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Prepared by W.T. Maddy
In writing a description of Marie Community we are at a loss to know just where the boundary lines should be located. In the early settlements of our community, the lines that bounded a given neighborhood was much farther than at a later date. People living eight or ten miles apart were considered neighbors, therefore I will, in describing a few events that took place, confine myself to this immediate neighborhood.
This community as late as 1870 was primitive, but little land was cleared and houses were few and far apart and built out of logs of the rudest kind. Every farmer raised his own grain, and bought what he was short from his more thrifty neighbor. He raised all of his own meat and sheep from the wool of which he manufactured his clothing. The wool was woven into jeans and flannel cloth for wearing apparel. Tow was also made from flax raised on the farm, skutched, and spun on the old fashioned spinning wheel and wove into cloth on the looms. The women of the household would cut, pattern, and make clothing for all members of the family. Sugar was manufactured from the sap of the sugar tree. The reap-hook and sickle were still in use for cutting wheat and grass. Kerosene oil lamps were not introduced until 1870, the pine knot and tallow candle being still in use at that time. Salt was hauled from the Kanawha River and cost $9.00 a barrel.
The flint lock rifle was still in use and the"Deer Lick" was still watched by night; the log rollins, grubbings, skutchings, quiltings were in vogue when neighbors, both men and women would be invited. The woods were in full of deer and small game, the creeks teemed with fish. The people were not very poor nor very rich, but they were contented and happy.
The schools in those days were known as subscription schools, that is, each parent signed an article of agreement binding himself to send so many children to school for a certain period, usually three months and to pay the teacher a certain stipulated sum for each scholar per month an din turn the teacher of "schoolmaster" then called, bound himself to teach spelling, reading , writing and arithmetic as far as the single rule of three and keep good order. The school room used was usually some vacant dwelling and a few of the pioneer teachers were Messrs Eli Ballengee, Johnathan Davis, James Lively, and John Brown.
We mention with a feeling, we trust of pardonable pride, that about the first free school taught under the laws of West Virginia in Monroe County (all of this community was then Monroe County) was taught in an old log dwelling on the farm now owned by Charley Lowe of Little Stony Creek. The first teacher was Mr.J.M. Davis. This was in the year 1868. In those primeval days order was the first consideration, and filling the minds of scholars with useful knowledge was a second consideration. The following year a log school house was built near the residence of Mr. J. H. Ellison's and known as the Maddy School house. Also about the same time there was another school house erected on the land now owned by C.N. Vass. known as the Dughill School house. These buildings were the only ones used for many years. The age of the scholars were not considered, many of them were twenty-five years old. Some of the teachers of these schools were: Ward Baker, John Carden, J.H. Maddy, W.M. and Geo Ballengee, Omer Light and others. It was soon after the great Civil War that these school houses were erected and when we today look backward, take a view of the hardship caused by that cruel war and consider that many bright boys and girls were deprived of all educational advantages, we can but think if the youth of our land had been trained mentally and morally along the common school branches for those four years instead of filling their youthful minds with political hatred and malice and al l kinds of immorality incident to war that our country would have gone forward with untold strides of mental, moral, and financial prospertiy.
The boundary line of Marie Community extends from Greenbrier River to Indian Creek, commencing with an imaginary line at A.L. Campbell's on the Greenbrier River, three miles north west of Marie running east up the river to the mouth of Big Stony Creek, then south east to I. H. Ellison's with the old Carruthers road to the Milton Hall school house, thence to High Top, then south with the Morran Hollow to W. L. Hinton's on Indian Creek, then west with said creek to M.A. Belcher's, including him in Marie Community, then to P.M. Garrison's. From there with the line established by George Cottle, in writing the history of Forest Hill Community, which runs by James Campbell's then to the beginning, containing about twenty square miles, with a population of about three hundred.
The Marie Community consist of about forty farms. Agriculture is the principal pursuit of the people. The community is locate in the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains between the ranges of Peters Mountain and Elk Knob, and in sight of each, lying in both Monroe and Summers Counties, and is on the 37th parallel North latitude. The highest land being "High Top" 2400 feet above sea lebel, and Greenbrier River at the mouth of Little Stony Creek 1800 feet above sea level, making an average of 2100 feet altitude for the community.
The first land was granted by the government or John Brynside, consisting of 1920 acres in the year of 1794, and from him to John Hollingsworth, and since then has been divided and sub-divided into many small farms.
The natural resources are varied, but the scenery is magnificent. High Top on the extreme east affords a great view. With the aid of magnifying glasses one is enabled to see a great distance form this point which is used for geological observations, there being but few higher points in the state. Alum Rock on the extreme north affords great scenery and is visited by many tourists each year. Big Stony Creek here breaks through what is known as Carden's Ridge and forms one mile of the most rugged depression or canyon in this part of the state; high cliffs hanging over on each side of the creek afford an example of the wonderful work of nature.
The first person buried in the New Hope Cemetery was a Mrs. Thompson, who was buried in the year of 1870, and now the bodies of 135 people lay at rest in this cemetery. There are other places where the older settlers were buried, called family grave yards. There is one on the E.C. Maddy farm, known as Lively grave yard, one on Elbert McNeer farm, known as the Baker grave yard, one on Robert Pitzer's Farm, known as the Pitzer's grave yard, but the people of recent years prefer a church cemetery and have abandoned the practice of burying in family plots. We pause for a brief time in remembrance of our departed brothers, those who have passed to the great beyond, from whose borne no traveler returns. Today we solemnly tread the walks of the city of the dead, bowing to the inevitable, yet holding in ever tender remembrance, the qualities, the fatherly and brotherly love of our departed children and neighbors. This day we remember their gift of friendship, fellowship and devotion. This is the day of memories. It is a day of sorrow. It is a day of revelation. But to us it is not a day of despair. We are facing the light, we are looking forward toward eternal sunrise. We cherish the hope of the great resurrection. The grave we believe is not lonely and deserted but garrisoned about with angels of God. We look forward to reunion with these deaparted children and neighbors of ours. We look for the city of God, upon whose hillsides there are no graves, but homes of joy and increasing life.
The parties from this and immediate neighborhoods who served in the great Civil War between the North and South are as follows: William and Geo. Young. Stewart Mann, Richard McNeer, H.H. Ballengee, F. Hoback, A.F. Brown, Allen Ellison, Harvey Gwinn and Joseph and Eber Maddy, the last two parties named were killed in battle. The others lived to be old but are dead now, except Mr. Brown. Most of these men served in Edgar's Battalion.
Those who served in the Great World War from this and immediate neighborhoods are as follows: Talmadge Light, Cicer Light, Earl Cody, Glen Claude and Jennings Maddy, Dr. F. K. Vass, Lloyd Lively, Eura Light and Homer Roach. The three last named, either died or were killed while in service.
The Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad was completed in the year of 1876 which gave the land owners market for their lumber as there was abundance of fine timber, consequently the farms were neglected and a period of twelve or fifteen years farming was but little considered, but the emigration of people from Floyd County Virginia about that time helped the situation and is worthy of consideration. Mr. John S. Light who first came with his family to this community in the year of 1878 purchased a 200 acre tract of land from the Minner heirs, all of which was in woods and it is worthy to relate that he received sufficient money to pay for his farm wiht one crop of tobacco. During the next the years the following parties came to this or immediate neighborhoods withe their families: James, John and Booker Light, F. Hoback, John Shumate, Jonas and Taylor Wilson, Bird Iddings, James and William Shanks, and many others. They were industrious people an did much in making and preparing the community better for man's future abode. Their descendants constitute a large per cent of the populace here.
The first church at New Hope was a log building. It was built in the year of 1850. The promoters of this church were: H.H. Ballengee, Stewart Mann, Joseph Huffman, John Baker, Charles Ellison, Jordan Lively, and several others, all of whom are dead. This church was used as the place of worship for all denominations of the community, but was built by and deeded to the Methodist people, and strange as it may seem there has been no strife of denominational trouble in the community. This log church was considered an up to date country church building at the time, and it really was, up until the year of 1893, a new building was put up in its place. The promoters of the erection of the new church were: Robert and Shannon Baker, H.J. and Walter Light, D.A. Welder, C. N. Vass, E.C. Maddy, Lewis and James Garten, W.B. Ellison, Geo. Akers and many others, most of whom are still living.
The New Hope school house which is located one-half mile east of New Hope church was built in the year 1885, or forty years age, an it is conjectured that this school has sent forth more teachers than any other free school in the county.
The first store at Marie was owned by Robert Miller. A room in W.A. Goode's home was used, and in 1898 Mr. Miller sold to Young and Company and they erected the store building that is being used now. Later the style of the firm was changed to W.A. Barger and Company, then to C.N. Vass and Son the to McNeer Brothers and the to E.J. Vass, the present owner who has been clerk or owner for twenty-five years.
The Marie post office was established in the year of 1900, and before thatt time mail facilities were a great handicap to the community. The principal promoters in establishing this office were C.N.. Vass, Walter Light, F.K. Vass, W.A. Goode, and others.
As to our prominent citizens, while we have never had the honor of furnishing statesman or governors, yet we believe that the natural intelligence of our community will compare with that of other rural communities.
We beg to submit some of the names of those who were native born and away and made a success in the different business vocations in life. Dr. F.K. Vass, born near Marie, the son of C.N. Vass graduated with honors at the Maryland Medical College, Baltimore, and served his profession with marked ability, practicing at Marie and also at Gassaway, West Virginia. In 1917 he offered his services in the World War and was accepted as an officer with the rank of Lieutenant. He was discharged in the fall of 1919 after which he practiced his profession at Red Sulphur Springs and later at Greenville, where he died June 7, 1923. His death was great shock to his many friends, who realized the loss of a useful and upright citizen.
Rev. W. H. Ballengee, son of the H.H. Ballengee, who was reared near New Hope Church and entered the ministry in 1886, has been active as one of the most able preachers in the M.E. Church, Baltimore Conference.
We are proud of the fact that this community furnished the first county superintendent of schools of Summers County elected by the people after the formation of the county. Mr. Charles L. Ellison was elected in the year of 1875 and served two years thereafter, as two years was the term of that office at that time. Mr. Ellison lived on and owned the farm now owned by C.L. Lowe, one mile from Marie on Little Stony Creek. He was an old soldier and died in the year of 1886 and was buried in the family burying place on the farm.
Mr. Walter W. Baker, son of Havey Baker, deceased, was born one mile east of New Hope Church and followed the profession of teaching and farming and has been elected twice as county Superintendent of schools of Monroe County, and is now serving his second term. His last election to this office was 1922.
Dr. F.M. McNeer, son of Richard McNeer, deceased, who lived in the village of Marie graduated at Maryland Medical College and practiced his profession at Hinton and Green Sulphur, West Virginia, and is now located at Roanoke, Virginia. Dr. McNeer recently specialized in ear, eye , and throat disease.
Rev. P.H. Gwinn, son of Robert Gwinn, was born and reared on his father's farm on Indian Creek now owned by Mr. M.A. Belcher. He taught school when quite young and later entered college and studied for the ministry and graduated with honors and was ordained by the Presbyterian church. His work has been mostly in the state of North Carolina. Of late years Mr. Gwinn has spent a part of his time in the National Banking business.
Dr. C. N. Vass, born and reared near Marie, has been very active in local affairs. He served one term as Justice of Peace of Forest Hill district, and was elected and served one term as assessor of Summers County. At present he is President of the County Court of Summers County. He is noted for his hospitality and is ever ready to assist in any local enterprise.
I would like to write a biography of more of our citizens, but time forbids me to do so. I might mention H.J. Light by trade a mason, farmer, and architect; D.A. Welder, undertaker; E.J. Vass, postmaster, merchant and financier; C.W. Garten and T.E. Light, auctioneers; J. F. Belcher, miller and carpenter; O. M. Foster auto repairer; A.E. Welder, Justice of Peace; M.B. Bowyer, blacksmith; L.A. Coulter and many others.
We feel that we should submit the names of some of those who were native born and some who have adopted our section and taught in the free schools of Marie section, or who have gone to other communities: L. C. Akers. D.C. Light, L.K. Maddy, Charles Sumner, M.E. Carden, Glen and Fred Maddy, Clyde Akers, Miram, Addie and Katie Light, Jessie Maddy, Clara and Esta Woodrum, Roxie, Jennie, and Berta Brown, Ada and Lillie Gwinn, Leta Ellison and Mamie and Arlene Miller.
Anna Maddy, after losing her husband who was a soldier in the Revolutionary War from Virginia, by accidental drowning in the Shenandoah River, emigrated with her children to Monroe County, and settled on what is still known as the "Charley Maddy Place", near the Saltpeter Cave near Greenville. Here she reared her family. She had a considerable estate in Virginia, which it became necessary for her to return to settle up, and she rode horse back through the mountains and the wilderness, crossing the Alleghenies. After transacting her affairs and recovering her money, a considerable sum, she proceeded on her return, and in doing so she stopped over night with a settler in the wilderness. During her stay she incidently disclosed the fact of her carrying on her person considerable funds. On the next morning, the gentleman of the house told her he knew a direct route through hills that would save her a great part of the distance, and volunteered to show her the near cut. They proceeded for some time until they came to a wild place and a great cliff, where the man stopped, told her to give him the money, and declared his object to be to secure the money which she carried on her person in her clothing, and to murder her. She declined to give up the money, when he demanded her to take off her dress, it being his purpose to secure it and the money therein, and then throw her over the cliff. She requested him to turn his back, as she did not desire to undress in his presence. This he did, turning his back to her and facing the precipice whereupon she gave him a sudden push with all her strength, sending him over the cliff and into the ravine below, where he was instantly killed , thus saving her own life as well as the money. She then proceeded on her journey at her home in safety. The above experience does not deal directly but indirectly with this community and is a fine illustration of pioneer life. We have wondered if there are any women of this day who would make this trip, under the circumstances as described, crossing the Allegheny Mountains alone on horse back with hardly a path through the unbroken forest, subject to the danger of wild animals and hardships.
Mr. Maddy was of English descent, married the Dutch lady Miss Anna Morris, as figures in the above episode, just after the Revolutionary War which formed the tree which sent forth its branches over the country. To this union there were ten boys born, which is now scattered over the country generally but there is more of their descendants found in Ohio than elsewhere, although many to be found in Monroe County and also some in Summers County.
"Homecraft" meant all things which help to make the ideal home. Home is mighty definite because it has to do with nothing but home interests but could be stretched to convey every thing from religion to Arctic explorations. The farm homes in the community are on an average with these in most rural communities. There are no mansions but the homes are comfortable ones and the people generally have what is especially required to make an ideal home for boys and girls and without these qualities the home is lacking of the most requisite. There are games, music and reading for recreation. No one is wealthy but every one is happy.
The sports of the earlier days were quite different from what they are today. The earlier sports consisted of jumping, foot racing, wrestling and hunting. At school the games were "shooting the buck", "town ball" and other games of the like. Now the more exciting games are baseball, football and basketball. Automobiling and other sports are also a part of the community recreation. Hunting the small game is in vogue as much as it was in bygone days, when we had plenty of deer and wild turkeys, as will as the small game found now. The last deer killed in this section was killed by James Garten. The circumstances surrounding this marvelous achievement never to be accomplished again by any one here is as follows: The report went forth that there was a deer on "High Top". This was many years after the deer were killed or run out of this section but nobody especially cared of did not go in pursuit of a same until James Garten borrowed a double barrel shot gun from P.M. Garrison and on December 10, 1893, with his brother, Lewis, started in pursuit of the only deer that decked Neels Mountain, the deer that is noted for its beauty, fleetness and docility. The hunters soon observed that the deer fed on high land at night and lay on low land by day, in a lonely hollow known as the Morran Hollow, James Garten went down the right side and Lewis Garten the left side of the hollow. James Garten found the deer lying in a small hollow about two hundred yards below the "Laurel Hole" and fired the other barrel but missed. The deer couldn't go far but dropped dead. The commotion and shooting scared up a red fox that ran to Lewis Garten and he killed it. When they called to each other one said, "i got him", the other said, "No you didn't , I got him", to their surprise one had a red fox the other a deer but each one thought the other was shooting at the same animal. Uncle Jimmie takes pride in telling this hunting experience. Ask him to tell you all about it.
