black Death © 2005 Paul K. Driessen
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Ground water, or underground water, is the water that issues from springs or flowing wells or can be pumped from nonflowing wells. In southwestern Kansas ground water is derived almost entirely from precipitation in the form of snow or rain. Part of the water that falls as snow or rain is carried away to the Gulf of Mexico by the streams; part of it percolates downward into the rocks until it reaches the water table where it joins the body of ground water known as the zone of saturation; and part of it may evaporate or be absorbed and transpired by the vegetation and thus returned directly to the atmosphere.
The ground water percolates slowly through the rocks in directions determined by the topography and geologic structure, until eventually it is discharged through springs or wells, through seeps directly into streams, or by evaporation and transpiration in lowlands bordering the streams. In some parts of the United States, the water has traveled many miles from the area of intake, but in Meade County water derived from shallow wells and gravity springs generally is derived from precipitation in the immediate vicinity, and the water obtained from artesian wells and springs is derived from precipitation in near-by areas to the west and northwest.
Many of the residents of this county fallaciously attribute the source of the water in their artesian wells and springs to melting snows in the Rocky Mountain region, or underflow from the Arkansas river in the vicinity of Cimarron, Kansas. It is true that the underflow of the Arkansas supplies many wells on the flood plain of that river but water moving down that valley probably does not move south under the divide to the Meade basin.
Some of the residents of the county may not believe that the amount of water falling as rain or snow is sufficient to supply the large underground reservoirs. However one inch of water falling on one square mile amounts to 17,378,720 gallons, and the average annual precipitation in the county is about 18 inches, or approximately 313,000,000 gallons to the square mile. Part of this water reaches the underground reservoir, as described above.
Principles of Occurrence
The rocks forming the outer crust of the earth are generally not entirely solid but contain numerous openings, called voids or interstices, which may contain either liquid or gas, such as water, oil, natural gas, or air. There are many kinds of rocks, and they differ in the number, size, shape, and arrangement of their interstices and hence in the amount of water they are able to hold. The occurrence of ground water in any region is therefore determined by the geology. A detailed treatment of the occurrence of ground water is given by Meinzer (1923) and a shorter treatment referring especially to Kansas has been published by Moore (1940).
The amount of water that can be stored in any rock depends on the porosity of the rock, commonly expressed as the percentage of the total volume of the rock that is occupied by interstices. A rock is said to be saturated when all its interstices are filled with water. Porosity, however, determines only how much water a given rock can hold, not how much it may yield to wells. The permeability of a rock may be defined as its capacity for transmitting water or other fluid under pressure and is measured by the rate at which it will transmit water through a given cross section under a given difference of pressure per unit of distance. A bed of silt or clay may have as high a porosity as a bed of coarse sand, but because of the small size of its interstices it may require the application of great pressure to transmit water; hence, under ordinary hydraulic gradients it may be entirely impermeable. Not all the water in a saturated rock is available to wells, because part of the water is held against the force of gravity by molecular attraction. In a fine-grained rock the molecular attraction is very great and only a small part of the water can be drained out by the force of gravity; whereas, in a coarse sand or gravel having the same porosity, only a small part of the water is retained by molecular attraction and the remainder becomes available to wells.
Gravel and sand are among the most productive water-bearing materials. It is from material of this type that all the water of the Meade artesian basin and much of the nonartesian water in adjacent parts of the county is obtained. As stated, the Tertiary and Quaternary deposits of the county were laid down by streams. As the streams built up the surface over which they flowed, they probably migrated from side to side, so that at any one locality well sorted sand or gravel may alternate with finer, less permeable materials. Thus, the unconsolidated deposits in the area consist principally of layers of fine particles of low permeability that enclose "pipes" and discontinuous sheets of permeable gravel or sand, which serve as arteries of ground water. In much of Meade County wells drilled to a depth of 200 feet or more encounter at least two, and probably more, such water-bearing beds.
The Water Table and Movement of Ground Water
The permeable rocks that lie below a certain level in Meade County and elsewhere are generally saturated with water. These saturated rocks are said to be in the zone of saturation, and the upper surface of the zone of saturation is called the water table. Of the water that falls on the soil some runs off as surface water, some is used by plants or evaporates, and the remainder is slowly drawn down by gravity through the zone of aeration to the zone of saturation, except for a small part that is retained in the pore spaces by molecular attraction. In fine-grained material the earth is always moist several feet above the water table, due to capillarity, and this moist belt is called the capillary fringe. The water retained in the capillary fringe is not available to wells, which must be sunk to the water table before water enters them.
In areas where water is confined under pressure and rises in wells above the level of the local water table, water is referred to as artesian and the wells are called artesian wells. In such wells the water level does not represent the water table but is a point on an imaginary surface called the "pressure indicating surface" or "piezometric surface."
Shape and Slope
The water table is not a static, level surface, but rather it is generally a sloping surface that shows many irregularities caused by differences in permeability of the water-bearing materials or by unequal additions of water to the ground-water reservoir at different places.
The shape and slope of the water table in Meade County are shown on the map, plate 1, by means of contour lines drawn on the water table (or piezometric surface). Each point on the water table along a given contour line has the same altitude. These water-table contours show the configuration of the water surface just as contours on a topographic map show the configuration of the land surface. The direction of movement of the ground water is at right angles to these contour lines--in the direction of the greatest slope.
The map shows that the water under the plains moves through the county in a generally southeasterly direction, but that the direction of movement and the slope varies considerably in different places. In discussing the shape and slope of the water table and piezometric surface the county may be divided roughly into two parts, namely the area hachured in figure 5, within which artesian conditions prevail, and the remainder of the county in which watertable conditions prevail. East and south of the city of Meade these two areas are sharply distinguished by the Crooked Creek fault which is reflected in the contours by a vertical displacement of the water surface of as much as 40 feet in some places. North, south, and west of the hachured area, however, the piezometric surface merges gradually with the water table and no sharp boundary line is apparent.
Figure 5--Map of Meade Conty showing by blue shading the area in which artesian conditions prevail.
The regional slope of the piezometric surface is toward the east-southeast, and ranges from 5 to 8 feet to the mile in the northwestern part of the county to 35 feet to the mile in the central part. Along the Cimarron valley near the Oklahoma State line the regional slope is interrupted and the piezometric surface dips steeply down to the level of the valley floor. General indentations in the contour lines northeast of Meade seem to indicate cones of depression, or areas of pressure release, in localities having many flowing wells. The 2,430-foot contour clearly shows such a feature at the city of Meade. Southeast of Meade County State Park an up-dip warping of the contour lines probably indicates some lowering of the piezometric surface resulting from the discharge of considerable water from artesian springs in the park.
Northeast of Fowler the contours are flexed southward under an area of sand dunes. Water-table conditions exist under the sand dunes just south of the Fowler fault. Although there is no sharp break in slope along the fault line, it may be more distinct than the available data indicate.
The shape of the water table in the eastern and southeastern parts of the county shows a general conformity to the major topographic features. A dome in the south-central part of the county seemingly results from the exceptionally good recharge facilities in the area of sand dunes, and two smaller domes in the southeastern corner and the nose in the east-central part seem to be the result of equally good recharge facilities in filled sink holes. The nose in the east-central part of the county probably would have appeared as a dome prior to the capture of the drainage of this sink by Sand creek.
Slopes on the water table in the eastern part of the county range from less than 5 feet to the mile to more than 50 feet to the mile. The steeper gradients generally prevail in areas in which the water is moving through the Permian redbeds, which have low permeability and low specific yield.
In general the direction of movement, of ground water throughout the county is from northwest to southeast. In the southern and eastern parts of the county, however, there are many local deviations from this regional direction of movement that are controlled mainly by the topography. Some of these deviations are discussed below.
Relation to Topography
On the map, plate 2, are shown the depths to water level in Meade County by the use of isobath lines--lines of equal depth to water level. In preparing this map the more general irregularities of the surface topography were taken into account by using areal photographs and the available topographic maps. As shown on this map, the depth to water level ranges from more than 200 feet below the surface to a few feet above the land surface in the flowing well areas. Some inaccuracy has been introduced by small local irregularities on the land surface that are net shown on the topographic maps or areal photographs.
In general, the shape of the water table conforms closely to the broad features of the topography. Cimarron River and Sand and Crooked Creeks are entrenched below the level of the adjacent water table, as indicated by the upstream flexures of the contours, hence these streams are receiving water from springs and seepage along their courses. Between Meade and Fowler, however, Crooked Creek flows across the artesian basin where, as shown by the map, the course of the stream bears no relation to the shape of the piezometric surface.
Other things being equal, the slope of the water table in any area varies inversely with the permeability of the water-bearing material; that is, the water assumes a steeper gradient in flowing through fine material than through coarse, permeable material providing the same quantity of water is moving through both types of material. This probably explains at least in part the differences in the slope of the water table in different parts of Meade County. Thus, most of the steep slopes in the southeastern part of the county occur in areas in which the water is moving through the Permian redbeds, which have relatively low permeability.
Fluctuations of the Water Table
The water table does not remain in a stationary position but fluctuates up and down much like the water in a surface reservoir. If the inflow to the underground reservoir exceeds the draft the water table will rise; conversely, if the draft exceeds the inflow the water table will decline. Thus the rate and magnitude of fluctuation of the water table depends upon the rate and magnitude at which the underground reservoir is replenished or depleted.
The factors controlling the rise of the water table in Meade County are the amount of rainfall within the county that passes through the soil and descends to the water table, the amount of seepage that reaches the underground reservoir from surface streams, and the amount of water entering the county beneath the surface from areas to the west and northwest. All of these factors depend upon precipitation either in or near the county.
The factors controlling the decline of the water table are the amount of water pumped from wells, the amount of water absorbed directly from the water table by plants (transpiration), the amount of water lost from the ground-water reservoir by evaporation, the loss of water from springs, and the amount of ground water passing beneath the surface into adjacent areas.
Fluctuations caused by precipitation--The relation between the amount of precipitation and the level at which the water stands in wells is complicated by several factors. After a long dry spell the soil moisture becomes depleted through evaporation and transpiration, and, when a rain does occur, the soil moisture must first be replenished before any water can descend to the water table. During the winter when the ground is frozen the water falling on the surface is hindered from reaching the water table, and during the hot summer some of the water that falls as rain is lost directly into the air by evaporation. Where the water table stands comparatively far below the surface, as it does in part of Meade County, it fluctuates less in response to precipitation than where the water table is comparatively shallow.
The response of water levels to rainfall in an area of shallow, unconfined ground water is relatively fast if the surficial material is sufficiently pervious to allow rapid downward percolation of water, but in areas of deep water where a considerable thickness of material occurs above the water table there is generally considerable lag between the precipitation and the rise in water level, and the rise in water level generally is more gradual and of less magnitude. In artesian areas, where the water migrates laterally several miles from the recharge area, the lag in time is even more pronounced.
Changes in the water levels in wells record the fluctuations of the water table or piezometric surface, which in turn record the recharge and discharge of the ground-water reservoir. In order to determine the character and magnitude of water-level fluctuations in Meade County, 28 wells were selected for observation and periodic measurement of the depth to water levels in them were begun in July 1939. Measurements in 27 of the wells were made by me during the period July to October, 1939, and August and September, 1940, by Richard B. Christy during the period November, 1939, to April, 1941, and by Woodrow W. Wilson after April, 1941. In addition, one well (37) equipped with an automatic water-stage recorder has been observed weekly by Christopher Sobba. Complete records for these wells are published annually by the Federal Geological Survey (Meinzer and Wenzel, 1941, 1941a). The numbers of the observation wells previously published and the numbers used in this report are given in table 3.
Table 3--Observation wells in Meade County.
|Well No. in this report||Well No. in Meinzer and Wenzel, 1941, 1942.||Well No. in this report||Well No. in Meinzer and Wenzel, 1941, 1942.|
The fluctuations of the water level in five typical observation wells in Meade County during the period of record and the precipitation at Plains are shown in figure 6.
Figure 6--Hydrographs of five typical observation wells in Meade County and the monthly precipitation at Plains (precipitation data from U.S. Weather Bureau).
With reference to figure 6, it will be noted that none of the wells show a close correlation between the rainfall at Plains and the water level. The water level in well 331 shows marked rises during the summer of 1940 and during the summer and fall of 1941 that coincide with periods of heavy rainfall, but the highest water level during the period of record occurred in the fall of 1939 when only a small amount of rain fell at Plains. This may be explained by the fact that this well is located in a small drainage basin, about 20 miles from Plains, and so the water level may have risen in response to local rainfall that was not recorded at Plains. The only other well that shows any apparent correlation between rainfall and water level is 313. The water level in this well rose sharply during May 1941, in response to a period of above-normal rainfall.
Wells 66 and 297 are artesian and show no apparent relation of water level fluctuations to rainfall during the brief period of record. Well 297 is pumped for irrigation during part of the year and the fluctuations in water level shown in figure 6 probably are due to pumping.
Although well 12 is nonartesian it has had no significant fluctuations in water level during the period of record. This may be accounted for by the facts that it is situated in fine-grained sediments, and that several near-by deep irrigation wells may have supplied some artificial recharge during the periods of deficient rainfall.
Fluctuations caused by pumping--If a well is heavily pumped the water levels in wells several hundred feet or even a few miles away may be lowered somewhat. After pumping of the well has ceased, the dewatered volume of sediments slowly refills with water and the water level in the well gradually recovers to approximately its former position.
Under artesian conditions the development of the cone of depression (see principles of recovery) and the effect on the water levels in near-by wells take place much more rapidly and are effective over a much larger area than under water-table conditions. As there generally is no dewatering of the water-bearing formation, the recovery under artesian conditions is more rapid than under water-table conditions. The effect of pumping on the piezometric surface is discussed under artesian water and drawdown and recovery curves in the artesian area are shown in figures 8 and 9.
Recharge is the addition of water to the underground reservoir and may be accomplished in many different ways. The ground water within practicable drilling depths in Meade County is derived principally from precipitation that falls as rain or snow within the county or on areas to the west of the county. In Meade County there is also some recharge by influent seepage from streams and by subsurface inflow from areas to the west of the county. The latter source of recharge is discussed under Artesian Water.
Recharge from Local Precipitation
As pointed out above, the primary source of ground water in Meade County is rain or snow that falls on this or adjacent areas. It is a difficult problem, however, to determine with certainty the percentage of the water falling on the area that eventually reaches the water table. The Kingsdown silt, which underlies much of the High Plains part of the county, is relatively impervious and so serves to retard or prevent the downward percolation of water. Many shallow, undrained depressions on this surface catch and hold rain water and prevent surface runoff. The fact that these shallow depressions, many of which are 150 feet or more above the water table, are occupied by shallow ponds for weeks or even months after a heavy rain seems to indicate that. even in these areas the water percolates downward so slowly that most of it evaporates before it has an opportunity of entering the ground. Recent studies of recharge from similar shallow depressions in the High Plains of Texas (White, Broadhurst, and Lang, 1940, pp. 6-8) indicated that recharge from some ponds was quite rapid; whereas, in others, it was slow or nonexistent. The problems of the two areas are not entirely similar, as in the Texas area beds of caliche locally prevent downward movement of water; whereas, in Meade County, caliche does not seem to be effective in this respect, but the same purpose is served by homogeneous deposits of silt. Probably none of the recharge areas in Meade County are as effective as some of the more favorable areas in Texas. On the other hand, however, probably none of the depression ponds in Meade County are as completely scaled off as are some of the ponds studied in Texas.
Rodent burrows and sod cracks probably are important avenues of access for rain water entering the ground. During dry seasons, in certain grassland areas of the High Plains, there may be observed extensive sod cracks in the typical polygonal pattern of flood-plain mud cracks, extending over areas several square miles in extent. Some cracks of more than an inch in width have been observed and have been prodded to depths of nearly four feet.
Sand dunes, such as occur in the southern, southwestern and northeastern parts of the county, are probably effective aids to recharge. The dune sand is quite porous and very little surface drainage has developed in these areas. Rain water enters the sand and generally percolates downward freely. In places where the permeability of the underlying material may not be high, water from recharge is held in the dune sand for a considerable period and at least a part of the water may in time penetrate the underlying material.
Rain that falls on the alluvium along the streams is probably much more effective in recharging the ground-water reservoir than rain falling on the High Plains; however, the total area of alluvium, as shown in plate 1, is relatively small.
Recharge from StreamsIt is probably true that during periods of maximum flow in the major streams of the county some water leaves the channels and moves into the adjacent channel and flood plain deposits. This type of recharge is not very effective in this county. The minor intermittent tributaries that lie above the water table have such steep gradients that they contain water only for very short periods of time after rainstorms. At such times, however, the water is moving very swiftly and is heavily laden with sediment, hence there is very little opportunity for water to percolate downward. Thus it appears that very little recharge from streams takes place in Meade County.
Natural Discharge at the Surface
Before any wells were drilled the ground-water reservoirs of Meade County were in a state of approximate equilibrium. The average annual recharge was balanced by an approximately equal average annual discharge. The greater part of the natural discharge occurred through springs and seeps along the valleys of Crooked Creek and Cimarron River. A part of the water was discharged by direct evaporation and by transpiration from trees, grasses and shrubs in shallow water areas, a very small amount was lost as evaporation from water-table lakes, and the remainder passed southeastward beneath the surface into adjacent areas.
A large percentage of this discharge occurred through artesian springs along Crooked Creek and its tributaries, and as seepage into streams from the shallow ground-water body in the Meade basin, as discussed in subsequent chapters. In addition a small quantity of water is discharged from gravity springs along the Cimarron valley. Most of the water issues from sand and gravel overlying beds of clay and silt in the Ogallala and Meade formations, but in the southeastern part of the county the water issues from the basal Tertiary deposits which overlie less permeable Permian redbeds.
Little or no water is discharged by transpiration and evaporation in the High Plains area, as the water table lies more than 100 feet below the surface under this entire area (Pl. 2). These processes are operative along the valleys of permanent streams, however, and in the shallow water area northeast of the city of Meade. That area constitutes a more or less special problem which is discussed in a subsequent section.
Discharge from Wells
At the present time wells constitute one of the principal means of discharge of ground water within the county. Discharge from wells occurs both as natural flow at the surface from flowing artesian wells and by pumping from nonflowing wells. Most of the well discharge occurs in the artesian basin and immediately adjacent uplands, and is discussed in a later chapter. Outside of that area only small quantities are pumped from wells for domestic and stock supplies. There is only one large irrigation well (272) and one large municipal well (269) on the High Plains in Meade County.
Kansas Geological Survey, Geologic History of Kansas
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Authors: Amrit S. Sorli
Clocks are systems for measuring frequency, velocity, duration and numerical order t0,t1,t2,...,tn of physical events. Time t obtained with clocks is not a forth dimension X4 of space, time t is only a component of X4 = i * c * t. This view of clock/time as a measuring system sees physical phenomena running exclusively in space and not in time. This view is supported with several experiments which confirm that time t of physical event can be zero. Time is not part of space; time is run of clocks in space. Past, present and future exist as a psychological time in the mind only not in the universe. We experience motion i.e. change in the space through the frame of psychological time. We "project" linear psychological time "past-present-future" into the space, however it is not there. Observer who distinguishes between space-time, physical time and psychological time is aware that in quantum measurement he only measures physical events in space and not in time. Clock/time is merely a measuring device. With this understanding observer's observation, measurement and experience of quantum phenomena are closer to their real nature. Stream of numerical order of quantum phenomena t0,t1,t2,...,tn runs in space only and not in time. Stream of quantum phenomena has no duration on its own. Duration is result of measurement.
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Dora and Jews
On June 30, 1937, Buchenwald was only what its name means, a forest of beech trees, a place perched on a foot hill of the Harz mountains, five and a half miles from Weimar. One reached it by a stony, winding path. One day some men came by car to the foot of the hill. They climbed to the top on foot, as though it were an excursion. They carefully inspected the area. One of them pointed out a clearing; then they returned after having had a good luncheon at Weimar.
“Unser Führer wird zufrieden werden,” they said. (Our Fuhrer will be pleased.)
Sometime later others came. They were chained together by fives, one to the other and constituted a detachment of a hundred men, surrounded by about twenty S.S., guns in hand. There was no more room in the German prisons. They climbed up the path as best they could, sworn at and kicked. When they reached the top exhausted, they were put to work without any delay. A group of fifty put up tents for the S.S., while the other group put in place a circle of barbed wire, three strands high and about a hundred yard sin diameter. The first day that was all that could be done. They ate a meagre meal in a hurry and almost without stopping work and, very late in the evening, they went to sleep right on the ground, wrapped in thin coverings. The next day, the first group of fifty unloaded all day long construction materials and sections of wooden barracks which heavy tractors managed to bring about half way up the hill; they carried this material the rest of the way up on their backs and placed it inside the barbed wire. The second group cut down trees to clear the area. They did not eat that day because they had started off in the first place with food for one day only. But, they slept better that night in the shelter of the branches and among the piles of boards.
Beginning with the third day, sections of barracks began to arrive at a faster rate and began to pile up half way up the hill. There were also a kitchen outfit, quantities of striped clothing, some tools, and some supplies. The S.S. stated in their daily report that with one hundred men they could not keep up with material delivered. Others were sent them. The rations then were insufficient. At the end of the week, some fifty S.S. struggled with about a thousand prisoners who they did not know where to put at night, who they could barely feed, and who overwhelmed their ability to supervise. The prisoners were made up into several groups, or Kommandos, each detailed to a particular job: the kitchen for the S.S., the orderlies for their camp, the kitchen of the prisoners, the construction of the barracks, the transport of material, the administration accounting. All of these operations were called S.S. Küche, Häftlingsüche, Barrakenkommando Bauleitung, Arbeitsstatistik, etc., and on paper, in reports, it looked like a simple and methodical organization. But it was, in fact, a complete mess, a horrible swarming of men, who went through the motion of eating, who worked haphazardly, and who barely slept covered in a jumble of branches and boards. Since it was easier to keep them under surveillance when they were working than when they were sleeping, the days were twelve, fourteen or sixteen hours long. Since there were not enough guards, they were forced to select a complement of trustees out of the whole lot of the prisoners on appearances alone, who, since they had uneasy consciences, created a reign of terror by way of excusing and justifying themselves. Blows rained, not just insults and threats.
The bad treatment, the poor and insufficient food, the super-human work, the lack of medicines, and the pneumonia created conditions that caused this gang of men to die at an alarming rate, endangering the general health. The S.S. had to think of another way to get rid of the bodies other than by burial which took too much time and which was too often repeated: so they had turned to cremation, a procedure that was much faster and in conformity with Germanic traditions. Another Kommando, in its turn, became indispensable, the Totenkommando, and the construction of a crematorium was put on the list of “urgent” work to be done. Thus it happened that a place was built for men to die in, before the place was built for them to live in. Everything is linked together: evil attracts evil, and when one is caught in the mesh of evil forces...
Moreover, the camp was not conceived in the minds of the National-Socialist authorities to be just a camp, but a community working under supervision for the building of the Third Reich, just like the other individuals of the German community who remained in relative liberty. As a consequence, after the crematorium came the factory, the Guzlow. So it is seen that the order of precedence for all the installations was determined first by the need to keep everything well under guard, second by hygienic requirements, and third by the demands of work that constituted the raison d’être for the camp. Everything was subordinate to the collective interest which trampled down and crushed the individual.
Buchenwald was thus, during the period of the first installations, a Straflager (punishment camp) where only those considered incorrigible in other prisons were sent. Then, from the moment that the factory, the Guzlow, was ready to go, an Arbeitslager (labor camp) with Strafkommandos. Finally, it was transformed into a Konzentrationslager (concentration camp) which is what it was when we knew it, a camp equipped with all the amenities of a small city, where everyone was sent without discrimination. Around the central camp there were satellite camps, which it kept supplied with human material. All the camps went through these three stages successively. Unfortunately, with the war breaking out, prisoners from all places, of all kinds, in for all kinds of reasons, and under all kinds of disciplinary punishment, were haphazardly, because of the disorder of the circumstances, and indiscriminately sent to a Straflager, an Arbeitslager, or a Konzentrationslager. The result was a frightening mixture of all kinds of humanity which resembled, under the sign of the truncheon, a gigantic basket of crabs, over which National-Socialism, so sure of itself and so methodical in its operations, but overwhelmed on all sides by events which were beginning to master it, threw an immense Noah’s mantle.
Dora was born under the sponsorship of Buchenwald and in the same way. It grew and prospered following the same process.
In 1903, German engineers and chemists had discovered that the stone of the Harz mountains in that area was rich in ammonia. Since no private company was willing to risk capital in its extraction, the Government undertook it. Germany did not possess, as did her neighbors, colonies that were able to put at her disposal men from Cayenne or Nouméa. Because of this fact, together with the fact that she was obliged to keep her convicts inside the country, they were imprisoned in certain places where they were used for especially disagreeable labor. As a consequence, a convict prison, like all convict prisons in the world, except for a few minor differences, was created at Dora. In 1910, for reasons unknown, but most likely because the yield of ammonia was much smaller than was anticipated, quarrying the stone was stopped. It was resumed during the war of 1914-1918, as a sort of punitive camp for prisoners of war at a time when Germany was already beginning to think of going underground to escape some of the devastation of bombing. Again the operation was interrupted by the Armistice. Between the two wars, Dora was completely forgotten: wild tangled growth masked the entrance to the excavations and, all around, vast fields of sugar-beets were cultivated to supply the sugar refinery at Nordhausen, three and a half miles away.
It was into these beet fields that on September 1, 1943, Buchenwald disgorged a first well escorted Kommando of two hundred men. Germany, again feeling the need to go underground or at least to put her war industries underground, had taken up the project of 1915 again. Construction of the S.S. camp and of the crematorium was begun, underground factory was set up, and the kitchens, showers, the Arbeitstatistik, the Revier, or infirmary, were built, last of all. So long as the underground work existed, the S.S. delayed as long as possible, putting off always a little longer, the unprofitable work of constructing Blocks for the prisoners, preferring instead to dig the gallery of the tunnel farther in, and to make it possible to get as many factories as possible under protect from the ever increasing threats from the open sky.
When we arrived at Dora, the camp was still in the Straflager stage. We made an Arbeitslager out of it. When we left it with its 170 Blocks, its infirmary, its theater, its brothel, and with all its installations in place and its tunnel completed, it was on the point of becoming a Konzentrationslager. Already, at the other end of the double tunnel, there was another camp, Ellrich, its offspring, and which was itself in the Straflager stage. There could be no break in the descending curve of human misery.
But, the English and Americans and the Russians had decided otherwise, and, on April 11, 1945, they came to free us. Since then the penitentiary system of East Germany has been in the hands of the Russians who haven’t changed things a fraction. Tomorrow, it will be in the hands of... who knows? Since there must be no gap in history.
A concentration camp, when it is completely set up, is a regular city which is isolated from the outside world which conceived it, which is surrounded by fences of electrified barbed wire, and which is guarded with special guards every fifty yards on platforms, armed to the teeth. To make the screen between the two even more dense, an S.S. garrison bordered the camp and at a distance of three or four miles all around sentinels were encamped. Thus, anyone trying to escape would have a certain number of obstacles to overcome, or perhaps it would be better to say that any attempt would be doomed to failure. This isolated city had its own laws and its own particular social phenomena. Any ideas born there, individually or collectively, were stopped at the barbed wire and remained unsuspected by the rest of the world. By the same token, almost everything that took place in the outer world, was unknown on the inside, any penetration being made almost impossible by that screen. Newspapers came in; but, they were carefully selected and said nothing but those things that had been especially printed for the inmates in the concentration camp. It did happen in wartime that the “news” for the concentration camp inmates was the same as that which the Germans were supposed to take as gospel, and that is why the newspapers were the same for both, but it was pure chance. Use of the radio was punishable. It follows that camp life, organized on the other moral and sociological principles, had quite a different orientation from that of normal life. As a consequence, it revealed aspects that could not be judged by standards common to mankind in general. But, it was a city, and a human city.
Inside – or on the outside, but near by – a factory was the reason for its existence and its means of existence: at Buchenwald, the Guzlow; at Dora, the Tunnel. The factory was the keystone of the entire edifice, and its needs, which had to be satisfied, were the iron laws. The camp was made for the factory, and not the factory to keep the camp busy.
The most important department of the camp was the Arbeitsstatistik, which kept a strict accounting of the entire population, and kept track of each man day after day in his work. At the Arbeitsstatistik the personnel could tell you at any moment whatsoever of the day what each prisoner was doing and where he could be found. This department, like all the others, too, was entrusted to prisoner trustees and kept busy a considerable and privileged number of them.
Then came the Politische-Abteilung, which kept track of the political aspects of the camp and which was able to give for any prisoner any information wanted about his previous life, his moral conduct, the reasons for his arrest... It was the department of the anthropometry of the camp, its Sicherheitsdienst (security police), and employed only those prisoners in whom the S.S. had confidence. Once again the privileged.
Then the Verwaltung, or the general administration, which kept track of everything that came into the camp: food, material, clothing, etc... It was the quartermaster of the camp. Those prisoners employed in office work always occupied a privileged position.
These three big departments ran the camp. They had at their head a Kapo who ran them under the supervision of a non-commissioned officer of the S.S., or Rapportführer. There was a Rapportführer for all the key services, and each one of them reported every evening to the Rapportführer-general of the camp, who was an officer, generally an Oberleutnant. This Rapportführer-general communicated with the prison camp through the intermediary of his subordinates and the Lagerültester, or the doyen of the prisoners, who was responsible in general for the camp and who answered for its smooth running even with his life.
Similarly, the departments of the second level: the Sanitatsdienst, or health service, which included doctors, male nurses, disinfection, infirmary and crematorium services; the Lagerschutzpolizei, or camp police; the Feuerwerk, or fire protection; the Bunker, or jail for those prisoners caught breaking the rules of the camp; the Kino-Theater, or movie, and the brothel, or Pouf.
There were also the Küche, or kitchen; the Effecktenkammer, or clothing store, which was attached to the Verwaltung; the Häftlingskantine, or canteen, which supplied the prisoners with extra food and drinks in exchange for the coin of the realm; the Bank, where the special money good only in the camp was issued.
And, now to describe the mass of workers... They were divided up into Blocks constructed on the same plan as that of Buchenwald 48, but of wood, and with only one floor. They lived there only at night. They returned there at night after roll-call at about nine o’clock, and they left every morning before dawn, at half past four. They were supervised by the Block Chiefs who were surrounded by their Schreiber, Friseur, Stubendienst, who were veritable satraps. The Block Chief governed life in the Block through the supervision of an S.S. soldier, or Blockührer, who reported to the Rapportführer-general. The Blockführer were only rarely seen; generally they confined themselves to one friendly visit with the Block Chief during the day, that is, when the prisoners were away, so that it was the latter who was in effect the only authority, and practically all of his exactions were without appeal.
The population of the camp, its social composition, and its origins were also elements that were de-humanizing. I have already remarked that National-Socialism drew no distinctions between political crime and common crime, and that consequently, there was in Germany no distinction between the civil and the political regime. As in the prisons of most civilized nations, there was something of everything in the camps – of everything and something else besides. All of the prisoners, whatever social or criminal element they came from, lived together, under the same regulations. The only thing that distinguished them was the colored triangle on their prison clothing which was the insignia of their classification – i.e. their reason for being there.
Red was reserved for political crimes. For common crimes, there was a green triangle; it was plain for Verbrecher, or petty crimes; it was embellished with an “S” for Schwerverbrecher, or serious crimes, and a “K” for Kreigsverbrecher, or war crimes. Thus, a gradation was made from common crimes, such as a simple theft, to murder and to the theft of supplies or armaments.
Between these two extremes, there was a whole series of intermediary crimes; the black triangle (professionally unemployed); the pink triangle (pederasts and homosexuals); the yellow triangle reversed over a red one so as to form a star (Jews); purple triangle (conscientious objectors). In addition, those who had done a certain term in prison, and then, following their release, were incarcerated again for committing new crimes wore instead of the triangle a black circle on white background with a large “Z” in the center, which stood for those freed from the Zuchthaus or prison. And, finally, those who wore a red triangle with the point up had committed minor crimes in the army and had been sentenced by a court-martial.
To these were added a few special ones: the red triangle with a transverse bar for those sent to the Konsett for the second or third time; three black dots on a yellow and white brassard for the blind; the Wifo, the same circle as for the Zuchthaus people with the “Z” replaced by a “W.” These latter had originally been volunteer workers. They had been employed by the Wifo firm which had been the first to try to achieve the Cergeltungfeurer, the famous V1 and V2 rockets. One fine day, and for no apparent reason, they got the striped clothes and were put into concentration camps. The secret of the V1 and V2 having gone through the trial period and into the intensive production stage was not to be freely circulated, even among the German people. In other words, they were interned for reasons of State security. The Wifo were the most unfortunate people in the camp: they continued to be paid their salary, half of which was paid them in the camp itself, the reset being sent to their families. They had the right to keep their hair and to write whenever they wanted to, on condition that they said nothing about what had happened to them; and since they were the best off, they introduced the black market into the camp and raised the exchange.
As far as the population was concerned, the concentration camps were regular towers of Babel in which personalities clashed because of differences of origin, of their sentences, and previous social standing. The common law offenders hated the political criminals whom they didn’t understand, and the latter returned the feeling. The intellectuals looked down on the manual laborers, and the latter rejoiced to see the former “working at last.” The Russians wrapped the whole of the West in the same icy contempt. The Poles and the Czechs couldn’t stand the French, because of Munich etc... On the nationality level, there were enmities between the Slavs and Germanic people, between the Germans and the Italians, between the Dutch and the Belgians, or between the Dutch and the Germans. The French, who came last and began to receive the most magnificent parcels of food, were looked down on by everybody except the Belgians, who were pleasant, frank, and good. France was regarded as a land of milk and honey, and her inhabitants as sybaritic degenerates, who were incapable of work, who ate well, and who were occupied only with making love. To these sentiments the Spaniards added the concentration camps of Daladier. I remember having been accosted in Block 24 at Dora by a vigorous: “Ah! The French; now you know what a Lager means. No harm, it’ll teach you!”
It was one of the three Spaniards (there were 26 in all at Dora) who had been interned at Gurs in 1938, enrolled in labor companies in 1939, and sent to Buchenwald after Rethel. The three maintained that the only difference between the French and the German camps was the work; all other things, treatment, food, being just about the same. In fact they added that the French camps were dirtier.