Fox chasing is a sport that is much enjoyed by many people not especially for the profit as the hunters that keep fox hounds seldom kill a fox but prefer keeping the hounds for mere sport. People often come from Ballengee, Talcott and Hinton and spend a night on High Top in this way. Where there is often as many as ten or fifteen dogs in the chase and it is claimed that the grey fox runs as long now as the red in years gone by often running eight or ten hours before swift fox hounds. The following occurrences is worthy of note which explains one of those hunting experiences:
Mr. O. R. Parker, E.F. Pitzer and others while out fox chasing on :High Top had a very interesting experience. After a lengthy chase the dogs succeeded in running the fox into a den on G. M. Decks farm. The hunters planned and finally decided that the smoking process would be the surest and best plan to get the fox. After the pine and other dry timber were secured and the fire built, the hunters with guns ready sat down to wait for "Mr. Fox" to come out of the "fiery furnace". They waited anxiously, especially when the groans and commotion were heard within; when they missed one of their best hound dogs, and to their disappointment, found the leader of the pack belonging to C. T. Houchins, (Old Jack), was in the den and receiving the combustion, the best that could be procured by modern hunters. After the mutual agreement characteristic of all hunters, the trio, near day break, retired to their homes and secured all of the rock masons tools such as sledge hammers, crow bars, etc., available and by working hard when the sun was going down the western slope the next day many tons of rock had been torn out of the cliff and scattered over some farming land, and the long lost dog as well as the fox were secured. The hound appeared not much damaged by the unfortunate affair, except his eye sight was temporarily impaired. The hunters secured the fox first and tied it to a tree and while they were working with the dog to get it out of the den, the fox broke the string and bid farewell to that place and made its safe escape.
Baseball sport has been in vogue since 1900, when the first team was organized at Marie, and since that time the game has been played each year during the ball season and the Marie team has been able to always hold their reputation as a good country team. O.R. McNeer is the "Babe Ruth" of this community and when in practice we doubt if he could be excelled in Monroe or Summers counties.
The first automobile that passed through our community belonged to a Mr. Yink from Virginia, father of Harry Yink, who then lived on a farm near Milton Hall school house. The auto was one of the first models and did not have a muffler as was used later on all cars. The horses on the road and in nearby fields became much excited and the people were not much better. The noise made by this car was similar to the noise made by a car with a cut-out which many people insist on using, disturbing schools, church services, and pedestrian on the public highway in spite of the fact that it is unlawful to use such. The first automobile in this community was owned by E.J. Vass. There are now fifty cars and trucks or an average of one car for each family. There are a few families that have no car but a few families have two cars or one car and a truck. The automobile prosperity began here about 1912 and has kept growing till the present time.
The first telephone line built through our community was one from Lowell Post Office along what was known as the Red Sulphur turnpike by the present site of Marie to Red Sulphur Springs. This line was the first telephone line used in Monroe or Summers counties. It was built while Mr. Glavis was proprietor of the Red Sulphur Springs line in the year 1879. The writer as well as other people near by who visited the offices of A. C. Lowe to hear him talk to another party thirteen miles away, this being the length of the telephone lines, could hardly comprehend or think it possible. This line was not used but about five years. The next telephone was the Greenville line. The citizens of Greenville, Monroe County, obtained a charter from the state about the year 1890 and organized the Greenville Telephone Company, which is well known and whose lines are much used today. It was extended through the Marie Community, first entering the community at Mr. George Young's and by way of Forest Hill on to Hinton, Summers County. This line is used by a few people in Marie Community. The next line built was by the Monroe Mutual Telephone Company. This corporation was organized in the year of 1894 and built its first line on our section in 1905. The majority of the farmers had stock and got the service rendered by said company. The next company was the Marie Telephone Company, the present and only local telephone company that is used in our section. This company was organized in 1918, and most of the stockholders transferred from the Monroe Mutual. The Southern Bell or long distance line is built through by way of Marie, and there is a phone on said line which enables each farmer on the local line get not only service on the local line but on the long distance line. Telephone facilities are all we could ask for. The charter members of the Marie Telephone Company which was organized at Marie on September 4, 1918 are as follows: D.A. Hedrick, C.N. Vass, C.W. Michael, E.J.Vass, A.H. Michael, S.C. Ballengee, L.A. Ellison, O.B. Pauley, Henry Shumate, R.L.C. Foster, G.F. Kesler (deceased), W.T. Maddy. Jr., O.C. Kesler, L.B. Garten, E.C. Maddy, (deceased), L.J. Davis, J. O. Perdue, H.D. Lively, Hugh Lowery, L.K. Maddy, C.A. Richardson, J .Henry Smith, J.P. Garden, H.T. Crawford, W.J. Garten, W. B. Flint, W.T. Maddy, Sr., S.J. Michael, W.G. Iddings, Lee Tabor and J.F. Leftwich.
The only flour mill in the Marie Community was built at Marie by O.B. Pauley in year 1910 and was operated by a kerosene engine. This mill is equipped with the latest machinery for making flour and also a corn mill and buckwheat mill combined. Mr. Pauley sold this mill to Fleshman Brothers who sold to Michael and Son. It was then sold to D.A.Welder and Son then to Sumner and Light and from them to J.F. Belcher the present owner.
There was a corn mill established and run by W. L. Maddy as early as 1885 who sold to W.A. Goode. Mr. Goode ground and crushed corn for several years. D.A. Welder and Son established and had a corn mill and crusher at their home about one-half mile north of Marie. They ground for the public until the present mill used now was built.
The name of the old soldiers that served in the great Civil War are found elsewhere in this narrative. I would like to write a biography of their life or at least during their service while in the war, but failed to procure but little data in regard to them, hence the importance of a community history. The Civil War might be considered the worst war fought by man considering thenumber engaged in it as a rebellion is the worst form of war. Neighbors, relatives and even brothers often allied against each other. This community being sparsely settled did not furnish soldiers but furnished its quota of brave men, characteristic of this state. The following letter written to and printed by the Monroe Watchman in 1915 by Captain T.C. Morton of Staunton, Virginia, we herewith copy in full.
"I think it will interest the surviving members of my old company F 26th Virginia Battalion and their friends to know that the name of their comrades who fell at New Market, Virginia are engraved upon the battle monument there. A year or two ago I received a letter from the Ladies Monument Association telling me that they were erecting a monument upon which are to be inscribed the names of the New Market dead. I sent with the subscription asked for, the names of Joseph A. Maddy and John Midkiff, who their comrades will remember fell on that victorious May 15, 1864. The other day I was driving along the well remembered pike, north of town, when casting my eye across the battlefield I was attracted by a tall white marble shaft I had never seen inn that cemetery before. I hitched my horse to the fence, climbed over the locked gate and was soon standing before the monument eagerly scanning the names upon it and there were the names of the poor fellows, John Midkiff and J.A. Maddy deeply cut in the white stone; and a few yards away their graves, neatly sodded and with white marble stones at their heads. How well do I remember the day they fell. Joe Maddy, first. He was in the front firing line and men were falling like broken reeds in a gale, while the rain poured down, wetting the guns and disabling many of them. Joe was standing near me and called out, "Captain my gun is choked, I can't get the cartridge down." I took it from him and tried to ram it down but it stuck fast, then a man fell beside us. I picked up his empty gun found the lock worked right and handed it to him, telling him to drop his. He hastily loaded the dead man's gun, cocked it, raised it to fire, when at that instant he was struck in the middle of the body by the fatal ball and fell at my feet. John Midkiff did not fall until the battle was nearly over. It was when we made a last charge up a slope, capturing the Yankee battery. Midkiff was on the color guard close to Allen Woodrum, who carried the flag, and fell seventeen days after with two bullets through him at Cold Harbor. He shouted aloud as the he charged with the leading group and was hit by a shot in the mouth. He never knew what hit him as he fell backward stone dead. A few hours after, about midnight as I found poor Midkiff lying on his back, his glassy eyes staring at the moon, but his countenance placid and his face showing no cuts of his head. Maddy mortally wounded had been carried back in by the ambulance corpse and soon died. Peace to their ashes, they sleep in honored graves in the shadow of a marble shaft in the green valley of the Shenandoah River at Staunton, Virginia. Signed T. C. Morton."
Hon. John C. Ballard of Boogo, Monroe County was with the above named parties, Maddy and Midkiff, and was lined up between them until they were killed.
Ebrew Maddy was killed in the battle of Cedar Creek. As to the particulars there is little known only that he received two wounds from which he died and was buried in the usual way characteristic of that cruel war.
F. Holback, whose name appeared elsewhere received a wound in the hip at the battle of Gettysburg, and carried the minnie ball as long as he lived, as the ball was never extracted.
The citizens of Marie community have been generally law-abiding people. No one ever served a term in the penitentiary but still the community has had some law breakers and there is always room for improvement along that line. We have had one homicide and one suicide: Cha Crawford, son of E.W. Crawford age twelve years shot an killed his brother Frank, age seventeen on Little Stony Creek on Monday morning February 11, 1901. Charlie wanted to go hunting to which his older brother objected, whereupon Frank interfered and he received the fatal shot from a breech loading shot gun. Justice W.G. Halstead conducted an inquest and the accused was sent to the reform school and he remained there for two years. The defense of the youthful homicide was that the shooting was accidental and he did not intend to kill his brother.
Jake Hall, son of D. Hall who lived on the Baker farm one mile east of Marie, age twenty- one years, killed himself on July 4, 1898 by shooting himself through the heart with a pistol. Justice W.G. Halstead conducted the inquest and the jury returned the verdict that the deceased Jake Hall came to his death by a gun shot wound inflicted by his own hands. This was a great shock ti his people and friends and they said if they said he had any intentions of suicide before that time that no one knew about it.
There was but one still used for the making of whiskey legally in this community. It was owned by Jordan Lively and operated on the farm now owned by E.C. Maddy heirs on Little Stony Creek. This still was mostly used before the great Civil War when it was allowed by law to make grain and fruits into liquor and sell same. Mr. Lively acquired a large estate and did his part as one pioneer clearing away the forest aiding in making future homes. He owned and cleared the most of what is known as "War Ridge" which has always been noted for good crops of wheat. Mr. Lively when old became involved in debt and after his death the land then owned by him was sold for same by a decree of court.
The first county road through this section was one built from the old Corruther's road at a point near I.H. Ellison's home running South, crossing Little Stony Creek near the farm of Charlie Lowe and up the Huffman hill by New Hope Church and down the Baker Hill connecting the Indian Creek road near the residence of Elbert McNeer. This road was used in the stage coach days in spite of the fact that some of the road was steep grade possibly 25 degrees but used daily by the traffic when the Red Sulphur Springs was used and considered one of the greatest mineral resorts in the East.
Later, possibly in the years of 1875 to 1885, the road known as the Red Sulphur Springs turnpike was completed. This road had at different points been regraded and now is considered a good mountain dirt road. This road connects Talcott on the C. and O. Railroad and Rich Creek on the Virginian Railroad which is the nearest route east of New River which connects the two railroads.
On the morning of June 4, 1924, Mr. Fleet Pitzer, who lives two miles east of Marie, observed on the hillside near his home some mysterious obstacle which had appeared there during the night.
As the first scouting party advanced near the object to find out what it was, the sun was shining on it and the warm rays of sunshine were causing it to move and expand according to the laws of nature. Whence it came and whither it was bound, no one knew, but soon it was to rise again and go on its course to come to earth again when the air became damp and still.
When the first party approached and saw it moving, one leg seemed to be saying to the other "Let me pass this time and I will let you pass the next time". The news went far and near and soon became the central factor of the community everyone trying to find a solution of the miraculous event. Some thought it might be a sign of an invisible Empire, while others thought it to be something that had sprung up during the night like mushroom from a hotbed, but the monster constantly shaking and going up a few inches and then coming down in the grass, blubbed and held back all but one, Robert Pitzer, who had by old age and hard work had the misfortune of losing his vision to some extent and due to this fact having not had such a clear realization of the monster, proved a real hero. Mr. Pitzer, in rather a cautious manner went forward and touched the thing in spite of the protests of the onlookers. His sense of touch related to him the fact that it was pliable and resembled the inner tube of an automobile, being spherical in form. As nothing miraculous happened to him his first investigation, his courage increased to the extant that he carried the object back to the crowd. The crowd decided the thing to be a ballon and after thorough examination it was turned loose to ascend the air on its lonesome journey, while Mr. Pitzer was hailed as the hero of the day.
The oldest lady inhabitant of our community is Mrs. Huffman, who lives one mile east of Marie near New Hope Church in Monroe County. She talks of the happenings of pioneer days and often weaves cloth on the old fashion loom in spite of the fact that her age is more than four score years. Mrs. Huffman, in 1924, visited the town of Hinton, rather Avis. She had not been there for over fifty years. She visited her uncle, Mr. Joseph Hinton, and the great changes to her were noticeable, as when she made her last visit. Avis was only a farm, with only one log farm house owned by her grandfather and the land farmed by him. Now it is solid with modern homes, hence the great contrast to the old lady, who spent many of her childhood days on the farming fields there, and now automobiles are running all the time on paved streets as well as cars shifting most of the time over the tracks from the C. and O. Railroad yards, cars shifting over the place where there was once a pond where her grandfather killed wild ducks. Her mind is clear and runs back to days she spent there. Mrs. Huffman could locate the site of the old farm house which was removed long age and more modern homes built in its place.
The oldest gentleman is Mr. A.F. Brown, who lives one mile north-west of Marie in Summers County, aged 84 years, with R.H. Pitzer, who lives tow and one-half miles north east of Marie in Monroe County, a close second. Mr. Brown gets the credit for setting up the first wheat reaper that came to Summers County.
Messrs Lake Maddy, Kester Maddy, L.C. Davis and Jennings Maddy made a trip to Shamrock, Texas in 1924. They visited Carl Maddy, a brother to the first two named above and cousin to the last two. They reported good roads most to the way, hard surfaced roads from Charleston, West Virginia, to Oklahoma City. The automobile registered 3,250 miles the round trip and used only 132 gallons of gas, hence the saving of gas as well as cars on good roads. Carl Maddy did not know his brothers. He started, when a small boy on a western tour in 1907, and traveled over most of the western states. Finally he married and settled down in Colorado, later going to Shamrock Texas. We can imagine the unexpected and agreeable meeting of the boys. The first above named party arrived at Carl Maddy's Home about daybreak and asked for breakfast for four parties. The reply was that he had lost his wife recently and was keeping house and caring for his little children and was sorry that he could not accommodate them. When they told him they were from West Virginia, the reply was "come in and I will do the best I can for you".
The Marie Camp, Modern Woodman of America was organized by O.C. Hutchison, District Deputy, Head Consul on April 6, 1906. O.C. Hutchison was a member of Indian Mills Camp, but was transferred to Marie Camp on June 2, 1906 and remained a member of this camp until his death which occurred April 3, 1924. The names of the charter members of Marie Camp appear below and their present camp rating:
Ira M. Hutchison Transferred to another camp
S.C. Ballengee Still a member
N. P. Stover Not a member
J.J. Cottle Dead
W.T. Maddy Still a member
Clyde Garten Transferred
J.O. Perdue Not a member
C.F. Akers Not a member
E.P. Davisson Dead
O.C. Kesler Still a member
E.J. Vass Still a member
P. M. Garrison Still a member
J. P. Carden Still a member
W.F. Ellison Transferred
M.D. Bailey Not a member
G.C. Smith Not a member
The present number of members is forty-two.
Biography of the World War Veterans While in Service
The parties from this community who served in the great world war, whose names appear elsewhere, with a description of their rating and time of enlistment in service are as follows:
Glen W. Maddy enlisted and began service in the Navy May 6, 1918, and was discharged October 23, 1919. His time of service being one year, five months and seventeen days. After graduating in a class of one hundred at Norfolk, Virginia in the Signal Masters Department, he was assigned to the battleship, U.S. New Hampshire. This ship was used principally in convoy duty, accompanying troop ships carrying soldiers across the ocean. After the Armistice was signed he was transferred to the Dutch Troop ship, Ryndam, whose displacement was about five thousand men, where he also did signal work. He made seven trips and crossed the Atlantic Ocean fourteen times.