The S.S. guards lived in a parallel camp. In general, they were a company. At first, this company was a training unit for young recruits, and only Germans were in it. Later on, the S.S. became more international in composition: Italians, Poles, Czechs, Bulgarians, Rumanians, Greeks, among others filled the ranks. The necessities of war had compelled the Germans to send the Young recruits to the front, often with limited military instruction, or even without any special preparation, and the young were replaced by the old, those who had already served in the war of 1914-1918, on whom National Socialism had made scarcely any imprint. They were less hard. In the last two years of the war, when there were not enough S.S., the rejects from the Wehrmacht and the Luftwaffe, who couldn’t be used for anything else, were assigned as guards to the camps.
All the services of the camp had their parallel in the S.S. camp where everything was centralized, and from which daily or weekly reports were sent directly to Himmler’s offices in Berlin. The S.S. camp was, therefore, the administrator of the other. When the camps were just beginning during the Straflager period, they were administered directly; afterwards, and as soon as possible, the S.S. carried on the camp administration only through the prisoners themselves as intermediaries. One would think that this arrangement was used out of sadism, and, after the ware was over, that is what was said. But, it was really out of necessity to economize personnel that the system was used, and for that reason, in all prisons in all countries, the same situation holds. The S.S. itself only administrated the camp when it was impossible for them to do otherwise. We know what self-government by the prisoners in the camps was. All of the old hands who have experienced both systems are unanimous in recognizing that the former was in principle the better and more humane, and that if it was not in fact, it was because wartime circumstances and the pressure of events did not permit it. I believe it; it is better to deal with God than with the saints.
So the S.S. guarded the perimeter of the camp, and it can be said that we hardly ever saw them inside the camp, except when they simply went through to take the salute of the prisoners, the famous “Müntzen ab.” They were helped in their guard duty by a company of marvelously trained dogs, always ready to bite and capable of hunting out an escaped prisoner tens of miles away. Every morning, the Kommandos that were to work outside the camp, often they traveled three or four miles on foot – when they had to go farther, they used trucks or trains – were accompanied, according to their importance, by two or four S.S., guns in hand, each with a muzzled dog on a leash. This special guard, which complemented the surveillance of the Kapos, just kept watch from afar, and did not intervene in supervision of the prisoners unless a show of force was called for.
In the evening, at the roll-call by Block, when everyone was there, at a whistle, all the Blockführer turned toward the Block for which they were responsible, counted those present and then went back to report. During this operation non-coms went around the Blocks to enforce silence and attention. The Kapos, Block Chiefs, and Lagerschutz greatly helped them in making this task easy. From time to time an S.S. man stood out from the others for his brutality, but it was rare; and in no case was he ever more inhuman than the prisoner trustees who filled the positions that are mentioned in the preceding sentence.
Once again, my personal testimony: I refer to a group of Hungarian Jews whose convoy, originally bound for Auschwitz, had arrived at Dora at the end of May 1944. Of the 1,500 or so people of this convoy, a certain number were sent to satellite camps around Dora as soon as they arrived. How many remained with us I do not know; maybe they filled an entire block. Because of the racist policies of Nazism, they were to be completely isolated from the other prisoners. That block was surrounded by barbed wire. And from that protected block they went to work like everyone else, but as a separate Kommando. For them, assembly took place within the block, before their leaving for work and on their return. We envied them. Fifteen days after their arrival, if your clogs had been stolen in the night, if you wanted more bread, or if you required some tobacco or something else, you only had to make a quick dash to the Jewish block in the morning between reveille and roll-call, or in the evening before lights out, and, in exchange for something else, you could get just about anything you wanted: it was a regular market. We admired them; at the gate of the camp they had been made to undress completely, and had been sent to be disinfected; they went in completely naked, their contact with the other prisoners was limited, and, all the same, they had succeeded in procuring a little of everything that could be obtained in the camp only with the greatest difficulties and at a very high price.
After a little while, the special surveillance over them became hardly more than a facade: once in a while we could exchange a few words with them, and even have short conversations. Thus it was that we learned about their odyssey. They told us about what they had had to leave behind when they came into the camp, and, since we were old hands in their eyes, they asked if they would get it back, when, how, and so on... They had been transported from Hungary to Dora, 70 to 80 persons in a car, with all of their baggage. They had made a long periplus of six to seven days before arriving. They had been told when leaving that they were being taken to Auschwitz, and when they learned that it was at Dora that they would be unloaded, they were pleased. They told the most appalling things about Auschwitz. There were neither women nor children among them. The latter had been separated out on departure, and at the moment it did not surprise us since that is what happened to us. | <urn:uuid:a92ff399-c3d8-4fef-bd68-e0c6c4b38677> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://heretical.com/miscella/dorajews.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396147.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00133-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98666 | 5,747 | 2.921875 | 3 |
Undergarments were very important during the Colonial times. Because clothing was so expensive, the purpose of undergarments was to keep the clothing clean. Undergarments were very plain during this period and were usually white.
Even though petticoats were worn during the colonial times, our doll’s petticoat is not historically correct. However, we do recommend our petticoats because they help to give the doll’s dress a historically accurate look. Although our panniers can be worn without the petticoat, we believe it looks better with the petticoat.
A shift was a shapeless garment worn under the stays (or corset) next to the skin. The shift is the same thing as a chemise. Unlike in later times, it was not considered improper for the shift to show under a dress, in fact, some shifts had decorative ruffles sewn onto them that showed at the neckline. Our doll’s shift is completely historically correct.
Panniers, or pocket-hoops, were used throughout the 18th century to create the fashionable silhouette. The panniers accentuated the hips and were boned to keep their shape. Our doll’s panniers are completely historically correct. | <urn:uuid:8ee838c1-4286-43de-8b76-d937d2b94dbd> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.yoreclothes.com/product_page.php?id=175000 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403823.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00164-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981853 | 264 | 2.84375 | 3 |
A brown sparrow-sized bird captured my attention. A luminescent white shown from its throat. Narrow black lines framed the white on sides and bottom. Have you identified the bird? Noticing key field marks, in a short time, is often essential because many birds do not stay in easy view.
The bird was in the willow thicket at Ody Brook. Several were present. It was early October when flocks of birds move through on a southward journey. I could eliminate most choices. Clearly, it was not waterfowl, and shorebirds tend to be along water edges or wading, so I can rule those out, except for possibly the Killdeer. Killdeers have departed, so that is not a likely choice. Shorebirds, like killdeer, stay mostly on the ground and this bird was on a shrub branch.
Large birds like gulls, grouse, hawks, and doves do not fit this observation. When trying to identify, narrow choices by selecting from a sparrow, robin, or crow-size. Then consider habitat and eliminate waterfowl, if you are in a forest or shrubland. Some waterfowl, like wood ducks, could be in a tree, so do not be so absolute that you rule out those you are looking at. Some species are unlikely to be in Michigan, so you can eliminate species restricted to dry arid deserts along the Mexico/US border, or other habitats not found in Michigan.
There are good bird field guides for Michigan, Eastern North America, and North America north of Mexico. Some popular Michigan bird field guides are incomplete so I suggest getting one that is most inclusive, instead of only having common birds. Some guides are much better than others.
The bird in question moved from the willow to a speckled alder. It faced me, showing a plain gray breast with no striping. Its bill was short and thick. Eliminate birds with thin bills like warblers and kinglets as well as flycatchers that have long point bills. Have you figured out the bird from the characters provided?
As the bird looked at me from the alder branch and turned its head, I could see white stripes on its head running from the beak to the back of the head. A neon yellow spot between the bill and eyes was evident in the sunlight. In shade, the yellow was not obvious. Perhaps you have figured it out now. If not, pause here, get a bird field guide, and find a sparrow-sized bird, with white stripes on the head, yellow by the bill and eye, white throat, thick short bill, plain gray breast, brown back and legs for perching on twigs.
Check if the bird you are considering is here all year or migrates. If it migrates, is it here in summer, or does it nest farther north, in places like the boreal forest? This bird happens to be a boreal nester so we would not see it during the summer months. That is not evident from our current observation, but maybe you noticed a bird with such a description was not seen all summer.
It has one of the most beautiful songs but is usually quiet during fall migration. Its musical song is a favorite sign of spring and offers wonderful joy to one’s spirit when heard. Sometimes one will let loose its song in fall or part of its song. It is described as reminiscent of the words “Old Sam Peabody, Peabody, Peabody” and belongs to the white-throated sparrow. Canadians prefer “Oh My, Canada, Canada, Canada.”
Start with yard birds you regularly see in your neighborhood nature niche to discover unique feather color patterns, size, bill, and leg characteristics. Many birds change plumage with the seasons, but some do not. I enjoy watching birds in the yard and at the feeder more than television so I usually wait to watch TV until after dark. Listening to music CDs is a nighttime pleasure also, so as not to interfere with the activity and music abounding from the depths of the wild sanctuary where I live.
Natural history questions or topic suggestions can be directed to Ranger Steve (Mueller) at firstname.lastname@example.org. Ody Brook Nature Sanctuary, 13010 Northland Dr. Cedar Springs, MI 49319 or call 616-696-1753. | <urn:uuid:60764070-7b4f-43bf-b33c-5b13b5595ec0> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://cedarspringspost.com/category/outdoors/ranger-steves-nature-niche/page/4/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391634.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00085-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962223 | 914 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Lei Feng - a folklore in Chinese communist history
This story is written specially for those collectors who are collecting
Cultural revolution pottery. In fact, this type of pottery is the most
popular type of collector's items amongst many overseas Chinese community as
it fetches high prices.
For many of the collectors who collects cultural revolution pottery
including tea pots and tea cups from that era, the value comes from the fact
that many of these pottery were smashed or destroyed during the many
revolutions and counter revolution of those times. Thus, they are less in
numbers and many think that it is a good time to collect them now before the
prices of these pieces soar and hit through the roof, especially since China
resembles more of a market economy now than Stalinist or Maoist China.
There are some of these pottery which have the picture of a man called Lei
Feng adorned on it. Just who is this person? It is important to note that to
many he is just a folklore. Firstly, because, there are no strong historical
evidence to his existence. Secondly, because, he sounds too perfect to be
true. Thus, doubts are cast on his existence. However, he remains a symbol
of Communist China and was often used in official propaganda and
He is usually depicted as a young man wearing a winter furred hat and in
military uniform (olive green) and sometimes carrying weapon. He can also
been seen fighting alongside comrades or helping people in need e.g. old
folks. He has a very handsome and angular face with well-defined features
and rosy cheeks. Many a times, he is depicted in a winter scene.
He is the man that the Chinese communist state recognises to be the symbol
of all things good in communism - a communist folklore hero who fights for
all those that are underclass. Lei Feng grew up in the troubled times in
Chinese modern history. His father was killed by the Japanese soldiers in
the world war and his grandmother was worked to death by unscrupulous
landlords. IN fact, his whole family met with various sort of tragedies.
Lei Feng grew up in a village and was helping out in the farming industry.
He experienced the hardship of a peasant. He was taught how to sing the
communist anthem "Without the communist party, there will not be New China".
It subsequently became his favourite anthemn. It is said that Lei Feng loved
his country and was patriotic because he felt that he was brought up by the
state since he had no parents. He was grateful to the state and the Party
for giving him a life and existence. As a result, he wanted to do all he
could to return the gratitude to the state. He worked hard at the fields,
helped old folks, sacrificed himself on many occasions,ie. during
starvation, wars etc. He even became a soldier and many a times sacrificed
his meals or life for his other comrades in arms. | <urn:uuid:6f4bbfc7-7347-4dbf-ad48-5b991d02a8f4> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.easterntea.com/research/folklore.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00011-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983257 | 630 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Systematics Section / ASPT
Estes, Dwayne , Small, Randall .
Analysis of the phylogenetic relationships of the monotypic genus Amphianthus (Plantaginaceae) using chloroplast DNA sequences and comparative morphology.
Amphianthus (Plantaginaceae or Scrophulariaceae s.l., tribe Gratioleae) is a monotypic genus represented by the federally threatened species A. pusillus. Amphianthus is endemic to the Piedmont of Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina where it is restricted to shallow pools on granite bedrock. The systematic placement of the genus has been problematic due to its unusual morphological features including dimorphic leaves, two flower types, and capsule morphology. Amphianthus has been placed within the tribe Gratioleae based on its possession of distinct stigmas, posterior corolla lobe position, and glandular-punctate leaf blades. The unique morphology, however, has led some researchers to hypothesize that Amphianthus is an extremely old taxon (i.e. a paleoendemic) that has long evolved in isolation without extant relatives. To address the relationships of Amphianthus to other members of Gratioleae, chloroplast DNA sequences from the gene ndhF and the noncoding trnS-trnG intergenic spacer and intron were generated and subjected to phylogenetic analysis. The morphology and evolutionary history of Amphianthus will be discussed in the context of its inferred phylogenetic relationships.
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1 - University of Tennessee, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, 437 Hesler Biology Building, 1406 Circle Drive, Knoxville, Tennessee, 37996-1100, USA
Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Location: Salon G - Austin Grand Ballroom/Hilton
Date: Wednesday, August 17th, 2005
Time: 4:45 PM | <urn:uuid:a903f8df-1dbc-4814-92d8-9474c8d72150> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.2005.botanyconference.org/engine/search/index.php?func=detail&aid=407 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395546.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00036-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.84037 | 397 | 3.203125 | 3 |
The CDC estimate that last year, only 57% of girls and 35% of boys ages 13-17 years received one or more doses of the HPV vaccine.
Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the US. There are more than 150 types of HPV, 40 of which can be contracted through skin-to-skin contact during vaginal, anal or oral sex.
Specifically, HPV-16 and HPV-18 account for around 70% of all cervical cancers and almost 50% of all vaginal, vulvar and penile cancers. HPV-16 is also accountable for more than 50% of throat cancers.
There are currently two vaccines available for HPV, which are administered in three shots over 6 months. Cervarix and Gardasil are used for the prevention of cervical cancer, while Gardasil can also protect against anal, vulvar and vaginal cancers and genital warts.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommends that preteen girls and boys aged 11 or 12 are vaccinated against HPV. The vaccination is also recommended for teenage girls and young women up to the age of 26 who did not receive it when they were younger, and teenage boys and young men up to the age of 21.
HPV vaccination coverage increased in 2012-13, but remains too low
But despite these recommendations, a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) - published in this week's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report - estimates that in 2013, only 57% of girls and 35% of boys ages 13-17 years received one or more doses of the HPV vaccine.
The figures came from results of the CDC's National Immunization Survey-Teen (NIS-Teen), which includes vaccine information via telephone surveys for adolescents aged 13-17 years from across the US.
The CDC investigators did, however, find that HPV vaccination coverage increased slightly among girls between 2012-13, from 53.8% to 57.3%, although only a third received the complete three doses. Teenage boys saw a greater increase in vaccination coverage, from 20.8% to 34.6%.
But still, the CDC say HPV vaccination coverage among adolescents is too low, particularly when compared with coverage to other vaccination types. For example, another report from the CDC found that almost 86% of adolescents received one dose of the Tdap vaccine last year, which protects against tetanus, diphtheria and whooping cough.
A 10-year national objective in the US - set in 2010 by Healthy People 2020 - is to reach 80% HPV vaccination coverage among adolescents. These latest statistics suggest there is a lot of work to be done. But lead author of the report, Shannon Stokley, assistant director for science at the CDC's Immunization Services Division, says they also show the 80% vaccination coverage target is realistic:
"The data on missed vaccination opportunities tells us that it is possible. When we look at the most recent cohort of girls that turned 13, 91% of them had a health care encounter where they could have started the HPV vaccine series before their 13th birthday.Also, 86% of 13-17 year-olds have received the Tdap vaccine. What these numbers tell us is that preteens and teens are getting to the doctor and they are getting vaccinated, but they aren't always receiving the HPV vaccine."
Why is HPV vaccination coverage still low?
From NIS-Teen, the CDC investigators were also able to establish some reasons as to why HPV vaccination coverage remains low among adolescents.
They found that clinicians' recommendations significantly influenced a parent's decision of whether to have their children vaccinated against HPV.
Fast facts about HPV
- Approximately 79 million Americans are infected with HPV
- Around 14 million Americans are newly infected with HPV every year
- Almost all sexually active men and women contract HPV throughout their lifetime, but many are unaware they have it.
Of parents whose daughters were vaccinated, 74% said they received a recommendation from their doctor, while 52% of parents who did not have their daughters vaccinated received a doctor's recommendation. Among parents whose sons were vaccinated, 72% received a recommendation, while only 26% of parents whose sons were not vaccinated received a recommendation.
Based on these findings, Dr. Anne Schuchat, assistant surgeon general and director of CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, believes health care professionals are key in boosting HPV vaccination coverage among adolescents in the US.
"Pediatricians and family physicians are uniquely situated to prevent missed opportunities by giving HPV vaccine during the same visit they give Tdap and meningococcal vaccines," she adds.
Parents also revealed that concerns over the safety of the HPV vaccine deterred them from vaccinating their children. However, the CDC stress that - after analyzing national postlicensure vaccine safety data - no serious safety concerns have been linked to the HPV vaccine in the 8 years it has been available.
The investigators point out that the most commonly reported side effects of the vaccine include dizziness, fainting, nausea and headache, and injection-site reactions - including pain, redness and swelling.
When we asked Stokely what needs to be done to alleviate parents' concerns about vaccinating their children against HPV, she replied:
"Parents need to see information in mainstream media that HPV vaccination is very effective at preventing infection with the types of HPV that cause the most cancers. Parents also need to hear that the HPV vaccine is safe and that it is recommended to be given when their children are 11 or 12 years old, before their risk of acquiring an HPV infection increases."
In conclusion to the report, the CDC say they will continue efforts to team up with state and local immunization programs, cancer organizations, professional organizations and other stakeholders in an attempt to educate parents and health care professionals about the importance of the HPV vaccine, adding:
"Collaborative efforts remain critical to promoting HPV vaccination so that the nation's adolescents are protected against vaccine-preventable, HPV-associated cancers."
Earlier this year, Medical News Today reported on a study claiming that two thirds of healthy American adults are infected with one or more of 109 strains of HPV. | <urn:uuid:2de2ad68-dea7-4f17-a4f8-8d770f5ccf2b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/280107.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395160.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00085-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969004 | 1,274 | 3.453125 | 3 |
CAMBRIDGE, England, Dec. 17 (UPI) -- Apologizing usually means saying "sorry" for bad deeds. But it can also mean explaining that the deeds in question were not bad after all. In Plato's dialogue "The Apology," Socrates does not say he is sorry, on the contrary he explains, and justifies, his actions.
Cardinal John Henry Newman's Apologia, too, is an explanation, a justification; Newman was not ashamed of his conversion to Catholicism.
However, when demands for an apology go with demands for reparation that means someone believes someone else has done something bad.
African-Americans and Australian Aborigines want apologies and reparations for injustices suffered by their peoples in the past. Is it right or wrong to resist their demands?
A familiar objection runs as follows: white Americans living now do not own slaves and white Australians living now have not massacred any Aborigines. Why should they apologize?
Well, but why not? In the real world it is possible to inherit a debt and necessary, sometimes, to apologize for bad things done by predecessors or colleagues. If a bank clerk steals money from your account and then runs away to Brazil, the bank manager owes you an apology and the bank itself is bound in law to make reparation to you or your heirs.
Demands for apologies and reparation for past deeds are not wrong in principle. But the practical difficulties are sometimes enormous.
Genuine reparation is only possible in certain circumstances. It is feasible when some of those wronged are still alive (elderly American Indians, elderly Australian Aborigines) or when the children of those wronged can remember what happened. For time makes a difference. It is right that German, Swiss and Austrian institutions should return stolen money and valuables to children and grandchildren of people killed in the Holocaust. But it would not be easy to find a way to recompense Jews whose forbears were expelled from Spain in 1492.
After a certain time it becomes impossible to identify all the individual wrong-doers and their descendants. The ancestors of most African-Americans were slaves, but not so many white Americans are descended from slave owners. No one knows how many people in Africa are descended from the Africans who sold slaves to white men 200 years ago.
Should governments pay reparation? Surely not in the United States where the descendants of slaves comprise a considerable percentage of today's taxpayers. It cannot be right to make them contribute taxes towards to their own compensation. In Australia things are different. The Aboriginal population is small enough to be exempted from taxes if need be. And the wrongs perpetrated against them and their forbears include bad things done in the 20th century and within living memory.
The suggestion that reparation for slavery should consist of financial aid given by the United States to the countries of Africa is cynical. Those who propose it ought to know that aid of that kind too often ends up in the hands of greedy dictators and genocidal warlords.
Demands for apologies can be very selective. There are editors in Australia who complain that the people who resigned from Western communist parties during the 1950s and 1960s have not expiated their errors by making public confessions. Maybe the complainers would like to force aged ex-communists to wear a scarlet "C," like the Scarlet Letter "A" worn by the adulterous woman in Hawthorne's novel.
Yet the same editors run articles denouncing the idea that Australian aboriginals are owed apologies or compensation even for the wrongs they suffered within living memory. In this matter the authors rely on the false idea that debts cannot be inherited. They also complain about "bleeding hearts". Thirdly they argue, very implausibly, that white men in mainland Australia, unlike those in its offshore island, Tasmania (where native DNA disappeared 100 years ago) and also unlike Europeans in Mexico and North America and Africa, have always been fair to the weaker people they supplanted.
So much for selectivity. Now, the opposite of selectivity is inclusiveness. But inclusiveness would open a hornets' nest of international recriminations. If the U.S. government apologizes to African-Americans, should India apologize for widow burning? Will we all insist that Sicily apologizes for the Mafia? Must America apologize to Iranians for supporting Saddam Hussein in his war against Iran? Angry demands for public confession have a nasty whiff of Joe McCarthy and Torquemada and Mao's "political correctness."
Slavery still exists in many countries, a fact ignored by most governments. However there are non-governmental organizations which publicize the evil practice and work for its abolition. It would be wonderful if African-Americans and black people everywhere lost interest in personal reparation and decided, in their many millions, to join up with Free The Slaves (Washington) and the Anti-Slavery Group (Boston) and Anti-Slavery International (London) and other groups with the same aims as those. | <urn:uuid:dfc1c2ea-8a87-4ab7-a518-7a8a391367eb> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2001/12/17/Thinking-About-Life-Apologizing/UPI-77271008614119/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395679.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00083-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961892 | 1,030 | 3.0625 | 3 |
This week PLOS Medicine publishes the following new articles:
Conducting a systematic review and meta-analysis, Grace Chan and colleagues report that early-onset neonatal infection (the cause of a significant proportion of deaths in the first week of life) is associated with maternal infection and colonization during the intrapartum period. The study implies that the risk of early neonatal infection among women with maternal infections is high and presumably even higher in low-resource settings where most women deliver at home without access to health care. Intrapartum antibiotic prophylaxis could reduce the incidence of maternally acquired early-onset neonatal infections; development of a simple algorithm that combines clinical signs and risk factors to diagnose maternal infections would be useful in settings where lab facilities are not available.
Mental health conditions contribute to approximately 14% of the total global burden of disease but there is a substantial treatment gap in both developed and developing countries. Treatment of mental health conditions in low resource settings such as Nigeria, one of Africa’s most populous countries, is particularly challenging where there are few mental health professionals. In order to address the treatment gap the World Health Organization (WHO) has developed a manual, known as the Mental Health Gap Action Programme Intervention Guide (mhGAP-IG), which is designed to help scale up the coverage of mental health services in low resource settings by providing guidance for non-specialists to provide mental health services. Ove Gureje and colleagues describe their experience of contextualizing and adapting the WHO’s mhGAP-IG for Nigeria. Details on this ongoing series on Global Mental Health Practice can be found in the Editorial Putting Evidence into Practice: The PLOS Medicine Series on Global Mental Health Practice.
In a double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trial, Sophie Boisson and colleagues evaluate the effect of household water treatment in preventing diarrheal illnesses in children under five years of age in Orissa, a state in southeast India. The results provide no evidence that the intervention was protective against diarrhea and raise additional questions about the actual health impact of household water treatment under these conditions. | <urn:uuid:ee46c622-d8cf-4a8f-9fb7-e8dd8c423c91> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blogs.plos.org/speakingofmedicine/2013/08/20/this-week-in-plos-medicine-neonatal-infections-guideline-development-for-mental-health-services-in-nigeria-more-2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395621.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00172-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930012 | 430 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Not all stress can be avoided, and it’s not healthy to avoid a situation that needs to be addressed. You may be surprised, however, by the number of stressors in your life that you can eliminate.
- Learn how to say “no” – Know your limits and stick to them. Whether in your personal or professional life, refuse to accept added responsibilities when you’re close to reaching them. Taking on more than you can handle is a surefire recipe for stress.
- Avoid people who stress you out – If someone consistently causes stress in your life and you can’t turn the relationship around, limit the amount of time you spend with that person or end the relationship entirely.
- Take control of your environment – If the evening news makes you anxious, turn the TV off. If traffic’s got you tense, take a longer but less-traveled route. If going to the market is an unpleasant chore, do your grocery shopping online.
- Avoid hot-button topics – If you get upset over religion or politics, cross them off your conversation list. If you repeatedly argue about the same subject with the same people, stop bringing it up or excuse yourself when it’s the topic of discussion.
- Pare down your to-do list – Analyze your schedule, responsibilities, and daily tasks. If you’ve got too much on your plate, distinguish between the “shoulds” and the “musts.” Drop tasks that aren’t truly necessary to the bottom of the list or eliminate them entirely.
How do you avoid stress? | <urn:uuid:81025520-8689-4757-bd72-54968e543b9a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.cafemom.com/group/118119/forums/read/18263772/Stress_management_strategy_1_Avoid_unnecessary_stress?last | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395548.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00136-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917522 | 336 | 2.609375 | 3 |
List Price : US$ 52.66 Our Price : US$ 44.76 You Save : 15%
Book ID : 28051
ISBN-10 : 81-7646-501-1 / 8176465011
of Publication :
of Publication :
Langauage : English
20p., 23 cm.
CONTENTS:- Preface; Introduction; Vedanta; General Considerations, The Hindu Concept of Religion: A Scientific View, Liberation. Restrictions and Obligations, Ishvara Upasana (Worship of the Lords), The Joy of Death, Distress. Part 1. Yogic View, Distress. Part 2. From Spirituality to Psychobiology, Happiness. Part 1. The Vedantic View, Happiness. Part 2. Role of Psychosocial Variables.
This Volume is an example of fusion of philosophy and Science. It seeks to interpret the concept of religion through the eyes of a scientist. Right at the outset, the author explains that vedanta is not a religion but a philosophy of religion. The author points out the importance of meditation: "The effectiveness of meditation, one of the eight limbs of the science of yoga, in overcoming stress and related complications has now been accepted even by the hard-core antagonists of this methodology." In the chapters on happiness, the author first deals with the vedantic view and then proceeds to psychosocial variables. The chapter on the "Joy of Death" convincingly argues that the fear of death is baseless and that death is not the end of life. The author concludes that "those who are desirous of liberation have to lead a life which represents a synthesis of karmayoga, jnanayoga and bhaktiyoga philosophy". This volume is the culmination of years of in depth research done meticulously by a scientist who has turned to philosophy and religion. It should be of great value to scholars as well as laymen. It is hoped that readers who have distanced themselves from spirituality will have a second thought after reading this book. | <urn:uuid:deebd39b-dd9b-4202-860b-4a04aa43e38b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.saujanyabooks.com/details.aspx?id=28051&ISBN-8176465011/Hindu-Concept-of-Religion_A-Scientific-View/Manhas-M.S | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00147-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.898446 | 420 | 2.65625 | 3 |
- A toaster that doesn't toast bread is an example of a faulty toaster.
- When you add 2+2 and get 5, this is an example of faulty reasoning.
- When someone is a weak and not very nice person, this is an example of faulty character.
Origin of faultyMiddle English fauti
- Containing a fault or defect; imperfect or defective.
- Obsolete Deserving of blame; guilty.
(comparative faultier, superlative faultiest)
- Nouns to which "faulty" is often applied: goods, equipment, product, wiring, construction, memory, thinking, design, hardware, software, unit, part, component, assumption, reasoning, premise, gene, operation, technique, merchandise, circuit, code, analysis, posture, machine, method, habit, process, communication.
fault + -y | <urn:uuid:9a3b4e20-66a1-4c15-81b6-69a757b698e9> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.yourdictionary.com/faulty | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397111.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00014-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.837488 | 186 | 3.078125 | 3 |
This graph made with data from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder on NASA's Aqua satellite shows the concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth's mid-troposphere, located roughly between 3 to 6 miles (5 to 9 kilometers) in altitude.
The sawtooth pattern reflects plants "breathing in" carbon dioxide as they grow, removing this gas from the atmosphere. Soil and plants then release carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere when plants die at the end of the growing season. The upward slope of the graph shows the continuous increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere.
The concentration of carbon dioxide in the mid-troposphere lags the concentration found at Earth's surface as mixing from the lower to upper altitudes usually takes days to weeks. In addition, changes in concentration of carbon dioxide at Earth's surface are not always carried up to higher altitudes.
While AIRS is able to detect carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere to an accuracy of 4 parts per million (ppm), the precision of the measurement clearly corroborates the roughly 2 ppm annual increase in the concentration of this greenhouse gas.
The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder, AIRS, in conjunction with the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit, AMSU, senses emitted infrared and microwave radiation from Earth to provide a three-dimensional look at Earth's weather and climate. Working in tandem, the two instruments make simultaneous observations all the way down to Earth's surface, even in the presence of heavy clouds. With more than 2,000 channels sensing different regions of the atmosphere, the system creates a global, three-dimensional map of atmospheric temperature and humidity, cloud amounts and heights, greenhouse gas concentrations, and many other atmospheric phenomena. Launched into Earth orbit in 2002, the AIRS and AMSU instruments fly onboard NASA's Aqua spacecraft and are managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., under contract to NASA. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
More information about AIRS can be found at http://airs.jpl.nasa.gov. | <urn:uuid:6c57e755-29c8-45c8-ae2f-2b0dc821e1c1> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA14435 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397749.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00093-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.898218 | 422 | 3.59375 | 4 |
Did you know vegetables remain alive after being harvested?
It’s true — and it’s the same principle behind the reason why you put flowers in water. However until now what scientists didn’t realize is that plants have an internal clock like humans do, and that it continues to tick even after harvest. The new work is published in Current Biology (see abstract).
One of the main reasons plants have circadian rhythms, it turns out, is because during the daytime when insects are more active they produce chemicals that protect them from bugs.
In the photo below Rice University scientists have turned loose leaf-loving insects on lettuce that is in phase (i.e. during its accustomed daytime when its bug defenses are up) and out of phase. As you can see the caterpillars are devouring the out-of-phase lettuce on the right that, essentially, is in nighttime mode and lacks defenses.
See the full time-lapse video showing changes over a five-day period.
It is these same insect-banishing chemicals, scientists believe, provide some of the cancer-fighting benefits of vegetables.
The big question is whether this new found understanding of the importance of light, even after vegetables are picked, will provide new lessons for how to ensure that when we’re eating vegetables we are making the most of their benefits. That, I believe, will be the subject of much research moving forward.
Because, you know, some of us don’t eat vegetables for the taste. | <urn:uuid:9fb9b838-0de7-4032-a6dd-873f0bdcbba9> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blog.chron.com/sciguy/2013/06/that-lettuce-youre-eating-its-alive-and-thats-good/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00073-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955428 | 311 | 3.703125 | 4 |
Critical Thinking and the Social Studies Teacher
by Mike Yell
The advance of knowledge has been achieved not because the mind is capable of memorizing what teachers say but because it can be disciplined to ask probing questions and pursue them in a reasoned, self-critical way. Scholars pursuing knowledge submit their thinking to rigorous discipline.
One of the most used and highlighted books in my professional library is Critical Thinking: How to Prepare Students for a Rapidly Changing World by Richard Paul, an international leader in critical thinking movement. We often hear about the need for critical thinking, but we seldom hear sound definitions, or, in my opinion, see comprehensive models that we can apply to what we do in our classrooms. To my mind the works of Richard Paul, and his colleagues Linda Elder Gerald Nosich, and others at the Foundation for Critical Thinking put flesh on the bones of the concept of critical thinking; a concept all too rarely made substantive.
While there are many different approaches to, and definitions of, critical thinking, the Paul/Elder view is that critical thinking is the development of discipline organized thinking that monitors itself and is guided by intellectual standards. Further, they hold that reasoning must be at the heart of good teaching, sound learning, and preparation for college, career, and civic life. Rather than lectures, worksheets, and didactic instruction, it is through reasoning and thinking their way through the curriculum, that students really learn. This approach to critical thinking, I believe, puts this model of critical thinking head and shoulders above others.
The Richard Paul and Linda Elder view of critical thinking, then, has two major components: the elements of reasoning and intellectual standards both of which can, and, in my opinions, should become fundamental components of our social studies instruction.
Elements of Reasoning and Intellectual Standards
Helping our students to become strong disciplined thinkers, thinkers who can navigate the complexities and challenges of college, career, and civic life, is our main goal as social studies educators. To improve student thinking about social studies subjects, and our teaching of those subjects, necessitates an understanding of the elements of good thinking, good reasoning and weaving these elements into our work as social studies teachers. The foundation’s Gerald Nosich explains the elements by noting not all thinking is critical thinking.2 Forming a closely reasoned judgment after paying close attention to evidence is thinking, but so is jumping to conclusions without considering any evidence. The former is critical thinking in that the individual used evidence to reason out a judgment. The use of evidence is the difference; evidence is one of the elements of reasoning.
These elements of reasoning include
· understanding purpose (this is the beginning point of reasoning)
· understanding and developing questions
· understanding and seeking out the best information (data, evidence, concepts)
· understanding inferences, assumptions
· understanding and weighing implications
The Paul/Elder model of critical thinking also includes intellectual standards. These standards serve as guidelines, by which we, and our students, can assess our own thinking. Whereas critical thinking is thinking that utilizes the elements of reasoning, it is also thinking that meets high standards of quality, standards of quality that we want our students’ thinking and work to strive to achieve.