Claude R. Maddy enlisted and began service in the Navy, July 25, 1918 and was discharged Sept 10, 1919. He was in the service one year, one month, and fifteen days. While in camp at Norfolk, Virginia, he was put in a Gunners School which taught the machinery of the large eight and twelve inch guns which required six men to operate the machinery of one gun. After signing of the armistice, Claude Maddy was assigned to the battleship U.S. Virginia, which ship was temporarily converted into a troop ship, that is all of the guns were removed to give room for the necessary hasty delivering of the soldiers back home. Claude Maddy made three trips or crossed the Atlantic Ocean six times.
William Jennings Maddy was drafted in service August 26, 1918 and was discharged December 24, 1918. Time in camp being four months. He was taken to LsFayette, Indiana and put in the Engineering Corps, then to Valparaiso, Indiana, then to camp at Washington, D.C., with over sea equipment and while there the armistice was signed, which on the eleventh hour, eleventh day eleventh month, 1918. He was trained for guard duty.
D. Cicero Light, whose name appears elsewhere was drafted by the government for service in the world war on July 26, 1918, and discharged June 21, 1919. He was in service the months and twenty-five days. He was taken to Camp Meade, Maryland, and kept there one month, and then to Camp Lee, Virginia, where he embarked for Europe, landing at Brest, France on October 14, 1918, at which time he embarked for Europe, landing at Brest, France on October 26, 1918. He began his over-seas service in the Veterinary Corps, and served in that capacity until discharged from duty.
Lloyd Lively, son of D.W. Lively, was drafted by the government for service in the World War on July 26, 1918, and was first taken to Camp Meade, Maryland, and then to Camp Lee, Virginia, where he died October 10, 1918, with the "flu", which was in camp at that time. He only served two months and fourteen days. His body was brought back home and laid to rest in the Wayside Cemetery, October 14, 1918.
Earl Cody, son of D.W. Lively, was drafted by the government for service in the World War on July 26, 1918 and taken to Camp Lee, Virginia, where he remained until the armistice was signed and was then honorably discharged.
Eura Light, son of H.J. Light, was drafted by the government for service in the World War on May 15, 1981, was taken to Camp Meade, Maryland, and kept there a short time, from thence he was taken over seas. He was a machinist and consequently was installed in the Machine Gun Battalion Company A. He became ill with that much dreaded disease "flu" and died in a French hospital on September 12, 1918. His time of service was only three months and seventeen days. Eura Light married the only daughter of R. L.C. Foster and she died in 1917 leaving a daughter, Due May Light. Eura Light's body was brought back home and was laid to rest in the Forest Hill Cemetery August 15, 1920, having been buried in France one year, ten months and twenty-three days.
Homer Roach, son of Isaac Roach, whose name appears elsewhere was drafted by the government for service in the World War on July 26, 1918, and was taken to Camp Meade, Maryland. He was there but a short time when he contracted the "flu" from which he died. His body was brought back home and laid to rest in the Forest Hill Cemetery.
Talmadge E. Light, whose name appears elsewhere in this narrative was drafted by the government for service in the World War on July 26, 1918, and discharged August 1919, his time in service being one year and one month. He was taken to Camp Meade, Maryland and kept there one month and then to Camp Lee, Virginia, where he remained till October 1918, at which time he embarked for Europe and began his over-seas service in the Medical Corps. He served in that capacity until discharged from duty.
The boys whose names appear in this narrative and who served in the Great World War the never-to-be-forgotten strife between the leading nations of the world, endured hardships and suffering only known to themselves, but did their part as heroically as did any soldier of this much regretted affair. Not only did they suffer hardships but their parents and friends who were back home spent many restless hours while their boys were subjected to the horrors and hardships of the greatest war the world has experienced.
The history of any community of country is not complete unless there is some data of the original inhabitants or Indians who inhabited America before it was discovered by the white people of the Europeans, otherwise this Indian description would have left out. As this is told in my own way and put off till the last part I shall make a comparison of Indian days with the present time.
When working in the fields we often find arrow heads or flint used by the Indians which is the only visible sign that the Indians once inhabited our country and when I find a flint my mind runs back over the cycle of time when this country was wild and grand. Every schoolboy and girl knows that less than two centuries back this country was a howling wilderness. There was almost an unbroken forest from the Mississippi River to the Atlantic Ocean which included this community. This forest was roamed through by a people known as the "Red Man". He was in many ways less intelligent than the present inhabitants. His physical make-up was different from any other race. He had long, coarse black hair, small black eyes, high cheek bones, swarthy complexion , straight posture and was noted for activity and alertness as well as strength. The Indian's most desirable pursuit was war. Tribe warred against tribe, clan against clan, and often family against family. In fact about all his time was spent in preparing for war and hunting. His living was simple and he relied on the skins of wild animals for his clothing and their flesh for food. The Indian was revengeful, never forgetting a wrong or vice-versa a favor. He knew no mercy or pity but probably angered by the mistreatment practiced by some of the Europeans especially the Spaniards there was no cruelty too bad for the white captive.
We feel sure that this was intensified by such acts as rushing many natives on board ships by the early discovers and working them in European copper mines and also other mines. We are told in history that a religious sect bought the land from the Indians in New England and signed a treaty which the Indian was to respect as long as the sun would shine and this treaty has never been broken. The Indians that inhabited this section were some of the eastern tribes, probably the Algonquin of Iroquois
There have been many Indian relics found which the present race of people value as rare souvenirs. A spear head was found by Fred L. Maddy who lives in Marie section and it is said to be the most beautiful relic in the state or probably anywhere. The dimensions of this spear head are 31/2 by 81/2 inches. It is of white flint and the architectural work is complete. The making of these flints which is a lost art by a people who did not know of steel or electricity is puzzling to the present inhabitants. The finding of the above described flint and other relics in this mound strengthens the belief that the pre-historic mound builders once inhabited this country before the red man.
But the Indians are gone,
Gone with their old forest wide and deep
And we have built our homes
Upon fields where that generation sleep.
We probably have omitted many things that might have been said concerning those who have taken prominent action toward the upbuilding and maintaining the high efficiency of our schools, church services, Sunday schools and community in general but in the limited time we had to prepare this sketch as well as the limited space to which we must confine our remarks we hope to be pardoned for any oversight.
Community Histories Index | <urn:uuid:3f65b958-9a79-4716-afb8-0de31d2eeef4> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.wvculture.org/HISTORY/agrext/marie.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403823.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00174-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986796 | 10,866 | 2.84375 | 3 |
For those who haven’t read my past blog posts, I have been working on a Collagraph Printing lesson where the students look at animals that use camouflage to blend into their environment.
What is Collagraph?
A print-making process where various materials are glued to a piece of card board (recycled cereal boxes) to create a raised texture.
[flickr id=”6794073850″ thumbnail=”medium” overlay=”true” size=”original” group=”” align=”center”]
Here is the Collagraph lesson broken down into Day Lessons:
Day 1: Students created a linear drawing of a lizard on hard card board and cut it out with scissors.
Day 2: Students added texture to their lizards by gluing down string, crumbled paper, and pieces of cardboard to create a pattern on their lizard.
Day 3: Students finished adding texture to their lizard collagraph plates and then created textured tree bark with construction paper and black and brown tempera paint mixed with glue.
Day 4: Students began PRINTING their collagraph lizards.
Day 5: Students then glued their prints and backgrounds to be framed with construction paper. (Next Week)[flickr id=”6794075268″ thumbnail=”medium_640″ overlay=”true” size=”original” group=”” align=”center”]
Finished Masterpieces will be posted soon! | <urn:uuid:180ec261-6cc9-4267-8a8b-b6eee4c0cc36> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blogs.colum.edu/marginalia/2012/03/08/student-teaching-elementary-week-5/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396100.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00074-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.901786 | 320 | 3.234375 | 3 |
Veterans exposed to Agent Orange have a 48 percent increased risk of prostate cancer recurrence following surgery than their unexposed peers , and when the disease comes back, it seems more aggressive, researchers say.
"We need to be screening these patients earlier, treating their cancer aggressively and following them closely afterward because they are at higher risk for recurrence," says Dr. Martha Terris, chief of the Urology Department at the Augusta Veterans Affairs Medical Center and professor of urology at the Medical College of Georgia.
"We looked at all patients, whether they were exposed or not, to see which were more likely to develop a recurrence and patients with a history of Agent Orange exposure were more likely," says Dr. Sagar R. Shah, MCG urology resident who is presenting the data May 20 during the American Urological Association Annual Meeting in Anaheim, Calif.
The study looked at 1,653 veterans who had prostate cancer surgery at Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Centers in five cities between 1990 and 2006; 199 had been exposed to Agent Orange, a herbicide and defoliant sprayed on the dense forests of Vietnam during the war.
Agent Orange contains the carcinogen, dioxin, which can be stored in body fat and is believed to make its way into the cell nucleus and work as a tumor promoter. In the past, relatively higher mortality rates have been found in chemical plant workers and farmers with prostate cancer who were exposed to dioxin, the researchers write in their abstract.
Dioxins impact is dose-related, and while the researchers did not measure levels of dioxin or Agent Orange, they suspect that blacks, who were more likely to be ground troops, also were more likely to have had more Agent Orange exposure.
Researchers found veterans with Agent Orange exposure more likely to be black and younger at the time of surgery to remove their prostate gland. The disea
se appeared to be caught earlier in exposed veterans. Most had their disease staged as T1 by pathologists, which means it appeared confined to the prostate gland, and had lower pre-operative prostate specific antigen scores, an indicator of disease aggressiveness.
However, when the disease recurred, exposed veterans experienced a more rapid biochemical progression of their disease, which PSA measures. In blacks, the PSA doubled in almost half the time of their unexposed peers.
A blood PSA level screens for prostate cancer for most men beginning at age 50 and at age 40 for blacks and men with a family history. Black men have been shown by Dr. Terris and others to have more aggressive disease earlier in life.
To account for known racial differences, researchers also compared recurrence rates in exposed and non-exposed blacks and whites and the results held up.
"As a population in general, if you were exposed to Agent Orange, youre more likely to have a recurrence," says Dr. Shah. "If you were black and exposed, you were more likely to recur than if you were black and unexposed."
If it sounds odd that men who had their prostate removed could have disease recurrence, Dr. Terris points out that microscopic cancer cells can migrate out of the area before surgery, becoming detectable later when they start pushing PSA levels back up.
In fact, following any type of prostate cancer treatment, men routinely get PSA levels checked for the rest of their lives. Without cancer recurrence, they should stay at zero. Related medicine news :1
. Military Veterans Suffer From Increased Risk of Heart Diseases2
. American War Veterans Not Receiving Enough Care For PTSD3
. Veterans To Get Improved Access To GP Care4
. Gulf War Veterans Exhibit Memory Impairment5
. Gulf War Veterans Exhibit Memory Impairment6
. Moves To Improve War Veterans Health Taken7
. Activists Urge Greater Medical Support for Gulf War Veterans Exposed to Sarin Gas8
. HIV Positive Men in Singapore Exposed9
. Kate Moss Glad her Drug Addiction was Exposed10
. Australian Children Not Being Exposed To Enough Sunlight11
. Lakhs of Indians Exposed to High Levels of Poisonous Gases | <urn:uuid:81bb6610-ee09-46a1-a060-52f430e5d187> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.bio-medicine.org/medicine-news/Veterans-Exposed-to-Agent-Orange-Increased-Risk-of-Prostate-Cancer-Recurrence-21547-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396887.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00196-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97454 | 848 | 2.765625 | 3 |
AUSTIN, Texas, April 1 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers say bacteria "addicted" to caffeine could be used in areas from decontamination of wastewater to bioproduction of medications.
Caffeine and related chemical compounds have become significant water pollutants due to widespread use in coffee, soft drinks, tea, energy drinks, chocolate and certain medications, they said, and a bacterium that could live solely on caffeine could be used to clean up such environmental contamination.
So Jeffrey E. Barrick of the University of Texas at Austin and colleagues set out to genetically engineer just such a bacterium.
Scientists have known a natural soil bacterium, Pseudomonas putida CBB5, can survive just on caffeine, so Barrick's team set out to transfer it genetic ability to metabolize caffeine into E. coli, a biotechnology workhorse that is easy to handle and grow.
The result was bacteria literally addicted to caffeine, the researchers said, which could have applications beyond environmental remediation.
It could also find use as a sensor to measure caffeine levels in beverages, in recovery of nutrient-rich byproducts of coffee processing and for the cost-effective bioproduction of medicines, they said.
Their study was published in the American Chemical Society's journal ACS Synthetic Biology. | <urn:uuid:4286fd08-409c-4242-8e55-3177c308201b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2013/04/01/Bacteria-addicted-to-caffeine-developed/UPI-22421364859124/?spt=mps&or=4 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392099.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00033-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940466 | 271 | 3.28125 | 3 |
Intellectual property (IP) is a term referring to creations of the intellect for which a monopoly is assigned to designated owners by law. Some common types of intellectual property rights (IPR) are trademarks, copyright, patents, industrial design rights, and in some jurisdictions trade secrets: all these cover music, literature, and other artistic works; discoveries and inventions; and words, phrases, symbols, and designs.
- Software's the ultimate durable good, which of course in economics makes it a very, very competitive market.
- Bill Gates, Microsoft Chairman quoted in Washington Post, March 9, 1998.
- If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of everyone, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it. Its peculiar character, too, is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it. He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. That ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature, when she made them, like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening their density in any point, and like the air in which we breathe, move, and have our physical being, incapable of confinement or exclusive appropriation. Inventions then cannot, in nature, be a subject of property.
- Overregulation stifles creativity. It smothers innovation. It gives dinosaurs a veto over the future. It wastes the extraordinary opportunity for a democratic creativity that digital technology enables.
- So uncritically do we accept the idea of property in ideas that we don't even notice how monstrous it is to deny ideas to a people who are dying without them. So uncritically do we accept the idea of property in culture that we don't even question when the control of that property removes our ability, as a people, to develop our culture democratically.
- Lawrence Lessig, Free Culture (2004)
- Software licenses are perhaps the only product besides half-eaten food, underwear and toothbrushes, which can't be resold.
- Jordan Pollack, Robotics and AI Professor 1999
- The future of the nation depends in no small part on the efficiency of industry, and the efficiency of industry depends in no small part on the protection of intellectual property.
- I believe in intellectual property. In my view, it's the foundation of world economies, and certainly the foundation upon which Sun Microsystems was built. Copyright, trademark, patent - I believe in them all. I also believe in innovation and competition - and that these beliefs are not mutually exclusive.
- And having said it before, let me say it again. I believe in IP. I believe in its value, both economic and social. I believe it should be protected, as any other property, as a means of fostering independence, investment and autonomy. And not just in wealthy nations - but in those struggling to build wealth or pay down debt. I believe the creation, protection and evolution of intellectual property can accelerate everyone's ability to participate in an open network...And that, surely, should be everyone's common goal with free and open source software. It's not about bringing the competition down, it's about driving global participation up.
- When you xerox a page of something the original doesn't disappear, and in the same way information isn't really lost when it's "stolen".
- There is no justice in following unjust laws. It’s time to come into the light and, in the grand tradition of civil disobedience, declare our opposition to this private theft of public culture.
- We need to take information, wherever it is stored, make our copies and share them with the world. We need to take stuff that's out of copyright and add it to the archive. We need to buy secret databases and put them on the Web. We need to download scientific journals and upload them to file sharing networks. We need to fight for Guerilla Open Access.
- With enough of us, around the world, we’ll not just send a strong message opposing the privatization of knowledge — we’ll make it a thing of the past. Will you join us?
- Whether two molecules are (dis)similar is in the eye of the beholder. Scientists look to fool the receptor - but you really want to fool the patent office.