Some of these standards include
· Clarity (good thinking is always clear)
· Precision (focused on being specific)
· Accuracy (checking to determine if thinking represents what is)
· Relevance (not straying from the task or questions at hand)
· Depth (not shallow/probes beneath the surface)
· Fairmindedness (an intellectual trait whereby one fairly consider all sides of an issue)
As Richard Paul writes in the preface to his book Critical Thinking: How to Prepare Students for a Rapidly Changing World
Imagine the satisfaction of looking through the inventory of one’s beliefs and finding that many of them were consciously, deliberately, and painstakingly chosen for their accuracy, their depth, their clarity, their consistency – in other words, their legitimate merit! (Paul ii)
Would that were the case more often! Incorporating good thinking and reasoning at the heart of instruction and by setting high standards for that reasoning, I believe, makes this conception more comprehensive and complete than other conceptions of critical thinking. And although a number of essays Paul has written deal with content areas in secondary education, neither Richard Paul nor Linda Elder has written a book specifically addressing social studies and critical thinking.
The Foundation for Critical Thinking (criticalthinking.org) has just published the book Student Guide to Historical Thinking by Linda Elder, Meg Gorzycki, and Richard Paul, but it certainly could be subtitle Critical Thinking and the Social Studies Teacher! 3 This small volume does an excellent job of concisely yet deeply exploring how critical thinking can become an important part of student learning.
We want our students to go beyond recall and gain command of how they think through social studies concepts, issues and processes, and this means understanding how to use their reasoning abilities and the standards to answer social studies questions. What Elder, Gorzycki and Paul write about for history holds for the other social studies disciplines as well; the rich and deep disciplines of the social studies are about more than recall, more than simply memorizing chronology, events, and names; they are ways of understanding, learning, and thinking about the world. The Student Guide to Historical Thinking examines how history instruction (read social studies instruction) can go beyond recall instruction to an instruction characterized by logically pursuing questions, thinking deeply about them, forming inferences and hypothesis and assessing them with high standards.
One of the aspects of the Paul/Elder model that is so appealing-and important-and that comes through so clear in The Student Guide to Historical Thinking, is their firm commitment to reasoning as the center of teaching, and helping students learn to assess their own work, their own thinking, through the use of intellectual standards.
What does an Emphasis on Reasoning and Intellectual Standards look like in the Social Studies Classroom?
Keeping the elements of reasoning and the intellectual standards in the forefront of our instruction cannot be overemphasized if we wish to have critical thinking at the heart of our instruction. When we educate for critical thinking in our classroom, we are educating future citizens who can listen to or read an assertion and ask questions such as “what is this person’s evidence for what they say?” “What questions need to asked about this position?” “What are the implications…?” “What are the assumptions or biases behind the statement?” “Is this a well-reasoned position?” A positive vision for tomorrow’s citizens indeed!
From the Student Guide to Historical Thinking and other essays from Richard Paul, Linda Elder, and Gerald Nosich, these are some ideas I have incorporated into my classroom and would recommend to other social studies teachers who wish to incorporate critical thinking into theirs:
One of the posters that I have on the wall of my room is a simple and direct list of standards that I help my seventh grade students strive for in all of their work: , , , , and . We talk about the elements and standards early and often, and the standards always form the basics of the rubrics that I use for my students' work, and how students are to assess their own work.
I highly recommend the Student Guide to Historical Thinking and recommend social studies bookmark and utilize the resources and article at criticalthinking.org. By incorporating the Paul/Elder model of critical thinking, we can help our students learn to submit their thinking to rigorous discipline. Our goal must to keep our students thinking their way through our courses, and thinking well, Thinking and reasoning are the foundations of readiness of college, career, and civic life, and of lifelong learning. In a world characterized by continual change, we must help develop in our students that which will endure: good rigorous thinking. What better place to do so than in our social studies classes?
1. Richard Paul, Critical Thinking: How to Prepare Students for a Rapidly Changing World, Foundation for Critical Thinking, The Foundation for Critical Thinking, 1995. P. 53
Many of Richard Paul’s articles can be found at criticalthinking.org “The Critical Thinking Community. Spend time at this website!
2. Gerald Nosich, Learning to Think Things Through: A Guide to Critical Thinking in the Curriculum, Prentice Hall, 2001, available through criticalthinking.org.
3. Linda Elder, Meg Gorzycki, and Richard Paul, Student Guide to Historical Thinking, The Foundation for Critical Thinking, 2011. P. 5
4. The types of questions I wrote of would be a part of what Richard Paul would characterize as a Socratic Discussion. To learn about Richard Paul’s concept of Socratic discussion and questioning, go to criticalthinking.org and check out the articles toolbar.
5. I explained two of my favorite inquiry strategies, discrepant event inquiry and mystery, in the article Engaging Students in a World History with a Bog Body Mystery, Social Education, January/February 2012.
Michael M. Yell is a 7th grade social studies teacher at the Hudson Middle School in Hudson Wisconsin. He was the president of NCSS during the 2008-9 school year and is currently working on his NBPTS recertification. Michael can be reached at email@example.com. | <urn:uuid:d9a26fcb-bb9f-46f2-a287-d6666449388e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/critical-thinking-and-social-studies/1137 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394937.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00082-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94148 | 1,931 | 3.375 | 3 |
World's largest concentrated solar power station (100 MW) begins operations in Abu Dhabi
More photons, less carbonThe United Arab Emirates (UAE) are best known for oil and gas, but the region is also home to interesting developments in renewable energy. The Shams Power Company has just inaugurated the Shams 1 concentrated solar power (CSP) station, which, with a capacity of 100 MW, is the biggest operating solar power station in the world. It makes sense when you think about it: They have lots of sun, and lots of money...
Shams 1 uses 258,048 parabolic mirrors to collect sunlight and concentrate it onto oil that flows through a tubing at the center of the curved mirrors. This heated oil makes its way into a heat exchanger and is then used to create steam that powers turbines, thus making electricity.
More details on the parabolic through collectors:
The plant uses Abengoa Solar’s ASTRO (Abengoa Solar Trough) parabolic trough collectors. The ASTRO collector is based on the 150m-long EuroTrough collector, which represents an improvement on the Luz collectors used in the SEGS CSP plants in California. ASTRO benefits from reduced weight and therefore reduced cost, while still delivering proven performance (established through EuroTrough tests conducted since 1998 at Plataforma Solar Almeria).
The ASTRO collector features an improved structural design, with a torque box that increases stiffness and reduces torsion and glass breakage. The EuroTrough collector design is used in most Spanish parabolic trough projects, including the commercial-scale Solnova and Andasol plants.
Of course, any natural gas that isn't being burned in the UAE to generate electricity is likely to be exported elsewhere, but the UAE isn't the only one to blame for that. While fossil fuel suppliers have done all kinds of things to stifle cleaner competition and extract subsidies for their industry, the demand side is also to be. Most people use a lot of fossil fuels directly, and indirectly to make and transport the things they buy. To kill demand we need to build alternatives such as this solar power plant.
One way to turbo-charge progress would be a carbon tax (and all money raised by it could be used to cut other taxes, such as income and payroll -- let's tax bad things rather than good ones); it would redirect so much money into renewables that we'd get to a clean power grid much faster. If we can't do that, we should at the very least eliminate subsidies (direct and indirect) for fossil fuels.... | <urn:uuid:d93abe01-88a0-4589-987c-dd09d28f6c9d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.treehugger.com/renewable-energy/worlds-largest-concentrated-solar-power-station-100-mw-begins-operations-abu-dhabi.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393093.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00107-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951392 | 530 | 2.984375 | 3 |
1. Sometimes abbreviated as Br, the Break key is a computer keyboard key (shown right) that usually shares the same key as Pause. It enables a user to break the computer from a pause or other halted state. To use the break function, you may either press the break key alone, or press CTRL at the same time as the break key. For example, pressing the Pause key stops the computer as it boots, pressing it again, breaks out of that pause.
Where is the Break key on the keyboard?
The Break key may be abbreviated as Br or Break and is found with the other control keys on the keyboard. Below is an overview of a computer keyboard with the Pause key highlighted in blue.
2. A command line command used within Microsoft operating systems that enable or disables the ability to send breaks. See the break command page for further information.
4. Break is also a Linux command. See the Linux break command page for more information. | <urn:uuid:ebbc9fe1-77b4-4c21-8db4-bc9399023e31> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/b/break.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403826.29/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00086-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.892198 | 201 | 3.421875 | 3 |
By JO ANN HUSTIS
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — For visitors from all walks of life, a simulated corn bin entrapment exhibit is probably the biggest attention-getter in the “Amazing Maize” corn evolution display at the Indiana State Museum in downtown Indianapolis.
The display that demonstrates the strength needed to pull someone out of a grain bin entrapment situation “is wildly popular,” exhibit Curator Rod Stockwell noted.
“The grain bin rescue display has been extremely popular among non-agricultural people,” said Stockwell, who assisted the museum in designing and fabricating the Amazing Maize exhibit and entrapment simulation.
The simulation features a rope end projecting from a bin of shelled corn. The “victim” is at the other end of the rope, buried up over his head in grain and suffocating.
Visitors try to wrestle the “victim” to the surface by pulling and tugging on the rope. So many times the attempt is not successful, however, because the “rescuer” lacks the strength to overcome the body weight of the “victim.”
“We saw people at fairs and FFA conventions trying their ability (on similar exhibits),” Stockton said. “It’s the physical concept kind of thing. Each kid wants to see how much he or she can pull on the rope, so we knew the concept would work.
“Even non-agricultural people find grain bin rescue an interesting topic because it’s emotional – you’re dealing with a rescue situation and people don’t normally think of corn as dangerous. We were very pleased when the display was cited on the evaluations as one of the most popular activities.
“People actually took the time to write in and say they’d like to know how often this happens, how people are rescued and what can be done to prevent this.”
Visitors enter the corn maize individually, or in groups of 2-3. “Most have found that getting a feel for it and going through is the most effective way. There’s also a lot of sound from audio-visuals and interactives, so it’s hard to go in there and talk,” Stockton said.
The “Amazing Maize” exhibit tells the story of the science, history and culture of corn and its relationship to people. The exhibit is divided into six sections. Visitors begin their tour in the section that portrays the role of corn today and the fact everybody is touched by corn, whether they are in agriculture.
The products Americans use takes about 25 corn plants per day per person to support. This includes exports. The number was arrived at by taking all the corn acres in the nation and multiplying them by all the plants within, then dividing the sum by the number of citizens in the United States. Amazingly, there are more than 4,200 different uses for corn products today.
The history of corn
The second section is a timeline review of the 10,000-year history of the corn plant.
“The big idea behind the exhibit is that corn is the greatest plant-breeding achievement of all time,” Stockton said. “What ties the exhibit all together is looking at how humans have modified a wild plant to become the most productive domesticated plant today.”
The first corn was the outgrowth of a wild tropical grass plants that grew in the Balsas River Valley in the heart of Mexico, and would readily interbreed. The plant was bushy and the seed consisted of tiny hard kernels that did not look anything like today’s corn plants and kernels.
Because of a few genetic mutations, ancient man transformed the wild tropical grass into the modern-day corn plant, which is productive and adaptable. Today, corn plants grow in almost every farming region on Earth.
Corn was worshipped by the Mayans as a god long before Columbus introduced it to the rest of the world in the late 1490s. American Indians of long ago created the five types of corn kernels the world has today, by picking out and saving certain seeds by their traits.
The exhibit shows how the Hopi Indians grew blue corn by selection, and how Native Americans preserved corn for food by drying and grinding the kernels for later use. Visitors to this exhibit can use a wood corn pounder to try their hand at grinding corn kernels into flour.
An illuminated map in the third section shows the spread of corn from the Western nations to Europe in the late 15th and 16th centuries. Corn became an important new crop in Africa and remains a primary food source on that continent today. Corn consists of about 50 percent of some African diets.
Moving on, visitors can see how corn was at the root of the discovery of vitamins, and how an accidental cross of two different corn types produced yellow dent corn that won first prize at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. Visitors may ride the “corn gospel train” of the late 1890s and hear ag professor P. G. Holden, the “corn evangelist,” tell about improving corn productivity. This was one of the earliest forms of today’s agricultural extension programming.
Another section shows the development of hybrid corn in the 1930s and its widespread use just before the outbreak of World War II in 1941. Also, farm tractors replaced horses to plow and plant, which increased productivity.
Two other exhibits that catch the eye include a replica of the “corn liquor” gins or distilleries popular in the southern and eastern United States, banned in Prohibition. The other exhibit is a mockup of a Case-IH grain combine for harvesting. The cab includes GPS to demonstrate how technology assists farmers today in raising food to help feed the world.
“Amazing Maize” is 5,500 square feet in size and open to the public for about 18 more months, to March 24, 2014. A smaller version will be designed next year for use as a traveling exhibit. It will probably be about 2,000-2,500 square feet in size, and physically be different from the current exhibit. Negotiations are under way as to the fate of the larger exhibit.
The museum’s evaluations show the interactives in the exhibit are highly appreciated, said Stockton, who also serves as the museum’s curator of ag industry and technology. | <urn:uuid:9931762c-25f3-4824-aca5-e5bb6de81758> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.farmworldonline.com/news/NewsArticle.asp?newsid=15604 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396538.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00200-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958617 | 1,347 | 2.6875 | 3 |
A Transport Ship sailed for Point Shirley, with about three hundred Inhabitants.The provincials weren’t entirely happy to see these refugees, however. Indeed, in fine eighteenth-century fashion, they immediately suspected that their enemy was up to something. Some of those people were sick, and the American authorities soon concluded that the British had deliberately sent out people infected with the smallpox virus to spread the disease among the besieging army.
On 5 December, Gen. George Washington wrote:
By recent information from Boston, General [William] Howe is going to send out a number of the inhabitants, in order as it is thought to make room for his expected reinforcements; there is one part of the information that I can hardly give Credit to, A Sailor says that a Number of these coming out have been inoculated with design of Spreading the Small pox through this Country and Camp.On 6 December the Massachusetts Council made this vote:
Whereas, a Committee has been appointed by this Court to provide for, and remove such of the Inhabitants of Boston, as may be sent from thence to Point-Shirley, or other places, as also to make use of every precaution necessary to prevent a communication of the Small-Pox to other parts of this Colony, which appears to be the intention of our enemies.Fortunately, there was already a smallpox hospital at Point Shirley, from a big regional outbreak of 1764. In this period, “hospital” didn’t mean a specialized building with all the medical equipment we expect today. It was basically any large building which could contain beds for a lot of sick people away from everyone else—which was basically the best that medicine had to offer.
Resolved, That the said Committee be, and hereby are directed and empowered to impress (if it should be found necessary) a sufficient number of Carriages for the removal of such of said inhabitants, and their effects, as shall have been sufficiently smoked and cleansed [processes meant to stop whatever spread the smallpox], to such towns as the Committee shall judge proper, giving them certificates that they are of the poor of Boston, and quite free from infection;
and it is recommended to the Committee that they retain at Point-Shirley such of said inhabitants as they shall apprehend may have been in the way of receiving the Small-Pox, for such a space of lime as may be necessary to determine whether they had the infection, taking care that they are supplied with such quantities of Provisions, Wood, &c., as they judge will be sufficient to keep them from suffering.
It is further recommended to said Committee to provide, if they see occasion, suitable houses as Hospitals for the reception of those persons who may be taken with the Small-Pox, or shall appear to have the symptoms of the distemper, as, also, to engage a Physician or Physicians to attend the sick, if required, and to place sufficient guards at the infected houses to prevent a promiscuous passing or repassing to and from said houses.
Writing from Malden on 10 December, Thomas Crafts, Jr., told William Cooper:
The small-pox has broke out in two families that came out of Boston in the first vessels. Two persons have it at Point Shirley, and one at Malden. I thought it my duty to acquaint you of it, as soon as possible. Beg you would lay it before the General Court, that they may take the best measures to prevent the spreading of that distemper at this alarming crisis of our publick affairs. As it is impossible to get wood carried to Point Shirley, the meeting house there being of no service and rotten, if we might not have orders to pull that down for their immediate supply of fires.On 12 December the legislative committee designated to consider Crafts’s letter resolved:
That the Committee at said Point Shirley be, and they hereby are, directed to make use of any old decayed stores, barns, or fish-houses, as fuel for the relief of the sick and distressed, and if necessary, to take down any publick building there for the purpose aforesaid; said Committee to render an account of their proceedings to this Court.As winter approached, people were tearing down buildings both inside Boston and out for firewood.
And they are further directed to use their utmost endeavours to prevent the spreading of the small-pox, and make proper representation of the state of such persons as are put under their care, to this Court, whenever they find there is occasion therefor;
and that Captain [Jedidiah] Foster [shown above, courtesy of Quaboag Regional High School] and Captain Searl be a Committee to repair immediately to Point Shirley, and cause such buildings, as may be thought necessary to be taken down for fuel, to be appraised, and take any measures, and give any directions that shall appear to them necessary to aid the Committee now there in procuring wood and in preventing the spreading of the small-pox. | <urn:uuid:0f699d1f-07d5-472e-95e5-518265d2544b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://boston1775.blogspot.com/2007/12/smallpox-at-point-shirley.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395679.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00005-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977373 | 1,036 | 2.96875 | 3 |
The Visible Woman Model is an anatomically accurate scaled-down version of a woman. Learn about human anatomy while having fun assembling this visible human science kit.
- The visible man may be made into a permanent display or an educational aid with removable parts.
- Ideal for studying the skeletal and vital systems of males.
- Perfect for school assignments, Scout and 4-H projects.
- Easy assembly.
- Breastplate comes off.
- Vital organs can be removed and replaced.
- Complete "outer skin" with major veins and arteries (clear frame for model).
- Complete skeleton with eyes and brain.
- Each vital system part may be painted to create more realism.
- Use the fully illustrated guide as an introduction to anatomy
Pictorial assembly instructions.
Ages 10 and up.
Does not include paint or glue. | <urn:uuid:3ee9436e-7f68-4e6d-bf82-7cd7908fd77e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.discoverthis.com/visiblewoman.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396222.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00016-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.769379 | 176 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Week of October 19, 2009
Contact: Alice Bender, (202) 328-7744
Karen Collins, MS, RD, CDN
American Institute for Cancer Research
Q: Are all nuts healthy, or are some more nutritious than others?
A: The special nutrient contributions of each type of nut vary, but all are healthy if you keep portion sizes small so your calorie consumption stays on target for a healthy weight. Studies with a variety of nuts show that when people substitute nuts for foods such as fatty meat and deep-fried foods high in saturated or trans fats, blood cholesterol usually declines. Almonds, walnuts, peanuts, pistachios, pine nuts and pecans all have 3 grams or less of cholesterol-raising saturated fat in a one-and-a-half ounce serving (about one-third cup). Nuts contain mostly monounsaturated fat; walnuts are high in polyunsaturated fat, some of which is an omega-3 fat that’s in the same family with the heart-healthy fat found in salmon and other fatty fish. Cashews and almonds are especially high in magnesium, pecans are loaded with manganese and pistachios are rich in vitamin B-6. Brazil nuts are an outstanding source of the antioxidant mineral selenium. Almonds are exceptional sources of vitamin E, another antioxidant; hazelnuts, peanuts and Brazil nuts are also good sources. All nuts provide varying combinations of natural antioxidants, cholesterol-lowering phytosterols, and dietary fiber and serve as a protein source, too. Since they all contain 240 to 285 calories per one-third cup, make sure that you don’t just add nuts to your diet, but substitute them for less-healthy foods.
Q: Are drinks made with matcha green tea added as super-healthy as they sound?
A: Matcha is simply ground green tea leaves. As traditionally prepared in Japan, a small amount of these ground leaves were whisked with plain hot water to produce tea. Both in Japan and the United States, it is now a common ingredient in sweets (where it adds a green color to ice cream, pudding and candy) and sweetened milk drinks such as lattés, smoothies and milkshakes. Matcha is an expensive form of tea, although price and quality vary with where it was grown, timing and method of harvest, and the measures taken to keep the leaves from oxidizing. Research is limited on how its health benefits compare to regular green tea. One study from the University of Colorado found that matcha tea contained much, much higher antioxidants than green tea. However this comparison involved high quality matcha and relatively low quality green tea. USDA data on green tea suggests that its content may not be much different from that of matcha. While smoothies and lattes are a popular way to get green tea antioxidants, most of these drinks contain enough added sugar that they are far from low-calorie. For example, compared to 100 calories in the same size coffee latté, a 12-ounce matcha green tea latté made with skim milk from one popular national coffee bar chain contains 210 calories and includes over six teaspoons of added sugar.
Q: Are lentils as nutritious as dried beans (such as kidney beans, black beans and garbanzo beans)?
A: Absolutely! Like all dried beans and peas, lentils are high in fiber. Just a half-cup of cooked lentils provides nearly as much fiber as two cups of cooked oatmeal, and much of it is soluble fiber that helps lower blood cholesterol. All legumes are excellent sources of iron and the B vitamin folate that is so important to producing and maintaining healthy DNA, and lentils are highest of all. Like other legumes, lentils provide both protein and antioxidant phytochemicals like flavonoids. Limited data suggests that whole lentils that are not split and skinned may retain the most antioxidant power. Lentils’ easy preparation requires no soaking like other dried beans, so you can go from pantry to table in about half an hour, depending on the type of lentil you choose. Red lentils take less time to cook and become purée-like, so they’re great for thickening soups or in dhal. Green and brown lentils hold their shape so you can use them in salads, soups or entrees.
Our Mission: The American Institute for Cancer Research champions the latest and most authoritative scientific research from around the world on cancer prevention and survival through diet, weight and physical activity, so that we can help people make informed lifestyle choices to reduce their cancer risk.
We have contributed over $105 million for innovative research conducted at universities, hospitals and research centers across the country. Find evidence-based tools and information for lowering cancer risk, including AICR’s Recommendations for Cancer Prevention, at www.aicr.org.All active news articles | <urn:uuid:1b3f1e29-8a29-44f2-8b3c-2d1ef2a942cd> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://preventcancer.aicr.org/site/News2?abbr=pr_hf_&page=NewsArticle&id=16731&news_iv_ctrl=1090 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397749.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00124-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93332 | 1,012 | 2.671875 | 3 |
In April, a 12-year-old boy with HIV and aggressive leukemia received an experimental treatment at the University of Minnesota—an umbilical cord blood transplant performed by three innovative doctors. If the boy remains free of the diseases at the 100-day mark—in August—he will potentially be cured of leukemia and absolutely cured of HIV. It will change everything.
Dr. John Wagner is the pediatric blood and marrow transplant physician on this case, part of the three-specialist team that came together at the U of M to tackle this unique challenge. Also on the team are an HIV expert and the child’s primary care physician, who is a leader in leukemia treatment.
It isn’t the first time Wagner has been involved in developing groundbreaking treatments. He conducted the world’s first cord blood transplant for leukemia in 1990 while at Johns Hopkins. A year later, he moved to Minnesota. “I came because I wanted to make bone marrow transplants safer,” he says. “I thought I could make an impact coming here. Minnesota had one of the largest centers for performing transplants.”
Wagner has since established the cord blood transplant program at two blood and marrow transplant centers here: one at the U of M and the other at Amplatz Children’s Hospital, with roughly 25 faculty members operating the facilities. “This is one of the reasons Minnesota plays such a prominent role in health care,” says Wagner. “We’ve done more cord blood transplants than any other institution in the world—1,400 and counting.”
A cord blood transplant is exactly what it sounds like: taking blood from an umbilical cord and placenta and injecting it into people needing treatment for autoimmune disorders such as leukemia and HIV. In some cases, cord blood can be superior to bone marrow, Wagner says. “Umbilical cord blood is more forgiving and allows us not to need an exact tissue match.” And because umbilical cord blood is pure—without exposure to viruses or antibiotics—it can be applied to anyone needing a transplant.
Plus, it contains a magic ingredient: T-regulatory cells, or T-cells. When a woman becomes pregnant, she produces T-cells that neutralize her immune system’s response to prevent her body from rejecting her baby, who has a different immune system and blood. “Umbilical cord blood,” Wagner says, “is a very potent source of various stem cells, including T-cells.”
So how does it work?
Before patients can receive a cord blood transplant, they need radiation and chemotherapy to break down the current damaged immune system’s defenses. Then, when the cord blood transplant is performed, the cord blood replaces the damaged immune system with a new one that is strong enough to fight off diseases such as HIV and leukemia. And the T-cells act as a neutralizer and help the recipient’s body accept the treatment.
The chances are high that this clinical treatment will work, Wagner says. Another one of his patients, a Maple Grove resident, is the second-longest survivor of an umbilical cord blood transplant from an unrelated source in the world. It’s been a revolution since the mid-1980s when the chances for finding a cure for leukemia were very low. Now there’s hope.
If Wagner and his team are successful and the umbilical cord blood has cured this boy’s HIV and, potentially, leukemia, millions of people around the world will have renewed hope—not just for HIV and leukemia, but for other diseases as well. “In the future,” Wagner says, “cord blood transplants could treat patients with autoimmune disorders such as type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, or lupus.”
The world is watching. | <urn:uuid:3d5fa85f-f881-4ea3-a9f5-af7804bb2f4d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://mspmag.com/Health/Articles/Top-Doctors/Top-Doctors-2013/T-Cell-Breakthrough/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395160.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00099-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946558 | 811 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Methods of Food Preservation
For humans today, nutritious food is available year round, either (relatively) fresh in our meat and produce aisle or canned or otherwise preserved on the store shelves. But as I've discussed previously, I think we should preserve our own food, grown in our own gardens or bought in season when it's at its peak for freshness, and at its lowest prices due to market saturation. I think that many homemakers today would find nutritional food choices easier to make if they were preserving their own food.
Today I'm going to talk about the most common methods of food preservation. I'm not going to touch on smoking, salting, fermenting or other less common methods, simply because I have no experience with them. I use canning, freezing, refrigeration, and dehydrating to preserve foods to make sure I can serve my family healthy foods even when those foods aren't currently in season. While fresh is always better, as any type of food preservation causes loss of nutrients, preserving food when its in season, whether you grow your own or buy it, is a good way to increase the nutrients and decrease the empty calories in your family's diet.
The most basic method of food preservation is refrigeration. When you put the gallon of milk in your fridge so you can enjoy it with your cookies three or four days from now, you're engaging in food preservation. If you stored the milk on your counter, it would be unusable within hours. The plus side of refrigeration is that it's available to just about anyone. You can stock up on salad greens if they are on sale or ready to use from your garden, and have lovely salads all week long. The downside is that it doesn't last long. Even preservative laden foods will eventually go bad, and your fresh meat or produce doesn't have a long shelf life in the refrigerator. It's a very short term method of food preservation.
Next, we have freezing. Freezing doesn't require any special equipment, although some foods like potatoes and corn, need to be blanched prior to freezing. It's much easier to preserve food this way if you have a freezer besides the one on top of your fridge, but even if you don't, you can buy two or three weeks of fresh meat or produce and store it in the freezer. I have two freezers, a chest freezer and an upright, and frequently use freezing to preserve my foods-especially when I was waiting on a part for my canner. Some foods simply freeze better anyway. Potatoes and some squashes don't can well, but freeze just fine-although potatoes don't last long in the freezer. I do, though, freeze several batches of grated potatoes for hashbrowns when potatoes go on sale. The downside to freezing is that you're susceptible to loss if you have a power outage, and the amount of time that foods can safely stay frozen can be fairly short. Freezer burn is not your only concern. Freezing only slows the multiplication of bacteria, it does not stop it completely.
Canning has been in existence since Napoleon, ever trying to build a better army, held a contest to find the best method of long term food preservation to feed the men on long marches. Nicolas Appert came up with the methods that led to home canning as we know it. By the 1880s, open kettle canning was widely practiced in America. Subsequent changes in safety rules and innovations in kitchen gadgets led us to where we are today. There are two accepted methods of canning: Water Bath Canning, used for high acid foods, and Pressure Canning, used for everything else. Most home canned products can sit on a shelf for about a year, and the great bonus of home canning is that you can home can fully prepared meals like soups, stews, Sloppy Joe mixes complete with meat, making dinner prep when you're having "one of those days" a snap. Almost any food can be canned, although potatoes, some squashes, asparagus, and a few other foods do not hold up well to the process. The downsides to canning are few, but they are there. You'll be replenishing your stash of jars once in awhile, and getting started is not cheap, although it's far cheaper than buying a freezer. It's hot, messy work, and it takes a lot of hands on or at least fully present time. It also takes up a lot of space, with storage needed for your canner, jars, rings, and lids.
In short, each method of home food preservation has its pros and cons. The bottom line is this - if you want to make sure you're fully aware of every ingredient in your family's diet, it's essential that you preserve your own food! | <urn:uuid:34fb45ce-8ded-41a0-9aaf-9684781e9553> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.backwoodshousewife.com/2012/04/methods-of-food-preservation.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398075.47/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00186-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972901 | 991 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Suphan Buri might be the site of the legendary Suvarnabhumi, which is mentioned in very old Buddhist writings. However the first confirmed historical settlement was in the Dvaravati period, when the city was known as Mueang Thawarawadi Si Suphannaphumi. Its founding did take place 877-882. Later it was called U Thong, and was the home city of Prince U Thong, the founder of the Ayutthaya kingdom. King Khun Luang Pha Ngua finally gave it the current name. Suphan Buri was an important border city, and also the location of several battles with the neighboring Burmese.
Related categories 1
Last update:July 24, 2011 at 17:48:31 UTC | <urn:uuid:bec1184d-5c2c-4668-98cb-5f2e42e0516b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.dmoz.org/Regional/Asia/Thailand/Provinces/Suphan_Buri/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403823.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00139-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972313 | 161 | 3.234375 | 3 |
September 9, 2005
Television Viewing of Katrina Will Have Psychological Effects on Children around the Country
The devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina have been felt across the country during the past weeks. Thousands of children are survivors of Katrina, while millions of others around the country have observed horrific sights via media coverage. Although they were not directly involved with the tragedy, repeated television viewing of the disaster puts these children at high risk for developing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), anxiety and depression.
"Research on the impact of the World Trade Center attack indicates that children who viewed more television news of the attack were two times as likely to develop symptoms of PTSD than children with lower TV exposure," said Harold S. Koplewicz, M.D., Director of the NYU Child Study Center. "Our job as parents is to protect our kids from unnecessary media coverage of this event. Good parents will stop the television."The NYU Child Study Center recommends that parents limit television viewing of the disaster for children under 12 years of age, and eliminate all viewing when possible. For teenagers ages 12-17 it can be harder to completely eliminate television. Parents should take this opportunity to start a dialogue about the events, making sure kids understand what has occurred and know that they can continue the conversation if future questions or concerns arise.
Kids' questions and concerns are likely to be tough to answer, but as with all important discussions, keeping communication lines open is critical and honesty is essential. Some concerns don't get settled quickly, and more than one conversation may be necessary as events unfold.
"The effects of witnessing or being a victim of Katrina will vary for children depending on their age, how they experienced the event and their ability to understand what has happened," said Marylene Cloitre, Ph.D., Director of the NYU Child Study Center Institute for Trauma and Stress. "Parents should allow children to express themselves, give them a sense of security, and be open and available to discuss various issues."
The NYU Child Study Center suggests the following advice for parents, family or teachers to help their children cope with the recent tragedy:
Limit both your own and your children's exposure to television reports of the event.
Discuss the tragedy, but start by finding out what your child understands about the event. Be available for more than one conversation; children's understanding of events and their questions will change over time.
Reassure your child of their current safety, and remind them of all the different resources in your community that provide them with safety.
Maintain as usual a routine as possible. Maintaining normal bedtimes and participating in familiar activities provides children with a sense of normalcy.
When children receive news of a sad and shocking event it is normal for them to have some fluctuations in mood and irritability. Some children will become more clingy and may seek and need more reassurance and contact with caregivers.
Help your child regain a sense of control. Let them be proactive by taking them to purchase a toy or other needed goods for a child who was affected by the hurricane.
If you are concerned about your child's reactions to Hurricane Katrina, listen to your parental intuition. A child who has an intense or prolonged reaction, or begins having difficulties at school, with their peers, or at home may need help from a counselor or other mental health professional.
For more information and resources on how to help your child deal with Hurricane Katrina or other traumatic events, visit www.AboutOurKids.org. | <urn:uuid:2ebf606a-8ac9-4ab1-8b0d-7928ec54594e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/236178/television_viewing_of_katrina_will_have_psychological_effects_on_children/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395548.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00067-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962348 | 709 | 3.375 | 3 |
Dec 27, 2012
Mech Project on Portable Charger using Wind Energy
This is mechanical project report on "portable charger using wind energy". Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such as using wind turbines to make electricity, windmills for mechanical power, wind pumps for water pumping or drainage, or sails to propel ships. There are two primary physical principles by which energy can be extracted from the wind; these are through the creation of either lift or drag force (or through a combination of the two). You can also Subscribe to FINAL YEAR PROJECT'S by Email for more such projects and seminar.
The principle used in this project is that "a wind generator´s rotating blades convert the wind´s kinetic energy into rotational momentum in a shaft. The rotating shaft turns an alternator, which makes electricity. This electricity is transmitted through wiring down the tower to its end use. The blades use engineered airfoils, matched to the alternator, that capture the wind´s energy. Most modern wind generators use three blades, the best compromise between the highest efficiency possible (one blade) and the balance that comes with multiple blades. Use this report for your reference work and study. Thanks to the Author of the project.
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Final-yearproject.com is one stop for all your project needs. You can find projects and seminars related to Electronics, Electrical, Civil, Mechanical, MBA, Pharmacy, Computer Science, IT, Bio-Tech, Robotics, Telecom, Wireless, Automation, BCA, MATLAB etc. You can Like us at Facebook and follow us on Twitter and Google+. | <urn:uuid:5bad30bf-8e55-4eeb-a5e7-864005f5c4b0> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.final-yearproject.com/2012/12/mechanical-project-portable-charger-wind-energy.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395620.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00168-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.889228 | 342 | 3.234375 | 3 |
Literature / The Forgotten Door
The Forgotten Door
is a children's novel by Alexander Key
first published in 1965. Due to its inclusion in many elementary school required reading lists, the book has survived on mediocre popularity, and remains one of the few books by its author still in print.
The plot concerns a young boy, Jon, who accidentally 'falls' to Earth through the titular portal. Accustomed as his is to his utopian, pacifistic, vegetarian, and money-free world, Jon's bewildered attempts to connect with the petty grievances of Earthlings serve as foil to the reader; and while there is some action and suspense, the main tension of the story comes from the sympathetic family that shelters Jon being forced to confront their own complacency towards the injustices of their world while trying to make Jon understand that this is just how life is - but of course, for Jon and his world, it isn't.
Considering the state of the world in 1965, the book sends a clear message that the future, and we humans, can, and must, be better.