- S. Stanley Young (2008), assistant director of bioinformatics, National Institute of Statistical Sciences. Appearing in: Lipp, Elizabeth (2008-08-01). "Novel Approaches to Lead Optimization". Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (Mary Ann Liebert): pp. 20, 22. Retrieved on 2008-09-28. . | <urn:uuid:ef32d929-0830-4c87-acb0-693c9a9ea982> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://en.m.wikiquote.org/wiki/Intellectual_property | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783400572.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155000-00034-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947062 | 1,053 | 3.125 | 3 |
Census geography: Bridging data from prior years to the 2010 tract boundaries
The continual change in geography between successive censuses is a major barrier for longitudinal analysis. Census tracts are fundamental enumeration units for the U.S. decennial censuses and their boundaries very often change over time. In every new census many tracts are split, consolidated, or changed in other ways from the previous boundaries to reflect population growth or decline.
US2010 presents here a Longitudinal Tract Data Base (LTDB), which provides public-use tools to create estimates within 2010 tract boundaries for any tract-level data (from the census or other sources) that are available for prior years as early as 1970. We also provide a Backwards LTDB in which data provided in 2010 tract boundaries can be estimated within 2000 boundaries.
The LTDB was developed by a team including John Logan (Brown University), Zengwang Xu (University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee) and Brian Stults (Florida State University). The tract data for 1970-2010 that are included in the LTDB standard data set were prepared by Miao Chunyu (Brown University) from files downloaded from the NHGIS.
- The combination of population and area weighting that we employ between 2000 and 2010 has a high degree of accuracy. This is in many respects the same approach taken by the commercially available Neighborhood Change Data Base or NCDB (Tatian 2003) for 1990-2000. There are two sources of error in these estimates.
- One problem is that blocks in 2000 are sometimes split into different portions that are assigned to different 2010 tracts. We allocate the block population to 2010 tracts in proportion to the area of these block fragments. Since blocks are usually small and have few residents, this aspect of the estimation is unlikely to cause much error.
- A second source of error is probably more important, and it is found in both the LTDB and NCDB. When part of a tract in 2000 is reallocated into a new tract in 2010, we assume that the kinds of people living in that fragment are the same as in the fragment that is reallocated into another new tract. Census tracts are somewhat homogeneous, and on average the people living anywhere in a tract tend to be more like one another than like people in other tracts. But there remains the possibility that in some cases the composition of different tract fragments is quite dissimilar. A reliable check on this problem would require access to the original census data.
- For researchers wishing to harmonize data for pre-2000 census tracts, one option is to acquire the NCDB files for 1970-1990 adjusted to 2000 boundaries and then apply the LTDB to bridge these data to 2010. The LTDB also provides a method for bridging to 1970-1990 tract boundaries. However the LTDB relies solely on interpolation based on land area for 1990, while NCDB interpolates based on block populations and (using the street grid as a proxy for population density) on the distribution of population within blocks. Therefore NCDB estimates for 1990 should be more reliable. (Both sources uses area interpolation for 1970 and 1980.)
- There are situations in which utilizing the NCDB in this fashion is a less satisfactory solution, two of which deserve emphasis here. Most important, NCDB does not provide linked files for all census variables, but only for a selection of variables from the sample count files. In addition researchers are increasingly working with information aggregated to the tract level from non-census sources, such as criminal justice, public health, and voting records. To meet their needs requires a tool to convert such data to the 2010 boundaries. The LTDB offers an open-source crosswalk to link data from 1970-2000 to 2010, and it also provides user-friendly programming code to bridge data across years.
Note that much of the U.S. was not divided into census tracts in 1970, and even in 1980 many less populated areas were not tracted. Consequently many 2010 tracts will have missing values for 1970 and 1980.
Evolution of tracted areas in the U.S., 1970-1990. Blue areas were tracted in 1970; areas in red were added in 1980. In 1990 the entire nation was divided into census tracts
For more information about the LTDB, select one of the following links:
Logan, John R., Zengwang Xu, and Brian Stults. 2014. "Interpolating US Decennial Census Tract Data from as Early as 1970 to 2010: A Longitudinal Tract Database" The Professional Geographer 66(3): 412–420. (Click here to download).
Tatian, P. A. 2003. Neighborhood Change Database (NCDB) 1970-2000 Tract Data: Data Users Guide. Washington, DC: Urban Institute. | <urn:uuid:9f45349e-6aaa-48a6-b727-d80dde74c1df> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.s4.brown.edu/us2010/Researcher/Bridging.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392099.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00154-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949645 | 982 | 2.734375 | 3 |
K-Cups often receive the criticism that they are wasteful in terms of trash production, a claim that Keurig has refuted in terms of proportion of waste produced per capita. Certainly, Keurig has heard the criticism. Their new Vue single cup coffee maker uses #5 recyclable plastic, a plastic being recycled in more and more communities across North America every day, in its inserts.
However, many single cup coffee consumers still feel the need to find ways to reuse or repurpose spent K-Cups in order to reduce their impact. Recently, I stumbled across a great and timely use for spent K-Cups. This Instructables post teaches you how to turn used K-Cups into seed starters for your garden. Further, it even reminds us all that the contents of the K-Cup, the filter and grounds, are fully compostable.
Get Green With Single Cup Coffee
Single cup coffee consumers can reduce the carbon footprint of their favored single serving coffee or tea product. By engaging in a few environmentally conscious practices, your favorite way of brewing coffee or tea can fit into a reasonably green lifestyle.
While neither K-Cups nor T-Discs are easy to recycle, Vue disks are in many ways. Further, the contents of all three types of plastic cartridge refill for single cup coffee makers is a combination of coffee filter and coffee grounds, both of which are compostable. By composting your K-Cup or T-Disc contents, you low the volume of mass contributed to landfills.
Coffee pods themselves are typically an enclosed filter containing coffee grounds. This makes the entire coffee pod likely to be compostable, returning the valuable nutrients gathered from the soil by the coffee plant to the soil in your gardens. Most coffee pods are packed in foil or plastic packaging that is unlikely to be compostable. However, the spent pod itself actually accounts for the majority of the mass disposed.
Upcycling K-Cups, T-Discs or Coffee Pods
Upcycling is the process of turning trash into treasure, not through alchemy but through reuse. By taking the plastics in our lives and putting them to further use, we extend their positive impact while their disposal mass remains the same. By upcycling those plastics that would typically enter the waste cycle immediately, those plastics displace the need for other plastics.
Whatever type of single cup coffee or tea that you personally enjoy, finding ways to reuse spent single serving refills, whether through composting the contents or adapting spent cartridges for other purposes, is a great way to reduce the carbon footprint of your daily coffee consumption. A little upcycling effort seems like a fair trade for the lack of A.M. morning fog effort that single cup coffees and teas save us.
Let us know creative ways that you have upcycled spent K-Cups, T-Discs, or coffee pods personally; we would love to hear your creative ideas. | <urn:uuid:26ade8b9-47c8-46f5-8594-49b311bf6a65> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.coffeeforless.com/blog/over-a-single-cup/reuse-k-cups-to-start-your-garden-seeds/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397695.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00073-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949636 | 609 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Hanover County has many sites associated with the Civil War. Most of the major battlefields can be found by following two driving trails established by Virginia's Civil War Trails program; the 1862 Peninsula Campaign and Lee vs. Grant 1864. Maps and information can be obtained by calling 1-888-CIVIL WAR or by visiting www.civilwartraveler.com. Gaines' Mill Battlefield - Here on June 27, 1862, the largest battle of the famous 1862 Seven Days Campaign took place. That afternoon General Robert E. Lee's Confederate army repeatedly assulted a smaller Union force that was stretched along a two-mile front. This second battle of the Campaign provided General Lee his first victory as commander of the Army of Northern Virginia. The combined casualties for both armies numbered more than 15,000. Walking trails provide a self-guided tour. | <urn:uuid:8180ecfa-8364-4932-bc23-203ea992f479> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.virginia.org/Listings/HistoricSites/GainesMillBattlefield/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402746.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00054-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954157 | 172 | 3.1875 | 3 |
Much has been made of income inequality in the United States this election season. Income inequality exists in the United States, more so than almost any other developed nation. Around sixty years ago, America’s Gini coefficient–the best measure of income equality, where zero represents the least inequality and one the most–was .37. Today, it is .45.
These numbers are startling, especially for a country that so proudly proclaims all men to be “created equal.” But, as Matthew Schoenfeld points out in The Wall Street Journal, income equality is a far cry from the equality the Framers preached in the Declaration of Independence.
Schoenfeld’s article, titled “Air Jordan and the 1%”, transposes the issue of income inequality from the public policy arena to the basketball court. For many people in and around public policy, a rising Gini coeffecient is enough to call for economic redistribution. Of course, this narrow reasoning doesn’t hold up in other arenas, as Schoenfeld’s basketball analogy points out:
And that brings us to Michael Jordan, who starred for the Chicago Bulls from 1984 to 1998. In 1986, the Bulls’ median player salary was $300,000. The team’s lowest-paid player made $135,000, and its highest-paid player made $806,000. The team’s Gini coefficient was 0.36. But Jordan’s superstardom increased the team’s popularity and revenues, and by 1998 salaries looked different. The median income was $2.3 million, the lowest was $500,000, and the highest (Jordan’s) was $33 million. The Gini coefficient had nearly doubled, to 0.67.
Jordan’s salary of $33 million consumed over half the payroll, but everyone was better off. The median player in 1998 made more than seven times what the median player made in 1986, while the income of the lowest-paid player in 1998 quadrupled that of his 1986 peer.
Schoenfeld’s analysis calls to mind a line from Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America. In the book, de Tocqueville claims, “Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom.” Equality is certainly a necessary virtue, one that ensures that all can enjoy basic rights and freedoms. But it is not equality alone that generates human flourishing. This is what the Framers, de Tocqueville, and the 1984-1998 Chicago Bulls got right. Humans require freedom and opportunity to fully tap into their inherent creative potential. To return to basketball: Every successful offense is built around creating the best shot, and the opportunity for a slam dunk always trumps a prayer from half-court. | <urn:uuid:0ef5bdef-d7b3-40a8-82e1-05fb8aa8a2bd> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blog.acton.org/archives/category/general/page/49 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403826.29/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00024-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948642 | 596 | 3.328125 | 3 |
Discover the inner workings of a minimally colored world.
Change the colors of the boxes to match the friendly characters inside!
Color World Origins - Learning Connections
Essential SkillsProblem Solving
Cause and Effect
Trial and Error
Common Core ConnectionMP1 - Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
MP7 - Look for and make use of structure. | <urn:uuid:f7b04795-ea97-457a-8a4a-fe06ef807d1d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.mathplayground.com/logic_color_world_origins.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396222.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00003-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.747198 | 79 | 3.15625 | 3 |
Schrödinger, Erwin (1887–1961)
In later years, Schrödinger concerned himself with the extension of Einstein's general theory of relativity to include electrical and magnetic phenomena. He also became interested in fundamental biology, and published a short, popular book, What Is Life? (1945). In this book, he attempted to explain the phenomena of life on the basis of purely physical concepts.
Schrödinger was born in Vienna, and in 1910 received his Ph.D. from the university there. He served as a professor of theoretical physics in several universities in German and Switzerland. He was also associated for many years with the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.
Related category• PHYSICISTS
Home • About • Copyright © The Worlds of David Darling • Encyclopedia of Alternative Energy • Contact | <urn:uuid:32c83816-4387-4839-803f-e8ce957a55f3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/S/Schrodinger.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395560.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00184-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97166 | 170 | 2.875 | 3 |
WASHINGTON (Apr. 24)
Dr. Bertram Korn of Philadelphia, a noted Jewish historian, declared here today that the Civil War was “one of the crucial experiences in the development of American Jewish life.” He said that when the war began about two-thirds of the Nation’s 160,000 Jews were immigrants of the previous decade. “Barely come to these shores, hardly adjusted to the new life, they were rapidly Americanized in the pressure-cooker of the fratricidal conflict,” Dr. Korn stated. He addressed the opening here of a B’nai B’rith exhibit, “American Jewry and the Civil War.”
The exhibit, containing several hundred rare items, depicts the outstanding Jewish soldiers and statesmen who played historic roles in the struggle and Jewish leaders who had close relationships with Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, Lee and Grant. Participating in the opening ceremonies, attended by 350 persons, were Senator Ralph Yarborough of Texas, a member of the U.S. Civil War Centennial Commission. | <urn:uuid:6771afc0-f06a-448d-8051-caf9eb8844b1> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.jta.org/1961/04/25/archive/american-jews-and-the-civil-war-exhibit-opened-in-washington | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399425.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00188-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973859 | 224 | 2.9375 | 3 |
Parker-Pearson, M. and Cleal, R. and Marshall, P. and Needham, S. and Pollard, J. and Richards, C. and Ruggles, C. and Sheridan, A. and Thomas, J. and Tilley, C. and Welham, K. and Chamberlain, A. and Chenery, C. and Evans, J. and Knüsel, C. and Linford, N. and Martin, L. and Montgomery, J. and Payne, A. and Richards, M. P. (2007) 'The age of Stonehenge.', Antiquity., 81 (313). pp. 617-639.
Stonehenge is the icon of British prehistory, and continues to inspire ingenious investigations and interpretations. A current campaign of research, being waged by probably the strongest archaeological team ever assembled, is focused not just on the monument, but on its landscape, its hinterland and the monuments within it. The campaign is still in progress, but the story so far is well worth reporting. Revisiting records of 100 years ago the authors demonstrate that the ambiguous dating of the trilithons, the grand centrepiece of Stonehenge, was based on samples taken from the wrong context, and can now be settled at 2600-2400 cal BC. This means that the trilithons are contemporary with Durrington Walls, near neighbour and Britain's largest henge monument. These two monuments, different but complementary, now predate the earliest Beaker burials in Britain – including the famous Amesbury Archer and Boscombe Bowmen, but may already have been receiving Beaker pottery. All this contributes to a new vision of massive monumental development in a period of high European intellectual mobility….
|Keywords:||Stonehenge, Durrington Walls, Amesbury Archer, Stratigraphy, Radiocarbon dating, Beakers.|
|Full text:||PDF - Published Version (1904Kb)|
|Publisher Web site:||http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00095624|
|Publisher statement:||Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2007|
|Record Created:||14 Jul 2009 12:50|
|Last Modified:||19 May 2016 13:45|
|Social bookmarking:||Export: EndNote, Zotero | BibTex|
|Usage statistics||Look up in GoogleScholar | Find in a UK Library| | <urn:uuid:af46ffb8-4c2c-4494-ab5e-9efe7c4e8552> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://dro.dur.ac.uk/5811/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393146.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00120-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.856925 | 515 | 2.703125 | 3 |
A “fashion revolution” in the Middle Ages? Yes, says art historian Roger Wieck, curator of Illuminating Fashion: Dress in the Art of Medieval France and the Netherlands at the Morgan Library. Just as art was changing with the dawn of the Renaissance, so, too, was clothing. I asked him to explain.
What was the “fashion revolution” of the late Middle Ages?
Around 1330, due to the invention of the set-in sleeve and the use of multiple buttons, tight clothing for both men and women became available. It was this “fashion revolution” that forever distinguished men’s and women’s clothing.
Do the lavish ensembles we see in illuminated manuscripts—such as the gowns and hats in the illumination shown above—reflect what people actually wore?
Yes, but you have to be careful in interpreting each picture. Artists did depict actual clothing, but they also included fantastic and old-fashioned garments. You also have to keep in mind artistic license. People in real life were hardly as thin, with waistlines as narrow, as those seen in medieval art.
And manuscript illuminators used fashion not only to set a scene, but also to comment on the characters they depicted.
The most fashionable people in medieval art are often the bad guys. For women’s clothing, look to what the temptresses and prostitutes are wearing. For the men, look at the teenage boys and executioners. The tormentors of Christ are usually dressed to the nines.
Was medieval and Renaissance fashion influenced by events of the day, such as the Hundred Years’ War and the bubonic plague?
Yes—for example, there was a “fashion freeze” in France from about 1350 to 1390 due to the duress of the Hundred Years’ War and the strike of the Black Plague.
King John of France died in London as a prisoner of war. Military costume influenced clothing worn by civilians, who now wore their doublets padded—unnecessary, but it gave them what was then considered the manly hourglass silhouette.
The 1420s were also a tough time for France: the northern half of the country, including the capital, Paris, was occupied by the British. During this decade, too, fashion took a nosedive.
What are some of the most spectacular or fanciful outfits you’ve come across in the pages of illuminated manuscripts?
Surely there is no more elegant clothing than that depicted by the Limbourg brothers in the calendar miniatures of the duc de Berry’s famous Très Riches Heures. Those miniatures are justifiably world famous.
Your exhibition at the Morgan includes four ensembles inspired by manuscript illuminations created using period fabrics and techniques. What did you learn during the process of crafting these replicas?
What I learned from these recreations—the wonderful work of Corinne Roes of Atelier Mette Maelwael—was that no matter how beautiful these garments are in two dimensions, they are unbelievably impressive in three. And when you see one of these garments actually worn and move in space and time, it knocks your socks off.
Many people know medieval clothing from the movies—such as The Princess Bride or even Robin Hood: Men in Tights. How right, or wrong, does Hollywood get medieval dress?
In conjunction with my exhibition at the Morgan we recently screened Becket from 1964 with Richard Burton and Peter O’Toole. Pamela Brown plays a particularly slimy Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine. She wears headgear from the 15th century—300 years later than the time of the King Henry II—but they’re so deliciously over-the-top that they actually do make her appear particularly dumb-headed.
What might a late medieval gentlewoman think of today’s fashion trends—like platform shoes, miniskirts, and enormous handbags?
I see young men on the subway with pointy shoes that remind me of the pouleines of the 14th century, which sometimes forced their wearer to walk backwards. The miniskirt of the Middle Ages was a lot more shocking than today’s, as it was worn by men.
And I think a gentlewoman of the Middle Ages would be pleased to see the return of men’s tight pants—they would remind her of how revealing and flattering were the hose worn in her era.
Text of this post © J. Paul Getty Trust. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:b9d824ec-0571-4827-98f0-5be8e9d8c829> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blogs.getty.edu/iris/the-medieval-clotheshorse-roger-wieck-on-fashion-in-the-middle-ages/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402746.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00164-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968486 | 941 | 3.75 | 4 |
First death related to West Nile virus in Illinois for 2013
The first death related to West Nile Virus in 2013 has been reported in Illinois.
According to the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH), an elderly resident of Logan County, central Illinois, has died after being stricken with West Nile Virus in mid-August.
IDPH said they are still conducting West Nile virus confirmatory testing for the case. The positive result came from a private laboratory, according to the Macon County Health Department.
Also, the IDPH confirmed that a teen in southern Illinois has tested positive for West Nile Virus, after becoming ill, also in mid-August.
IDPH Director Dr. LaMar Hasbrouck said the first West Nile related death happened later in 2013 than usual. In 2012 the first death was reported on August 20.
“Even with the cooler temperatures, until the first hard freeze, you still need to protect yourself against mosquito bites and possible West Nile virus infection,” Hasbrouck said.
West Nile virus is transmitted through a mosquito bite from a mosquito that has picked up the virus after feeding on an infected bird. The IDPH said symptoms of the virus include fever, nausea, headache and muscle aches. These symptoms can last from a few days to a few weeks, but four out of five infected people show no symptoms. In rare cases severe illness like meningitis, encephalitis, or death can occur. People over 50-years-old are at a higher risk for the virus.
The IDPH reported that 57 Illinois counties have birds, mosquitoes, and or people that have tested positive for West Nile virus. Nine human cases have been reported in Illinois so far in 2013, the first was a woman in her 50s reported on August 21. The department also reported that in 2012, Illinois saw the second highest number of West Nile cases in state history. They recorded 290 residents who became ill with West Nile and 12 related deaths.
Click here for tips on how to protect yourself and your family. | <urn:uuid:ce94bb24-3463-4327-b7d8-6d9c1c3a5343> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://wqad.com/2013/09/13/first-death-related-to-west-nile-virus-for-illinois-in-2013/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398209.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00020-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968234 | 416 | 2.921875 | 3 |
Preventing Kid Prejudice: The Sailer (One Point) Plan
For several years, NBC
has been broadcasting a series of
public service announcements in which NBC`s lesser
stars, such as
Sean Hayes, who plays the sidekick Jack on Will &
Grace, tells us to hate "hate."
For example, Hayes
"You know what
doesn`t get a laugh? When you say hurtful things about
others. Telling an
ethnic joke or using a
racial slur can pass along hate and there`s nothing
funny about that. Hate is no joke and it should never be
a punch line."
Sean Hayes—of all
people—lecturing us that ethnic jokes aren`t funny is
Emmy-winning character is one gigantic (and, indeed,
amusing) joke about gays, using every conceivable
Philadelphia Inquirer wrote about Hayes` Jack:
"It`s as if someone
at NBC took
Homer Simpson`s directive `I like my beer cold, my
TV loud, and my homosexuals fa-LAMING!` and turned it
into the character of Jack."
NBC`s TV spots provide
the phone number of the
Anti-Defamation League and links to the ADL`s online
"What to Tell Your Child About Prejudice and
assertion "Although children are not born prejudiced,
they often learn to hate before they are old enough to
understand why," raises some interesting questions:
- Would children indeed not notice racial
differences without society conditioning them to do
- What is the best way to keep your children from
disliking blacks and Hispanics?
In polite society, it
is widely maintained that
race is purely a social construction—a factual
illusion. Deviating from this dogma is costly. For
example: back in 1994 neoconservative columnist
Michael Barone bravely defended
The Bell Curve. But by the time of his 2001 book
The New Americans, Barone had apparently
realized racial realism was dangerous. Therefore he
started making pronouncements about race that were of an
intellectual depth more appropriate for Sean Hayes.
"Babies do not
distinguish between people of African and European
descent; they recognize only other human beings. They
have to be taught to differentiate between blacks and
Bunk. That young
children have to be taught to distinguish races is
simply not true.
For example, when my
oldest son was starting preschool, he informed us that
his new friend Orville was "brown." Orville is
what American grown-ups call "black," but my son
had never heard that, so he used the more chromatically
accurate term "brown."
When we asked our son
what he was, he replied, "I`m pink."
"Well, how about
your friend Diego?"
pinkish-brown," he announced decisively.
What toddlers think
about race has been studied extensively in controlled
experiments. In his book
Race in the Making, the liberal U. of Michigan
Lawrence A. Hirschfeld sums up his findings:
"As comforting as
[social constructionist] view may be, children, I
will show in this book, are more than aware of
diversity; they are driven by endogenous curiosity to
uncover it. Children, I will also show, do not believe
race to be a superficial quality of the world.
Multicultural curricula aside, few people believe that
race is only skin deep. Certainly few 3-year-olds do.
They believe that race is an intrinsic, immutable, and
essential aspect of a person`s identity. Moreover, they
seem to come to this conclusion on their own. They do
not need to be taught that race is a deep property, they
know it themselves already."
For instance, if you
show preschoolers pictures of women and children and ask
them to match the kids with their mommies, on average
they will correctly tell you that the skinny white child
belongs to the fat white mommy, while the fat black
child belongs to the skinny black mommy (or vice-versa).
These toddlers have
already figured out that race is a better predictor of
family relationship, a subject that concerns them
deeply, than is body shape. They have already begun to
grasp a truth that eludes almost all adult
racial groups are extended families.
So your children will
notice racial differences, no matter what you do.
The next question: how to keep your children from
growing up to actively dislike blacks and Hispanics.
Last week, I mentioned that New Yorker writer
Malcolm Gladwell was deeply disturbed to find that,
like 80 percent of all people and 48 percent of blacks,
he scored as anti-black on the
Implicit Association Test, which measures how
automatically you associate words like "criminal"
with black or white faces.
"Could it be that
much of the
fanatical anti-racism that so richly abounds these
days is overcompensation? … Are outspoken and emotional
anti-racists, or people who seem to try "too hard" to
display their egalitarian acceptance of members of other
races, generally people who are merely trying very hard
to convince themselves that they do not harbor racist
beliefs or feelings? `I can`t possibly be racist
if I hate racists so much!`"
Nicely illustrating his point, a long
Washington Post article about the IAT by Shankar
Vedantam began with:
"… a 34-year-old white
woman sat down in her Washington office to take a
psychological test. Her office decor attested to her
passion for civil rights—as a senior activist at a
gay rights organization, and as a lesbian herself,
fighting bias and discrimination is what gets her out of
bed every morning." [See
January 23, 2005]
Unsurprisingly, this "hate" hater tested as
In contrast to Gladwell and the anonymous
anti-discrimination warrioress, I tested as slightly
pro-black. I`m a lot more skeptical than Gladwell about
the IAT, but my result does strike me as roughly
Of course, I get smeared as a racist a lot because, not
having a guilty conscience, I don`t feel constrained to
lie about race like Gladwell, and so many others, do all
just assume that the truth is better for everybody.
And, besides, at my age, my memory isn`t getting any
better, and the truth is a lot easier to remember
The most absurd lie that you read constantly these days
is that only racists think there is any
difference in the crime rates among races.
The fact is that even according to a liberal activist
group`s carefully calculated
data, blacks are 9.1 times more likely, and Latinos
3.7 times more likely, than non-Hispanic whites to be
ADL pamphlet on hating haters offers a lot of advice
on what you should say to your children about
race. But you already know how little they listen to you
What matters most is what happens to them.
So, let me unveil my
one-point plan for how to keep your kids from
disliking blacks and Hispanics:
Do what wealthy liberals do with their own offspring:
insulate! Move to an expensive suburb where the
schools have good students, or finagle your children
into a magnet program, or homeschool them, or pay for
private schooling. Do what it takes so that the
minorities they come in contact with are predominantly
Howard Kurtz wrote in the Columbia Journalism
Review in 1994:
"Equally revealing was
media response to the Clintons`s announcement that they
were sending their daughter, Chelsea, to Sidwell
Friends, an $11,000-a-year private school in northwest
Washington. When columnist Mark Shields praised Sidwell
on The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, he had to note that his
children went there, as did Jim Lehrer`s and Judy
Woodruff`s. Woodruff`s husband, Al Hunt, made a similar
disclosure while defending Clinton on Capital Gang.
Carl Rowan touted Sidwell on Inside Washington, pointing
out that his grandchildren attended the school. Howard
Fineman, whose daughter was in kindergarten at Sidwell,
said he "shamelessly lobbied" the Clintons to choose the
So don`t worry about being duplicitous. Do what the
Clintons and all those media liberals, white and black,
did—put your children`s welfare first!
It worked for me! My schooling was a lot cheaper than
Chelsea`s, but my parents, bless them, scrimped to
send me to the local parochial school. The great
majority of the blacks and Latinos I grew up with were
nice kids who had fathers and mothers who were also
making a financial effort to do right by them.
After I grew up, I spent a lot of a time walking the
streets of Chicago. But I`m a big guy.
Muggers didn`t mess with me.
liberal women who have to work in
Washington D.C. (where blacks are
56 times more like to be
in the slammer than whites), such as that anti-black
Garance Franke-Ruta of The American Prospect
who tried to ruin my career because I`m honest about
race—should be forgiven for their hysterical hypocrisy.
Still, it would be nice if they stopped being such
frauds. It wouldn`t be hard. They wouldn`t even have to
start telling the truth.
All they`d have to do is continue doing what`s safest
for themselves and their kids and cease
denouncing writers who publicly explain the facts behind
why they do what they do.
Writers like, say, me.
[Steve Sailer [email
him] is founder of the Human Biodiversity Institute and | <urn:uuid:fbad18e4-9c6f-4c4a-8b34-7e7ed6201acd> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.vdare.com/articles/preventing-kid-prejudice-the-sailer-one-point-plan | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393442.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00040-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94678 | 2,155 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Article written by guest writer Kecia Lynn
What's the Latest Development?
A new report out from the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project reveals that just over 8 in 10 Americans between the ages of 16 and 29 read a book in the past year, with most of those reading print books. It also showed that, for many young people, e-books supplemented, rather than replaced, print books. Lead author Kathryn Zickuhr said, "They see [e-books] as part of the same general ecosystem...we heard from a lot of younger e-book readers about how e-books just fit into their lives." In addition, 6 in 10 Americans under the age of 30 used the library in the past year. The data for the report was collected from a survey of just under 3,000 people.
What's the Big Idea?
Libraries in particular are looking for more creative ways to engage young people in reading. Zickuhr says that this demographic is "interested in the idea of preloaded e-readers — being able to check out an e-reader at a library that already has some popular titles on it." They are taking more steps towards designing spaces and activities just for teens and young adults, "so that they can think of the library as a space of their own."
Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com | <urn:uuid:eff55aef-dd74-4f44-af86-b13baba8b562> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://bigthink.com/ideafeed/young-people-still-read-books-both-online-and-in-print | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404382.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00086-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971615 | 278 | 2.90625 | 3 |
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/3/2013 (1192 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
The end of OJ?
Orange juice, the beloved breakfast beverage of many Americans, is under attack. The villain is a teeny insect that threatens to wipe out citrus groves from Florida to California.
The March issue of Scientific American reports the Asian citrus psyllid has been spreading huanglongbing, Chinese for "yellow dragon disease," which leaves oranges, grapefruit, pomelos and other citrus fruits misshapen, unripe and inedible.
According to the magazine, the damaging bacteria, transmitted via the psyllids' saliva, disrupt a plant's circulatory system, blocking the flow of nutrients.
To slow the spread of this invasive species from Southeast Asia, scientists have imported Asian wasps to prey on the psyllids. The magazine says genetic modification to make the plants resistant to the disease may be the only long-term solution.
-- Scientific American
The future is now
In 1988, Los Angeles Times Magazine predicted what life would be like for North Americans in 2013.
Its hits included:
-- Automatic water heaters and coffee makers;
-- Cars with a "central computer" that includes "electronic navigation or map systems";
-- Teleconferencing from home on your computer;
-- Fibre-optic cable networks;
-- Using computers in classrooms in place of notebooks and projector screens.
There were also some notable misses.
-- A "personalized home newspaper" that is automatically printed off your personal computer;
-- Mandatory exercise required by employers (though libertarians are warning us about this one);
-- To listen to music or watch a movie, you need a laser disc, or you need to call your cable company to request the media over cable lines. This whole story sort of misses the fact that Internet access has trumped the need to use of cable and phone lines.
Sex in the morning
You may have greeted the morning with a bowl of cereal. But were you nourishing your libido in addition to your body? Were you eating mere cereal, or... Sexcereal?
If you don't mind shelling out $12 for a bag, perhaps you were enhancing your sex drive and stamina with a product dreamed up in 2008 by Toronto businessman Peter Ehrlich. The specially formulated Sexcereal (motto: "Big Life Living -- Fuel Your Fire!") comes in two varieties, His and Hers, making it "the world's first gender-based breakfast cereal." Blazoned across the male packet is a hunky dude holding a suggestively large spoon; the female version features a busty Marilyn Monroe look-alike in red satin.
The company website lists, for "him," such hot ingredients as rolled oats, wheat germ, chia seeds, blueberries, goji berries, bee pollen and coconut sugar. The lady option contains, among other things, rolled oats, oat bran, soy protein, cranberries, almonds and ginger. It actually sounds a lot like standard-issue granola, give or take some bee pollen.
Oh, look. Both varieties sprinkle in a rare Peruvian spice called maca powder, which Ehrlich says has aphrodisiac properties.
This is wonderful news for everyone who rolls out of bed at 7:30 a.m. on a Monday morning and immediately wants to have sex. | <urn:uuid:ebd596d7-a754-4b1d-bc23-dff2850d146f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/life/fyi-bite-sized-science-march-23-199658201.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396027.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00130-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923252 | 719 | 2.765625 | 3 |
|I can't take the compiled binary and add any more functions to it externally (or can I?)|
You can. A dynamic library lets you adds arbitrary code to a program, as long as the program is designed to do this. For example, you can have a program that
1. Checks if a dynamic library is present.
2. If it is, attempts to load it and its functions.
3. If successful, calls a function in the library that returns an array of function pointers.
Step #3 lets you add as much behavior to the program as you want without having to recompile the program. Additionally, because the libraries are dynamically loaded, you can define in a configuration file library names for the program to search. This way you can even add as many libraries as you want (within reason) without recompiling unrelated libraries.