This book provides examples of: | <urn:uuid:70ddf009-265a-4246-9b90-a1740ca7c7f7> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/TheForgottenDoor | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395620.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00088-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972047 | 229 | 2.546875 | 3 |
On-line version ISSN 1680-5348
Print version ISSN 1020-4989
Rev Panam Salud Publica vol.15 n.1 Washington Jan. 2004
ARTICLES / ARTÍCULOS
Revisión de la prevalencia de fluorosis dental en México
Armando Ernesto Soto-RojasI,II,1; José Luis Ureña-CirettI; Esperanza de los Angeles Martínez-MierIII
IUniversidad Intercontinental, Facultad de Odontología, Mexico City, Mexico
IIInstituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición Salvador Zubirán, Departamento de Inmunología y Reumatología, Mexico City, Mexico
IIIIndiana University School of Dentistry, Oral Health Research Institute, Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America
OBJECTIVE: There has been a worrisome increase in the prevalence of dental fluorosis worldwide. The objective of this study was to review research on dental fluorosis prevalence in Mexico in order to assess if that prevalence is rising and if dental fluorosis constitutes a public health problem for the country.
METHODS: Clinical, experimental, and review reports were searched for in a number of bibliographic databases for scientific literature, using the search phrase "fluorosis and Mexico." All the materials that were initially identified had to satisfy eight specific criteria in order to be included in our study.
RESULTS: Of the 24 publications that the literature search yielded, 14 satisfied all the inclusion criteria. The prevalence of dental fluorosis reported in Mexico ranged from 30% to 100% in areas where water is naturally fluoridated and from 52% to 82% in areas where fluoridated salt is used. Most of the 14 studies were conducted in areas where water fluoride levels were above optimal, and the fluorosis cases reported in these publications ranged from "mild" to "severe." There have been only a small number of reports on dental fluorosis since the introduction of fluoridated salt in the country in 1991. However, some of those studies have shown that the prevalence of fluorosis was higher than what would be expected given the historical data from communities with optimal fluoridation in other countries.
CONCLUSION: Due to the limited amount of information, it is not possible to determine if the prevalence of dental fluorosis in Mexico is rising or if it constitutes a public health problem. To objectively answer these questions more controlled studies are needed in areas where fluoridated salt is distributed, where water fluoride is above optimal, and where residents live at a high altitude.
Key words: Fluorosis, dental; fluoridation; oral health; Mexico.
OBJETIVOS: La prevalencia de fluorosis dental ha aumentado de forma alarmante en todo el mundo. El objetivo de este estudio fue analizar las investigaciones publicadas sobre la prevalencia de fluorosis dental en México, a fin de valorar si hay un aumento de esta prevalencia y si la fluorosis dental constituye un problema de salud pública en el país.
MÉTODOS: Se examinaron los artículos de corte clínico, experimental y de revisión publicados en varias bases de datos bibliográficas dedicadas a la literatura científica, utilizando "fluorosis y Mexico" para hacer la búsqueda. Para incluirse en el estudio, los materiales identificados tenían que satisfacer ocho criterios específicos adicionales.
RESULTADOS: De los 24 artículos identificados en la búsqueda bibliográfica, 14 cumplieron todos los criterios de inclusión. La prevalencia de fluorosis dental informada para México fue de 30 a 100% en zonas donde el agua era fluorada de manera natural y de 52 a 82% en zonas donde se consumía sal fluorada. La mayoría de los 14 estudios se realizaron en áreas donde el nivel de fluoruros en el agua era superior al óptimo y los casos de fluorosis informados en esos artículos se clasificaron entre "moderados" y "graves". Desde que se introdujo la fluoración de la sal en México en 1991 se han informado muy pocos casos de fluorosis dental. Sin embargo, en algunos de estos estudios se encontraron prevalencias mayores que las esperadas, si se tienen en cuenta los datos históricos de comunidades con fluoración óptima en otros países.
CONCLUSIÓN: Debido a lo limitado de la información no es posible determinar si hay un aumento de la prevalencia de fluorosis dental en México o si esta afección constituye un problema de salud pública. Para responder objetivamente a estas interrogantes se requieren estudios más controlados en zonas donde se distribuya sal fluorada, donde los niveles de fluoruros en el agua sean superiores al óptimo y en poblaciones situadas a mayor altura sobre el nivel del mar.
In 1888 Kuhns reported that a clinical condition, similar to what is now called dental fluorosis, had been observed in Mexico (1). He described the teeth of a family who lived in the city of Durango, Mexico, as opaque, discolored, and disfigured. Years later a comparable condition was reported in the United States of America by Black and McKay (2), who observed brownish-red stains in many of their patients; these stains would later become known as "mottled enamel."
As described by Cutress and Suckling (3), the first clinical signs of dental fluorosis are thin white striae across the teeth surfaces. These fine opaque lines seem to follow the perikymata pattern. The cusp tips, incisal edges, and marginal ridges may appear completely opaque, a condition that has been defined as "snow-capping." In moderately affected teeth, the white lines appear more pronounced. The lines may merge and produce areas that will appear cloudy and will be scattered over the tooth surface. With increasing severity, the entire surface exhibits opaque, cloudy areas that may be mixed with areas of brownish discoloration. In the most severe cases, pitting of the enamel surface occurs.
From 1920 to 1940 several epidemiological and laboratory studies suggested an association between fluoride intake and these enamel defects (48). This condition was then named dental fluorosis. The conclusive piece of epidemiological evidence that linked dental fluorosis to excessive fluoride in the drinking water was provided by the multiple studies done by Dean and co-workers. In the late 1930s and early 1940s those researchers conducted epidemiological studies of approximately 7 000 children in 21 cities in states of the United States that included Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. Dean and his colleagues were able to determine fluoride's relationship to the prevalence of caries and to dental fluorosis. These investigators concluded that when fluoride was present in the water at a certain level, it would prevent dental caries, but if it exceeded that certain level, it would lead to fluorosed teeth. The optimal level of water fluoride, which would optimize its beneficial effects while minimizing its detrimental effects, was determined to be 1 part per million (ppm) (9).
Based on the understanding of fluoride's caries-preventive effects, water fluoridation programs have been implemented worldwide. Alternative vehicles such as salt and milk have been employed to distribute fluoride where water fluoridation is not possible. A salt fluoridation program to prevent dental decay was introduced in selected states of Mexico in 1981 (10) and implemented nationally in 1995 (11). The salt fluoridation program clearly stated that this type of salt should not be distributed in cities in which the water for human consumption had fluoride content above 0.7 ppm.
In 1973 it was reported that at least 19 communities in Mexicoin the states of Aguascalientes, Baja California Norte, Chihuahua, Durango, Jalisco, Sonora, and Tamaulipashad natural concentrations of fluoride in the drinking water that were above the optimal level of 0.7 to 1.5 ppm (12). Later, the following states were also reported as having communities where fluoride was above optimal: Guanajuato, San Luis Potosí, and Zacatecas (13). In all 10 of these states there were several communities where a high prevalence of dental fluorosis was of concern. Although water fluoride concentrations are still above optimal in all of these communities, to date there has been no comprehensive data collection to study either dental fluorosis or the impact that these fluoride concentration levels have on the patterns and prevalence of tooth decay in most of these communities.
The determination of all the areas where excess fluoride in the water may constitute a problem for the population is complicated in Mexico because of the multiple water sources that may serve a single community (14, 15). Access to safe tap water in Mexico may vary much from state to state, from city to city, and from area to area within a city. Tap water may be obtained from various overground sources (rivers, lakes, and reservoirs), underground wells, or both. Quality may vary as well. Areas within a single city may have different water quality, with the water even being unsafe to drink in some of the areas. This detailed information is not readily available to the public. Therefore, the boiling of tap water is a common practice even in areas where its quality is good. Further, because of this general situation, the use of bottled water is widespread and increasing. The precise percentage of people who use bottled water is unknown and varies from state to state. Most people obtain it in large bottles either delivered to their homes or purchased and brought home from a store. Many households use both bottled water and tap water (both boiled and not boiled). In 1990, access to potable water was some 80% for the country overall, with most cities having coverage above 90%.
Around the world, dental fluorosis has always been regarded as a public health problem in those areas where natural fluoride in the water exceeds optimal levels; residents of optimally fluoridated areas have not been considered to be at risk for dental fluorosis. However, due to the widespread use of fluoridated products, concern has been expressed in recent years over a possible increase in the prevalence of dental fluorosis worldwide in optimally fluoridated and even suboptimally fluoridated areas. When recent data are compared to historical data, the results seem to indicate a trend toward a higher prevalence of fluorosis (16). Living at a high altitude has been reported as contributing to the development of dental fluorosis (1). In Mexico these various trends have led to an interest in reviewing reports on dental fluorosis in order to assess if it now constitutes a widespread public health problem in the country. This review evaluated published data regarding dental fluorosis in Mexico to assess if sufficient data have been obtained in order to determine if dental fluorosis is rising and if it constitutes a public health problem in the country.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
We searched seven bibliographic databases of scientific literature for clinical, experimental, and review reports, using the search term "fluorosis and Mexico." The seven databases were: (1) MEDLINE (compiled by the National Library of Medicine of the United States); (2) PubMed (also compiled by the National Library of Medicine of the United States); (3) Current Contents (compiled by Thomson ISI (founded as the Institute for Scientific Information) and published on the Web by the ISI Web of Knowledge); (4) Ovid (owned by the Wolters Kluwer corporation); (5) LILACS (Literatura Latinoamericana y del Caribe en Ciencias de la Salud) (Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature), compiled and published by the Centro Latinoamericano y del Caribe de Información en Ciencias de la Salud (Latin American and Caribbean Center on Health Sciences Information), São Paulo, Brazil; (6) EMBASE (Excerpta Medica), produced by Elsevier Science; and (7) Artemisa, (Artículos Editados en México sobre Información en Salud (Articles Edited in Mexico on Health Information), published by the Secretaría de Salud de México (Secretariat of Health of Mexico).
With the articles located through that searching, we reviewed all the references that they cited, in order to locate additional reports. We also did manual searching of nonindexed materials, especially in journals that were once included in databases but no longer are. The search included articles published from January 1970 through December 2001. We excluded case reports, letters to the editor, news or commentary pieces, and clinical descriptions. In order to qualify for review in this article, the remaining manuscripts had to fulfill the following eight inclusion criteria:
Papers had to be published in a peer-reviewed journal. However, inclusion of the journal in the ISI Science Citation Index (SCI) or in a database or index other than the SCI was not mandatory.
The studies had to include dental examinations performed with the aid of an index of dental fluorosis, properly described in the article.
The clinicians who assessed the dental fluorosis had to be trained and/or calibrated.
The residence of the study participants had to be documented.
The content of fluoride in water had to be stated.
The main source of fluoride in the population studied had to be mentioned.
The results and/or tables had to be properly presented and described, in order to be analyzed and used to extract data for this review.
Adequate conclusions had to be stated, and the conclusions had to correspond to the aims of the study.
Using these eight standards, we assessed the publications that we had located. With publications that met those criteria, we recorded the information from them on a data extraction sheet. Differences among studies, such as which index of dental fluorosis was used, population selection criteria, and retrospective information, were also assessed.
The literature search yielded 24 papers. Of those 24, 14 of them met our inclusion criteria. We divided those 14 papers into three groups. The first group dealt with studies conducted in naturally fluoridated areas where water fluoride was above optimal (those studies will be shown in Table 1). The second group (which will be shown in Table 2) included studies conducted in areas where water had negligible, unknown, or optimal amounts of fluoride and fluoridated salt was used. The third group (which will be shown in Table 3) dealt with studies where the altitude of residence was reported to be related to a higher prevalence of dental fluorosis, where fluoridated salt may have been distributed, and where the water fluoride content was unknown, negligible, optimal, or above optimal.
Of the 14 studies, 7 of them were conducted in endemic areas or communities where water fluoride appeared to be a problem. The other 7 studies were performed in areas where water fluoride was not above optimal levels or was unknown and where fluoridated salt had been implemented as a prevention measure. Of the 14 studies included in this review, 4 studies were performed in high-altitude areas (above 2 000 m), 8 in the range of 1 000 to 2 000 m, and 2 at sea level.
The tables included in this article show only the fluoride content of regular tap water. However, the fluoride content in other types of water (boiled tap water, bottled water, and well water) are sometimes also mentioned in the text sections that follow.
Communities where the fluoride content in naturally fluoridated water was above optimal
Many of the studies on dental fluorosis prevalence in Mexico have been conducted in areas where tap water fluoride had been reported to be above 1.5 ppm. For example, as shown in Table 1, Lozano-Montemayor (17) studied four groups of children of various ages in the city of Ensenada, in the state of Baja California Norte. Children were studied at four different times, from 1979 to 1990. He reported a high prevalence of dental fluorosis, using a modification of Dean's Index for fluorosis, as described in the World Health Organization guidelines (18). Training of examiners was mentioned, but no information on the number of examiners or calibration procedures was included. The article mentioned the mean or range of fluoride content from several analyses of water done at different times, including: (1) from the late 1950s, when one bottled water sample showed 8 ppm of fluoride; (2) in 1980, when one well water sample had 4.6 ppm; (3) in 1981, when an analysis of fluoride content in bottled water showed values from 0.51 to 2.62 ppm; and (4) in the early 1990s, when fluoride content in tap water samples ranged from 0 to 2.6 ppm of fluoride. The author reported that despite efforts undertaken between 1979 and 1990 by dental and governmental authorities to diminish dental fluorosis, no decrease in its prevalence was found when results of clinical studies conducted in 1979 were compared to results obtained in 1990.
Barrandey-Orozco et al. (19) reported a high prevalence of dental fluorosis in the city of Chihuahua, which is in the state of the same name (Table 1). For example, 96.5% of the children had their front teeth affected. Trained fourth-year dental students obtained the data, but no information on calibration procedures was described. Local authorities provided the authors the information on past and current tap water fluoride content, from some areas of the city of Chihuahua and other areas in the state of Chihuahua. In addition, these investigators analyzed 61 of the 76 sources of tap water in the city of Chihuahua. Previous reports had shown that tap water fluoride content ranged from 0 to 3 ppm in the city of Chihuahua and from 0.1 to 10 ppm in other communities in the state. In this study, tap water fluoride content was reported at high levels in some areas of the city of Chihuahua (Table 1). In addition, fluoridated salt was being distributed in the state at that time, as confirmed by the authors (19). Knowledge of dental fluorosis issues was assessed in a group of dentists, and most of them were not aware of the amount of fluoride contained in the water supply. All of the dentists mentioned that they observed fluorosis in their patients, either frequently or regularly, and they described it as moderate or severe. Still, few reported using systemic fluoride.
In the city of San Luis Potosí, which is in the state of the same name, several studies (2022) documented high fluoride contents in tap, well, boiled, and bottled water. Grimaldo et al. (20, 21) conducted several studies in this state and reported that the prevalence of fluorosis was high. No calibration data were given in the articles. The first study (20) looked at 199 children who were grouped according to tap water fluoride content (Table 1). The fluoride concentration of tap and bottled water ranged from low to high: 61% of the tap water samples had more than 1.2 ppm, and the bottled water analyzed ranged from 0.33 to 6.97 ppm. In a second study (21), these authors grouped 352 children according to tap water fluoride content (Table 1). In this study, high fluorosis prevalence was associated with fluoride intake from both tap and bottled water in roughly one third of all of the cases, according to the authors. This was shown by the high prevalence of dental fluorosis in the subgroup of children of high socioeconomic status; the fluoride content of their tap water was on average 0.9 ppm, but 80% of those children reported drinking bottled water (which was high in fluoride content). Among all the groups in San Luis Potosí the high prevalence of dental fluorosis was attributed to such sources of fluoride as beverages (including soft drinks and fruit juices), food cooked with polluted water (which is high in minerals, including fluoride), and boiled water. In addition, these researchers studied the effect that boiling of tap water had on its fluoride content, and they reported that it increased its fluoride content dramatically. Nevertheless, they could not associate the use of just boiled tap water with the presence of fluorosis.
In another study done in the city of San Luis Potosí, Loyola-Rodríguez et al. (22) reported a high prevalence of dental fluorosis on deciduous teeth (Table 1). They studied 300 children selected at random from kindergartens located in three different "risk areas," according to the fluoride content in tap water. These investigators designed a special index for fluorosis in temporary teeth, with scores ranging from 0 to 4. They validated this index objectively by studying the fluoride concentrations in samples of exfoliated enamel, and they reported a significant correlation with the index. The investigators were calibrated (Kappa 0.90). The authors concluded that the high prevalence of dental fluorosis was the result of fluoride intake after birth. These investigators related grades of fluorosis to the concentration of fluoride in water, and they associated some of the severe fluorosis cases with the use of boiled water.
In the city of Durango, which is in the state of the same name, high concentrations of fluoride in water were found, and a high prevalence of dental fluorosis was reported (23). The researchers were trained but not calibrated to conduct the examinations. The investigators studied 333 children, who were placed into five groups according to the fluoride content in their tap water (Table 1). In the group with the highest concentration of fluoride in water, all of the children presented dental fluorosis, and 59% of these were classified as moderate to severe cases. These authors stated that 35% of the children exposed to the highest fluoride concentration in water were at risk of losing teeth at an early age due to severe damage attributable to dental fluorosis. The mean community index of dental fluorosis (CIDF) (24) was calculated to be 1.49 for the five groups, which exceeds the limit of 0.6 recommended for public health purposes. These authors compared the 1.49 that they found with a CIDF of 1.42 obtained in 1982 for the city of Durango, and they suggested that the increase was due to a higher demand for water, resulting in the drilling of deeper wells, which contained higher fluoride concentrations.
In the city of Aguascalientes, in the state of the same name, Márquez-Algara (25) reported a high prevalence of dental fluorosis (Table 1). Severe to moderate dental fluorosis was found in 17% of this sample, and 44% of children were free of dental decay. Although this researcher did not analyze the fluoride content in tap water, he reported that in this city it ranged from 0.7 to 4.6 ppm, but the source of this information was not mentioned in the article. A fourth-year dental student who had been calibrated performed the exams, but specific information about the calibration procedure was not reported in the article.
Communities where the fluoride content in water was unknown, negligible, or optimal and where fluoridated salt was distributed
There are several studies on dental fluorosis prevalence in Mexico that have been conducted in communities where salt was distributed and where the tap water fluoride content was unknown or was within optimal levels (0.7 to 1.0 ppm). For example, Vallejos-Sánchez et al. (26) reported a moderate to high prevalence of dental fluorosis in the city of Campeche, which is in the state of the same name (Table 2). The Kappa value for interexaminer calibration was 0.85. Fluoridated salt was the main source of fluoride; the researchers did not provide any information about the fluoride content in the water supplies. Exposure to various sources of fluoride was described as the main reason for this fluorosis prevalence. In order of importance, these sources were: fluoridated dental toothpaste used before 3 years of age, fluoride self-application in the schools, and fluoride supplements.
In the city of Guadalajara, Jalisco, a moderate prevalence of dental fluorosis was reported by Espinosa-Fernández et al. (27, 28) in two schools located in different neighborhoods (Table 2). Training of examiners was conducted, but the article did not mention calibration for them. The authors found a prevalence of 33%. Although this prevalence did not justify the authors' claim, they stated that the city of Guadalajara should be declared an "endemic" area for dental fluorosis, apparently in an attempt to attract the attention of authorities. The fluoride content of tap water was reported as optimal. The authors confirmed that fluoridated salt was distributed freely in the state of Jalisco, but they did not provide evidence that it had had an impact on the prevalence of dental fluorosis that they found (27, 28).
Communities where altitude was associated with dental fluorosis, where fluoridated salt may have been distributed, and where the fluoride content in water was unknown, negligible, optimal, or above optimal
Of the 14 studies included in this review, 5 of them (1, 2932) were conducted in areas where the altitude had been related to dental fluorosis prevalence (Table 3). Luengas-Aguirre et al. (1) studied the city of Tula de Allende, in the state of Hidalgo. The tap water fluoride concentration was high, and the investigators reported very high fluorosis prevalence, 97.3%. Most of the fluorosis cases were considered moderate to severe. The authors suggested that this strikingly high prevalence of fluorosis could be due to factors affecting fluoride metabolism in these children, such as altitude, malnutrition, and climate. Training and calibration procedures were not mentioned in the article.
The same group of researchers later published further studies that were performed in the same city and in other communities in the state of Hidalgo (29, 30) (Table 3). In the first study (29) they still reported a very high prevalence of dental fluorosis for a city located at 2 066 m above sea level (the name of the city was not given in the article but it is assumed to be Tula de Allende), and the fluoride content in the tap water ranged from 2.40 to 3.30 ppm. In the second study (30) the tap water fluoride concentrations for the four communities that they studied ranged from low to high, and the fluorosis prevalence was 90.0% or higher in all four. Consumption of fluoridated salt was not assessed. All examiners were trained and calibrated (Kappa 0.72). The participants' residence from birth to 6 years of age was documented. Although the fluoride levels in the water were above optimal in three of the four communities, these authors associated the extremely high fluorosis prevalence with the fact that all these communities were located at a high altitude. The researchers reached that conclusion after comparing their results with results from other communities where tap water fluoride levels were similarly high.
Also in the state of Hidalgo, Molina-Frechero et al. (31) reported a very high prevalence of dental fluorosis in the town of Ixmiquilpan, which is at an altitude of 1 745 m. The fluoride concentration in tap water was low. The investigators attributed the high prevalence of fluorosis to the altitude, but they did not study other sources of fluoride. Calibration procedures were performed as well as verification of residence and birthplace of children.
A study conducted in Mexico City, by Jiménez-Farfán and colleagues (32), found a high prevalence of dental fluorosis (Table 3). The fluoride content in tap water and in bottled water (mean of 1.08 ppm for bottled water) was reported as being within optimal levels. Of the children studied, 18% of them received fluoride supplements, 50% of them received topical fluoride treatments, and all of them had used fluoridated toothpaste from the age of 2 years. The researchers attributed the high level of fluorosis to altitude and toothpaste. However, the investigators did not mention how many samples of tap and bottled water were analyzed. In addition, fluoridated salt was being distributed at the time of the investigation, but its fluoride content was not analyzed. The investigators were trained and calibrated (Kappa 0.85), and they verified the residence and birthplace of the children.
There is relatively little information concerning the epidemiology of dental fluorosis in Mexico, and most of what has been published has appeared in nonrefereed local dental journals. Only 1 paper from the 24 publications found was published before 1990 (10). From the 14 reviewed publications that met the inclusion criteria, a high prevalence of dental fluorosis was reported in 12 of them (1, 17, 1923, 25, 2932). Two of the publications reported it as being in the low to medium range (26, 27). Most of the calculations of dental fluorosis were obtained through the use of convenience samples. Dental fluorosis was associated with the following reported risk factors: bottled water, soft drinks, and juices; excessive fluoride in water (deeper wells); boiled water; concurrent distribution of fluoridated salt in areas where tap water is above negligible in fluoride content; fluoride intake from meals prepared with fluoridated salt; living at a high altitude; living in a hot climate; and malnutrition. Also associated with dental fluorosis was the use of fluoridated products, including the use of fluoridated toothpaste before 3 years of age, fluoride self-applications, the use of fluoride supplements, and visits to the dentist for fluoride applications. Eleven of the articles reported high water fluoride concentrations levels, that is, above 1.5 ppm.
From our assessment it was evident that a large amount of the published data may be questionable for use in determining if dental fluorosis constitutes a generalized problem in Mexico, mostly due to problems inherent in the design of many of the studies. Among these study shortcomings, two stand out: (1) the researchers failed to verify the residence of their study participants from birth to age 6 years (19, 25 27), and (2) the researchers did not record the residence of their participants at the time of examination (2527). As a result it is not possible to determine if the fluorosis observed in these samples was a true reflection of the communities' prevalence levels. There could have been bias if some of the participants were not living in those communities when their fluorosis was developing and were thus not representative members of the communities. This makes it difficult to determine if the problem of dental fluorosis in Mexico is confined to specific areas or if it is becoming generalized. Adding to the doubts about the representativeness of the samples is the fact that many of the studies were conducted using convenience samples.
A third concern with the studies included in this review was that some kind of training of examiners was reported in all of them but that measurements of calibration were rarely reported. Fluorosis is a difficult condition to diagnose, even for the experienced examiner (24). This lack of information provided on the accuracy of the examiners who were determining fluorosis presence makes it difficult to know whether differences reported among regions or in time were a true reflection of the populations' differences in fluorosis prevalence or they were instead a reflection of differences in the examiners' assessments.
It is also difficult to compare the data due to the differences in the methodology used to collect them. Of the 14 studies reviewed, 12 of them (1, 17, 19 21, 23, 25, 26, 2932) used the Dean's Index or its modification (18). One study (27) used the Thylstrup-Fejerskov Index (TFI) (33), and others (1, 25) supplemented the Dean's Index with the community index of dental fluorosis (24). This variety of indices makes direct data comparison difficult and at best unreliable. The apparent prevalence of fluorosis reported for a population can be influenced by factors other than true differences in fluoride exposure, such as differences in the methodology used to conduct the examinations. These differences, intrinsic in the design of the different indices used, may account at least in part for some of the difference observed among studies conducted at different times (in addition, some articles did not provide information on when the investigations were performed) or in different areas within communities or states in Mexico. Even when comparing prevalence results obtained using the same index, caution must be exercised (24). In addition, it must be kept in mind that fluorosis prevalence is directly influenced by the case definition used to calculate it. For example, the case definition for the Tooth Surface Index of Fluorosis is based on the tooth surface unit, while Dean's Index defines cases of fluorosis on the basis of individual teeth.
These various problems not only contributed to our difficulties in determining if dental fluorosis constitutes a generalized problem in Mexico, they also interfered with resolving whether or not there has been a recent increase in the fluorosis prevalence in the country. Nevertheless, a more important factor that precludes us from determining if fluorosis is indeed increasing in Mexico is the lack of available local historical prevalence data. Only 1 of the 24 articles that we obtained was published before 1990, with all the other studies being conducted after salt fluoridation was introduced nationally in Mexico in 1991. Direct comparisons of similar populations before and after salt fluoridation was introduced were not possible. Only one study concluded that fluorosis prevalence might be linked to the use of fluoridated salt; that was the Espinosa-Fernández et al. (27) article on the city of Guadalajara. However, the fluoridated salt probably did not have an impact in the Guadalajara sample because the distribution of that salt began when the children in the samples were old enough to no longer be susceptible to developing dental fluorosis. The fluorosis could have been due to other sources that were not studied.
The situation was clearer for the water fluoride determinations in the reviewed articles because that analysis had fewer methodological problems. Nevertheless, the issues of representativeness and generalizability of results still need to be considered. In all of the 14 reviewed studies, the analytical techniques that were described have been validated, and all of the studies that used these techniques described the internal quality control checks, indicating that the determinations were accurate. However, the water samples obtained in some studies (1, 17, 23, 25, 2932) were not collected at random, again making it difficult to determine how representative their results were. The sources of water fluoride content were not always stated, or the information was not available.
The strongest evidence reported to date of a possible fluorosis problem in Mexico comes from the studies conducted in communities located at high altitudes. Epidemiological studies performed in the countries of Kenya and Tanzania have indicated that higher prevalence and severity of fluorosis may be related to high altitude, even when suboptimal concentrations of fluoride are present in the drinking water (34, 35). According to its 2000 census, Mexico had six large cities (that is, above 500 000 in population) and many smaller cities and towns that were located at 2 000 m above sea level or higher. Therefore, based on the results from the studies conducted in communities located at high altitude (1, 2932), a difference might be expected in fluorosis prevalence among populations in Mexico ingesting equivalent amounts of fluoride but living at different altitudes. One study (1) concluded that several factors, such as high altitude and malnutrition, might affect fluoride metabolism, thus increasing the risk of developing dental fluorosis.
The question of reliability has to be kept in mind when summarizing findings. However, it is possible to conclude that the results of the 14 studies we reviewed here have shown that some tap water supplies and some bottled water sold in Mexico are obviously above optimal in fluoride content. In the areas where this is true, fluorosis could be a public health problem.
Regardless of the fact that it is not possible to determine if the estimates of fluorosis prevalence in Mexico are a true reflection of the studied populations' prevalence levels, it cannot be ignored that high dental fluorosis was reported by 12 of the 14 reviewed studies. The few studies that have been conducted after the introduction of fluoridated salt in Mexico have shown that the prevalence of fluorosis was higher than what should be expected when compared to historical data from communities with optimal fluoridation in other countries. However, due to both the scarcity of the information and the methodological characteristics of the studies conducted in Mexico, it is not possible to conclude if fluorosis is a generalized public health problem in the country, nor is it possible to know if the prevalence of fluorosis is increasing.
In spite of this poorly defined epidemiological background, Mexico has a public health fluoridation program that operates nationally. As an alternative to water fluoridation, salt fluoridation is successfully used in several other countries throughout the world (36). In Mexico, salt fluoridation was developed and tested during the 1980s (10). It was implemented nationally in 1991 even though the program did not become official until 1995 (11). However, results of studies undertaken by health authorities to monitor urinary fluoride excretion, conduct quality control audits, and determine fluorosis epidemiology trends have not been published. Results from at least one study have shown that the fluoride content in the salt available in Mexico was variable, either more or less than 250 ppm, which is the average concentration recommended by the Mexican Public Health Service (37).
When the fluorosis prevalence estimates from the studies reviewed in this article are compared with the availability of fluoridated salt, the results of the studies conducted in communities located at high altitudes are of particular concern. Several studies reported the distribution of fluoridated salt in areas where water fluoride is above optimal. Provisions are made in the regulations to avoid the distribution of fluoridated salt in the areas where water fluoride is above negligible, but the regulations do not consider the effect that altitude appears to have on fluoride metabolism and fluorosis prevalence, and no adjustments in the amount of fluoride added to salt are recommended for salt distributed in communities at high altitudes.
Systematic data collection on the prevalence of dental fluorosis has not been achieved in Mexico. Nevertheless, it could be argued that the small number of studies that have been conducted have found that most of the dental fluorosis reported in Mexico fell into the "mild" to "moderate" categories, which cannot be considered a public health problem, other than the aesthetic concerns. It could also be argued that specific problem areas have been identified and are addressed by the current regulations.
Official figures have not yet been published regarding salt fluoridation efficacy and toxicity in Mexico. As long as there is no comprehensive study of dental fluorosis that encompasses fluorosis prevalence and the general public's perceptions of this prevalence, it will be impossible to determine if dental fluorosis is a public health problem in Mexico and if it is increasing.
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27. Espinosa-Fernández R, Barragán-Osorio VN, Santoyo-Nuño JE. Guadalajara debe ser declarada zona endémica de fluorosis. 1 de cada 3 niños víctima de este problema. Odontología Actual 1995;2(9):711. [ Links ]
28. Espinosa-Fernández R, Gutiérrez-Villaseñor E. Guadalajara zona endémica de fluorosis. Odontología Actual 1996;2(12):1318. [ Links ]
29. Irigoyen ME, Molina N, Luengas I. Prevalence and severity of dental fluorosis in a Mexican community with above-optimal fluoride concentration in drinking water. Comm Dent Oral Epidemiol 1995;23:243245. [ Links ]
30. Irigoyen CME, Sánchez HG, Molina FN, Luengas AI. Fluorosis dental en comunidades rurales localizadas en zonas con elevada altitud. Rev Asoc Dent Mex 1997;54(1):4650. [ Links ]
31. Molina-Frechero N, Irigoyen ME, Luengas-Aguirre I. Fluorosi dentale in bambini en età scolare. Prev Assist Dent 1995;21:3132. [ Links ]
32. Jiménez Farfán MD, Sánchez-García S, Ledesma-Montes C, Molina-Frechero N, Hernández-Guerrero JC. Fluorosis dental en niños radicados en el suroeste de la Ciudad de México. Rev Mex Ped 2001;68(2):5255. [ Links ]
33. Thylstrup A, Fejerskov O. Clinical appearance and surface distribution of dental fluorosis in permanent teeth in relation to histological changes. Community Dent Oral Epidemiol 1978;6:315328. [ Links ]
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Manuscript received 19 September 2002. Manuscript accepted for publication on 13 May 2003
1 Send correspondence and requests for reprints to: Armando Ernesto Soto-Rojas, Universidad Intercontinental, Facultad de Odontología, Av. Insurgentes Sur 4303, Santa Úrsula Xitle CP 14090, Mexico City, Mexico; telephone: (5255) 5573-8544 ext. 2812; fax: (5255) 5513-3303; e-mail: email@example.com | <urn:uuid:341fcf78-5898-42f1-91b0-09d8357680ed> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.scielosp.org/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1020-49892004000100003&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en | 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 | 0.915252 | 10,598 | 2.71875 | 3 |
- FAO in the 2016 Humanitarian Appeals19/01/2016
- FAO in the 2016 Sahel humanitarian appeal 19/01/2016
- FAO in the 2016 humanitarian appeal for the Central African Republic 19/01/2016
- FAO in the 2015 Humanitarian Appeals - Mid-year update22/06/2015
- FAO’s role in the Mozambique Floods Response and Recovery Proposal 2015 19/02/2015
China: UN Appeal for Wenchuan Earthquake Eary Recovery Support
On 12 May 2008, the Wenchuan Earthquake struck 92 km north of the Sichuan provincial capital of Chengdu, causing massive devastation across eight provinces of the People’s Republic of China. The earthquake affected some 46 million people. It took over 70 000 lives, destroyed almost 6.5 million homes and left millions homeless, injured, missing, or separated from their families.
Over 400 000 people lost their jobs in urban areas and more than 5 million farmers lost their harvests. The counties of Anxian, Beichuan, Jiangyou, Mianzhu, Pingwu and Shifang were among the worst affected. Entire villages were destroyed and several rural towns had to be completely evacuated. Just when humanitarian needs were most acute, damaged road networks rendered many of the worst hit villages inaccessible. Extensive damage to sanitation, water distribution and public health services gave further cause for human suffering.
Despite a swift national response and generous international support, needs remain high – especially since recovery efforts were set back by torrential rainfall in September 2008. The rains brought landslides and floods to the Sichuan province, destroying vast areas of crops and creating further hardships for those still living in shelters. The UN China Appeal for Wenchuan Earthquake Early Recovery Support was launched on 16 July 2008 and appealed for a total of USD 33.5 million. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Labour Organization and the United Nations Development Programme are the lead agencies for livelihoods, with FAO supporting Government efforts in the agricultural sector.
Challenges facing food security and livelihoods
Widespread crop and irrigation destruction and the loss of seed stocks, farm tools and machinery have left millions of farmers’ livelihoods eroded. An estimated 30 percent of the 2008 wheat crop has been lost, along with 60 million bags for edible mushroom production. Some 100 000 hectares of paddy fields have dried out because of damage to irrigation systems. The livestock sector has also suffered heavy losses, including 32 million animal deaths and the destruction of 27 million square metres of shelter.
The depletion of vegetation due to landslides and quake-lakes has seriously affected the livelihoods of forest farmers and caused tremendous ecological damage. In the aftermath of the disaster, many families have to prioritize rebuilding their homes, leaving no funds available to replace productive assets. This has left them exposed to the risk of a vicious circle whereby the lack of investment leads to reduced production and, once more, inability to invest. Impoverished by the loss of assets, farmers face the additional challenges of degraded arable land, commercial forestry, access roads and reservoirs.
The seed production system has also suffered massive blows, creating further difficulties for farmers who need to replace lost grain. In the transition from emergency to recovery, continuing support is needed to rehabilitate agricultural livelihoods and restore the food security of China’s most vulnerable earthquake victims.
In the context of the Appeal, FAO requested USD 2.5 million to assist the Government of China in restoring agricultural livelihoods. So far, FAO has raised USD 2.4 million thanks to support from the governments of Belgium, Luxembourg and Sweden. With the funds received, FAO is working closely with the Ministry of Agriculture and relevant line ministries through a two-pronged approach:
- In the most affected villages, key inputs to revive production of a “lead crop” are distributed to farming families. Activities are underway to boost production and marketing of vegetables, garlic, potatoes, canola, tea, plums, pears and edible mushrooms.
- In severely affected areas with diverse input needs, farmers receive cash vouchers to procure inputs of their choice in local stores, thereby strengthening village-level agricultural input trade.
Further funding is urgently needed to kick-start rehabilitation of the livestock, aquaculture and forestry sectors in Sichuan province. All of FAO’s ongoing and forthcoming earthquake rehabilitation interventions take the form of pilot projects. They are designed to set innovative, sustainable and safe examples for a much larger Government-led rehabilitation process expected to take off in 2009 | <urn:uuid:955e64a5-6c36-477e-b85d-061bf30c3ed6> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.fao.org/emergencies/llamamientos/llamamiento-detalle/es/c/149357/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395346.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00187-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934575 | 944 | 2.625 | 3 |
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A person who has borderline diabetes, also referred to as prediabetes, has higher than normal blood sugar levels. Even though the levels may be abnormally high, they are not high enough to indicate full blown diabetes. Many people with borderline diabetes eventually develop type 2 diabetes, but this can sometimes be avoided if steps are taken to improve overall health. People with this condition normally have blood sugar levels that fall between 100 and 125 mg/dl (milligrams per deciliter). Levels less than 100 mg/dl are normal, and levels more than 125 mg/dl indicate diabetes.
There are two different tests doctors typically use to diagnose borderline diabetes. The first test is a standard fasting test that requires a person to avoid eating for a certain amount of time, usually overnight, before having his or her blood drawn. If the results show a sign of prediabetes, the test is often done again. It is important that the test be performed at least a few times so doctors can be sure that levels are consistently high before diagnosing their patients.
The other test that some doctors use to determine if a patient has borderline diabetes is the oral glucose test. This test is similar to the fasting test, but a patient is usually asked to drink a very sweet liquid in the morning before the test is done. A doctor will normally take blood just after the patient drinks the liquid and again a few hours later. This is to find out how quickly the body can get rid of the excess glucose in the blood. If the blood levels are between 140 and 199 mg/dl after the second time the blood is taken, the patient probably has borderline diabetes.
If a person is diagnosed with borderline, or prediabetes, this does not mean it is inevitable that he or she will eventually have diabetes. This diagnosis could actually be considered a positive thing because it may give a person the chance he needs to improve his health, which would likely prevent him from ever being diagnosed with diabetes. After a borderline diabetes diagnosis has been made, it is very important for a person to start eating healthy foods, begin an exercise routine, and lose some weight if she needs to. In most cases, doctors ask patients with borderline diabetes to check their blood sugar levels every day to be sure they don't go too high. After a few months of making improved lifestyle changes, a patient should probably go back and have the same tests done again in case there may be some improvement.
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:9614250b-8660-45c0-a97f-80a2f6c1d1f7> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.wisegeek.net/what-is-borderline-diabetes.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403502.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00035-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958767 | 554 | 3.25 | 3 |
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has said it will send a first shipment of emergency food aid to impoverished North Korea, where a series of deluges and a typhoon have left hundreds of people either dead or missing.
The North's state media reported on Saturday that the death toll from flooding between late June and the end of last month had increased to nearly 170.
KCNA news agency said the number of missing people had risen to some 400, while 212,200 had been left homeless.
In a statement published on its website on Friday, the WFP said it would send emergency assistance comprising "an initial ration of 400 grams of maize per day for 14 days".
| North Korea's agricultural sector has become increasingly vulnerable to floods and drought
A United Nations mission which recently visited the affected regions found considerable damage to maize, soybean and rice fields, the WFP statement said.
KCNA reported on Saturday the floods had washed away 65,280 hectares of farmland. It added more than 1,400 educational, healthcare and factory buildings had also collapsed or damaged.
Since the mid-1990s, North Korea's agricultural sector has become increasingly vulnerable to floods and drought as a result of widespread deforestation.
In Geneva on Friday, UN agencies said access to North Korea had improved during the most recent flooding, indicating the country wants to ease its traditional isolation at least temporarily.
Still, it remains one of the world's most reclusive states, even after young leader Kim Jong-un inherited dynastic power from his father Kim Jong-il, who died in December.
A recent UN report classified 7.2 million of the country's 24 million population as "chronic poor", and said one in three children was stunted from poor nutrition. | <urn:uuid:55b9d0d1-54cb-4597-ad9b-8e1b24368fb1> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2012/08/2012841579641953.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404826.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00187-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974262 | 358 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Gender in Civil Rights Movement: Desegregation
Jo Ann Robinson and the Women's Political Council
During the Christmas holiday in 1949, Jo Ann Robinson, a professor at an all-black college in Alabama, boarded a bus headed to the airport for a trip home to Ohio. Late for her flight and loaded down with gifts for family, she took a seat just behind the driver in the nearly empty bus. The driver yelled, "GET UP FROM THERE," rose from his seat, and threatened to strike her. Frightened and angry, Robinson took her things and left the bus.
This was not the first time a white bus driver had raised a hand to a black female passenger. In fact, Robinson was aware of dozens of similar episodes. As a founding member of the Women's Political Council (WPC), a group of professional black women committed to informing the community of injustices, she documented instances in which black people riding city buses had been denied a bus transfer, forced to pay extra fare, or were verbally abused, assaulted, or arrested. Robinson and women of the Council kept track of court trials and fines paid by working men and women who violated local segregation laws. In Montgomery, Alabama, the WPC informed the community of each case, distributing handbills with detailed accounts of the events.
The Right Moment, the Right Person
Robinson's humiliating ordeal in 1949 further emboldened the group to seek some new plan of action, one that would be much more than informative. The WPC was quite aware of the fact that the vast majority of passengers on the city lines were African-American, and predominantly women. They felt that these facts might be the key to a successful and far-reaching bus boycott. In a letter to Montgomery's mayor, W. A. Gayle, Robinson wrote, "Mayor Gayle, three quarters of the riders of these public conveyances are Negroes." She informed him of the stakes, for "If Negroes did not patronize [the buses] they could not possibly operate."
But Robinson and the WPC understood that it would be difficult to rally the black citizens of Alabama to risk harassment, injury, and the loss of work in protest of something that many considered simply a fact of life. They needed the right moment and the right person to represent the issue and inspire the community to take action. With the help of the NAACP, the group selected Rosa Parks, a respectable, strong-willed woman who on the first day of December 1955, was arrested for disobeying a bus driver's orders to rise to allow a white man to sit. Parks, like many other black citizens, had resisted these kinds of demands several times before, but this time, her act would become the rallying cry for thousands of protesters.
Strength in Numbers
With Parks's trial approaching, the WPC urged Jo Ann Robinson to notify the community and initiate the boycott. Robinson stayed up all night making 35,000 copies of a handbill to be distributed not only to men and women, but to school children so that they would take it home to their parents. "This is for Monday, Dec. 5, 1955—Another Negro woman has been arrested and thrown into jail because she refused to get up out of her seat on the bus and give it to a white person... This has to be stopped," the handbill announced. "We are ... asking every Negro to stay off the buses Monday in protest of the arrest and trial. Don't ride the buses to work, to town, to school, or anywhere on Monday."
The Women's Political Council planned a one-day strike, but knew that if enough people participated, it could be extended as long as it might be necessary to convince city, state, or even federal officials to desegregate the buses. The WPC allowed the NAACP and other black leaders to decide whether the Monday boycott had been successful and, if so, how long it should continue. Ultimately more than 50,000 people—women and men, mostly black, but some white citizens, as well—participated in the 381-day Montgomery Bus Boycott. The massive demonstration of courage and perseverance captured the attention of the Supreme Court, which in December 1956 struck down Alabama's segregation laws.
Forgotten Leaders of the Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery Bus Boycott has been remembered as a spontaneous act sparked by Rosa Parks, "the seamstress with tired feet," who in December of 1955 refused to relinquish her seat on a segregated city bus. But, in reality, the boycott was neither spontaneous nor ignited by a single act of defiance. Black students and working men and women who depended upon public transportation had been defending themselves against treatment they deemed unfair for at least a decade prior to the famous Parks confrontation. Under the leadership of an organization of African-American women, the black community had prepared for the fight long before Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. and the other black leaders of the Montgomery Improvement Association decided to extend the strike beyond its monumental first day. Jo Ann Robinson and the Women's Political Council conceived of, initiated, and provided much of the drive for one of the most significant and effective boycotts in American history. | <urn:uuid:bb10fdbd-64fe-4c3b-82bc-9b78172a3af3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.shmoop.com/civil-rights-desegregation/gender.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397428.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00159-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972264 | 1,053 | 3.890625 | 4 |
Having a computer measure accurately how far something has moved can be a tricky business. For robots, things like rotary encoders can be used to track position but these come with problems of their own like not accounting for wheel slip etc.
Another option to track movement is to use an optical laser motion sensor like those used in your mouse. These sensors work by taking pictures of the surface beneath them and calculating movement by looking at how far the pixels have moved from one image to another. The ADNS-9800 is one of these sensors which can capture 12000 frames per second, more than fast enough for most robotics applications. Instead of ripping apart tons of optical mice to get your hands on this chip you can buy a ready-made breakout board with a lens included. The board communicates via SPI and Jkicklighter has provided example code for the Teensy and Arduino over on GitHub. There is also a motion detection interrupt line so you can let your main processor go to sleep and wake up whenever things start moving. | <urn:uuid:05f6fd8b-6edc-407a-a122-d1a8e3382f58> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blog.tindie.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392069.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00188-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948568 | 207 | 3 | 3 |
A new analysis of the worldwide scientific literature shows that professors Deborah Steinberg and Jim Bauer of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science are at the cutting edge of their fields.
The analysis, conducted as part of Thomson Reuters' Essential Science Indicators, shows that Steinberg and Bauer's work helps define a "research front"-a cluster of highly cited scientific papers in areas of emerging interest.
Thomson Reuters' research-front analysis is based on identifying the most-cited papers in more than 11,000 scientific journals during the latest five-year period, and then determining how often these papers have been cited together by other research authors. According to the company, this process identifies areas where important work is being done and where the scientific community is focusing its attention.
Steinberg and Bauer were recognized for their contributions to a research front in the "Biological Effects of Ocean Chemistry." This front has experienced the largest increase in journal articles within the geosciences this year.
Steinberg, a biological oceanographer, authored or co-authored four journal articles related to her on-going collaborative study of the ocean's "twilight zone"-the dim layer from 300 to 3,000 feet where little-known processes affect the ocean's ability to absorb and store carbon dioxide accumulating in our atmosphere. These articles have been cited by other scientific papers more than 60 times since their publication in 2007 and 2008.
Steinberg's role in the multi-institution "VERTIGO" project was to identify plankton species living in the twilight zone and to understand differences in the food webs that propel the marine carbon cycle.
Bauer, a chemical oceanographer, was co-author of a paper reporting on the results of the Southern Ocean Iron Experiment, or SOFeX, one of the largest oceanographic experiments ever mounted. This paper has been cited 179 times since its 2004 publication in Science.
SOFeX, a 2-year collaborative effort among 17 leading U.S. oceanographic institutions, brought 3 ships and 45 tons of equipment and supplies to the waters around Antarctica to determine how the Southern Ocean would respond to iron enrichment. Sprinkling iron onto the ocean surface has been touted as one way to help curb global warming-based on the idea that this iron "fertilizer" can boost the rate at which marine plants remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Steinberg and Bauer's citation successes add to those of other VIMS researchers. An earlier analysis of articles published in coastal science journals between 1971 and 2003 showed that VIMS researchers Bob Diaz, Hugh Ducklow and John Milliman had authored three of the 10 most highly cited works during that span.
"Having a publication cited by many other authors is a sure sign that your work has value," says VIMS Dean and Director John Wells. "VIMS is extremely proud that our scientists continue to have such a demonstrable impact on the global research community." | <urn:uuid:15196142-970e-4b71-894c-2966efb53501> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.wm.edu/research/ideation/issues/2009-spring/literature-study-shows-vims-faculty-on-the-cutting-edge.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396887.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00190-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945177 | 598 | 3.3125 | 3 |
Stochastic (ordinary) differential equations or SDE are differential equations that describe certain random processes. They are used in statistical physics to model systems with both a deterministic influence and a random influence. The simplest example is a classical particle in a potential coupled to a heat bath. Physicists often refer to the corresponding class of equations as ‘the’ Langevin equation.
The weather, and climate, can be modelled using similar but also more complicated SDE. For example, the El Niño/Southern Oscillation is an important phenomenon centered in the Pacific ocean, which displays irregular oscillatory behavior and has been studied using stochastic differential equations. For more, see ENSO.
Numerical solvers of SDE can also be used to synthesize random processes in order to produce synthetic time series, such that techniques of time series analysis can be tested, when real data is not available.
This page is about ordinary differential equations only, see stochastic partial differential equations.
We will concentrate on one dimensional ordinary SDE, the Ito calculus and integration with respect to Brownian motion (also known as the ‘Wiener process’).
We’ll deliberately switch to the sloppy physicist’s language in this paragraph.
We have a system that can be modelled as a particle moving in a potential subject to friction proportional to its velocity and random influences from the coupling to a heat bath. Let be the time and write as the space coordinate of our particle, as the time derivative.
As a non-relativistic classical particle its equation of motion is:
Here the constant is the mass of our particle. The constant describes a frictional force which depends linearly on the velocity of the particle; this ansatz for the friction is called Newtonian friction.
It is the term that makes this differential equation stochastic: it describes the influence of the heat bath. The constant is often called the diffusion constant or diffusion coefficient. is not a fixed function of time; it is a random function, or technically a random process called the Wiener process, also known as Brownian motion or red noise. is used to denote the ‘time derivative’ of the Wiener process, which is called white noise. Physicists often speak as if white noise were a random process. Strictly speaking there is no random process that is the time derivative of the Wiener process, but it is possible to construct white noise as a distribution-valued random process in a framework called the ‘white noise calculus’. Luckily, it is not necessary to understand this in any more detail for the following.
If we assume our particle moves in the ‘high friction limit’ where the acceleration is negligible, we can rewrite the equation as
absorbing the constants m and into the potential function and the diffusion .
This is the way that physicists, chemists etc. usually write the following stochastic differential equation
Every Langevin equation or SDE of the form
has an associated Fokker-Planck equation (as physicists say) aka Kolmogorov forward equation (as mathematicians say), that describes the time evolution of the probability distribution of the Langevin equation: From the physicist’s POV this probability distribution tells us what the probability is to find the particle at a certain time in a certain place.
The mathematical theorem making all of this precise is the Feynman-Kac formula.
The associated Fokker-Planck equation is in our example:
with denoting the probability to find the particle at time t at position x if it was at time t’ at position x’.
If the particle starts at x at time 0 then our initial condition is
We’ll collect some mathematical theorems and other results that are needed for the models and simulations on the Azimuth project here. For starters, note that the usual chain rule of calculus is not valid for Itô stochastic processes, but one has to use the Itô formula instead.
Attractors play an important role in the study of the asymptotic behavior of dynamical systems. There is an extensive literature dealing with attractors of deterministic dynamical systems. For stochastic dynamical systems, however, comparably little progress has been made by now.
Two different approaches to stochastic bifurcation have been pursued so far, the “physicist’s” (P) and the “dynamical” (D) approach, see [L. Arnold et al. (1995)]. Suppose a random dynamical system which depends on a parameter is given. Then the approach called (P)-bifurcation deals with qualitative changes of stationary measures when a parameter is varied. It is particularly useful for stochastic differential equations, since densities of stationary measures are delivered by the Fokker–Planck equation. (P)-bifurcations have been studied intensively by engineers […]
The approach called (D)-bifurcation studies the loss of stability of invariant measures and the occurrence of new invariant measures when a parameter is varied. It is tied to sample stability through the use of Lyapunov exponents (given by the multiplicative ergodic theorem) to characterize stability of invariant measures. This approach has proven to be very successful.
It is possible to solve SDE numerically, in the sense that one can get numerical approximations to certain properties of the stochastic process that is the solution of a given SDE. Algorithms for solving SDE numerically are generalizations of algorithms used for solving ordinary differential equations (ODE).
For some general terminology see discrete approximation scheme.
Let be an Ito process that is a solution to the SDE
on with the initial condition . For a given equidistant discretization of , an Euler approximation is a stochastic process satisfying the recursion relations
and . If we compare this approximation to the usual Euler scheme for an ODE, we see that in order to compute numerically using a computer, we need random numbers with a Gaussian distribution , since is distributed according to . For this, we need a random number generator.
The simplest scheme that achieves a higher order of strong convergence (see below) than the Euler scheme is the Milstein scheme.
We will use the nomenclature of the preceding paragraph about the Euler scheme.
We need to generalize the concepts of convergence of a discrete approximation to the solution of ODE to the stochastic setting. There are several ways to do this, two common ones are:
Let be the maximum time difference of a given discretization of .
A discrete approximation to an Ito process converges strongly, if
It is said to be of strong order if there is a constant such that
As we see from the definition, a strong approximation needs to approximate the original process pathwise.
A discrete approximation to an Ito process converges weakly for a given class of functions , if for every function we have
where we assume that all appearing expectation values exist and are finite.
It is said to be of weak order with respect to if there is a constant such that for every function :
We speak simply of weak convergence when is the set of all polynomials.
So weak convergence means that the approximation needs to approximate the probability distribution of the original process . Weak and strong convergence are indeed different concepts, example:
The Euler scheme is of strong order 0.5 and of weak order 1.0.
Strong approximations are needed if we are interested in properties of the process that depend on properties of sample paths, for example, when we are interested in trajectories of projectiles. Weak approximations are needed when we are interested in properties of the probability distribution of , for example, when we would like to compute functionals of : According to the Feynman-Kac formula we can use weak approximations to solve the associated Fokker-Planck equation numerically. This may be an interesting alternative to numerical methods for hyperbolic partial differential equations, that apply to Fokker-Planck equations, in high dimensions and given complex boundary conditions.
Applications of stochastic differential equations to climate physics are described here:
In particular, the following article describes some very simple models of long-term climate variability:
As a sample, here is the simplest one:
This equation describes the interaction between the atmosphere and the ocean’s surface. Here is the atmosphere temperature and is the ocean surface temperature, which are idealized as functions only of time. The constants and describe the heat capacity of the atmosphere and the ocean, respectively. In this idealization the atmosphere and ocean temperatures are assumed to interact with each other and with cold outer space in a linear way, following Newton’s law of cooling:
The rate of heat loss of a body is proportional to the difference in temperatures between the body and its surroundings.
These linear interactions are described by the constants . Finally, we assume the atmosphere is affected by random fluctuations described by the term: here is white noise, and is a constant.
For a somewhat realistic model, we assume the heat capacity of the ocean surface is much greater than that of the atmosphere:
Starting from these assumptions one can work out the power spectrum for both atmosphere and ocean surface temperatures, and . The power spectrum of a random process is the square of the absolute value of its Fourier transform: this measures how ‘strong’ that process is at various frequencies. It turns out that the power spectrum for is roughly flat for frequencies below
and drops off in a manner like the power spectrum of ‘red noise’ at higher frequencies. As mentioned above, red noise is another name for Brownian motion, and it has power inversely proportional to the square of frequency.
The moral is that rapid fluctuations of the atmospheric temperature can drive fluctuations in the ocean temperature that last much longer, even in this simple linearized model. This is a small first step towards understanding how temperature fluctuations at time scales greater than a year can arise in the Earth’s climate. However, many examples of such fluctuations, such as the ENSO and AMO, are quasi-periodic in nature and require much more sophisticated models.
Stochastic resonance is a phenomenon that is best studied using SDE.
A given time series can be used to fit a SDE from a fixed set of models, see Parametric estimation for stochastic differential equations.
If the right hand side of a SDE depends on values of the process in the past, one talks about stochastic differential delay equations.
Stochastic differential equation, Wikipedia.
Brownian noise, Wikipedia. Also known as ‘red noise’.
White noise, Wikipedia.
The following textbook proceeds by explaining little chunks of theory and then progresses through exercises with increasing complexity. It starts with basic probability theory and ends with SDE:
A modern classic, due to its lucid style and the many applications that are explained, is this:
The standard references are
and its accompanying volume
The following book is an elementary introduction to models in physics, chemistry and other sciences using Langevin equations:
The following book is a classic reference for the practicioner, Risken explains model building and approximate solution methods like linear response theory? using a minimum of mathematical background: | <urn:uuid:b7620159-8617-4979-be2b-ef558dce3bda> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.azimuthproject.org/azimuth/show/Stochastic+differential+equation | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396959.83/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00049-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923648 | 2,368 | 3.8125 | 4 |
Anemia is a common condition and you may have heard of pregnant women, children or the elderly being anemic. When I was undergoing chemotherapy, I became anemic, too. This means I did not have enough good red blood cells to carry oxygen from my lungs to my body.
Anemia happens for many reasons. It can be caused by a lack of vitamin B-12, folate (also called folic acid) or iron, important building blocks needed to make red blood cells. Damaged kidneys make less erythropoietin, the hormone that stimulates bone marrow to make red blood cells. Red blood cells last about 120 days, so a healthy, non-anemic person is constantly making new red blood cells. Blood loss or a condition that increases destruction of red blood cells also causes anemia.
Many symptoms of anemia – fatigue, pale skin, fast or irregular heartbeat, shortness of breath, chest pain, dizziness, confusion, cold hands and feet and headache – are also caused by other diseases and conditions. If you suspect anemia, see your health-care provider. Some causes of anemia, such as bleeding from colon cancer or lack of red blood cell production as happens in leukemia, can be life-threatening. If you have some anemia symptoms, your health-care provider may perform a physical exam and order blood tests to look for the cause.
If you are significantly anemic, additional tests may be needed to determine what kind, of the more than 400 types of anemia, you have. All of these anemias can be classified as due to one of three causes: blood loss, decreased or faulty red blood cell production or destruction of red blood cells.
The most common type is iron-deficiency anemia, which can be treated with dietary changes and supplements, as can anemia caused by folate deficiency. Anemia caused by vitamin B-12 deficiency is treated with dietary changes and supplements as well, but if your digestive system cannot absorb vitamin B-12 properly, you may need vitamin B-12 injections periodically.
Treatments for other types of anemia can vary greatly, and treatment for one type may be dangerous if used for another type of anemia, which is why it is so important to see a health care provider about it. When anemia is caused by an underlying disease, that disease must be treated. Some anemias may require steroids, immune suppressants, surgery to stop bleeding, blood transfusions, a bone marrow transplant, injections of erythropoietin, avoidance of certain medications, or some combination of treatments.
Anyone can become anemic, but women of childbearing age, pregnant women, infants and older adults should be especially on the lookout for iron-deficient or vitamin-deficient anemia. Other risk factors for anemia include a poor diet, blood loss from surgery or injury, chronic diseases, long-term infection and family history of anemia.
Eating a healthy, well-balanced diet usually prevents anemia caused by vitamin and iron deficiencies. Make an appointment to be seen by your health care provider if you suspect anemia. No matter what you think the cause might be for your symptoms, it is good to know for certain to ensure any underlying conditions are detected and treated early.
No lifeguard on duty: the City of Coeur d'Alene says there won't be lifeguards on beaches this summer -- Liz Burch @KHQLiz @KHQLocalNews
My late father used to claim that something always happened when he finally found a style of shoes he liked. "They stop making them." He made this assertion repeatedly. So ...
U.S. Attorney for Idaho Wendy Olson issued this statement today: “Many in the press, public and online bloggers are misinterpreting the statement I issued on Friday, June 24, 2016, in ...
City staff recommends that the Spokane Valley City Council hire a consultant to search for a new city manager, which is expected to cost about $35,000. Expect a discussion about ... | <urn:uuid:23ad387a-280a-46ce-b1b4-083aa62f87b5> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2012/jun/19/when-it-comes-to-anemia-causes-symptoms-are-vast/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397111.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00053-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943675 | 833 | 3.6875 | 4 |
Smog season is once again upon us.
Southern California this week has weathered three consecutive days of unhealthful levels of ozone, the corrosive gas that forms when emissions from cars, trucks, factories and other polluters react with each other in the sunlight.
Kevin Durkee, a senior meteorologist for the South Coast Air Quality Management District, said air quality should improve Thursday and Friday then return to unhealthful levels during the weekend, when cloudy mornings are expected to give way to sunshine.
Late spring’s longer days, more intense sunlight and warmer temperatures accelerate the formation of ozone as the pollutants move east with sea breezes toward the San Bernardino Mountains, Durkee said.
“We also have a temperature inversion, which seems to trap everything,” he said.
Since early April, the region’s air quality district has logged 13 days in which ozone levels surpassed the federal health standard. The good news is that the 2014 season has gotten a slower start than last year and 2012, both of which had more unhealthful days by the end of May.
Ozone is considered a health hazard, especially for people who have compromised lungs or are in frail health.
The gas reacts with moist tissues to irritate eyes, nasal passages, throat, bronchial tubes and lungs. It can aggravate asthma and other respiratory conditions and cause fatigue, nausea and headaches, resulting in more hospital visits and missed school and work days.
Higher ozone levels also have been linked to higher death rates.
Sensitive people, such as those with asthma or heart conditions, are advised to minimize outdoor activities when ozone exceeds the health standard.
Southern California faces a 2024 federal deadline to meet the clean air standard for ozone. But the region has a long way to go. Last year, the South Coast Air Basin — extending from the Pacific Ocean to the San Bernardino Mountains — logged 86 unhealthful days. Crestline and Redlands had the greatest number of days that failed to meet the standard.
Still, the air quality has improved markedly over the past decades. In 1992, for example, ozone levels surpassed the current health standard 201 times, and the air district declared 41 first-stage smog alerts, warning all people to minimize their exposure by staying indoors.
Contact the writer: 951-368-9471 or email@example.com | <urn:uuid:4cbfdac8-41e6-466e-972c-8414fba51192> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.pe.com/articles/ozone-695337-air-days.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00064-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934428 | 486 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Confused by the "sell by," "use by" and "best before" labels on the foods sold at grocery stores? So are more than 90 percent of Americans, who prematurely discard edibles because they have misinterpreted the dates stamped on the products, according to a report released Wednesday.
Many consumers read an item's sell-by date as an indicator of when the food will spoil. But it's an inaccurate assumption, according to a study conducted by the Natural Resources Defense Council and Harvard Law School's Food Law and Policy Clinic.
Manufacturers use sell-by dates to help retailers manage their inventory. It encourages stores to sell a product within a specific time frame so that the item still has a shelf life once it's purchased.
Not even the common "best before" and "use by" labels indicate a deadline after which products go bad, according to researchers. Instead, they are producer estimates of how long the food will be at peak quality. | <urn:uuid:7690fcb4-1488-43e1-8c0c-662dd805e06b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.tvnewslies.org/tvnl/index.php/news/health/29842-people-misread-use-by-label-40-of-us-food-is-tossed-.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393442.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00013-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951891 | 195 | 3 | 3 |
On This Page
Toxicological Profile for Dichloropropenes
The ATSDR toxicological profile succinctly characterizes the toxicologic and adverse health effects information for the hazardous substance described here. Each peer-reviewed profile identifies and reviews the key literature that describes a hazardous substance's toxicologic properties. Other pertinent literature is also presented, but is described in less detail than the key studies. The complete list of topics covered (chapter titles) is shown at the left and in more detail further down this page.
The focus of the profile is on health and toxicologic information. Therefore, each profile begins with a Public Health Statement that summarizes in nontechnical language, a substance's relevant properties.
A useful two page information sheet, the ToxFAQs™, is also available.
In order to access the ATSDR toxicological profiles' PDF files below, you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader .
You may download that program for free from this link to Adobe and then use it to access (open) the files below that are labeled as PDF files.
The table of contents and list of individual PDF files are given below.
- Update statement
- Quick reference
- Peer review
- List of figures
- List of tables
1. Public Health Statement, 353 KB
- 1.1 What is this substance?
1.2 What happens to it when it enters the environment?
1.3 How might I be exposed to it?
1.4 How can it enter and leave my body?
1.5 How can it affect my health?
1.6 How can it affect children?
1.7 How can families reduce the risk of exposure?
1.8 Is there a medical test to determine whether I have been exposed to it?
1.9 What recommendations has the federal government made to protect human health?
1.10 Where can I get more information?
- 2.1 Background and environmental exposures in the United
2.2 Summary of health effects
2.3 Minimal risk levels (MRLS)
- 3.1 Introduction
3.2 Discussion of health effects by route of exposure
3.4 Health effects in wildlife potentially relevant to human health
3.5 Mechanisms of action
3.6 Toxicities mediated through the neuroendocrine axis
3.7 Children's susceptibility
3.8 Biomarkers of exposure and effect
3.9 Interactions with other chemicals
3.10 Populations that are unusually susceptible
3.11 Methods for reducing toxic effects
3.12 Adequacy of the database
- 4.1 Chemical identity
4.2 Physical and chemical properties
- 5.1 Production
- 6.1 Overview
6.2 Releases to the environment
6.3 Environmental fate
6.4 Levels monitored or estimated in the environment
6.5 General population and occupational exposure
6.6 Exposures of children
6.7 Populations with potentially high exposure
6.8 Adequacy of the database
- 7.1 Biological materials
7.2 Environmental samples
7.3 Adequacy of the database
- A. ATSDR minimal risk level worksheets
B. User's guide
C. Acronyms, abbreviations, and symbols
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). 2008. Toxicological profile for Dichloropropenes. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service.
All ATSDR toxicological profile PDF files are electronic conversions from paper copy or other electronic ASCII text files. This conversion may have resulted in character translation or format errors. Users are referred to the original paper copy of the toxicological profile for the official text, figures, and tables. Original paper copies can be obtained via the directions on the toxicological profile home page, which also contains other important information about the profiles.
Where can I get more information?
If you have questions or concerns, please contact your community or state health or environmental quality department or:
For more information, contact:
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
Division of Toxicology and Human Health Sciences
1600 Clifton Road NE, Mailstop F-57
Atlanta, GA 30329-4027
Phone: 1-800-CDC-INFO · 888-232-6348 (TTY)
Email: Contact CDC-INFO
ATSDR can also tell you the location of occupational and environmental health clinics. These clinics specialize in recognizing, evaluating, and treating illnesses resulting from exposure to hazardous substances.
Information line and technical assistance:
To order toxicological profiles, contact:
National Technical Information Service
5285 Port Royal Road
Springfield, VA 22161
Phone: 800-553-6847 or 703-605-6000
Some PDF files may be electronic conversions from paper copy or other electronic ASCII text files. This conversion may have resulted in character translation or format errors. Users are referred to the original paper copy of the toxicological profile for the official text, figures, and tables. Original paper copies can be obtained via the directions on the toxicological profile home page, which also contains other important information about the profiles.
The information contained here was correct at the time of publication. Please check with the appropriate agency for any changes to the regulations or guidelines cited.
- Page last reviewed: January 21, 2015
- Page last updated: January 21, 2015
- Content source: Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry | <urn:uuid:4ba4e955-223e-4fb8-baad-29433ef3c457> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/tp.asp?id=836&tid=163 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396887.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00103-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.836576 | 1,143 | 2.890625 | 3 |
Carl Hagenauer, a trained gold and silversmith had founded the Hagenauer workshop in 1898 and was one of the first metal workers to embrace the new shapes of the Art Nouveau era. In 1919, Karl, his eldest son joined the workshop. His main focus was on the everyday implements that he provided with geometric contours and great functionality. In 1925, also the youngest son, Franz (1906-1986), came to work at his father’s shop, which at that time already florished and exported its goods even to the United States. Franz Hagenauer belonged to the Wiener Werkstätte (Viennese Workshops) circle. He studied at the Viennese College of Applied Arts, where he was a student of Professors Franz Cizek and Dagobert Pech. During the years 1921 - 1926, he further received education at the studios of sculptor Anton Hanak and Josef Hortmann. Thus, Franz Hagenauer concentrated first on making sculptures, usually handmade and in brass. He designed a bust of the Madonna for the Curt Schlevogt Company as well as the sculpture "View" and the small sculptures "Duck", "Hare" and "Butterfly", which were also adopted as lid-handle pieces for cigarette cases. His work also includes a small moulded plaque featuring the head of Christ. Karl Hagenauer designed, among others, a coffee service and an elegant tea set that showed his penchant for simple, functional shapes. A series of African warriors, dancers and children demonstrate, in contrast, Europe’s interest in exotic cultures and foreign people, most pronounced in the beginning of the 20th Century. The Hagenauer workshop did not create naturalistic depictions, but decorative archetypes like a stylised sitting warrior and an African woman with child. Most coveted in the United States, were the decorative small bronze figurines by Hagenauer, like Felix the Cat as radiator mascot, from 1928, handmade in brass. In contrast to the Wiener Werkstätte, that went bankrupt in 1936 due to the Great Depression, the Hagenauer workshop prevailed. In the 1950s, they started producing figurines of wood and even had a special furniture line. Franz Hagenauer continued to design elegant metal sculptures until his death in 1986. | <urn:uuid:0e4af897-790a-4d4b-a653-27ba66586094> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.hancocks-london.com/content/hagenauer | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397865.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00049-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967329 | 479 | 2.734375 | 3 |
Gender dysphoria is a condition in which there is a conflict between a person's physical gender and the gender he or she identifies with. For example, a person who is physically a boy may actually feel and act like a girl. The person is very uncomfortable with the gender they were born as.