* Good performance because you're running native code directly, without any extra cost.
* Writing C/++ takes more time than other languages.
* Writing dynamic interfaces between C++ modules is tricky. Due to name mangling, you can't export C++ symbols in the dynamic library if you expect the library and the program to not necessarily be compiled by the same compiler and compiler version. You have to export C symbols. This leads to other restrictions.
* (I think) it's possible to implement dynamic reloading (that is, pausing execution, unloading the library, then reloading a new version of the library and resume execution as if nothing had happened), but it's complicated. Also known as "hot swapping".
This is one way of implementing a plug-in system.
Another is to use an interpreted language to define behavior at run time. The idea is pretty much the same, only instead of loading executable code, you load scripts that the program reads as it goes. If you want to use this, you can either create your own language, or use an existing language. If you choose the latter option, I suggest Lua. It's specifically designed to be embedded in C/++, and it has coroutines, which make defining state machines easy without going outside of the procedural paradigm.
* Scripting languages are typically easy to write in.
* There's no need to deal with binary compatibility issues because no binaries exist.
* Dynamic reloading is often explicitly supported by the language.
* Performance is always worse than with native code. In some cases, much worse (*cough*Python*cough*). | <urn:uuid:93acd10c-cf77-46c8-87d4-2cb7f27507b2> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.cplusplus.com/forum/beginner/89295/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403826.29/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00052-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938419 | 512 | 2.5625 | 3 |
- soup (n.)
- "liquid food," 1650s, from French soupe "soup, broth" (13c.), from Late Latin suppa "bread soaked in broth," from a Germanic source (compare Middle Dutch sop "sop, broth"), from Proto-Germanic *sup-, from PIE *sub-, from root *seue- (2) "to take liquid" (see sup (v.2)).
Primordial soup is from a concept first expressed 1929 by J.B.S. Haldane. Soup to nuts "everything" is from 1910. Soup-kitchen, "public establishment supported by voluntary contributions, for preparing and serving soup to the poor at no cost" is attested from 1839. In Ireland, souper meant "Protestant clergyman seeking to make proselytes by dispensing soup in charity" (1854).
- soup (v.)
- "increase the horsepower of an engine," 1921, probably from soup (n.) in slang sense of "narcotic injected into horses to make them run faster" (1911), influenced by supercharge (v.). | <urn:uuid:21cc950a-991b-4e12-86ec-556d21f15f8f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=soup&allowed_in_frame=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398628.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00164-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933604 | 240 | 3.171875 | 3 |
Minute on Climate Justice
08 November 2013
Adopted by the WCC 10th Assembly as part of the Report of the Public Issues Committee.
“The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world and all who live in it; for he founded it on the seas and established it on the water”. (Psalm 24)
“...cease to do evil and learn to do right; Pursue justice and champion the oppressed. Give the orphan his rights, plead the widow’s case”. (Isaiah 1:16b-17)
Climate change is today one of the most challenging global threats affecting especially the most vulnerable. The World Council of Churches (WCC) was among the first to warn about the dangers of climate change. Now after 20 years of advocacy, churches have helped bring ecological justice into the international debate on climate.
The WCC governing bodies have developed policy on climate change. Furthermore, the WCC has also presented statements to the high level segment of the Conference of Parties (COPs) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. In recent years churches and specialized ministries have increased their advocacy efforts. Together with Christian churches, interfaith initiatives have also shown how faith communities have reached consensus in addressing the climate change crisis.
Despite being a most crucial issue, climate change has lost priority on the public and political agendas. While there are some encouraging signs, nonetheless climate change negotiations at the international level have not realized the stated goals.
In September 2013, the first part of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report was delivered confirming the gravity of climate change and the consequences it already has, among them the rise of sea level, the melting of glaciers and polar ice, the further increase of the strength and frequency of floods, tropical storms and droughts. The report also evidenced the growing consensus in the scientific community on the human causes of climate change.
The effects of climate change are being experienced already now. Churches in countries like Tuvalu, Kiribati, Bangladesh, the Philippines as well as the United Nations (UN) and other international organizations are already addressing the tragedies associated with climate displaced people.
Victims of climate change are the new face of the poor, the widow and the stranger that are especially loved and cared for by God (Deut. 10:17-18). When creation is threatened in this way, churches are called to speak out and act as an expression of their commitment to life, justice and peace.
The 10th Assembly of the World Council of Churches, meeting in Busan, Republic of Korea, 30 October – 8 November 2013, therefore:
A. Reiterates the concerns of the churches over climate change and its adverse effects on the whole of creation and especially on vulnerable communities in many parts of the world;
B. Encourages member churches to support the role of the WCC in enabling an ecumenical pilgrimage for justice and peace to strengthen links between churches and communities in various parts of the world working together to care for creation and eco-justice; and
C. Calls upon churches and ecumenical organizations to insist that the respective governments look beyond national interests in order to be responsible towards God’s creation and our common future, and urge them to safeguard and promote the basic human rights of those who are threatened by the effects of climate change and particularly those church representatives present at COP19 in Warsaw, Poland, to urge the Polish COP presidency to increase the ambitions of the Warsaw outputs; and
D. Welcomes the climate change plan of the White House and calls upon the President of the United States to reject the building of the Keystone Pipeline in the United States of America. | <urn:uuid:279c82b3-c65a-4acb-96e5-2c0f87b700e8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/assembly/2013-busan/adopted-documents-statements/minute-on-climate-justice | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403502.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00158-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954423 | 765 | 2.984375 | 3 |
Kindergarten can be pivotal in preparing your child for their future academic journey. So it’s important that parents are involved even in these early stages as much as possible. Being there to support and assist your child through kindergarten will help ease any stresses they may feel and will prepare your child for schooling success in the years ahead.
Your involvement and attention at this early stage in your child’s education pays off in many ways. Research shows that kids whose parents are involved in their education are more likely to earn higher grades, score better on standardized tests, and attend college.
Taking the time to familiarize your child with the kindergarten and educating yourself on what it is all about will go a long way toward helping your child with a smooth transition into education and school. Your involvement helps strengthen schools, shows children that you value learning, and assists in building a thriving community. What’s more, you’ll benefit directly by taking an active role. You’ll meet other parents and quickly learn the ins and outs of your child’s kindergarten.
Here we share kindergarten parent advice – our top ten tips to help you become more active and make a difference in your child’s education:
Kindergarten Parent Advice 1:
Introduce yourself to your child’s teacher and to the kindergarten/school. You don’t have to wait until parent-teacher conferences. In fact, sometimes it’s easier during the first week or so of school, to find a moment to say a quick hello. By asking the teacher whether there is anything he or she needs and finding out how they like to be contacted will set a positive tone for the year.
Kindergarten Parent Advice 2:
Offer to get involved and help out in the classroom. Most kindergarten teachers welcome help from enthusiastic parents. What you do in the classroom will depend on what the teacher needs, but if you’re able to commit to assisting in whatever way possible, let your child’s teacher know and they will appreciate it.
Kindergarten Parent Advice 3:
Even if you can’t help out in class, you can volunteer to do something from home. You could make phone calls to inform other parents of important information, help prepare materials for lessons, assist with school lunches, and more. Bringing your volunteer ethic home shows your child that school is important. It will also help strengthen your connection with the teacher.
Kindergarten Parent Advice 4:
Offer to share your own experience. Offer to be a special guest visitor to your child’s classroom to share something special about yourself; your occupation, your cultural background, or an interesting hobby, somewhere that you’ve travelled to. Your child will be proud to let everyone know you’re his or her parent and the kindergarten will appreciate your efforts!
Kindergarten Parent Advice 5:
Learn about your child’s school. Read the school handbook to learn about school policies. Stay informed by reading school and parent-teacher group newsletters. If the school has a website, check it regularly for updates and information.
Kindergarten Parent Advice 6:
Reach out to other parents. Look for opportunities to get to know the parents of your child’s classmates. Volunteer to chaperone field trips. Attend class parties and assemblies. Don’t be shy about introducing yourself, and be sure to exchange phone numbers and email addresses. The other parents will be an invaluable support system during the first year of school and beyond.
Kindergarten Parent Advice 7:
Make time to attend and support school events as much as possible. Even events where your child isn’t specifically involved still need your support. Make it a point to go to assemblies, open houses, art shows, and other school/kindergarten events
Kindergarten Parent Advice 8:
Talk with your child about kindergarten and school. When your child comes home, ask open questions (who, what, where, how, why) about their day. Questions like “what was the best thing that happened today at school?” and “tell me one new thing that you learned today in kindergarten” show that you are genuinely interested and reflect the importance of education.
Kindergarten Parent Advice 9:
Positively encourage your child’s efforts at kindergarten. Communicate the idea, in both words and actions, that education is important. Don’t forget to post artwork and school papers on the refrigerator and walls for everyone to see! This is both important for your child’s self esteem, but also reinforces the message that you care about his or her efforts in kindergarten.
Kindergarten Parent Advice 10:
Join Parent Teacher Association. A parent group is a terrific way to learn about your child’s school/kindergarten and you’ll be able to forge lasting connections with the parents you meet. This will also put you in a place of influence when it comes to ensuring your child’s educational environment is a fun and exciting place to learn. | <urn:uuid:35f692dd-38cd-42ba-a183-b0aafa1d1921> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.practicingparents.com/kindergarten-parent-advice/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404382.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00108-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940175 | 1,062 | 2.78125 | 3 |
Understanding line and paragraph spacing in Word
In Word, there are two types of spacing: line spacing and paragraph spacing. Both are attributes of paragraph formatting that can be configured via the Paragraph dialog, but they work differently. Line spacing affects the distance between lines of text within a paragraph, and paragraph spacing affects the distance (i.e., the white space) between paragraphs.
Line spacing options in Word include conventional single and double spacing, plus a few additional choices. Before exploring the other choices, it’s worth discussing single and double spacing, which are not — contrary to what you might think — entirely self-explanatory.
The Role of “Leading” in Single and Double Spacing
Many people probably assume that the “simple” line-spacing options — single and double spacing — merely reflect multiples of the point size of the font they are using. If that were so, single-spacing with any 12-point font would produce lines of text that are 12 points in height and double-spacing would produce lines of text that are 24 points in height. (As a reminder, there are 72 points to an inch; thus, 12 points is 1/6 of an inch and 24 points is 1/3 of an inch.)
However, that formulation leaves out one crucial factor. In order to improve readability, single and double spacing add a certain amount of vertical distance — in the form of white space — between lines of text, an aspect of typography known as “leading” (pronounced as if it were spelled “ledding”). The amount of leading varies depending on which font you are using (not all 12-point fonts are equal). Typically, single-spaced lines range from 110% to 135% of the font size. For example, let’s say you select Times New Roman, a font that is common in legal documents. If you set the font size at 12 points and apply single spacing, the true height of your lines of text will be roughly 115% to 120% of the point size, or 13.8 to 14.4 points. The line height might be different with a different font, such as Arial, Courier New, or Helvetica, even if you set the font size at 12 points.
Similarly, double spacing usually runs 220% to 270% of the size of your chosen font. So, sticking with our example, using Times New Roman at 12 points and applying double spacing will result in lines that are spaced approximately 27.6 to 28.8 points apart.
This phenomenon — the vertical expansion caused by “leading” when you use single spacing or double spacing in Word — explains a number of confusing issues, including why it can be difficult to align text with the line numbers in pleading paper. (The Pleading Wizard, a utility used to generate pleading paper in versions of Word prior to Word 2007, sets an “Exact” point size for the numbered lines, such as 22.75 points, that is smaller than standard double spacing. Because double-spaced body text is “taller” than the line numbers, the text and the numbers quickly get out of sync.)
To get a feel for how much extra spacing leading adds, select a 12-point font and type a brief paragraph (make sure it’s at least two lines long). First, set the line spacing to single. Then change the line spacing to Exactly 12 points. Try the same experiment with the line spacing set to double and then to Exactly 24 points. You’ll notice a tremendous difference.
The moral of the story: If you don’t want Word to expand your text vertically, don’t use single or double spacing. Instead, use an “Exactly” setting, such as Exactly 12 points or Exactly 24 points. (In pleadings, you’ll need to choose a setting for the body text that matches the spacing of the numbered lines. For a longer discussion of this point, see my earlier post, “Aligning text with pleading line numbers”.)
The New Default Line Spacing
As if matters weren’t confusing enough, Microsoft changed the default line spacing to 1.15 lines in Word 2007 and Word 2010 and to 1.08 lines in Word 2013 and Word 2016. The default setting in older versions is single spacing, which — notwithstanding the additional vertical space resulting from leading — is substantially more compact than the new setting.
It’s easy to change the default line spacing, however. Simply open the Paragraph dialog, set the spacing according to your preferences, then (1) in Word 2007, click the “Default” button, then click “Yes” and click “OK”; (2) in Word 2010, click the “Set As Default” button, click the “All documents based on the normal.dotm template” option, then click “OK” twice.
Additional Line Spacing Options
Besides single spacing and double spacing, Word offers four additional line spacing options: 1.5 lines, “Exactly,” “At Least,” and “Multiple.” The 1.5 line option is similar enough to single and double spacing that it doesn’t merit further discussion here.
As for the other options, “Exactly” enables you to choose a highly precise line spacing that remains fixed, whereas “At Least” gives you the option of specifying a minimum line spacing and letting Word adjust the height if necessary to accommodate graphics such as drop caps (or other characters) that wouldn’t otherwise fit. (This option presumably is used widely in desktop publishing but, for obvious reasons, isn’t suitable for pleadings or any similar type of document that is subject to strict formatting rules.)
The “Multiple” option is used for setting line spacing at an interval other than single, double, or 1.5. For example, if you wanted triple spacing, you would use the “Multiple” option and type “3” in the “At” box. (The new default line spacing of 1.15 involves the “Multiple” option.)
“Exactly” can be important when you are working on pleadings. As mentioned earlier, the process of generating pleading paper usually results in line numbering that does not use true double-spacing. For technical reasons, the line numbers on pleading paper often are spaced 22.75 points apart (or some similar figure). In order to get the text of the pleading to align properly with the line numbers, you have to make sure the line spacing of the text matches that of the line numbers (which you can determine by going into the document’s header, clicking somewhere within the line numbering, and then launching the Paragraph dialog and viewing the setting for the line spacing). If it doesn’t match, you’ll have to select the text and change the setting via the “Exactly” option.
Paragraph Spacing (“Before” and “After” Spacing)
By contrast with line spacing, paragraph spacing refers to the space between paragraphs. You can tell Word to insert extra space automatically before a paragraph, after a paragraph, or both. For example, if you want Word to insert one blank line between paragraphs, you can set the “Spacing After” to 12 points, the rough equivalent (as we now know) of a standard single-spaced line. Or you can set both the “Spacing Before” and the “Spacing After” to 6 points (about half a line).
When using one or both of these options, test them first to see if they work in a given situation. Sometimes you can end up with too much (or not enough) space between paragraphs.
“Before” and “After” spacing often are incorporated into styles for body text and headings in order to achieve uniform spacing between paragraphs in a document.
Because “Before” and/or “After” spacing automatically add white space between paragraphs, you’ll have to get into the habit of not pressing the Enter key twice to move the cursor to the next paragraph.
“Don’t add space between paragraphs of the same style”
In all versions of Word from 2007 through 2016, there is an additional item in the Paragraph dialog labeled “Don’t add space between paragraphs of the same style.” If the option is enabled (i.e., the box to the left of the option is checked), Word will ignore your “Before” and/or “After” settings.
Microsoft applies this setting to certain built-in styles but not to others. It is disabled by default for the Normal paragraph style, which means you can increase the “Before” and/or “After” paragraph spacing for text using the Normal style and your changes will go into effect as you expect. On the other hand, the setting is enabled by default for bulleted and numbered lists, which means that items (paragraphs) in the list will not be separated by white space unless you specifically insert such space manually.