Gender dysphoria used to be known as gender identity disorder.
People with gender dysphoria may act as members of the opposite sex. The condition may affect:
- Choice of sexual partners
- Mannerisms, behavior, and dress
Gender dysphoria is not the same as homosexuality.
Identity conflicts need to continue over time to be considered gender dysphoria. How the gender conflict occurs is different in each person. For example, some people may cross-dress while others want sex-change surgery. Some people of one gender privately identify more with the other gender.
People who are born with ambiguous genitalia, which can raise questions about their gender, may develop gender dysphoria.
The cause of gender dysphoria is unknown. Hormones in the womb, genes, social and environmental factors (such as parenting) may be involved.
Symptoms can vary by age and are affected by the person's social environment.
- Be disgusted by their own genitals
- Be rejected by their peers, feel alone
- Believe that they will grow up to become the opposite sex
- Say that they want to be the opposite sex
- Dress like the opposite sex
- Feel alone
- Want to live as a person of the opposite sex
- Wish to be rid of their own genitals
Adults and children may:
- Cross-dress, show habits typical of the opposite sex
- Have depression or anxiety
- Withdraw from social interaction
Exams and Tests
The feeling of being in the body of the "wrong" gender must last for at least 2 years for this diagnosis to be made. A history and psychiatric evaluation can confirm the person's constant desire to be the opposite sex.
Individual and family therapy is recommended for children to create a supportive environment at home and in school. Individual and, if appropriate, couples therapy is recommended for adults.
Sex reassignment through surgery and hormonal therapy is an option. But identity problems may continue after this treatment.
Diagnosing and treating this disorder early can reduce the chance of depression, emotional distress, and suicide.
When to Contact a Medical Professional
Make an appointment with your health care provider if you or your child has symptoms of this disorder.
Adelson SL, Amerian Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Committee on Quality Issues. Practice parameter on gay, lesbian, or bisexual sexual orientation, gender nonconformity, and gender discordance in children and adolescents. J Am Acad Child Adolesc. 2012;51:957-974.
American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. 5th ed. Arlington, Va: American Psychiatric Publishing. 2013.
Bockting W. Sexual identity development. In: Kliegman RM, Stanton BF, St. Geme JW III, et al., eds. Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics. 19th ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Elsevier Saunders; 2011:chap 104.2.
Shafer LC. Sexual disorders and sexual dysfunction. In: Stern TA, Rosenbaum JF, Fava M, et al., eds. Massachusetts General Hospital Comprehensive Clinical Psychiatry. 1st ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Elsevier Mosby; 2008:chap 36.
Reviewed By:Fred K. Berger, MD, Addiction and Forensic Psychiatrist, Scripps Memorial Hospital, La Jolla, California. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Isla Ogilvie, PhD, and the A.D.A.M. Editorial team.
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The Agency for Health Care Administration (Agency) and this website do not claim the information on, or referred to by, this site is error free. This site may include links to websites of other government agencies or private groups. Our Agency and this website do not control such sites and are not responsible for their content. Reference to or links to any other group, product, service, or information does not mean our Agency or this website approves of that group, product, service, or information.
Additionally, while health information provided through this website may be a valuable resource for the public, it is not designed to offer medical advice. Talk with your doctor about medical care questions you may have. | <urn:uuid:419aeffd-0d42-457e-bf1c-01bd1c3cf27f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.floridahealthfinder.gov/healthencyclopedia/Health%20Illustrated%20Encyclopedia/1/001527.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00120-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.902523 | 1,023 | 3.890625 | 4 |
A sweeping study on the issue of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in hospitals shows that using antimicrobial soap and ointment on all intensive-care patients significantly decreases bloodstream infection. The results, which are being presented for the first time at IDWeek 2012, may suggest a major change in healthcare practice that could help save lives.
The study involved nearly 75,000 patients in 43 mostly community hospitals in 16 states and involved each hospital's own quality improvement team. Working with these teams enabled important questions to be answered during routine medical care. As such, the study's findings about "universal decolonization" for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) may have widespread applicability to hospitals across the country.
Of the strategies tested, the one that proved to be most effective, was arguably the simplest and most straightforward: Rather than screening intensive care unit (ICU) patients for the bacteria and then focusing on those identified as carriers, all patients were bathed daily with chlorhexidine antiseptic soap for the duration of their ICU stay, and all received mupirocin antibiotic ointment applied in the nose for five days.
Investigators found that the number of patients harboring MRSA—not sick because of it, but at risk for later illness and for spreading it to others—dropped by more than a third. Bloodstream infections caused by MRSA and other pathogens decreased by nearly half.
"This trial provides strong evidence that removing bacteria from the skin and nose is highly effective at preventing serious infection in high-risk ICU patients," says lead researcher Susan Huang, MD, MPH, an associate professor at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine and medical director of epidemiology and infection prevention at University of California, Irvine Healthcare.
"A 44 percent reduction in infection is very promising for improving medical care and protecting highly vulnerable patients," Huang says. "It suggests that treating all ICU patients with this strategy is beneficial. This approach may make screening for drug-resistant organisms unnecessary."
The study is among the significant work being discussed at the inaugural IDWeek meeting, taking place through Sunday in San Diego. With the theme Advancing Science, Improving Care, IDWeek features the latest science and bench-to-bedside approaches in prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and epidemiology of infectious diseases, including HIV, across the lifespan. More than 1,500 abstracts from scientists in this country and internationally will be highlighted over the conference's five days.
The trial, which was conducted in 2010-2011, was a collaborative effort involving several academic institutions, the Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), and research programs at two U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' agencies, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The study concept and design was created by investigators in the CDC's Prevention Epicenter Program at the University of California, Irvine, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute and Harvard Medical School, Rush University and Washington University in St. Louis. A total of 74 adult ICUs in the 43 HCA-affiliated hospitals took part. AHRQ's Healthcare Associated Infections program provided funding to conduct the research as part of the agency's Developing Evidence to Inform Decisions about Effectiveness program.
Scott Fridkin, MD, vice-chair of IDWeek and a CDC senior medical epidemiologist, said the partners planned the study to impact clinical practice at the bedside. "We know that easy-to-use solutions help clinicians protect patients from MRSA and other drug-resistant infections that are known to be deadly for patients in healthcare settings," he says. "The ultimate goal of this effort is to prevent infections and save patients' lives."
In ICUs, many infections are caused by increasingly antibiotic-resistant bacteria that for most people live harmlessly on the skin or, particularly in the case of MRSA, in the nose. These often preventable infections can cause serious complications for patients, prolonging hospital stays, driving up costs and increasing the risk of death. More and more states have mandated MRSA screening by hospitals, but some experts question whether other measures, either targeted or universal, would have greater impact.
Huang and her colleagues looked at the potential benefit in covering all ICU patients. The 43 participating hospitals were randomized and assigned one of three approaches. One group was to continue routine care, screen ICU patients for MRSA and isolate those found to be carrying the bacteria. The second group similarly screened and isolated carriers but also provided bathing with chlorhexidine soap and then nasal mupirocin ointment to help remove (decolonize) MRSA from the body. The third group of hospital ICUs eliminated all screening and instead treated every patient who was admitted with the daily chlorhexidine bath and five days of mupirocin ointment in the nose.
The number of ICU patients carrying MRSA fell by approximately 35 percent in the universal decolonization group, compared to no change among patients who were screened and isolated. Bloodstream infection due to all causes in the universal decolonization intervention group decreased to 3.6 cases per 1,000 patient days in the hospital, down from the previous rate of 6.1.
Huang cautioned that the results apply only to ICUs and that widespread use of antimicrobial soap and ointment in patient populations at low risk for infection might increase resistance to these products without providing benefit. In addition, there is concern whether broad adoption within critical-care settings could speed emerging antibiotic resistance. These issues will require further research, Huang said. Formal cost analyses also will be needed. CDC is in the process of evaluating how the findings should inform its infection prevention guidelines. | <urn:uuid:33a6fc31-61dd-4602-86b8-cbcbb16959f8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.infectioncontroltoday.com/news/2012/10/bloodstream-infections-cut-by-44-percent-in-sickest-hospital-patients-study-finds.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397696.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00038-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948982 | 1,174 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Definitions for bubonic plague
This page provides all possible meanings and translations of the word bubonic plague
bubonic plague, pestis bubonica, glandular plague(noun)
the most common form of the plague in humans; characterized by chills, prostration, delirium and the formation of buboes in the armpits and groin; does not spread from person to person
A contagious, often fatal, epidemic disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, transmitted by the bite of fleas from an infected person or rodent, especially a rat, and characterized by delirium, chills, fever, vomiting, diarrhea, and the formation of buboes.
Bubonic plague is a zoonotic disease, circulating mainly among small rodents and their fleas, and is one of three types of bacterial infections caused by Yersinia pestis, which belongs to the family Enterobacteriaceae. Without treatment, the bubonic plague kills about two thirds of infected humans within 4 days. The term bubonic plague is derived from the Greek word βουβών, meaning "groin." Swollen lymph nodes especially occur in the armpit and groin in persons suffering from bubonic plague. Bubonic plague was often used synonymously for plague, but it does in fact refer specifically to an infection that enters through the skin and travels through the lymphatics, as is often seen in flea-borne infections. Bubonic plague—along with the septicemic plague and the pneumonic plague, which are the two other manifestations of Y. pestis—is commonly believed to be the cause of the Black Death that swept through Europe in the 14th century and killed an estimated 25 million people, or 30–60% of the European population. Because the plague killed so many of the working population, wages rose and some historians have seen this as a turning point in European economic development.
The numerical value of bubonic plague in Chaldean Numerology is: 7
The numerical value of bubonic plague in Pythagorean Numerology is: 2
Sample Sentences & Example Usage
1665 was the very last recorded episode of plague. There were 400 years of regular plague, and suddenly it stops, and what we want to be able to find out, from sampling the graves of that date, is why that is. And what it is about the bacteria that causes bubonic plague that suddenly changed at that point.
"Our society is filled with runaways, dropouts, and quitters. The epidemic of walking away has hit our land with effects as devastating as the bubonic plague, and it has destroyed millions of effective lives and relationships. We are so self-centered that we have ceased to lay down our lives for others. We have seen others faint or walk away and we have followed in their weakness. We have fainted when we could have persevered by exchanging our strength for His! With His strength, not only could we have kept on walking, we could have run!"
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"bubonic plague." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2016. Web. 30 Jun 2016. <http://www.definitions.net/definition/bubonic plague>. | <urn:uuid:f35d1ab8-349b-42c8-9f23-e560bae320ba> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.definitions.net/definition/bubonic%20plague | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399522.99/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00095-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929317 | 765 | 3.390625 | 3 |
Oceanic ‘garbage patch’ not as big as depicted in mediaJanuary 5th, 2011 - 6:29 pm ICT by ANI
Washington, Jan 5 (ANI): Claims that the ‘Great Garbage Patch’ between California and Japan is twice the size of Texas are grossly exaggerated, according to an Oregon State University scientist.
“There is no doubt that the amount of plastic in the world’s oceans is troubling, but this kind of exaggeration undermines the credibility of scientists,” Angelicque White said.
“We have data that allow us to make reasonable estimates; we don’t need the hyperbole. Given the observed concentration of plastic in the North Pacific, it is simply inaccurate to state that plastic outweighs plankton, or that we have observed an exponential increase in plastic,” she added.
White participated in an expedition solely aimed at understanding the abundance of plastic debris and the associated impact of plastic on microbial communities.
That trip showed that the hypothetically ‘cohesive’ plastic patch is actually less than 1 percent of the geographic size of Texas.
“The amount of plastic out there isn’t trivial. But using the highest concentrations ever reported by scientists produces a patch that is a small fraction of the state of Texas, not twice the size,” said White.
“Is more plastic sinking out of the surface waters? Or is it being more efficiently broken down? We just don’t know. But the data on hand simply do not suggest that ‘plastic patches’ have increased in size, said White.
“This is certainly an unexpected conclusion, but it may in part reflect the high spatial and temporal variability of plastic concentrations in the ocean and the limited number of samples that have been collected,” she added.
White noted that while there is growing interest in removing plastic from the ocean, such efforts would be costly, inefficient, and may have unforeseen consequences.
It would be difficult, for example, to remove plastic particles from ocean waters without inadvertently removing phytoplankton, zooplankton, and small surface-dwelling aquatic creatures.
“These small organisms are the heartbeat of the ocean. They are the foundation of healthy ocean food chains and immensely more abundant than plastic debris, ” she added.
Interestingly, during a recent expedition, White discovered that photosynthetic microbes were thriving on many plastic particles, in essence confirming that plastic is prime real estate for certain microbes. (ANI)
- Size of ocean garbage patch exaggerated - Jan 05, 2011
- Plastic waste in ocean can harm environment, says study - Apr 26, 2012
- Presence of plastic garbage in deep Pacific shocks scientists - Aug 28, 2009
- Scientists find culprit behind dying 'doughnut' of Michigan Lake - Sep 04, 2010
- Global warming 'affecting food chain, carbon cycling in Arctic Ocean' - Mar 03, 2011
- Whale poo 'offsets CO2 emissions' - Jun 16, 2010
- Scientists discover extensive plastic debris in 'great Pacific Ocean garbage patch' - Aug 28, 2009
- Bits of plastic endangering sea creatures - Apr 18, 2012
- Marine bacteria digest plastic - Mar 29, 2011
- 'Southern ocean re-routes 40 percent of carbon emissions' - Jul 31, 2012
- 'Super sand' to purify drinking water - Jun 23, 2011
- Antarctic icebergs play key role in climate change: Study - Mar 26, 2011
- The Pacific Gyre From The Eyes Of Chris Jordan - Nov 04, 2009
- Whale poop ups productivity of ocean fisheries - Oct 13, 2010
- Scientists try to speculate where the satellite will land after falling on earth - Sep 23, 2011
Tags: abundance, credibility, exaggeration, exponential increase, garbage, hyperbole, microbial communities, no doubt, ocean waters, oceans, oregon state university, plankton, plastic debris, plastic particles, state of texas, surface waters, temporal variability, unexpected conclusion, unforeseen consequences, university scientist | <urn:uuid:a3426d11-50cf-42e9-b87e-32fa1bf48530> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/health/oceanic-garbage-patch-not-as-big-as-depicted-in-media_100483353.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392527.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00150-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.900991 | 840 | 2.671875 | 3 |
The Enbridge Northern Gateway is a proposed pipeline and oil tanker project that would ship Alberta oilsands via Kitimat, British Columbia.
Below you will find an overview section describing the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline project and the controversy surrounding its construction, followed by our latest news and analysis on the subject.
Photo: Liberal MP Jody Wilson-Raybould, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Art Sterritt walk on the boardwalk in Hartley Bay, B.C., along Enbridge's proposed oil tanker route in the Great Bear Rainforest.
Overview of the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline Project
Pipeline company Enbridge filed its application to build the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines in 2010, prompting the establishment of a Joint Review Panel by the federal government.
>The Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines would run 1,177 kilometres across from Bruderheim, Alberta, to Kitimat, B.C., at the head of the Douglas Channel.
The westbound pipeline would carry up to 525,000 barrels of diluted bitumen per day, while the eastbound pipeline would carry 193,000 barrels of condensate per day. Condensate is a product used to thin oilsands bitumen for transport.
The Kitimat Marine Terminal would include two ship berths and 19 storage tanks for diluted bitumen and condensate. Up to 220 oil tankers a year would navigate the waters of the Great Bear Rainforest to export the diluted bitumen to foreign markets.
In 2012 and 2013, the National Energy Board held hearings on the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines in 17 communities across British Columbia. In December 2013 — despite overwhelming opposition from British Columbians and First Nations — the National Energy Board’s panel recommended in favour of the project, contingent on 209 conditions being met.
In April 2014, citizens of Kitimat voted against Enbridge Northern Gateway in a non-binding vote. Two months later, the federal government announced it had decided to approve the project.
Still, after 10 years on the table (Enbridge signed a deal with PetroChina more than a decade ago), Enbridge has no firm shipping agreements with oil producers and is widely believed to be dead in the water.
Shortly after taking office in October 2015, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau re-affirmed his commitment to implementing an oil tanker ban on the north coast of British Columbia, which would effectively kill the Enbridge Northern Gateway proposal.
In January 2016, the B.C. Supreme Court ruled the province of B.C. “has breached the honour of the Crown by failing to consult” with the Gitga'at and other Coastal First Nations on the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline.
Image credit: Kris Krug on Flickr.
DeSmog Canada's latest news coverage on the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline
This article originally appeared on the Dogwood Initiative website.
“Oil to tidewater.”
It’s an industry mantra happily adopted by politicians — and even some environmentalists. But ask yourself this: what happens when you pump more product into an oversupplied market? Answer: the price goes down.
Who benefits from cheaper crude oil? First, the customers — like China’s state-run heavy oil refineries. And later, competitors with lower overhead, like Saudi Arabia.
You’ve probably heard these twin arguments before:
The province of British Columbia and Enbridge Northern Gateway are being ordered to pay $230,000 in court costs to both the Gitga’at First Nation and Coastal First Nations after a January 2016 ruling found both parties failed to fulfill a legal obligation to consult with First Nations on the Northern Gateway pipeline.
The B.C. Supreme Court found the province contravened consultation rules in 2010 when it signed an equivalency agreement that granted environmental decision-making authority for the pipeline to the federal government.
The January ruling was seen as a major vindication for coastal First Nations who felt the province failed to live up to its continual promise to work with and consult with First Nations communities along the pipeline route.
The awarded court costs have added to that feeling.
Enbridge will have to secure an environmental assessment certificate from the B.C. government if it wants to proceed with its Northern Gateway oil pipeline according to an order issued by B.C.’s Environmental Assessment Office on Friday.
Early on in the Northern Gateway process, the B.C. government signed an “equivalency agreement” with the federal government, giving Ottawa the responsibility for the environmental assessment.
However, a Supreme Court of B.C. decision this January found that the B.C. government acted improperly and that the province must still make its own decision about issuing an environmental assessment certificate.
This is a guest post by David Suzuki.
With the December Paris climate agreement, leaders and experts from around the world showed they overwhelmingly accept that human-caused climate change is real and, because the world has continued to increase fossil fuel use, the need to curb and reduce emissions is urgent.
In light of this, I don’t get the current brouhaha over the Trans Mountain, Keystone XL, Northern Gateway or the Energy East pipelines. Why are politicians contemplating spending billions on pipelines when the Paris commitment means 75 to 80 per cent of known fossil fuel deposits must be left in the ground?
Didn’t our prime minister, with provincial and territorial premiers, mayors and representatives from non-profit organizations, parade before the media to announce Canada now takes climate change seriously? I joined millions of Canadians who felt an oppressive weight had lifted and cheered mightily to hear that our country committed to keeping emissions at levels that would ensure the world doesn’t heat by more than 1.5 C by the end of this century. With the global average temperature already one degree higher than pre-industrial levels, a half a degree more leaves no room for business as usual.
A new report from Oil Change International challenges industry’s common assumption that the continued production of oilsands crude is inevitable.
The report, Lockdown: The End of Growth in the Tar Sands, argues industry projections — to expand oilsands production from a current 2.1 million barrels per day to as much as 5.8 million barrels per day by 2035 — rely on high prices, public licence and a growing pipeline infrastructure, all of which are endangered in a carbon-constrained world.
As the report’s authors find, growing opposition to oil production — especially in the oilsands, which is among the most carbon intensive oil in the world — has significantly altered public perception of pipelines, a change amplified by the cross-continental battles against the Enbridge Northern Gateway, Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain, TransCanada Energy East and TransCanada Keystone XL pipelines.
According to the report’s authors, production growth in the oilsands hinges on the construction of these contentious pipelines because the existing pipeline system is currently at 89 per cent capacity.
In August 2014, Liberal leader Justin Trudeau made the trek to the tiny Gitga’at community of Hartley Bay, located along Enbridge’s proposed oil tanker route in northwestern B.C.
There, in the village of 200 people accessible only by air and water, he met with community elders and Art Sterritt, executive director of the Coastal First Nations.
“He came to Gitga’at because he wanted to make sure he was making the right decision in terms of Northern Gateway and being there certainly confirmed that,” Sterritt told DeSmog Canada on Tuesday.
“My confidence level went up immensely when Justin … visited Gitga’at.”
Two months before that visit, in May 2014, Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa that if he became prime minister “the Northern Gateway Pipeline will not happen.”
With Monday’s majority win by Trudeau, Sterritt — who retired three weeks ago from his role with Coastal First Nations — says he is “elated” and “Northern Gateway is now dead.”
Starting today the federal government will face 18 separate challenges against the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline in the Federal Court of Appeal in Vancouver.
A consolidated group of environmental organizations, one labour union and First Nations are fighting the approval of the project on the grounds that the federal government violated First Nations rights, failed to protect species at risk and did not consider the full impacts of an oil spill in its decision.
Chris Tollefson, lawyer from the University of Victoria Environmental Law Centre and counsel for appellant B.C. Nature, said the case demonstrates the importance of due process when making decisions on major infrastructure projects like oil and gas pipelines.
“This case has the potential to affirm how important it is to have a robust federal environmental assessment law that holds project proponents to account,” he said.
Challenges presented by First Nations appellants will be presented over the next two days, Tollefson explained, with environmental groups following. The trial will stretch over six days, the longest a case has ever been before the Federal Court of Appeals.
On the same day that Bill C51 was set for a final vote in the Senate, the Canadian internet erupted into a storm of angry tweets. The message was clear: you can take our freedom, but you can never tell our Timmies not to run ads for Enbridge.
Timmies is, of course, Tim Hortons coffee, the venerable Canadian institution whose coffee and donuts have become so inseparable from the Canadian identity that Prime Minister Stephen Harper once famously blew off going to the UN for a coffee at Timmies instead. Tim Hortons has exactly the kind of patriotic sheen to it that CAPP is hoping will rub off on its ‘Raise Your Hand’ campaign.
Last week, Enbridge pipelines announced on its blog that it would be showing its latest ads on Tim’s TV (the flatscreen televisions behind the service counter). Almost immediately, online activists seized on the opportunity.
SumOfUs, an organization that rallies public pressure to encourage companies to adopt sustainable business practices, encouraged Tim Hortons to cancel an advertising buy from Enbridge, the company trying to build public support for the Northern Gateway oilsands pipeline from Alberta to the B.C. coast.
At an estimated 2,700 litres, the bunker fuel spill in English Bay was relatively small — yet the stakes of that spill couldn’t be much higher.
With Enbridge and Kinder Morgan both hoping to build oil pipelines to B.C., which would significantly increase oil tanker traffic in the province’s inside coastal waters, a dramatically mishandled marine oil spill raises all sorts of questions — questions the federal government does not appear well-positioned to answer, despite its aggressive push for West Coast oil exports.
“Obviously, from the oil industry’s perspective, you couldn’t have picked a worse place to have an oil spill,” Jim Stanford, economist at Unifor and founder of the Progressive Economics Forum, told DeSmog Canada.
While the federal government insisted its response was “world-class,” a former commander of the shuttered Kits Coast Guard station blamed the six-hour delay in even deploying a boom to contain the oil on the closure of that station in 2013 — a move that is reported to have saved the federal government at estimated $700,000 a year.
The English Bay spill, beyond being a systemic failure, has been a total PR disaster.
The release of a University of Victoria study calling for updates to Canadian charitable law created quite a stir last week.
The report called for the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) to clarify rules around “political activities” — defined as any activity that seeks to change, oppose or retain laws or policies — and to provide a more generous limit on allowable policy advocacy in line with other common law jurisdictions such as Australia and New Zealand. It also called for the creation of a politically independent charities commission to remove the potential for political interference in audits.
The findings were raised in the House of Commons by Victoria NDP MP Murray Rankin, who stated the report “analyzes the alarming lack of clarity in the rules governing political activities for charities.” | <urn:uuid:bc4d6171-52cc-4f8d-a13a-ed3a70aaf69c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://desmog.ca/enbridge-northern-gateway | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396147.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00005-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945594 | 2,525 | 2.953125 | 3 |
The first controlled study of LSD in more than 40 years has been published.
The findings, found in The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, state that the psychedelic drug may have eased the anxiety of 12 terminally ill patients. The study, conducted in Switzerland by the psychiatrist Peter Gasser, tested the effects of the drug when taken in conjunction with talk therapy.
“Their anxiety went down and stayed down,” Gasser told the New York Times describing how LSD appeared to relieve the subjects' fears about the end of life.
Most of the patients were diagnosed with terminal cancer and died within a year after the trial. The double-blind study involved patients having two or more sessions with Gasser before being administered a 200-microgram dose of LSD or an "active placebo" of 20 micrograms of the drug. The smaller dose was meant to produce short-lived effects while the larger dose was "expected to produce the full spectrum of a typical LSD experience, without fully dissolving normal ego structures," the researchers wrote.
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“These results indicate that when administered safely in a methodologically rigorous, medically supervised psychotherapeutic setting, LSD can reduce anxiety,” Gasser said, adding, “larger controlled studies are warranted.”
Patients felt the effects of the drug for up to 10 hours. After the “trip” they would sleep on a couch in the office. At all times, they were monitored by a therapist or assistant.
“I told them that each session would be right here, in a safe environment, and I am part of it,’” Gasser told the New York Times. “I said, ‘I can’t guarantee you won’t have intense distress, but I can tell you that if you do, it will pass.’ ”
LSD, lysergic acid diethylamide, is a psychedelic drug that can cause hallucinations, mood changes and delusions. It is derived from ergot, a fungus that grows on rye and other grains. Besides being used recreationally, scientists have tried therapeutic applications of the drug to treat alcoholism, anxiety and addiction.
Peter, an Australian social worker who participated in the study, had doubts about taking the drug.
“I’d never taken the drug before, so I was feeling — well, I think the proper word for it, in English, is dread,” he said. But after taking LSD, he began to reflect on childhood memories he had not spoken of in decades.
“I had what you would call a mystical experience, I guess, lasting for some time, and the major part was pure distress at all these memories I had successfully forgotten for decades,” Peter said. “These painful feelings, regrets, this fear of death. I remember feeling very cold for a long time. I was shivering, even though I was sweating. It was a mental coldness, I think, a memory of neglect.”
While the trial is too yield to make any definitive conclusions, it has opened a dialogue about the drug that has been banned for research purposes in the United States since 1966.
“It’s a proof of concept,” said Rick Doblin, executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies and a study co-author. “It shows that this kind of trial can be done safely, and that it’s very much worth doing.” | <urn:uuid:2794e217-184a-4905-9936-0186dc7f4fb9> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.ibtimes.com/can-lsd-reduce-anxiety-first-human-trial-decades-shows-potential-benefits-psychedelic-drug-1559511 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395346.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00073-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968775 | 728 | 3.046875 | 3 |
What is the greatest number of counters you can place on the grid below without four of them lying at the corners of a square?
Place eight dots on this diagram, so that there are only two dots
on each straight line and only two dots on each circle.
In a bowl there are 4 Chocolates, 3 Jellies and 5 Mints. Find a way
to share the sweets between the three children so they each get the
kind they like. Is there more than one way to do it?
Put 10 counters in a row. Find a way to arrange the counters into
five pairs, evenly spaced in a row, in just 5 moves, using the
Place eight queens on an chessboard (an 8 by 8 grid) so that none
can capture any of the others.
You have 4 red and 5 blue counters. How many ways can they be
placed on a 3 by 3 grid so that all the rows columns and diagonals
have an even number of red counters?
When newspaper pages get separated at home we have to try to sort
them out and get things in the correct order. How many ways can we
arrange these pages so that the numbering may be different?
Only one side of a two-slice toaster is working. What is the
quickest way to toast both sides of three slices of bread?
In how many ways can you fit two of these yellow triangles
together? Can you predict the number of ways two blue triangles can
be fitted together?
How many triangles can you make on the 3 by 3 pegboard?
The Vikings communicated in writing by making simple scratches on
wood or stones called runes. Can you work out how their code works
using the table of the alphabet?
Can you use this information to work out Charlie's house number?
Can you find all the different ways of lining up these Cuisenaire
Here you see the front and back views of a dodecahedron. Each
vertex has been numbered so that the numbers around each pentagonal
face add up to 65. Can you find all the missing numbers?
Use the clues to work out which cities Mohamed, Sheng, Tanya and
Bharat live in.
In this challenge, buckets come in five different sizes. If you choose some buckets, can you investigate the different ways in which they can be filled?
Can you put the numbers 1 to 8 into the circles so that the four
calculations are correct?
Building up a simple Celtic knot. Try the interactivity or download
the cards or have a go on squared paper.
How many different ways can you find of fitting five hexagons
together? How will you know you have found all the ways?
What is the smallest cuboid that you can put in this box so that
you cannot fit another that's the same into it?
How many shapes can you build from three red and two green cubes? Can you use what you've found out to predict the number for four red and two green?
Six friends sat around a circular table. Can you work out from the
information who sat where and what their profession were?
Place the numbers 1 to 10 in the circles so that each number is the
difference between the two numbers just below it.
Can you put the numbers from 1 to 15 on the circles so that no
consecutive numbers lie anywhere along a continuous straight line?
Systematically explore the range of symmetric designs that can be
created by shading parts of the motif below. Use normal square
lattice paper to record your results.
The Zargoes use almost the same alphabet as English. What does this
birthday message say?
A magician took a suit of thirteen cards and held them in his hand
face down. Every card he revealed had the same value as the one he
had just finished spelling. How did this work?
A dog is looking for a good place to bury his bone. Can you work
out where he started and ended in each case? What possible routes
could he have taken?
I was in my car when I noticed a line of four cars on the lane next
to me with number plates starting and ending with J, K, L and M.
What order were they in?
How can you put five cereal packets together to make different
shapes if you must put them face-to-face?
Can you rearrange the biscuits on the plates so that the three
biscuits on each plate are all different and there is no plate with
two biscuits the same as two biscuits on another plate?
Hover your mouse over the counters to see which ones will be
removed. Click to remover them. The winner is the last one to
remove a counter. How you can make sure you win?
Use the clues to find out who's who in the family, to fill in the family tree and to find out which of the family members are mathematicians and which are not.
An activity making various patterns with 2 x 1 rectangular tiles.
Take a rectangle of paper and fold it in half, and half again, to
make four smaller rectangles. How many different ways can you fold
Are all the possible combinations of two shapes included in this
set of 27 cards? How do you know?
When intergalactic Wag Worms are born they look just like a cube.
Each year they grow another cube in any direction. Find all the
shapes that five-year-old Wag Worms can be.
What is the best way to shunt these carriages so that each train
can continue its journey?
Can you shunt the trucks so that the Cattle truck and the Sheep
truck change places and the Engine is back on the main line?
A tetromino is made up of four squares joined edge to edge. Can
this tetromino, together with 15 copies of itself, be used to cover
an eight by eight chessboard?
Seven friends went to a fun fair with lots of scary rides. They
decided to pair up for rides until each friend had ridden once with
each of the others. What was the total number rides?
Is it possible to place 2 counters on the 3 by 3 grid so that there
is an even number of counters in every row and every column? How
about if you have 3 counters or 4 counters or....?
10 space travellers are waiting to board their spaceships. There
are two rows of seats in the waiting room. Using the rules, where
are they all sitting? Can you find all the possible ways?
Swap the stars with the moons, using only knights' moves (as on a
chess board). What is the smallest number of moves possible?
On a digital 24 hour clock, at certain times, all the digits are consecutive. How many times like this are there between midnight and 7 a.m.?
This practical challenge invites you to investigate the different
squares you can make on a square geoboard or pegboard.
The ancient Egyptians were said to make right-angled triangles
using a rope with twelve equal sections divided by knots. What
other triangles could you make if you had a rope like this?
These activities focus on finding all possible solutions so working in a systematic way will ensure none are left out.
The challenge here is to find as many routes as you can for a fence
to go so that this town is divided up into two halves, each with 8
In how many ways can you stack these rods, following the rules? | <urn:uuid:11e4d2e2-acdb-4668-8f2a-5263538f62ab> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://nrich.maths.org/public/leg.php?code=-99&cl=2&cldcmpid=1142 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397111.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00124-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950401 | 1,580 | 3.40625 | 3 |
The Science of Tuning Musical Instruments
- What is tuning?
- What does "My instrument is out of tune" mean?
- Why do instruments go out of tune?
- So how is tuning done?
What is tuning?
Tuning is the process of adjusting the pitch of one or many tones from musical instruments until they form a desired arrangement. Pitch is the perceived fundamental frequency of a sound. Instruments basically just produce vibrations, and these vibrations produce the sound that we hear. The vibrations or soundwaves that an instrument produces are measured by hertz (symbol: Hz). One hertz simply means one cycle per second, 100 Hz means one hundred cycles per second, and so on. The average human can hear sounds between 20 Hz and 16,000 Hz. In music and acoustics, the frequency of the standard pitch A above middle C on a piano is usually defined as 440 Hz.
What does "My instrument is out of tune" mean?
When an instrument is out of tune it means that the pitch or tone of the instrument is either too high or too low. If a tone is too high, it is considered sharp, if it is to low, then it is flat.
Why do instruments go out of tune?
Well, there are many factors why an instrument may go out of tune. Some instruments get 'out of tune' with damage or age (warping) when they will no longer play true and have to be repaired. Also changes in temperature and humidity can affect some sensitive instruments. As temperatures fluctuate, instruments may expand or contract. This causes the instrument to go slightly out of tune. On stringed instruments, brand new strings go out of tune quickly at first and need to be "broken in" at first. Also a string obviously can get out of tune if the tuning pegs or tuning devices are bumped or adjusted.
So how is tuning done?
Tuning may be carried out by sounding two pitches and adjusting one of them to match or to relate the other. Several different devices may be used to produce the reference pitch such as, tuning forks, pianos, electronic tuning devices (such as our online tuners), and other instruments.