If you have configured Before and/or After spacing to add space between paragraphs but Word appears to be ignoring your settings, open the Paragraph dialog and note whether “Don’t add space between paragraphs of the same style” is checked. If it is, close the dialog, select the list (or other text) to which you want to add Before and/or After spacing, reopen the Paragraph dialog, uncheck the option, reset the Before and/or After spacing if necessary, and click “OK.” Now your extra Before and/or After spacing should go into effect as you intended.
In all versions of Word, you can open the paragraph dialog by using the keyboard shortcut Alt O, P. In versions of Word prior to Word 2007, you also have the option of clicking the Format menu, Paragraph; in Word 2007 and Word 2010, you can click the dialog launcher at the lower right corner of the Paragraph group in the Home tab.
There is some confusion / disagreement over the exact amount of leading typically produced with Times New Roman. Pinpointing this figure is less important to me than making sure that readers understand the general concept and also have a sense of the approximate degree to which the text will expand if you use single or double spacing, rather than an “Exact” figure.
Microsoft also changed the “Normal” paragraph style by adding 10 points of “After” spacing in Word 2007 and Word 2010 and 8 points of “After” spacing in Word 2013 and Word 2016. See the following sections for an explanation of “Before” and “After” spacing.
“Before” and “After” spacing can be configured independently, of course.
Note that even with the box checked, you’ll be able to add space between paragraphs manually—i.e., by pressing the Enter key.
Entry filed under: Uncategorized. Tags: . | <urn:uuid:a6ca5750-3776-4ae3-93eb-9952ec39c5bf> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://compusavvy.wordpress.com/2010/08/01/understanding-line-and-paragraph-spacing-in-word/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783408828.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155008-00039-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.898483 | 2,338 | 4.125 | 4 |
Family law is the branch of law which handles all maters connected to household unit and other domestic relations such as surrogacy and adoption, domestic partnerships, civil unions, marital relationship, divorce, kid kidnapping, child abuse matters, kid disregard, kid upkeep, youngster adoption, paternal cases, child visitation rights, kid custody, alimony, department of family home, etc
. All courts worldwide have actually reported increase in family law as parties divorce, embrace kids, contest paternity fits, and so on
. According to household law lawyers, this branch of law is different from the other branches because it touches on sensitive private matters. In some cases, the household lawyers act as counselors, mediators, conciliators, mediators, etc. The courts that adjudicate on family law matters in some cases also act arbitrators as they aim to fix up members of the very same household to address their problems is agreeably so regarding maintain their relationship.
The drug of this kind of law varies from one jurisdiction to the other due to the fact that the concepts that underpin it are mainly obtained from the society. For example, in societies where very same sex relationships are declined, this type of law requires that such union can not be acknowledged as marital relationship in law courts.
Like all the other branches of law, household law has undergone lots of transformations in an effort to resolve the moderate issues in families. For example, the majority of societies have actually attempted to legalize 'come we remain' relationships if the parties involved live together for specific amount of time.
One if the most popular modern patterns in household law is the collective law which describes structured process which provides parties seeking divorces or parties included in other issues an alternative names of fixing their conflict name change
rather than a going through the expensive, lengthy litigation process in courts. Collective law permits the celebrations to marriage or proposed civil union to take the control of their fate by employing household attorneys dedicated to the process of resolving legal disputes in household and relationships within family setting amicably through conversations and negotiations without the courts being involved. | <urn:uuid:214dce5e-dcbb-4d63-b596-172e6131cb1a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.improduction.rs/component/k2/itemlist/user/7865 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404382.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00059-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96206 | 414 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Back in May, the scientists behind the Hubble Space Telescope announced the birth of a bouncing Baby Red Spot in Jupiter's turbulent clouds. Unfortunately, some creatures eat their young: The latest Hubble imagery reveals that the Baby Red Spot is being gobbled up by the planet's larger and older Great Red Spot.
Baby Red's sad fate is the consequence of the complex storm patterns in Jupiter's atmosphere. The spots are actually cyclones swirling within a band of clouds. Over the past couple of months, Baby Red and a slightly older storm nicknamed Red Spot Jr. have been catching up to and passing around the Great Red Spot.
Imagery from Hubble and from ground-based telescopes revealed how the baby was caught up in the big spot's spin. "It was torn in two," Amy Simon-Miller, an astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, told me today.
A pale remnant of Baby Red may survive the encounter, but it's at least as likely that the shrunken spot will be pulled into the Great Red Spot's powerful blender and merely add more energy to the longer-lived storm. That's probably how the Great Red Spot has been able to hang around for hundreds of years: by gobbling up smaller storms in its path.
Junior lives on
For Simon-Miller and her Hubble team colleagues, including New Mexico State University's Nancy Chanover and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Glenn Orton, the short-lived baby was a bonus. When they requested their telescope time, their primary objective was to track Red Spot Jr.
"The little guy popping up was not known when we started doing the observations," Simon-Miller said.
Unlike Baby, Red Spot Jr. appears to be a survivor: It was formed several years ago by the merger of three smaller, white-colored storms, and earned its nickname in 2006 by turning from white to red. So far, Junior has steered clear its bigger rival, and Simon-Miller thinks it will hold its own in Jupiter's atmospheric clash.
"The Great Red Spot's never going to eat it," she said.
Why a Red Spot?
One big question remains: Exactly what makes the Red Spots red? The prevailing view is that some sort of reddish material containing sulfur, phosphorus or hydrocarbons is churned up by a change in atmospheric dynamics. Scientists even know there are differences between the Great Red Spot and Junior - but they haven't yet identified the mechanism or the material.
Simon-Miller said Hubble could check the chemical signature of the cloud tops in Jupiter's chilly, hydrogen-rich atmosphere. However, there's nothing on Earth to compare it to. "We have to have a lab space on Earth that can measure things at the same temperature and pressure," she said.
As a result, the life and death of a storm on Jupiter is still a mysterious thing. Baby Red, we hardly knew ye.
Update for 4:40 p.m. ET July 18: It looks like a bit of Baby Red may live on, Daniel Fischer notes in the latest edition of The Cosmic Mirror. Amateur observations, made after the Hubble images were captured, appear to show a remnant of the little spot on the other side of the Great Red Spot. In a comment below, Fischer maintains that the reports of the Baby Red Spot's death are premature. | <urn:uuid:a2225a8e-8a3d-4ee2-b91d-7fff42d2ca5b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2008/07/17/4351506-bye-bye-baby-red-spot?pc=25&sp=50 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396147.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00059-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962132 | 680 | 3.015625 | 3 |
Smokefree legislation applies to schools, early childhood centres, retailers, licensed premises, sports clubs and all employers.
Aims of the smokefree law
The aims are to:
- protect all workers and the public from second-hand smoke
- reduce the harm caused to individuals by their smoking
- further restrict minors’ (under 18) access to smoking products and prevent negative influences on young people
- further promote a smokefree (auahi kore) lifestyle as the norm.
Smokefree law sets out to achieve these aims by:
- limiting the marketing, advertising and promotion of tobacco products
- protecting people from the poisons in second-hand smoke by making it illegal to smoke indoors in public areas and workplaces.
The following places must be smokefree at all times:
- the buildings and grounds of schools and early childhood centres
- indoor areas of licensed premises and workplaces – ‘licensed premises’ includes bars, restaurants, cafés, sports clubs and casinos, ‘workplaces’ includes offices, factories, warehouses, work canteens and ‘smoko’ rooms.
Making a complaint
To make a complaint under smokefree law, you will need to contact a smoke-free environment officer. Contact numbers can be found at Smokefree complaints.
- regulates smokefree workplaces and public areas
- regulates the marketing, advertising and promotion of tobacco products
- monitors and regulates the presence of harmful constituents in tobacco products and tobacco smoke.
The Smoke-free Environments Regulations 2007 regulations set out the labelling requirements for retail packages of cigarettes and other tobacco products, including the requirements for graphic pictorial health warnings. | <urn:uuid:a8b14592-8884-44bb-9740-43f701e0e01c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/preventative-health-wellness/tobacco-control/smokefree-law | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393533.44/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00163-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931582 | 340 | 2.5625 | 3 |
BY ANDREW M. SEAMAN
NEW YORK Mon Apr 28, 2014 4:01pm EDT
(Reuters Health) - Doctors who work with schools and sports organizations should encourage training to reduce the risk of anterior cruciate ligament tears, according to a leading group of U.S. pediatricians.
The clinical report from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) also includes information for doctors to diagnose and treat the ligament tears, which have been increasing among young athletes - especially girls.
"The Academy wanted to put together a clinical report that updates pediatricians and the general public about all three of these issues," Dr. Cynthia LaBella told Reuters Health.
LaBella is the lead author of the report published in the AAP's journal Pediatrics. She is an expert in sports medicine at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago.
The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of four key ligaments that hold the bones of the knee together. The ligaments also work to stabilize the knee during movement.
The ACL can tear when athletes quickly change direction, land on their leg incorrectly, stop suddenly or collide with each other.
Soccer, football, lacrosse, basketball and gymnastics are among some of the most common sports in which high school athletes experience ACL tears.
Girls are especially at risk for ACL tears through their college years, the committee writes. It's thought that growth during puberty puts more force on kids' joints, and while boys gain muscular strength and coordination at the same time, girls typically do not.
The report says neuromuscular training programs that strengthen leg muscles, improve stability and teach people how to safely move should be encouraged.
The authors write that the components of training programs that have effectively reduced the risk of ACL tears include plyometric or jump training and tailored feedback for individual athletes.
Programs that also include strength training have been among the most successful in reducing ACL injury rates, they add.
Dr. Lyle Micheli said it makes sense that the neuromuscular training described in the new report works. It's the type of training doctors use within the Division of Sports Medicine at Boston Children's Hospital, where he is director.
"In ballet in most parts of the world, little girls or boys start when they're four, five or six (years old)," he said. "They learn to jump and land. We don't get many ACL injuries from the ballet."
Micheli, who is also the founder of The Micheli Center for Sports Injury Prevention, was not involved with the creation of the new report.
According to one paper cited in the report, training was tied to a 72 percent reduced risk of ACL injuries among female athletes younger than 18 years old. The risk was decreased by about 16 percent among those 18 years old and older.
The report says there is not enough evidence to support the use of braces to prevent ACL injuries.
"There is no good research to show that bracing as a primary prevention strategy is effective," LaBella said.
Many, but not all, children who tear their ACL will need surgery.
For those children, the report says it's reasonable to wait until they mature to the age when the surgery will not disturb the growth of their leg. Surgical techniques do exist to repair the ACL without disturbing the leg's growth plate, however.
"Everybody is a little different with their needs and goals," LaBella said. "It's definitely an individualized decision."
Regardless of treatment choice, the report says doctors should advise their patients that they will be at an increased risk of early-onset osteoarthritis, which is caused by wear-and-tear of the knee.
As for diagnosis, LaBella said people - especially athletes, parents and coaches - should be aware of the warning signs of an ACL tear.
"Most athletes will feel their knee give out and feel a pop," she said, adding that the knee may also swell.
Whether the increase in ACL tears is due to kids playing sports at a younger age, taking part in more intense training or some other factor, Micheli said he agrees with the report's recommendations.
"We definitely think this is the way we've got to go as a nation," he said.
The AAP has several resources, including instructional videos, on its website (aap.org/cosmf), according to LaBella.
SOURCE: bit.ly/uFc4g2 Pediatrics, online April 28, 2014.
Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions. | <urn:uuid:1a3d427b-8914-4d17-bd52-c15a350a4682> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/29/pediatricians-recommend-training-prevent-kids-acl-tears_n_5234845.html?ir=Parents | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397748.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00193-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968819 | 951 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Slipped Disk (cont.)
IN THIS ARTICLE
What Are Symptoms of a Slipped Disk?
Patient Comments Read 20 Comments
The nerves of the body exit the spine at each spinal level in the low back, mid back, and neck. A herniated disk can produce symptoms anywhere along the course of that nerve, though the injury and irritation of the nerve are at the spine itself. (This is known as referred pain, as the pain is "referred" from the source of the problem in the spine to the area supplied by the affected nerve.) A slipped disk can produce varying degrees of pain in the back or neck along with numbness or weakness in the corresponding organs, arms, or legs as follows:
Medically Reviewed by a Doctor on 2/10/2016
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The eMedicineHealth doctors ask about Slipped Disk:
Slipped Disc - Treatment
What treatment did you receive for your slipped disk?
Slipped Disk - Symptoms
What symptoms did you experience with your slipped disc?
Back Pain Resources
- Low Back Pain? It Could Be Your SI Joint
- When to Take More Pain Meds
- Is It a Headache or a Migraine? | <urn:uuid:4f2325e3-0ba0-41f3-ac88-3fb671eb5f5f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.emedicinehealth.com/slipped_disk/page2_em.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783408828.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155008-00076-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913728 | 260 | 2.625 | 3 |
Imagine being the person who can save an entire city's population from injury and death with just a few clicks of your mouse. This simulator from the National Weather Service lets you test your abilities and see if you've got what it takes to do just that.
The Warning Decision Simulator takes you through several real-world severe weather scenarios and allows you to issue severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings along the paths of the storms. You start with a baseline score that grows or shrinks based on how long your warnings are in effect, if you issue false alarms (warnings without severe weather reported), or if they receive a report of large hail, damaging winds, or tornadoes where you didn't issue a warning.
While different from how meteorologists issue real warnings, the process shows you how intense it can be, and that issuing a warning just a little too far off or missing the signs on radar could cost someone their life.
As a fresh reminder, a tornado warning is issued when a tornado is imminent. It means that meteorologists detect strong rotation on Doppler radar indicating the potential for a tornado within a thunderstorm, or that a tornado was actually spotted by those nearby.
A severe thunderstorm warning is issued when meteorologists detect a thunderstorm capable of producing hail the size of quarters or larger, and/or damaging winds in excess of 60 MPH.
If you don't know what to look for on Doppler radar in order to spot a tornado, here's a quick primer I wrote a few weeks back.
Are you ready? Here's the link to the NWS HotSeat provided by the NWS office in Peachtree City, Georgia. Give it a crack and see how well you do.
Once you read through the on-screen instructions and make it through the simulator, they give you your statistics at the end.
The gray screen will show your results. SVRs means "severe thunderstorm warnings," and it shows you how many warnings you issued, how many of your warnings verified with actual reports of hail or wind, and your lead time, or how long before the severe weather hit that you issued your warning). The same goes for TORs, or tornado warnings.
The three statistics at the bottom are the true tell as to how well you did.
POD = Probability of Detection, or the rate at which you successfully detected severe weather. 100% means that you nailed it, and 0% means that you missed every report of severe weather.
FAR = False Alarm Rate, or the rate at which you cried wolf.
CSI = Critical Skills Index, or "a combination of POD and FAR," according to the NWS in Morristown, TN. Think of it as your final grade. 100% is perfect, 0% means you're a nice kid but this just ain't your thing.
For this post, I did the fourth simulation on the list, "tornadoes and severe thunderstorms sweep across Alabama (easy)."
I issued 22 severe thunderstorm warnings and 15 verified; I only missed 3 severe weather reports (all three were dime size hail). I issued 7 tornado warnings and 4 of them verified — I didn't miss one.
My POD was 86% — I correctly issued a warning 86% of the time. My false alarm rate was 34%, and my overall critical skills index was 59%. Not the best, but I got all of the major reports (huge hail and the tornadoes).
Meteorologists in the field have around a 70% accuracy rate for detecting and issuing tornado warnings for confirmed tornadoes.
So, do you have what it takes? Tell us how well you do.
[Top image of a tornado-warned storm near San Angelo, Texas on Saturday afternoon via Gibson Ridge] | <urn:uuid:63386580-f12c-45d0-93ae-b0a1add32eb1> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://thevane.gawker.com/do-you-have-what-it-takes-to-save-a-city-1581243670/all | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393146.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00185-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959252 | 776 | 2.90625 | 3 |
(Medical Xpress)—Research conducted by Penn State Brandywine Assistant Professor of Human Development and Family Studies Jennifer Zosh has discovered that toddlers learn new words more effectively by using their knowledge about the world to infer the label of an object, rather than by simply being instructed and told which word goes with which object.