So when you are tuning, you are trying to match the frequency, or vibration, of one note to another. If the two pitches you play are at different frequencies, it will produce a beating sound (kind of like "wah-wah-wah") which is called "Interference beats". As the two notes approach a harmonic relationship, the frequency of beating decreases. To get the note in tune you adjust the instrument until the beating slows down so much that it cannot be detected.
I admit it is a little hard to detect the Interference beats at first if you are new to instruments, but after time you will be able to detect it easier.
Now, that you have read up on a little about tuning, know it is time for you to get your instrument tuned! Check at our instruments page to select what instrument you have so you get to it! | <urn:uuid:345e8bd1-7a0b-45d9-a137-dfdbd2094fea> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.get-tuned.com/tuning_science.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397749.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00025-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932322 | 630 | 3.859375 | 4 |
Multiple sclerosis (MS)
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic autoimmune disease of the central nervous system (the brain and spinal cord), characterised by the inflammation and decay of myelin sheaths surrounding the nerve fibre. This slows down or blocks the transfer of nerve impulses between nerve cells.
Damaged myelin in cases
of multiple sclerosis
The disease usually manifests between the ages of 20 and 45.
It is believed that the disease is caused by a combination of different factors such as genetic predisposition, environmental causes and exposure to the virus during childhood.
The symptoms of multiple sclerosis depend on the part of the body affected and the severity of inflammation of the myelin sheaths around the axons i.e. the extensions of the nerve cells. It is due to this that the symptoms for this disease differ and it is hard to predict its course.
The disease can start with neurological symptoms and signs such as weakness and clumsiness in the extremities.
Movement disorders usually affect the hands and legs and the patients often complain of fatigue and pains, especially in their legs. As the disease progresses the legs are affected by a mild form of paralysis which limits the patient’s movements.
Partial blindness and eye soreness are frequent symptoms and are caused by eye muscle weakness. Patients also complain of fatigue, weakness, dizziness and problems controlling their urination.
Possible symptoms include elevated body temperature and a variety of psychological changes (sudden mood swings, apathy, depression...). Tremors occur often, noticeable when the patient tries to move his hands or legs, and are exasperated by strong emotion, while relaxation and rest have a positive effect.
In more severe cases speech impediments are common, characterised by trembling speech (caused by vocal cord tremors), slow pronunciation of words, the pronunciation of syllables only or fast and sputtering speech.
The disease can start with more of the afore-mentioned, typical symptoms, but there are cases when patients only have one or two symptoms, which point to the disease.
The condition can have a benign or malign course and can manifest in four different types. Anticipating the progression of multiple sclerosis is not simple, all the more so because one type can turn into another over time.
With one type of the disease the patients goes trough phases where his condition further deteriorates leading to the manifestation of new symptoms or the intensifying of old ones. In phases of remission, a state where the disease recedes, the patients state returns to what it was before the disease got worse or to a slightly worse version of that state. With other types, after the deterioration of the patient’s state there is no recovery but rather the damage gets worse as time passes and there is a continued progression of the disease with short phases of improvement and stabilisation. The disease can also start getting progressively worse from the very beginning with the onset of acute deterioration with or without recovery to the state prior to deterioration.
For treatment corticosteroids, beta-interferon or gama globulin are used to alleviate the symptoms of the fits that the patient experiences.
Apart from medication physical therapy is also necessary.
Application of the"Bond-ex therapy"
Female, 38 years old
She's been having back pain for the last five years. Since last year she has had occasional shudders and the feeling of electric current in her legs and hands. She was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2010.
When she first arrived on the 10th of November 2010 she had reduced sense of touch in her face, neck, chest and hands, her mobility was reduced, she was suffering from fatigue and would tire quickly, she had lower back pain, the shudders and the feeling of electrical current in her arms and legs was getting more frequent. Her vision was becoming less keen.
After 4 treatments (within a week of her first visit) the shudders and the feeling of electrical current were weaker and appeared less often, the sense of touch in her face, neck, chest and right hand had improved.
After 8 treatments (within three weeks of her first visit) the shudders and feeling of electrical current were appearing even less often and her sense of touch was significantly improved, her mobility, stamina and sight had also improved.
After 12 treatments (within two months of her first visit) the shudders and feeling of electrical current were very rare and her sense of touch was only occasionally slightly reduced. Fatigue would only set in after hard work, she very rarely had back pain, her sight had improved by a large margin, her concentration and psychological state had also vastly improved.
Six months after her first visit and occasional treatments the shudders and feeling of electrical current were appearing in very large intervals and had very short duration, her sense of touch was normal. The last three month her psychological state was very good as was her memory, her sight had returned to normal (she would only sometimes for a short period experience a relapse of slight vision loss). There was no fatigue after regular daily activities.
Twelve months after her first visit and occasional treatments all achieved improvements had kept; the shudders and feeling of electrical current in the arms and legs were consistently more rare and less intensive, her sight was as it had been before the first symptoms of multiple sclerosis, her sense of touch was normal throughout the body, mobility was the same as it had been before the first symptoms, lower back pain was rarely experienced, her concentration are psychological state were good.
Female, 58 years old
She was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when she was 36 (in 1989).
When she first arrived on the 14th of June 1999 at the age of 46 she was not able to walk unassisted (she used crutches), the sense of touch in her feet and legs was greatly diminished, her mobility was poor and her hands clumsy, numbness was present in her whole body and her psychological state was poor.
After 4 treatments (within a week of her first visit) her hand movement had improved, her leg movement was more unconstrained, the sense of touch in her feet and legs was better, the shudders and feeling of electrical current were slightly less pronounced.
After 8 treatments (within three weeks of her first visit) her walking was steadier, she was sometimes able to walk unassisted without crutches when she held on to something. Hand coordination was much better, sensation in her whole body had improved, shudders and the feeling of electrical current in the body occurred less often and her psychological state had improved as well.
After 12 treatments (within two months of her first visit) the sense of touch in her legs was a lot better and the shudders and feeling of electrical current less frequent. She was able to walk unassisted without crutches, her hand movements were almost normal, her psychological state was improving (she was more sure of herself, she was hopeful the improvements would be permanent).
After six months and occasional treatments the sense of touch in her legs was even better, she was walking unassisted even outside her home, was able to walk for longer periods, she had more stamina, her hand movements were normal and her psychological state very good.
Twelve months after her first visit and six months without treatment, she was able to walk for 3.7 miles without assistance. The steadiness of her walk, her body movement while walking, crouching and bending over did not let on that this was a person that had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis 22 years ago. After 3.7 miles of walking she needed to rest.
Now, after 11 years, all the improvements have kept.
Female, 38 years old
She was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when she was 30 (in 2003).
When she first arrived on the 2-nd of February 2005 at the age of 32, shudders and the feeling of electrical current were present quite often in her hands, legs and along her spine; she was also suffering from fatigue.
After 7 treatments (within three weeks of her first visit) the shudders and the feeling of electrical current were appearing less often.
After 12 treatments (within two months of her first visit) the shudders and the feeling of electrical current in her hands, legs and along her spine were even more rare, there was less fatigue and it occurred less often, she was doing better psychologically.
Six months after her first visit and occasional treatments the shudders and the feeling of electrical current were even more rare, she was rarely tired and was doing even better psychologically.
A year and a half after her first visit and occasional treatments she was only tired after larger and longer forms of exertion, psychologically she was doing really well. During the last year the shudder and the feeling of electrical current occurred very rarely.
A magnetic resonance imager result in 2007 determined that there were no lesions on the brain that had been present in the first test results and the spinal cord had 50% less lesions compared to the first test results.
From 2007-2011 she underwent only a couple of treatments. The shudders and the feeling of electrical current are very rare and do not last long. The magnetic resonance imager results done each year show no progression of the disease, that there are no brain lesions and that the spinal cord had 50% less lesions compared to the first MRI results.
The success rate for the application of this therapeutic method with people diagnosed with multiple sclerosis depends a lot on the state the patient is in on his first visit and especially on the psychological state of the patient. Experience has shown that people that were in severe stages of the disease (walking with aids, low mobility of hands and difficulty with speech) had very good results; unassisted and proper walking, great strength, precise hand movements and normal speech. In some cases the first results are apparent quite fast (within the first month of treatment). | <urn:uuid:153e5797-35dc-47bf-b6b4-7dcbc21a9304> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://bond-ex-therapy.com/en/multiple_sclerosis/21 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395620.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00054-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984705 | 2,026 | 3.578125 | 4 |
Organic agriculture is a production system that sustains the health of soils, ecosystems and people. It relies on ecological processes, biodiversity and cycles adapted to local conditions, rather than the use of inputs with adverse effects. Organic agriculture combines tradition, innovation and science to benefit the shared environment and promote fair relationships and a good quality of life for all involved. (IFOAM 2009)
The practice of organic farming is not only relevant for soothing the bad conscience of wealthier societies, but it plays an important role in preserving croplands from degradation that is often caused by conventional intensive methods of farming. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) recognised this need and set up the Organic Agriculture Programme. Its objective is “to enhance food security, rural development,sustainable livelihoods and environmental integrity by building capacities of member countries in organic production, processing, certification and marketing“. With a still growing world population and the rising demand for food, more sensible (and thus sustainable) ways of agriculture are needed more than ever to stop damage to the world’s arable lands.
In a joint paper published last year in the European Journal of Social Sciences (Vol. 24, Issue 3) John Paull and I presented a new world map of organic agriculture that presents countries as proportional in size to their share of the total of world organic hectares (data sources are described in the paper, reference see below):
In the paper we conclude that the World Map of Organic Agriculture illustrates the great unevenness of the global uptake of organic agriculture. The map is dominated by the presence of Australia which appears especially bloated, and this reflects its world leadership position in terms of its number of organic agriculture hectares. South America has a strong presence accounted for in large measure by three countries, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. Europe collectively has a strong presence with substantial contributions from many states, and led by Spain, Italy, Germany, UK, France, and Austria. China and India dominate the Asian representation. Africa has an eviscerated presence, Russia appears anorexic, and the Middle East is emaciated, in each case reflecting the poor diffusion of organic agriculture into these regions – and perhaps the great opportunities for future organic penetration into these territories. The map presence of the Falkland Islands (Malvinas) reflects their recent commitment to the adoption of organics (BFA 2009) and the newfound status of the Falkland Islands as a current world leader with 36% of its agricultural land classified as organic (Paull 2011).
These are the full bibliographical details of the paper:
- Paull, J. and Hennig, B. (2011). A World Map of Organic Agriculture. European Journal of Social Sciences 24 (3): 360-369.
Article as PDF; Journal issue online (EJSS);
High-resolution version of the map (Oxford University Archive)
The content on this page has been created by Benjamin D. Hennig. You are free use the material under Creative Commons conditions (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0); please contact me for further details. I also appreciate a message if you used my maps somewhere else. High resolution and customized maps are available on request. | <urn:uuid:3448a4ae-1f27-42e8-be01-fe2def6c1da7> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.viewsoftheworld.net/?p=2208 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397748.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00088-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920739 | 658 | 3.515625 | 4 |
Currently the Federal Reserve is using unemployment rate and inflation rate thresholds to guide monetary policy. Specifically, the Fed says it expects to keep monetary policy easy as long as the unemployment rate is above 6.5 percent and the inflation rate is below 2.5 percent.
In a presentation given at the Global Interdependence Center conference in Dubai, David Kotok of Cumberland Advisors presented a chart tracking the Phillips curve (Simply put, the Phillips curve is the relationship between unemployment and inflation. According to the theory, a low unemployment rate is correlated with a higher rate of inflation.)
As you can see, the path has been quite volatile. Some attribute the surge in energy prices as tipping the economy into recession in late 2007, which would explain the lower right corner of the chart. And as unemployment rose, prices fell, which is in line with the Phillips curve theory.
And while curve is much closer to the Fed's threshold, it still has a ways to go.
Here's Kotok's commentary:
Slide 12 tracks the Phillips curve, or inverse relationship between the unemployment rate and inflation rate. The concept was introduced to me by Thomas Synnott, a colleague at the National Business Economic Issues Council (NBEIC). Synnott uses the tracking system shown, with monthly data points. He describes it as an "under-damped oscillatory system." The idea is to show the difference in shifts in duration, slope, and composition of the Phillips curve. One can see the pre-crisis levels in blue, the shift during the crisis in red, and the current green expansion period, through February 2013. The Fed's target is marked with an "X." Clearly there is a large gap between the current situation, in February 2013, and the Fed's targets of 6.5 percent for the U3 unemployment rate and 2.5 percent for the inflation rate. Again, if we were to use the U6 in this curve instead of the U3, the gaps would be much more extreme. | <urn:uuid:8b8c054e-b040-4d30-ad89-b47280c5966d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.businessinsider.com/the-path-of-the-phillips-curve-2013-3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396027.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00026-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955516 | 409 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Since starting this blog last year I have often mentioned the omega 3 fatty acids and explained how they are vital for our health. Research suggests that these essential fats play a role in the prevention of several diseases ranging from heart disease to cancer, stroke, diabetes, arthritis, asthma, osteoporosis, mood disorders (including depression), eye diseases and many more, including most conditions with a link to inflammation.
In June I wrote about the importance of fatty acids for health and discussed how the typical western diets now are completely different from the diets of our ancestors and how our intakes of the essential omega 3 fats are generally considered to be too low by many scientists.
A very recent study (1) reviewed the evidence for the importance of omega 3 fatty acids for prevention of cardiovascular disease (heart disease and stroke). The results confirm that omega 3 fats are important in preventing primary cardiovascular disease i.e. preventing cardiovascular diseases in healthy individuals, as well as secondary cardiovascular disease i.e. cardiac events and mortality in patients with existing heart disease. The authors of the study say that the most compelling evidence for omega 3 fats in cardiovascular disease comes from 4 well designed controlled trials of almost 40,000 participants. In the trials the long chain omega 3 fat eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) was used with or without docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), another long chain omega 3 fatty acid (1).
EPA and DHA are the long chain omega 3 fatty acids found most abundantly in oily fish such as mackerel, salmon, trout and herring. They are also found in much smaller amounts in algae. The shorter chain omega 3 fatty acid alpha-linolenic is found most abundantly in flaxseeds and walnuts, the body can bioconvert this short chain omega 3 into the longer chain forms but the process is inefficient. Taking in EPA and DHA in their long chain forms is a much more reliable way of providing these long chain fats to the body.
The authors of the review study (1) say that individuals without cardiovascular disease should aim to have an EPA and DHA intake of at least 500mg per day and people with known coronary heart disease should get at least 800mg-1000mg of these fatty acids per day. The authors conclude that “Further studies are needed to determine optimal dosing and the relative ratio of DHA and EPA -3 PUFA that provides maximal cardioprotection in those at risk of cardiovascular disease as well in the treatment of atherosclerotic, arrhythmic, and primary myocardial disorders”.
In a press release (2) the lead author said: “This isn’t just hype; we now have tremendous and compelling evidence from very large studies, some dating back 20 and 30 years, that demonstrate the protective benefits of omega-3 fish oil in multiple aspects of preventive cardiology”
It is thought that the long chain omega 3 fats, EPA and DHA, work by incorporating into cell membranes. This in turn may be helping to improve the heart’s electrical activity, vascular tone and blood pressure. The long chain fats also act as anti-inflammatory agents in the body. Cardiovascular disease is considered to be an inflammatory condition.
The results of this(1) and other studies suggest that eating 2-4 portions of oily fish is advisable for health. If you do not eat oily fish regularly you may wish to seriously consider a fish oil supplement that provides 250-350mg of EPA and 250-350mg DHA daily. There are now vegan and vegetarian EPA and DHA supplements available that are produced from algae. They are quite expensive and have not yet been used in clinical trials but may well be worth taking since vegans and vegetarians are often lacking in omega 3 fats. Flaxseed oil providing 500-1000mg alpha-linolenic acid a day can also be considered. The body can convert this into EPA and DHA, as I have said before the process is not efficient, however some preliminary studies have shown that alpha-linolenic acid may also have heart protective effects.
(1)Lavie CJ et al. 2009. Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids and Cardiovascular Diseases. J Am Coll Cardiol, 2009; 54:585-594
(2) http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090803173250.htm. American College of Cardiology (2009, August 3). Mounting Evidence Of Fish Oil’s Heart Health Benefits. ScienceDaily. Retrieved August 4, 2009, from http://www.sciencedaily.com¬ /releases/2009/08/090803173250.htm
Written by Ani Kowal | <urn:uuid:4c4093af-fe84-4c5c-a8ca-bdd97d0196ef> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blog.bodykind.com/heart-disease/omega-3-fatty-acids-protect-the-heart/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393533.44/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00096-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940017 | 975 | 3.0625 | 3 |
|Grace Coolidge came to the White House as First Lady following the death of Warren Harding. Although she was reportedly timid about assuming the responsibilities of a presidential wife, Grace Coolidge became a celebrated hostess. Known as a "champion smiler" she was the family conversationalist (a not unimportant quality considering the reputation of her husband, "silent Cal.") Grace was also a great baseball fan, a fact which further endeared her to the public. Known as a sensitive and kind woman who loved children, Grace had spent many years as a teacher of the handicapped. It was while she was working at the Clarke Institute for the Deaf that she met the taciturn Calvin Coolidge. Her warmth and outgoing nature proved a boon to Coolidge on the campaign trail since she loved meeting people.
Once in the White House, Grace believed that the First Lady had an obligation to work on social issues of the day. Education for the deaf was a major concern, along with child welfare. When the Coolidges' son, sixteen-year-old Calvin, Jr., died suddenly in 1924, the nation grieved along with the beloved First Lady.
In 1928, the President announced that he would not seek another term. Grace was as taken by surprise by the news as the rest of the nation. Calvin Coolidge died only four years after leaving the White House, but Grace lived till the age of seventy eight. She continued her interest in education for the deaf. She also supported the Girl Scouts, the Campfire Girls, the Association for the Aid of Crippled Children, and Christmas Seals. During the Second World War, the former First Lady was active in the Red Cross and other relief agencies. She is remembered as a true humanitarian whom Helen Keller called "responsive to every human need." | <urn:uuid:d80f2e6d-3927-4f63-8ba9-3ba11631a73b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.historycentral.com/Bio/ladies/coolidge.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985161 | 367 | 2.859375 | 3 |
Looking for the lessons? Get started!
Quick description of “charsets,” and a recommendation.
The entire Web Design Principles section can be accessed through the menu below.
Did you ever get an email from your friends in Bulgaria with the subject line "???? ?????? ??? ????"? — Joel Spolsky
Charsets, or character sets, are one of those things that you can set early and forget about — or you can not set them properly and have easily avoidable trials and tribulations as a result.
Put it in the head of your HTML page, right under the
<head> element. It comes first of all your
<head> elements, always.
My friend Tommy Olsson gives us an excellent definition:
A character set is the total set of abstract characters that we have at our disposal. For HTML, the standard character set is ISO 10646, which is virtually the same thing as Unicode. It is a set of tens of thousands of characters representing most of the written languages on the planet.
Here’s some basic information about charsets. My first advice is to use this particular one in every design you make, unless you have a good reason not to do so:
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
Having said that, you should know that you will also run into this one quite often:
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
So what’s the difference? The difference is in the ending:
And your response is, "So?"
I could give you a longwinded, abstrusely technical response that would put all of us to sleep (or you could do some research yourself, if you’re interested). However, let me see if I can sum this up in a quick sentence or two.
Charsets set the character encoding for a Web page. The charset ending in UTF-8 supports almost all the characters (letters, numbers, and symbols) you’re ever likely to use in a Web page. It’s based on Unicode, which is the computing industry’s standard for transforming computer code gibberish into recognizable letters, numbers, and symbols. As for ISO-8859-1, it only recognizes 191 letters from a Latin-based script. It recognizes English-based letters and numbers, but not all of the punctuation symbols and other characters, especially ones used in foreign languages.
If you use ISO-8859-1, at some point you’ll find that your browser doesn’t recognize a punctuation mark or a symbol you’ve typed. And you might get angry e-mails from users asking why they can’t read your work. So just avoid the controversy, use the UTF-8 charset, and move on to something more interesting.
Olsson has written much more extensively and informatively on charsets.
Note: There are times when using the ISO-8859-1 standard is appropriate. By the time that occurs, you’ll know why you need to do it, and you won’t worry about this little lesson. And, there are lots of other charsets. If you need them, you’ll know it. One example: as Olsson writes, “Avoid Windows-1252 on public web pages, since it’s a Windows-specific encoding. Use ISO 8859-1 instead (or ISO 8859-15, if you need the Euro sign).” A lot of sites recommend the Windows-1252 charset, and some site creation software packages use it. Don’t you make that mistake. You can find out more about the various 8859 variants from this site.
2nd Note: Also, the charsets must be written just so, including the rather persnickety placement of the quotation marks. Just copy and paste it directly from this page. Easier on everybody. | <urn:uuid:e563b86f-2369-4ecd-9785-27338824087c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.iraqtimeline.com/maxdesign/basicdesign/principles/princharset.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392527.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00142-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.877539 | 852 | 3.375 | 3 |
Individual Role-Playing Exercises
Students can write a paper or give a presentation from the perspective of another person or even from an object within the process being studied. This exercise can be a simple brainstorming exercise or a full-blown research project. The process is similar to those of other research projects, but the writer needs to know not only about the subject, but also the character from whose perspective the project is being done and the audience for whom it is theoretically being done. This could be a stand-alone project or it could be part of the preparation for an interactive exercise.
Typical Individual Role-Playing Exercises
Stories: much more fun than a typical research paper, especially when they deal with such topics as the Calvin cycle.
In an introductory environmental studies class, Rosemary Tong (now at UNCC) taught the water cycle by having the students write a brief paper about a water molecule and its voyage from the ocean, to land, and back to the ocean again. It was less dull than memorizing the diagram! There are many possible variants to this project: in a biology class, ask the students to tell the story of the water molecule and one of its hydrogen components as it goes through a chloroplast and a mitochondrion. Alternatively, require it to make part of its return trip to the ocean as groundwater or through transpiration.
Letters: simply learning the format is a valuable experience.
Is it time for another manned expedition to the moon? Have the students write letters to their representatives in Congress (or the appropriate national legislature) about funding another expedition to the moon. What data do we want and how should we go about getting it? Could an unmanned expedition do the same job?
Problem statement: includes a summary of the problem, and a plan of action for dealing with it. These are often appropriate substitutes for term papers, especially in environmental science class.
NASA's ESSEA Online Courses: 9-12 Earth System Science Course for high-school teachers is written around a series of team problem statement assignments. For each problem: on coral bleaching, tropical deforestation, ozone depletion, and global change, the students, acting as a team of scientific experts employed by an affected community, determine:
- What is known about the problem?
- What is the evidence?
- What is the argument that interprets the evidence?
- Are there alternative explanations or better ways of explaining the situation or solving the problem?
Political position papers: should combine social, economic, and scientific research.
Have the students read about restrictions on mining on public lands in the U.S., particularly about the disposal of tailings. Have some write papers in favor of lighter restrictions and some in favor of stricter ones, then have each student turn their paper over to an opponent to read and critique before turning them in to be graded. There should be a final paragraph about what the student (out-of-character) thinks about the issue.
- Public Lands for the People (more info) : has several statements, an interesting list of accomplishments, and links to mining groups.
- Environmental Frontlines Issue Summary: mining on public lands (more info) : has an introductory article and links to a variety of shareholders in the issue.
Speeches: can later be followed with a debate.
Have each student take the role of an interested party and speak for 5 minutes about whether they support or oppose exploratory oil drilling in Alaska. Roles could include: an Alaskan university student who survives on his annual check (state residents get a small percentage of oil revenues), an environmentalist concerned about preserving the tundra, a pacifist concerned about U.S. involvement in the Middle East, an Alaskan salmon fisherman, an oil-company geologist, a representative from the Saudi Arabian government, etc.
Report on findings: usually scientific, but often focused on a political or economic objective.
Pack your students off to Pangaea! Well, give them some time to get ready first. Explain that they are preparing for a time-traveling expedition to the Late Permian. Before they go, they'll need a map, so give them some markers and send them to the library and the computer room and have them bring back a colored map of Pangaea, including locations of mountains, deserts, ice sheets, known plant and animal distributions (especially of dangerous animals), the contemporary positions of modern continents, and other features of interest, with sources noted. Once your students find out about the end-Permian mass extinction, they may not be willing to actually make the trip... | <urn:uuid:ef0b717c-8def-45d0-9ad1-f601b0ddae88> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/roleplaying/indproj.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396455.95/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00197-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950748 | 945 | 3.8125 | 4 |
Leftovers can be kept for three to four days in the refrigerator. Be sure to eat them within that time. After that, the risk of food poisoning increases. If you don't think you'll be able to eat leftovers within four days, freeze them immediately.
Food poisoning — also called foodborne illness — is caused by harmful organisms, such as bacteria in contaminated food. Because bacteria typically don't change the taste, smell or look of food, you can't tell whether a food is dangerous to eat. So if you're in doubt about a food's safety, it's best to throw it out.
Fortunately, most cases of food poisoning can be prevented with proper food handling. To practice food safety, quickly refrigerate perishable foods, such as meat, poultry, fish, dairy and eggs — don't let them sit more than two hours at typical room temperature or more than one hour at temperatures above 90 F (32 C).
Uncooked foods, such as cold salads or sandwiches, also should be eaten or refrigerated promptly. Your goal is to minimize the time a food is in the "danger zone" — between 40 and 140 F (4 and 60 C) — when bacteria can quickly multiply.
When you're ready to eat leftovers, reheat them on the stove, in the oven or in the microwave until the internal temperature reaches 165 F (74 C). Because they may not get hot enough, slow cookers and chafing dishes aren't recommended for reheating leftovers.
July 30, 2015
See more Expert Answers
- Basics for handling food safely. U.S. Department of Agriculture. http://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/food-safety-education/get-answers/food-safety-fact-sheets/safe-food-handling/basics-for-handling-food-safely/ct_index. Accessed July 11, 2015.
- Foodborne illness: What consumers need to know. U.S. Department of Agriculture. http://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/food-safety-education/get-answers/food-safety-fact-sheets/foodborne-illness-and-disease/foodborne-illness-what-consumers-need-to-know/ct_index. Accessed July 11, 2015.
- Food safety counts! U.S. Department of Agriculture. http://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/wcm/connect/92d931d0-adc8-49b5-a335-5d729bfdda9e/Food_Safety_Counts.pdf?MOD=AJPERES. Accessed July 13, 2015.
- Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/dietary-guidelines-2010. Accessed July 13, 2015.
- Slow cookers and food safety. U.S. Department of Agriculture. http://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/food-safety-education/get-answers/food-safety-fact-sheets/appliances-and-thermometers/slow-cookers-and-food-safety/ct_index. Accessed July 13, 2015. | <urn:uuid:47c9bd00-eb0e-4a51-8b62-f36523a530df> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.mayoclinic.org/food-safety/expert-answers/FAQ-20058500 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397873.63/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00059-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932778 | 732 | 3.671875 | 4 |
Although we can’t feel it, our blood vessels are under constant pressure—blood pressure, that is. As the heart pumps out blood, delivering oxygen to our muscles and organs, force is exerted with each beat. This is systolic pressure—the greater of the two numbers that measure blood pressure. Diastolic pressure, the lesser number, indicates the force of blood flow between beats.
When we’re healthy and fit, blood pressure is at or less than 120/80 millimeters of mercury (the standard method of measurement). Yet the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about one in three American adults has high blood pressure, a condition that increases the risk of heart disease, stroke, congestive heart failure and kidney disease.
Blood pressure at or exceeding 140/90 is considered high or ‘hypertensive,’ and prehypertension is defined as systolic pressure of 120 to 139 and diastolic pressure from 80 to 89. “Prehypertension is a warning sign for hypertension (high blood pressure) and should be viewed as a wake-up call,” says Dr. Linda Stronach, an interventional cardiologist on staff at Missouri Baptist Medical Center.
Patients with prehypertension need specific lifestyle changes known to decrease blood pressure. They include weight loss, exercise, dietary changes, moderation of alcohol intake and smoking cessation.
The good news is that when it comes to preventing and treating high blood pressure, relatively small lifestyle changes can have a significantly positive effect. Some patients even reverse the need for medication. “And besides affecting blood pressure, the recommended lifestyle changes are beneficial for cholesterol health, prevention of stroke, prevention of diabetes, even prevention of some types of cancer,” says Dr. Mohammad Kizilbash, a cardiologist on staff at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.
For example, when individuals are given antihypertensive medications, it decreases blood pressure to varying degrees. Some medicines only decrease blood pressure by 4 or 5 millimeters of mercury. “When we see a drop of 10, we’re actually very excited,” Kizilbash says. Yet for an overweight individual, losing just 10 pounds can decrease blood pressure from 5 to 10 millimeters of mercury. An individual who is 20 pounds overweight and loses those extra 20 pounds can decrease blood pressure by as much as 20 millimeters. “That’s a profound drop,” Kizilbash adds.
Regardless of weight, regular exercise—at least 30 minutes of aerobic activity per day—helps lower blood pressure. “Regular physical activity makes your heart stronger. A stronger heart is more efficient and can pump more blood with less effort. When your heart does not have to work as hard, the force on your vessels decreases, resulting in a lower blood pressure,” explains Dr. Sana Waheed, a physician specializing in internal medicine with Mercy Clinic.
Along with exercise, patients are advised to follow a diet high in fruits, vegetables, low-fat dairy products, whole grains and low in sodium.
Another lifestyle change beneficial to many involves managing stress. “Stress increases hormones in our bodies, which constrict the arteries, causing higher pressure in these blood vessels.”
The most important advice is to know your blood pressure and take steps to control it. As Stronach sums up: “Treatment, whether with lifestyle changes, medications or both, can result in preserved quality and length of life.” | <urn:uuid:2d21d3cd-d9eb-4fd5-8c97-8e4c4e349fc9> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.laduenews.com/living/health-wellness/high-blood-pressure/article_356f35d4-58ac-11e1-8683-001a4bcf6878.html?mode=story | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395679.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00173-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.91832 | 724 | 3.734375 | 4 |
Treating A Patient Who Feels There Are Parasites Under Her Skin
A 54-year-old woman presents with bilateral leg lesions that are pruritic and bothersome, a condition that is several years in duration. She has seen several physicians for this condition but “no one seems to be able to help” her. As she is sitting in the treatment chair, the patient actively scratches her legs and forearms. She says there is something “underneath” and she must “get it out.” She denies that the itching gets worse at night but notes that it bothers her throughout the day.
The patient has no other pertinent past medical history, no allergies and no current medications. She denies fever, chills and joint pain. She is not currently using any topical medications on the areas. She denies having any pets at home, traveling or being around animals recently. She presents with two other family members who live with her and are not experiencing any itching themselves.
The physical exam reveals excoriations, ulcerations, hypopigmented patches and hyperpigmented areas surrounding the ulcerations on the lower legs. There are healed areas with no active ulceration. In addition, the patient has similar lesions on the forearms and admits to scratching the upper thigh area. I sent a skin biopsy for histopathology.
Key Questions To Consider
1. What are the characteristic skin lesions in this disease?
2. What is the most likely diagnosis?
3. What is your differential diagnosis?
4. What are the characteristic lesions with this condition?
5. What is the treatment?
Answering The Key Diagnostic Questions
1. The characteristics most associated with this skin condition are self-induced lesions that may appear as erosions, ulcerations, prurigo nodularis or no skin lesions at all. Patients will typically scratch the areas in easy reach with their dominant hand. They will collect clothing fibers and skin debris in containers (the “matchbox sign”) as evidence of the insects they believe are living under their skin.
2. The most likely diagnosis is delusions of parasitosis.
3. Differential diagnoses include: scabies, formication, internal malignancy and nutritional disorders (like pellagra).
4. The characteristic lesions with this condition can range from an absence of skin injury to excoriations and ulcers that may or may not have crusted over.
5. Treatment includes the drug of choice pimozide, empathy from the treating physician and an eventual psychiatric consult and team approach.
What You Should Know About Delusions of Parasitosis
This patient has delusions of parasitosis. Biopsy results did not reveal evidence of an arthropod bite reaction. However, the patient’s insistence that bugs were crawling under her skin and she needed to create a portal to let them out were indicators that either a real infestation or a delusion was happening. Delusions of parasitosis is a firmly fixed delusional disorder in which the patient firmly believes there are parasites under the skin.1 Patients will often present to a dermatologist or primary care physician, and will frequently refuse psychiatric consultation. The cause of delusions of parasitosis is unknown.
These patients will often present in an agitated, defensive state to the attending physician and can be described as “doctor shoppers” as they have seen numerous clinicians for this without the result they want (i.e. finding the parasites in the skin). If someone in the patient’s immediate circle of family or friends shares this delusion with the patient, the term for this is “folie à deux.”
The workup of these patients should include: obtaining a detailed history (especially any drug abuse history and psychiatric history such as depression, bipolar disorder, etc.); ruling out a real infestation such as scabies; bloodwork (complete blood cell count with differential, electrolytes, liver function test, thyroid function, vitamin B levels); and a skin biopsy if needed. When questioning the patient, it is imperative to determine how fixed the delusion is. Most importantly, when speaking with these patients, the clinician must remain neutral and show an understanding of the patient’s predicament and stress level. Directly pointing out the delusion and/or supporting the delusion is not recommended when speaking with these patients.
In addition to the self-induced skin injuries visualized as excoriations, ulcers and scars, patients may present with evidence of their infestation in a plastic bag or box.2 This is known as the matchbox sign. The physician may wish to examine the skin debris or clothing fibers that the patient believes is a sign of infestation under the microscope and may invite the patient to view it in order to show no evidence of parasites present. It is also important that during the physical exam, the clinician states there are no visible signs of parasites present on the skin but does so in a way that the patient does not become defensive.
Understanding The Main Differentials With Delusions Of Parasitosis
Scabies. Scabies is an intense pruritus caused by the mite Sarcoptes scabiei, var. hominis. The skin rash is characterized by red, pruritic, papulovesicular lesions and burrows. Burrows are pathognomonic and are caused by movement of the female mite in the epidermis. These can be visible on the plantar feet and interdigitally. Characteristically, the patient complains of itching that is worse at night.
Formication. Formication describes the feeling of insects crawling on or under the skin. This can be present with diabetic neuropathy, menopause, narcotic drug use, alcohol withdrawal, as a side effect of Ritalin and Lunesta, and in patients with Lyme disease.
A Guide To The Treatment Plan
The skin biopsy in this case showed there were no reactions from an arthropod bite in the skin but it cannot definitively state the diagnosis of delusions of parasitosis. Patients are often dissatisfied with results of a skin biopsy as they will tell the clinician that it is from the wrong site since it does not show the presence of bugs. The patient was extremely fixed on the delusion that she had to create portals for the parasites to leave her skin. Upon speaking with her family members separately, they admitted to me that she had refused psychiatric care previously and I was the fifth doctor she had seen for this condition.
During her first visit, I provided wound care to the ulcers on her legs. The patient tore off the wound dressings because she felt the parasites had no route to escape her skin. She also rejected visiting nursing care to perform dressing changes during the week. During her second and third visits, I recommended oral pimozide (Orap, Teva Biologics), a neuroleptic, to ease the itching the patient had. One would use pimozide off-label in cases of delusions of parasitosis. Pimozide has an anti-pruritic action due to its effect on opioid pathways. Other oral medications that one can use are risperidone (Risperdal Consta, Janssen Pharmaceutica) and olanzapine (Zyprexa, Eli Lilly).3
The mainstays of treatment are consultation with the patient’s primary physician prior to starting the medication and careful monitoring of the patient once he or she is on the medication. It is important for the prescribing physician to be familiar with the side effects and the contraindications of these medications before writing for them. Side effects of these drugs include extrapyramidal syndrome, sedation, weight gain, electrocardiographic changes and anticholinergic effects.
Consider the risk/benefit ratio for these patients in order to improve their quality of life. For pimozide alone, the full remission rates have ranged from 33 to 90 percent. However, it is a challenge to have the patient agree to this therapy and it takes patience and empathy on the part of the treating physician. Encouraging the patient to shift his or her focus from the “infestation” to the suffering he or she is experiencing is a place to begin the pharmacologic management conversation.
In the past, this patient had refused psychiatric consult. In general, if the patient improves with wound care and pharmaceutical management of the delusion, the physician can recommend psychiatric consultation once the delusions have been reduced. Ideally, both a psychiatrist and attending clinician would evaluate the patient in the same visit. However, this may prove challenging due to the trust issues of these patients.
This patient moved on to another physician and I suspect a multiple number of physicians after that. Management of these patients is challenging and can be frustrating. Even though the clinician may have the best interest of the patient in mind, the patient’s delusion is so fixed and unwavering that it is a true barrier to her current care and quality of life.
Dr. Vlahovic is an Associate Professor and J. Stanley and Pearl Landau Faculty Fellow at the Temple University School of Podiatric Medicine. She is board certified by the American Board of Podiatric Surgery.
1. Sandoz A, LoPiccolo M, Kusnir D and Tausk FA. A clinical paradigm of delusions of parasitosis. J Am Acad Dermatol. 2008; 59(4):698-704.
2. Edlich RF, Cross CL, Wack CA and Long WB. Delusions of parasitosis. Am J Emerg Med. 2009; 27(8):997-999.
3. Shmidt E and Levitt J. Dermatologic infestations. Int J Dermatol. 2012; 51(2):131-41.
Dr. Vlahovic writes a DPM Blog for Podiatry Today at http://bit.ly/w3MdZj . | <urn:uuid:37cb1b30-b32a-45e8-98d8-a6bc5dde174a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.podiatrytoday.com/treating-patient-who-feels-there-are-parasites-under-her-skin?page=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391634.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00106-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948843 | 2,048 | 2.78125 | 3 |
On November 8th at 6:28 EST, an asteroid passed so close to Earth, if you were standing on your roof you could have licked it. And as awesome as that sounds, you also need to appreciate how close you were to becoming a spray of one atom thick, gross, meaty goo at the bottom of a massive crater. The fact is, space hates you. It’s a cold void full of up yours and if not for the fact earth was a grain of sand on a near-endless beach, it would have wiped us out long ago. How? Oh, read on.
As we mentioned, that asteroid came awfully close to smoking some people out. It’s a 400 meter wide object but if it hit earth, it would have the impact of 7,000 atomic bombs the likes of which were used in WWII. If you recall, that war ended with two that devastated Japan. The power of 7,000 would be insane. And it’s really not all that big. One twice as big would likely kill a quarter of the life on Earth. Also you’d have that pesky nuclear winter to deal with if you survived as dust and dirt fills the atmosphere and blocks the sun for years.
Scientists assure us shit like this happens all the time, on a cosmic scale. Remember the dinosaurs? Yeah, they met an asteroid too. There’s all kinds of rocky bits floating around out there, pinballing to and fro. Odds are one will hit us eventually, hopefully sometime after we’re all done with the world and don’t need it anymore.
Realistically, a black hole is hard to wrap your head around. Imagine gravity, keeping your ass right there in your chair. Now it gets stronger and you break the chair. Stronger still you’re busting through the floor. And then eventually it’s so strong everything just pulls inside out. Or, to put it another way, what if you shoved someone’s head so far up their own ass, they effectively disappeared? Is there anything left after that? Yes. It’s a black hole. You can’t even see the damn thing because it pulls light into itself, we can only see the edge where light disappears into the big, jerky gravity sink that used to be a star. The star got so fat it collapsed and reality itself seems unable to escape from it. It’s kind of crazy.
A black hole creates a curve in space and time so nothing can get away. Even time. Go on, throw your watch into one, it’ll totally stop working. And either be destroyed or be frozen for all time at the event horizon simply because time stops there, too. Who knows, we’re only amateur physicists. Point is, if you stumble upon a black hole, you’re totally screwed. Because either you’ll be ripped to shreds a few million miles away from it, or it’ll freeze your ass in some kind of space time conundrum with Captain Kirk.
And remember, if you think you’re safe staying here, far away from black holes, you’re not 100% correct as they can and do move. And, you know, you can’t see them. So they’re like super sucking ninjas. Think about it.
Traditionally, this isn’t a normal space problem. Dudes on Mars don’t have this problem. But we do because everyone at NASA just tosses their shit out the window when they’re orbiting the Earth. Same with Russians and Richard Branson. Should you care? Yes.
The crap orbiting earth is going about 10 km/s. Since that’s metric will fix it up for you, it’s fast as hell. 22,000 mph or so. There’s stuff as small as paint chips off of space craft to as large as defunct satellites, cameras, fuel containers, nuts and bolts, about 400 million needles-sized antenna and a ton of other stuff. Around 8,000 pieces of crap that are over 4 inches across are tracked for the benefit of astronauts who want to get into space without being exploded right away, but that leaves over 100,000 pieces of crap under 4 inches. And all of this stuff will eventually wind its way back into our atmosphere.
Tiny things are no bother, they burn up, but if you recall a couple of weeks back as everyone eagerly awaited not being hit in the head by a 6 ton NASA satellite, there are some other large and unpredictable chunks that are just going to fly all flaming and insane out of space and land wherever. Are the odds on you getting hit? No. But it still has to land somewhere. And you have to exist somewhere.
Neither an X-Men villain nor a giant, tusked beast from Northrend, a Magnetar is a super dense neutron star that has a magnetic field over 100 trillion times stronger than the Earth. That’ll jigger your compass needle.
Magnetars are pretty far away from earth but the problem is they get a little flashy every so often and shoot out bursts of radiation. You might think big deal, everything in space farts radiation, it’s like Pez up there, but magnetar radiation is epic, asshole scale radiation. A superflare from a magnetar hit the Earth in 2004 and it was stronger than the effect of a solar flare from our sun. But the star that produced it was 50,000 light years away. If it was as close as our sun the effect, according to our calculations, would have blown the head of every living thing on Earth through the ass of every other living thing in the blink of an eye. That’s how physics works, right?
Imagine Bret Ratner and Rick Santorum and the Westboro Baptist Church all at a manly retreat full of naked ladies and beer and undercooked meat and sports as they all attempt to be as straight as possible and then, with a sudden rumbling, the Earth bursts forth with George Takei and Richard Simmons and Elton John and a thousand men in hot pants dancing to the Village People on all sides, everywhere. The panic that would spring from Westboro and Santorum and Ratner in that first moment of recognition is not even a fraction of the energy released by a supernova. And seriously, that would be a lot of pants-shitting panic going on.
Supernovas occur when a star just blows the hell up and in that moment it can release all the energy our sun will ever release, just in that one explosion. If a fart is an atom bomb, a supernova is a fart that would shoot your atoms into an entirely different galaxy. God, we’re a classy website.
Our sun does not have the mass to go supernova, but if it did, it’d pretty much vaporize the entire solar system and light up the galaxy like a Christmas tree made from the screaming of 7 billion souls. And tinsel.
Also known by the cooler name of Exile Stars, hypervelocity stars don’t play by your rules. In fact, screw you guys, they’re leaving. And they ain’t ever coming back.
The hypervelocity star is a star like you’d expect to find in any solar system, only it has such an intense velocity it tears away from the gravitational pull of the galaxy it’s in. So imagine the sun if it was all coked up and just shot its ass out into space – a giant, flaming hydrogen monster just going. Going where? Just going, man. Going. At 2,236,000 miles per hour, give or take.
16 of these flaming solar pinballs have been discovered and it’s estimated that maybe there are 1000 in our galaxy altogether. There are a hundred billion stars staying where they belong, so these guys are pretty rare, but that probably doesn’t mean much to anyone who’s been in the way of one of these things.
If we were keeping up the cool rebel joke right here, we’d toss in something about leaving with his girlfriend Starla, but that’d be super lame. | <urn:uuid:70fb4245-9747-4ca3-9aa6-400821f50db8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.holytaco.com/space-hates-you-6-cosmic-death-traps/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393442.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00018-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949507 | 1,719 | 2.59375 | 3 |
GENDER EVALUATION METHODOLOGY (GEM) is a guide that integrates gender analysis into evaluations of initiatives that uses information communication technologies for social change. This section draws out the basic definitions that are used in this methodology, particularly around concepts related to gender. It is important to understand that GEM is a tool that undergoes continuous development through its implementation and creative adaptations in different initiatives, as well as from feedback on its applicability. GEM does not present itself as a hard and fast set of instructions and rules that cannot be broken. It is only through this evolving and participatory process that the practicality and effectiveness of GEM as a useful methodology can be realised.
Basic Gender Concepts
What is Gender?
Gender is a concept that refers to the social and cultural constructs that each society assigns to behaviours, characteristics and values attributed to men and women, reinforced by symbols, laws and regulations, institutions, and perceptions. The basis of these constructs lies behind the idea that they are natural or intrinsic, and therefore, unalterable. On the contrary, gender constructs are shaped by ideological, historical, religious, ethnic, economic and cultural determinants. These are then translated into social, economic and political inequities; where men’s activities and their gender attributes are perceived as essentially superior to women’s.
It is important to note that gender does not mean man or woman per se. Biological traits that men and women are born with are termed as ‘sex’, which refers only to differences in sexual organs and anatomy. The concept of gender on the other hand, is used to understand the social and personal relations between man and woman, as well as how the concepts of femininity and masculinity are constructed. Gender attributions are often justified on the grounds of sexual or biological difference. For example, women are perceived to be "naturally" nurturing, a characteristic linked to their reproductive capacity as childbearers.
Gender attributions are often oppressive – concepts that were passed on through centuries and ensured by societies to be rigidly adhered to. The typical characteristics assigned to women and men are discriminatory that limit and even damage individual lives. Historically, it is woman who has lost in the relations of the sexes. As such, gender is at the same time a category that has to do with relations as well as politics.
Gender attributions have also permeated the field of science and technology. Often categorised as “hard” and therefore “masculine”, it is a field traditionally considered more suited for men than women. For example, the perception that women fare poorly in science and technology relative to men is often attributed to biological limitations of women, rather than to gender stereotypes in educational materials, teaching approaches, study opportunities, and technological design that contribute to a gender gap in ICT use. Unchallenged gender role stereotypes are built into these resources and methods, which in turn continue to maintain these stereotypes. Consequently, men are assumed to be better equipped to pursue science and technology compared to women, creating greater obstacles for women from entering the field.
What are Gender Roles?
- Gender relations are context specific.
- Gender relations intersect with other social relations like class, ethnicity/race, and age.
- Gender relations can and do change in response to altering political and socio-economic changes.
- Gender relations can be resistant to change because like other social relations, they are expressed in the institutions of society.
Examining gender roles leads to a better understanding on how women and men use ICTs differently, or to what ends men and women use them. For example, in the field of e-commerce, many projects only taught women to use the internet to shop online. E-commerce applications for productive areas like monitoring prices of farm products were mainly designed for farmer communities predominantly led by men. In the past few years however, ICT applications have begun to focus on training women entrepreneurs in e-business. While many of these applications do not necessarily challenge changes in the reproductive roles of women, they now recognise women’s productive roles which in some cases have opened up changes in the status of women in the household. Many experiences in introducing using ICTs in communities have resulted in changes in the status of community members who now have access to and know-how in using ICTs (for example, in telecentres). In some communities, women have been able to transcend traditional barriers of leadership that were previously seen as man’s domain by becoming information brokers or trainers in telecentres.
Likewise, the effects of using ICTs impact differently on women and men. For instance, do ICTs save time or in effect create more demands in terms of time because of gender roles? To be more specific, does telecommuting create the potential for more work because it blurs the distinction between private (home) and public (office) domains? In what aspects do gender roles come into this set-up? What are the expectations? Are they different from men and women? Does the availability of a home computer facilitate work management through telecommuting or does it create unrealistic time demands because the worker (male or female) is always connected? Does a woman’s work time increase or decrease? Drawing attention to different and multiple gender roles and responsibilities will enable practitioners to understand that women’s ICT needs are often different from men’s, and meeting those needs may entail specific planning requirements.
The body of literature in gender analysis points to three common roles: reproductive, productive and community management.
Reproductive roles include childbearing/ rearing responsibilities and domestic roles usually performed by women who are required to reproduce and maintain the labour force. Although these roles are actually work, they are however differentiated from what is understood as ‘productive’ because performing these roles are not recognised as ‘work’. As such, work in this category is unpaid. These tasks are not reflected in any country’s GDP or GNP.
Productive roles comprise work done by both women and men that generate income (in cash and/or in kind) and have an exchange value.
Community roles are those undertaken primarily by women at the community level as an extension of their reproductive roles to maintain scarce resources of collective consumption such as water, health care and education. (Of course, there are other participants in a community that engage in this type of work like senior men and women, infirmed or those who have disabilities, underemployed and unemployed members of the community.)
Because women tend to assume multiple roles (caring for children while engaged in productive and community roles), it is important to take these into account when formulating an evaluation plan or analysing the impact of a particular ICT project in relation to gender. It is necessary to take note on how ICTs impact on these multiple roles and examine the changes that the new information economy bring to women and men’s gendered roles. Take the case of telecentres that employ women. Some evaluations usually pay attention only to the infrastructure or hardware issues and fail to consider the social context and content of information that can negatively affect women and girls. Cybercafés or information centres for instance may be open during hours unsuitable for women who have to juggle their time between their productive and reproductive roles. Or the costs of accessing these centres may be prohibitive to women and girls because they don’t have as much disposable income relative to men and boys. In which case, it would be best to look into why women do not have as much income: could it be because the spending scheme of women must factor in expenses in the performance of their multiple roles (e.g. household expenses, family needs, etc.) leaving a small amount or hardly none at all for their needs? Or could it be because women lack the necessary skills for employment? Or since they shoulder most if not all of the reproductive roles in their family, they end up having no more time to engage in productive work?
Gender is a socio-economic variable for analysing roles, responsibilities, constraints, opportunities, and needs of men and women in a given context. One aspect of gender analysis is exploring the nature of gender differences and their political meanings by systematically asking questions about how different men are from women in a given population, with respect to their:
Roles and Activities
- who does what: productive activities? household reproductive activities (child care, cooking, water and fuel collection)? recreation? who does the work: women? men? girls? boys? is it done by both women and men? by only one of them?
- how long does it take? is the work seasonal? monthly? weekly? daily?
- where is the work carried out: home? farm? city? factory?
- how rigid is the gender division of labour?
Resources and Constraints
- what resources do men and women have to work with?
- who uses/owns/controls each of these resources? who is excluded from use/ ownership/control?
- what decisions do men and women make: in the household? in the community?
- are constraints to participation in social and economic life different for men and women?
Benefits and Incentives
- who controls productive activity? reproductive activity?
- who benefits from economic activity?
- who receives income? who controls income? what about non-income benefits?
- do men and women have different incentives for participation in these activities?
Source: "Unit 1: A conceptual framework for gender analysis and planning"
Practical Gender Needs and Strategic Gender Interests
Practical gender needs are needs identified by women that do not challenge their socially accepted roles. These needs relate to fulfilling their productive, reproductive and community roles and responsibilities, which include basic, practical necessities such as shelter, employment and food.
Strategic gender interests on the other hand, challenge existing gender roles. They reflect demands that aim for equity for women, and begin with the assumption that women are subordinate to men as a consequence of social and institutional discrimination against women.
In practice, an approach that emphasises practical needs may make room for recognition and consideration of strategic interests. On the other hand, practical needs may reinforce the existing sexual division of labour, which subordinates women to men. Having access to telephones or the internet, for example, provides women access to means of communication but does not, however, automatically change their relative position to men.
Project interventions may target gender disparities in one of two ways. They can address immediate short-term needs without necessarily challenging the structural causes of gender inequality, or they can address broader strategic issues related to the gender interests of men and women to create conditions for gender equality. For example, in many developing countries, computers are being introduced in schools as tools to support the learning process. Researches have shown that classrooms are not free from gender bias.
A gender assessment in 2001 in four African countries: Senegal, Mauritania, Uganda and Ghana, found that despite efforts to make the programme gender-sensitive, gender inequalities in access persisted. In some schools in Uganda and Ghana, girls do not enjoy equitable access to the computer labs. High student-to-computer ratios and firstcome- first serve policies do not favour girls who are heavily outnumbered by boys at the secondary level. Girls have earlier curfew hours and domestic responsibilities that limit their access time. [Gurumurthy 31-32] A gendersensitive planning for this project is to implement a fair-use policy that ensures equal access and use of computers. But, the project may not be able to address a more strategic need – create the condition that will give rise to an increased enrolment of girls.
Differentiating practical needs from strategic gender interests provides insights for gender planning and evaluation and can be used as basis for identifying positive actions. For evaluation purposes, assessing the extent of responding to both practical and strategic gender needs can inform the impact of projects and initiatives.
Gender-transformative policies advocate and work for change and transformation of existing inequalities. On the other hand, genderspecific policies favour one gender over another to achieve gender goals while gender-neutral policies dismiss gender differences and do not advocate any change on the gender division of labour and resources.
Gender-transformative policies should provide women with enabling resources that allow them to take greater control of ICTs, to determine the kind of ICTs they need, and to frame policies that will help them reach their goals.
Top-down strategies aim to change ICT institutions and agencies to promote women’s equality and empowerment in ICTs. Examples of top-down strategies include:
- using political pressure at international conferences and consultations to demonstrate the importance of gender-sound policies and interventions
- serving as a ‘watchdog’ that monitors ICT impacts on women
- conducting researches and gathering data on gender concerns as central to ICTs for more effective lobby work
- promoting the use of gender analysis tools such as frameworks, guidelines, checklists and rosters of women, and ICT and gender experts
- working within structures to effect change through gender training, financial allocations, staff appointments, and obtaining internal legal mandates
Bottom-up strategies are aimed directly at women, supporting their entry into the mainstream of ICTs. They include:
- removing legal or social barriers that limit women’s access to ICTs
- enabling women to take initiatives in their involvement in ICT planning and policies
- extending financial or technical assistance to women to facilitate access to and control of ICTs by providing credit, training, and education
There are multiple frameworks of gender analysis that can be adopted in using GEM as an evaluation tool. We share two frameworks: “Spectacles for Seeing Gender in Project Evaluation” by Sara Hlupekile Longwe and “Gender and Information and Communication Technology: Towards an Analytical Framework” by Peregrine Wood. Longwe’s examines gender and ICTs through its impact on women’s empowerment while Wood’s looks at the relationship between women and technology from various feminist perspectives. Both of these approaches have been used in our work.
“Unit 1: A conceptual framework for gender analysis and planning.” ILO/SEAPAT’s Gender Learning & Information Module. OnLine. http://www.ilo.org/public/english/region/asro/ mdtmanila/training/homepage/mainmenu.htm (n.d.)
Gurumurthy, Anita. Gender and ICTs Overview Report. UK: Bridge, Institute of Development Studies, September 2004. 31-32. Online. http://www.siyanda.org/search/ summary.cfm?NN=1458&ST=SS&Keywords=icts&Subject=0&donor=0&langu=E&StartRow=1&Ref=Adv
Tinio, Victoria. “ICT in Education”. e-ASEAN Taskforce and UNDP-APDIP, May 2003. | <urn:uuid:b20dce4d-b5c8-45dc-b81e-a98769a6c6a1> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.apcwomen.org/gemkit/en/understanding_gem/genderanalysis.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397695.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00074-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94902 | 3,099 | 3.734375 | 4 |
Getting to the Moon was one of the greatest accomplishments in human history. But now, the Moon may be reduced to a mere pit stop for space travelers headed elsewhere. A Mars mission might be much easier, say researchers at MIT, if we use the Moon as a refueling station.
The list of countries that have mounted successful missions to Mars is not exactly long: the U.S. and Russia, as you’d expect, and more recently India. But now the United Arab Emirates has an ambitious plan to enter the race as soon as 2020.
Speaking at a Washington lecture over the weekend, Apollo 11 crewmembers Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins expressed concern about NASA focusing too much on past accomplishments. That is to say, they believe we should focus our efforts on Mars.
In a move that's been obvious since the film Barbarella hit the planet, a scientist's research is pointing to the need for sex in space. But it's for a scientific and sensible reason: avoiding frustration on long-term space missions, when crew-members are crammed into a spacecraft, and living in ridiculously close… | <urn:uuid:d2e6a8e2-67f7-49e7-9b75-d34eef7769a3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://gizmodo.com/tag/mars-mission | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396949.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00127-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954182 | 225 | 2.859375 | 3 |
Behind the Scenes
The actor struts his little hour,
Between the limelight and the band;
The public feel the actor's power,
Yet nothing do they understand
Of all the touches here and there
That make or mar the actor's part,
They never see, beneath the glare,
The artist striving after art.
To them it seems a labour slight
Where nought of study intervenes;
You see it in another light
When once you've been behind the scenes.
For though the actor at his best
Is, like a poet, born not made,
He still must study with a zest
And practise hard to learn his trade.
So, whether on the actor's form
The stately robes of Hamlet sit,
Or as Macbeth he rave and storm,
Or plays burlesque to please the pit,
'Tis each and all a work of art,
That constant care and practice means --
The actor who creates a part
Has done his work behind the scenes.
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Analysis and Comments on Behind the Scenes
Provide your analysis, explanation, meaning, interpretation, and comments on the poem Behind the Scenes here. | <urn:uuid:cf31f2b2-1f84-4dca-8547-eafa0ca7caac> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.poetrysoup.com/famous/poem/8855/Behind_the_Scenes | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396147.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00179-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.916561 | 270 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Resistance vs Capacitance
Capacitance and resistance are two of the most fundamental concepts in electronics. These two ideas play a vital role in almost every electronic device we use today. It is particularly beneficial to have a clear understanding in these topics. This article will discuss the differences and similarities between these two topics.
Resistance is a fundamental property in the field of electricity and electronics. The resistance in a qualitative definition tells us how hard it is for an electrical current to flow. In the quantitative sense, the resistance between two points can be defined as the voltage difference that is required to take a unit current across the defined two points. Electrical resistance is the inverse of electrical conduction. The resistance of an object is defined as the ratio of the voltage across the object to the current flowing through it. The resistance of a conductor depends on the amount of free electrons in the medium. The resistance of a semiconductor mostly depends on the number of doping atoms used (impurity concentration).
The resistance a system shows to an alternating current is different from that to a direct current. Therefore, the term impedance is introduced in order to make AC resistance calculations much easier. The Ohm’s law is the single most important law when the topic resistance is discussed. It states that, for a given temperature, the ratio of voltage across two points to the current passing through those points is constant. This constant is known as the resistance between those two points. The resistance is measured in Ohms.
The capacitance of an object is a measurement of the amount of charges that object can hold without discharging. Capacitance is an important property in both electronics and electromagnetism. Capacitance is also defined as the ability to store energy in an electric field. For a capacitor which has a V voltage difference across the nodes, and the maximum amount of charges that can be stored in the system is Q, the capacitance of the system is Q/V, when all are measured in SI units. The unit of capacitance is farad (F). However, it is inconvenient to use such a large unit. Therefore, most of the capacitance values are measured in nF, pF, µF and mF ranges.
The energy stored in a capacitor is equal to (QV2)/2. This energy is equal to the work done on each and every charge by the system summed up. The capacitance of a system depends on the area of the capacitor plates, the distance between the capacitor plates and the medium between the capacitor plates. The capacitance of a system can be increased by increasing the area, or decreasing the gap, or having a medium with higher dielectric permittivity.
What is the difference between Resistance and Capacitance?
• Resistance is a value of the material itself while capacitance is a value of the combination of objects.
• Resistance depends on temperature while capacitance does not.
• Resistors behave similarly to both AC and DC but capacitors act in two different manners. | <urn:uuid:aae5ae5b-2793-45fa-a3c3-0b729a7d93ae> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-resistance-and-vs-capacitance/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395346.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00015-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937126 | 614 | 3.9375 | 4 |
Consider a supersonic plane (mach 2) aproaching a stationary sound source (e.g a fog horn on a boat).
If I understand it correctly, the passengers in the plane can hear the sound twice. First at a 3 times higher frequency, and then (after they passed the source) a second time at normal frequency but backwards. None of the textbooks or web sites mention this backwards sound. Yet I am quite sure it must be there.
Am I correct? And if so, is it actually observed (e.g. By fighter pilots) and why do textbooks never mention this? | <urn:uuid:c6d363b2-b3b8-4fb8-bcc1-78d618d51c1a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/14880/hearing-a-sound-backwards-because-of-doppler-effect | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395160.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00144-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.909274 | 125 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Individual differences |
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Biological: Behavioural genetics · Evolutionary psychology · Neuroanatomy · Neurochemistry · Neuroendocrinology · Neuroscience · Psychoneuroimmunology · Physiological Psychology · Psychopharmacology (Index, Outline)
See:Visual cortex for overview of complete visual area of the brain
Primary visual cortex (V1)Edit
The primary visual cortex is the best studied visual area in the brain. Like that of all mammals studied, it is located in the posterior pole of the occipital cortex (the occipital cortex is responsible for processing visual stimuli). It is the simplest, earliest cortical visual area. It is highly specialized for processing information about static and moving objects and is excellent in pattern recognition.
The functionally defined primary visual cortex is approximately equivalent to the anatomically defined striate cortex. The name "striate cortex" is derived from the stria of Gennari, a distinctive stripe visible to the naked eye that represents myelinated axons from the lateral geniculate body terminating in layer 4 of the gray matter.
The primary visual cortex is divided into six functionally distinct layers, labelled 1 through 6. Layer 4, which receives most visual input from the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN), is further divided into 4 layers, labelled 4A, 4B, 4Cα, and 4Cβ. Sublamina 4Cα receives most magnocellular input from the LGN, while layer 4Cβ receives input from parvocellular pathways.
V1 has a very well-defined map of the spatial information in vision. For example, in humans the upper bank of the calcarine sulcus responds strongly to the lower half of visual field (below the center), and the lower bank of the calcarine to the upper half of visual field. Conceptually, this retinotopy mapping is a transformation of the visual image from retina to V1. The correspondence between a given location in V1 and in the subjective visual field is very precise: even the blind spots are mapped into V1. Evolutionarily, this correspondence is very basic and found in most animals that possess a V1. In human and animals with a fovea in the retina, a large portion of V1 is mapped to the small, central portion of visual field, a phenomenon known as cortical magnification. Perhaps for the purpose of accurate spatial encoding, neurons in V1 have the smallest receptive field size of any visual cortex regions.
The tuning properties of V1 neurons (what the neurons respond to) differ greatly over time. Early in time (40 ms and further) individual V1 neurons have strong tuning to a small set of stimuli. That is, the neuronal responses can discriminate small changes in visual orientations, spatial frequencies and colors. Furthermore, individual V1 neurons in human and animals with binocular vision have ocular dominance, namely tuning to one of the two eyes. In V1, and primary sensory cortex in general, neurons with similar tuning properties tend to cluster together as cortical columns. David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel proposed the classic ice-cube organization model of cortical columns for two tuning properties: ocular dominance and orientation. However, this model cannot accommodate the color, spatial frequency and many other features to which neurons are tuned. The exact organization of all these cortical columns within V1 remains a hot topic of current research.
Current consensus seems to be that early responses of V1 neurons consists of tiled sets of selective spatiotemporal filters. In the spatial domain, the functioning of V1 can be thought of as similar to many spatially local, complex Fourier transforms. Theoretically, these filters together can carry out neuronal processing of spatial frequency, orientation, motion, direction, speed (thus temporal frequency), and many other spatiotemporal features. Experiments of V1 neurons substantiate these theories, but also raise new questions.
Later in time (after 100 ms) neurons in V1 are also sensitive to the more global organisation of the scene (Lamme & Roelfsema, 2000). These response properties probably stem from recurrent processing (the influence of higher-tier cortical areas on lower-tier cortical areas) and lateral connections from pyramidal neurons (Hupe et al 1998).
The visual information relayed to V1 is not coded in terms of spatial (or optical) imagery, but rather as the local contrast. As an example, for an image comprising half side black and half side white, the divide line between black and white has strongest local contrast and is encoded, while few neurons code the brightness information (black or white per se). As information is further relayed to subsequent visual areas, it is coded as increasingly non-local frequency/phase signals. Importantly, at these early stages of cortical visual processing, spatial location of visual information is well preserved amid the local contrast encoding.
Current research Edit
Research on the primary visual cortex can involve recording action potentials from electrodes within the brain of cats, ferrets, mice, or monkeys, or through recording intrinsic optical signals from animals or fMRI signals from human and monkey V1.
One recent discovery about V1 is that signals measured by fMRI show very large attentional modulation. This result strongly contrasts with macaque physiology research showing very small changes (or no changes) in firing associated with attentional modulation. Research with the macaque monkey is usually performed by measuring spiking activity from single neurons. The neural basis of the fMRI signal on the other hand is mostly related to post synaptic potentiation (PSP). This difference therefore does not necessarily indicate a difference between macaque and human physiology.
Other current work on V1 seeks to fully characterize its tuning properties, and to use it as a model area for the canonical cortical circuit.
Lesions to primary visual cortex usually lead to a scotoma, or hole in the visual field. Interestingly, patients with scotomas are often able to make use of visual information presented to their scotomas, despite being unable to consciously perceive it. This phenomenon, called blindsight, is widely studied by scientists interested in the neural correlate of consciousness.
References & BibliographyEdit
- Peters, Alan (ed), and Kathleen S. Rockland (ed). (1994). Cerebral Cortex: Primary Visual Cortex in Primates v. 10 (Cerebral Cortex). Kluwer Academic / Plenum Publishers
- Peters, Alan (ed) and Bertram Payne (ed). (2001). The Cat Primary Visual Cortex Academic Press.
|Telencephalon (cerebrum, cerebral cortex, cerebral hemispheres) - edit|
frontal lobe: precentral gyrus (primary motor cortex, 4), precentral sulcus, superior frontal gyrus (6, 8), middle frontal gyrus (46), inferior frontal gyrus (Broca's area, 44-pars opercularis, 45-pars triangularis), prefrontal cortex (orbitofrontal cortex, 9, 10, 11, 12, 47)
temporal lobe: transverse temporal gyrus (41-42-primary auditory cortex), superior temporal gyrus (38, 22-Wernicke's area), middle temporal gyrus (21), inferior temporal gyrus (20), fusiform gyrus (36, 37)
limbic lobe/fornicate gyrus: cingulate cortex/cingulate gyrus, anterior cingulate (24, 32, 33), posterior cingulate (23, 31),
Some categorizations are approximations, and some Brodmann areas span gyri.
|Sensory system - Visual system - edit|
|Eye | Optic nerve | Optic chiasm | Optic tract | Lateral geniculate nucleus | Optic radiation | Visual cortex| | <urn:uuid:73fa6860-5484-4634-b0ca-bbfda56cae54> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/V1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393997.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00045-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.856796 | 1,619 | 3.140625 | 3 |
Diana's Desserts - www.dianasdesserts.com
Maryland Beaten Biscuits
Servings: Makes 18 (golf ball size) biscuits
What are Beaten Biscuits?
Maryland Beaten Biscuits originated in Southern Maryland and the Eastern Shore in the days of the Plantations and Manors. Probably due to the lack of leavening, this method of making bread and setting it to rise was apparently the only way possible. This could have been the outgrowth of the Indian method of beating corn for making food items. The biscuits consist of lard, flour, salt, and water. Prior to cooking the biscuits, they have to be beaten in some manner. Originally the ingredients were mixed together by hand, and the dough then placed on a smooth wooden block or stump. A servant of the manor would beat the dough with a special ax used only for this purpose. This beating process served to trap air inside the dough. Each biscuit was, and still is shaped by hand, kneaded by the fingers to make the biscuit smooth on all sides.
Source: Orrell's Maryland Beaten Biscuits
Orrell's Maryland Beaten Biscuits
P.O. Box 7
Wye Mills, Maryland 21679
4 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 tablespoons lard
1 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 to 1-3/4 cups cold water
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 C).
Sift the salt and flour together (and baking powder, if using). Cut in the lard or vegetable shortening. Add the water slowly to mixture until a dough is formed.
By hand, beat the dough with a heavy rolling pin on a floured countertop for 35 to 40 minutes until blistering occurs on surface of dough.
Shape the dough into balls, and prick the tops with a fork.
Bake biscuits on cookie sheet for 25 to 28 minutes at 425 degrees F (220 C).
Serve biscuits warm with butter, or butter and jam at breakfast. They are also great with a slice of tomato and a piece of ham for lunch.
Let me give you a tip when mixing these biscuits. Less is more with the water. Too much water results in a sticky dough and is too hard to work with, so I stay close to the 1 and 1/2 cups of water.
Makes 18 (golf ball size) biscuits.
Submitted By: John Grunden
Date: September 1, 2003 | <urn:uuid:6b382764-3b1c-4110-843b-3da07c8399f5> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.dianasdesserts.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/recipes.recipeListingPrintOnly/filter/guests/recipeID/1773/Recipe.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391766.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00197-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.907195 | 529 | 2.5625 | 3 |
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