"Optimal Contrast: Competition Between Two Referents Improves Word Learning" has been published in the latest special issue of Applied Developmental Science.
Zosh, along with colleagues Meredith Brinster (University of Texas at Austin) and Justin Halberda (Johns Hopkins University) ran two experiments that gauged preschoolers' ability to learn new words, comparing their memory for words learned through inference and instruction.
During inference trials, the children were shown a familiar object and a new, novel object and were asked to point at the new object. These trials required the children to use their knowledge of the familiar object and its label to eliminate that object and infer that the new word referred to the new object. On instruction trials the children were told the name of the new object and no recognizable objects were shown. Zosh and her colleagues found that even though children looked at the new object longer during the instruction trials, they retained the newly learned word better during inference trials.
Zosh believes that these discoveries could help enhance people's ability to teach children a variety of new information. "People tend to think that parents must directly instruct their children by telling them the labels of the objects that surround them, but this research tells us that children are even better word learners when we ask them to figure things out for themselves," Zosh said. "This finding enhances our understanding of the ways in which toddlers learn new words and may have interesting implications for learning outside of the domain of language acquisition."
Zosh also started the Brandywine Child Development Lab, in which games are used to aid in the exploration of how children learn about new objects, numbers and language. The lab also gives undergraduate students a chance to take part in research while attending Brandywine.
"I want to give the students a firsthand experience to see if they would like to be in the research field for themselves," Zosh said. "My model for undergraduate involvement is from the ground up. I like to help students find their passion for a topic, design and run a study to examine that topic and present their findings. Having a complete research experience gives them the opportunity to fully experience the process of science."
Zosh's former student and Penn State Brandywine graduate Laura Twiss-Garrity was one of the students that became actively involved in the Brandywine Child Development Lab's research. Twiss-Garrity completed the research-based option of the human development and family studies degree and worked closely with Zosh.
"She played a key role in coding some of the data," Zosh said. "This helped us to determine that even though children look more at the target object when we directly instruct them, they actually show better retention when they look less but have to figure things out for themselves."
Zosh is currently conducting follow-up research at the Rocky Run YMCA in Media, where she is working with children of different age groups and trying to understand how age affects word learning. "We are asking questions that no one on Earth knows the answers to," Zosh said. "It's exciting to think how we can take this knowledge and use it to help teach children."
Explore further: Researchers help uncover how infants learn word meanings | <urn:uuid:4168acb4-3fb2-4d81-88fa-53991bf4b455> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-children-figure.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397111.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00058-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974739 | 719 | 3.625 | 4 |
Novruz is widely celebrated in our country as the symbol of winter's leaving and spring's coming.
Novruz is celebrated on the first day of spring. The first day of spring on the calendar is determined by the annual circling of the sun.
According to the scientists the holiday has ancient history. Scientific researches relate the Novruz holiday with the period of the prophet Zardush that dates 3500-5000 years back.
This holiday celebrated in the ancient Babylon for 12 days beginning in Nisan (March, April) 21. each of the 12 days had their ceremonies and enjoyment. According to the first inscription the holiday of Novruz established in 505 B.C.
Islam figures always try to explain this holiday from religion point of view. But the prominent enlighteners Firdovsi, Rudaki, Avisenna, Nizami, Sadi, Hafiz and others proved that the age of Novruz is older. Nizami's 'Siyasetname' and Omar Khayyam's 'Novruzname' dedicated to Novruz holiday.
Novruz was unofficially celebrated in the Soviet period, for the reason that the government prohibited the celebrations and pusuited people. Despite all that each Azerbaijan family followed the hundred years old traditions and celebrated Novruz.
Nature starts to wake in Novruz and Azerbaijan people demonstratively celebrate it month ago. On Tuesdays we celebrate Su Charshabnasi(water-Tuesday), Odlu Charshanba(fire- Tuesday),Torpag Charshanba (land-Tuesday) and Akhir Charshanba(final or wind- Tuesday).according to the folk belief water in the first Tuesday purifies and stirs, fire in the second Tuesday, land on the third Tuesday and wind in the fourth Tuesday awaken the nature, the trees begin to blossom; all this symbolize spring's coming.
Noruz holiday is rich with ancient traditions and games. 'Khidir Ilyas' the symbol of productivity and blossom),'Kos-Kosa'- funny square game(the symbol of spring's coming) and fortune- telling are among them.
Novruz also have Interesting traditions relating with water and fire. Being the land of the fire Azerbaijan has rich traditions relating with it. The fire is the symbol of purification and clarification. Bonfires are made in Novruz and before the holiday comes people in Akhir Charshanba, despite of the age and gender, jump seven times over one, or once over 7 bonfires and say: 'Give me your redness and take my yellowness.' The fire is never put out by water; it burns down by itself. Young boys and girls take the ash of the fire and throw it far from the house. It is explained as follows: all the mischance of the family is thrown away with the ash.
Purification by water is related with the real peculiarity of water. Traditions related with water symbolize New Year in Azerbaijan. Jumping over flowing water in the New Year one clears himself from his past year's faults. The members of the family splash water on themselves before going to bed at night on the eve of New Year day. They say all flowing waters cease in Akhir Charshanba and everything bound to it, even trees bound down. Who drinks from this water on the evening of the New Year he saves himself from all the diseases in coming year.
The peak of Novruz is the time when the past year gives its turn to new one. According to old traditions shootings from the pistols heard in the honour of Novruz at that moment. In the N. Dubrovin wrote about it in the 19th century: 'Shootings in the cities and the villages informed springs coming to Azerbaijan.' Adam Oleary, the witness of Novruz holiday in 1637 wrote: ' Astrologer very often stood up his place and determined the height of the un with astronomic equipment and sun-clock and at the moment of equinox he said: 'New year has come' at the same moment shootings started, music heard at the towers and walls of the city. Spring holiday started.'
Azerbaijanis pay particular attention to table laid for the holiday. There should be 7 varieties of food on the table the names of which starts with letter 'S' , for example sumakh(a kind of spice), sirke(vinegar), sud(milk), samani(grown wheat), sebzi(fried meat with greens)etc. A mirror, with coloured eggs on it and candles should also be on the table. Candle is the symbol of fire and light(keeping a person from damage), mirror is the symbol of happiness.
According to the tradition all the members of the family should be at home on the first day of the holiday. People say: 'If you are not at home on the day of the holiday, you will live without home for seven years.' The outer doors kept open in the past. On the first day of the new year the lights are kept turned on whole night, for turned off light and fire is the symbol of misfortune.
Celebrating Novruz people in the villages determine the peculiarity of the coming year: weather it will be either arid or rainy and determine the degree of productivity. According to the tradition the first day of Novruz symbolizes spring, second day after it is summer, the third day is autumn and the fourth is winter. If the first day is windless and arid, so the spring is going to be favourable for agricultural works, and if it is rainy and windy so the spring is expected to be the same. On the rest of the days they determined summer, autumn and winter.
Novruz is a joyful and lovely holiday.
Spring will come in Azerbaijan on March 20 at 20:57. This day is the eve of Novruz holiday, the Shamakhi Astrophysical Observatory said on March 19.
March 20-27 are non-working days in Azerbaijan, according to the decision of the Cabinet of Ministers. | <urn:uuid:ef1e8a1e-105d-425d-8c26-36d0fe73227d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.today.az/news/society/132007.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395620.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00050-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939063 | 1,272 | 3.046875 | 3 |
Pronunciation: (rOO'nik), [key]
1. consisting of or set down in runes: runic inscriptions.
2. having some secret or mysterious meaning: runic rhyme.
3. (of ornamental knots, figures, etc.) of an interlaced form seen on ancient monuments, metalwork, etc., of the northern European peoples.
4. of the ancient Scandinavian class or type, as literature or poetry.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease. | <urn:uuid:657961b4-c130-4b3e-a6a8-7c2c7df293bd> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://dictionary.infoplease.com/runic | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397748.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00086-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.836837 | 119 | 2.921875 | 3 |
Results from the 2011 writing assessment, the first NAEP assessment administered on computer, provide important information on students’ ability to write on the computer for specific purposes and audiences, and the extent to which they use commonly available word-processing tools when composing their writing.
Students were given two writing tasks and had 30 minutes to complete each of the tasks. Before being presented with the first task, students were shown a tutorial to familiarize them with the way material is presented on the computer screen and show them how to use the software program provided in the assessment. Students used laptop computers provided by NAEP. They were able to use common tools for editing, formatting, and viewing text, but did not have access to irrelevant or distracting tools such as clip art, font type and color, or the Internet.
Data were obtained for actions related to editing, formatting, or viewing text and compiled to obtain the average number of times students at each grade engaged in the action during the assessment. Below is a representation of the word-processing software the students used (only a few of the buttons are operational in this example). On the left-hand side of the page is a task about which students wrote their response. On the right-hand side of the page is a sample student response from the assessment. Words that were misspelled by the student are underlined in red as they would have been during the actual assessment.
An image of a computer screen representing the word-processing software used by students is provided. The left side of the image shows a toolbar with icons as well as a screen that contains directions for completing a writing task. The right side of the main image shows a typical word processing screen, complete with standard toolbar at the top as well as a sample student response.
Outside of the computer screen image is an interactive list of 4 types of writing tools. Users can click on each tool type to explore how students used the word-processing software.
- Clicking on “Editing Tools” results in the following explanation on the left side of the computer screen image: “Students used the editing tools to make changes to their responses. The backspace and delete keys are located on the keyboard.” The word processing side of the screen image shows the cut, copy, and paste icons on the toolbar labeled with call-out boxes.
- Clicking on “Formatting Tools results in the following explanation on the left side of the computer screen image: “Students used the formatting tools to emphasize specific words or sections of their responses.” The highlighter icon in the toolbar outside of the left screen image is labeled with a call-out box. The word processing side of the screen image shows the bold, italics, underscore, indent, and outdent icons on the toolbar labeled with call-out boxes.
- Clicking on “Text-viewing Tools” results in the following explanation on the left side of the computer screen image: “Students used these tools to change how they viewed the writing prompts and their responses. They used the text-to-speech tool to hear the prompt read aloud.” The text-to-speech and zoom icons in the toolbar outside of the left screen image are labeled with call-out boxes. The collapse/expand response button and the scrollbar on the word processing side of the screen image are labeled with call-out boxes.
- Clicking on “Review Tools” results in the following explanation on the left side of the computer screen image: “Students used these tools to correct misspellings and to enhance their writing with appropriate synonyms or antonyms from the thesaurus. Within both the spell-check tool and the thesaurus tool, students could replace words in their responses by selecting from the alternatives provided by the software. The spell-check icon and the thesaurus link on the word processing side of the screen image are labeled with call-out boxes. In addition, a call-out box with the words “spell-check (right click) appears next to a red-underlined misspelled word within the sample text. | <urn:uuid:496e1035-fb48-4d52-9aa4-ae7348961250> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.nationsreportcard.gov/writing_2011/writing_tools_alt.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393533.44/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00201-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94201 | 846 | 4.0625 | 4 |
Libel versus Slander Lawyers
Locate a Local Employment Lawyer
What's the Difference between Libel and Slander?
Libel usually takes the form of a written down statement injuring your reputation while slander is an oral expression. Libel can thus be thought of as defamation by sight while slander would be defamation conveyed by sound. However, most courts consider modern broadcasts, such as movies, television, and radio, as libel.
Why Does the Distinction Matter?
- Damages in Defamation Cases – General damages may be awarded to a plaintiff if his reputation has been injured, but a plaintiff's ability to obtain general damages depends on whether the case is label or slander and the facts of the case. Where general damages may be awarded, the plaintiff is allowed to recover compensation without any proof beyond the defamatory nature of the statement(s). This compensation covers the emotional trauma and harm suffered by the plaintiff. Sometimes, however, the plaintiff must prove a specific type of loss in order to prevail, known as “special damages.” This includes specific economic losses, such as lost profits, that resulted from the defamation. These are often hard to prove. If the plaintiff can prove his special damages, he may then recover general damages.
- Libel and Libel Per Quod – Most courts allow any plaintiff claiming libel to recover general damages. These damages are presumed from the harm to the plaintiff’s reputation. Some states have made a distinction between libel per se (libel on its face) from libel per quod (requiring extrinsic evidence). For libel per quod, the plaintiff must show special damages unless the libel falls into a “slander per se” category.
- Slander and Slander Per Se – If the defamation is characterized as slander, the plaintiff will most likely have to prove special damages. However, some statements are deemed so horrible that they are “slanderous per se,” requiring no additional proof of special damages. These include:
- Attacks on the plaintiff’s competence to perform adequately in his profession
- Claiming the plaintiff has a loathsome disease
- Alleging that the plaintiff has engaged in serious criminal misbehavior
- Suggesting a that a woman is morally impure
Do I Need a Lawyer as the Victim of Libel or Slander?
Both libel and slander are serious offenses that can cause irreparable damage to a person’s reputation. However, libel and slander are not easy to prove because there may not be any physical evidence to prove the harm. A lawyer will be able to assess your case and determine if there appears to have been an incident of libel or slander, whether the harmful statement classifies as slander or libel, and what your compensable damages are.
Consult a Lawyer - Present Your Case Now!
Last Modified: 11-14-2014 04:10 PM PST
Link to this page | <urn:uuid:0bace721-7640-470b-925e-c1f0f141714a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/libel-versus-slander.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395346.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00040-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934649 | 601 | 2.921875 | 3 |
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A first-aid kit found on a 2,000-year-old shipwreck has provided a remarkable insight into the medicines concocted by ancient physicians to cure sailors of dysentery and other ailments
A wooden chest discovered on board the vessel contained pills made of ground-up vegetables, herbs and plants such as celery, onions, carrots, cabbage, alfalfa and chestnuts – all ingredients referred to in classical medical texts. The tablets, which were so well sealed that they miraculously survived being under water for more than two millennia, also contain extracts of parsley, nasturtium, radish, yarrow and hibiscus.
The pills are the oldest known archaeological remains of ancient pharmaceuticals. They would have been taken with a mouthful of wine or water, or may have been dissolved and smeared on the skin to treat inflammation and cuts.
They were found in 136 tin-lined wooden vials on a 50ft-long trading ship which was wrecked around 130 BC off the coast of Tuscany. Scientists believe they would have been used to treat gastrointestinal complaints suffered by sailors such as dysentery and diarrhoea.
Historians believe the presence of the medicine chest suggests that the ship may have had a doctor on board, or at least someone trained in rudimentary first aid. The chest also contained spatulas, suction cups and a mortar and pestle.
Carrots, parsley and wild onions were among the samples preserved in clay pills on board the merchant trading vessel that sank around 120 BC.
Doctors in Rome were often Greeks, brought to Rome as slaves. This meant their status was low for a long time, although their skills were valued by many people.
Many Greek medical ideas were adopted by the Romans and Greek medicine had a huge influence on Roman medicine. The first doctors to appear in Rome were Greek, captured as prisoners of war. Greek doctors would later move to Rome because they could make a good living there, or a better one than in the Greek cities.
Originally posted by TheUniverse
reply to post by anon72
Seems the Romans were more advanced(proper?) in treating humans than we are today in terms of ingested medicine
Instead of Chemical Laced Pharmaceuticals from Pharma Corps that don't cure anything but only subside the ailment
Its about time we start doing as the Romans did and revert some and/or a lot of medical research into the natural remedies from plants/herbs......
The average age at death today in the United States is about 82, while in the Roman Empire it was probably about 35. That seems like an enormous difference, but mostly the average is low because a lot of babies died soon after they were born.
After the age of 40, more people began dying of diseases like malaria and dysentery. | <urn:uuid:2632e9c5-bbb0-4658-895e-d6598fc652c3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread727159/pg1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396887.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00152-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983791 | 628 | 3.28125 | 3 |
Up: Seismic investigation of upper
For PP and SS phases precursors exist, which are generated in a similar way as
for P'P'. The ray path of the mother phase (PP or SS) and the underside
reflection at the discontinuity (PP or SS) is displayed in figure 3.3 b).
Arrivals preceeding PP and SS have been studied intensively (Bolt et
al. 1968; Bolt, 1970; King et al., 1975), but early array studies showed
that these precursors have slownesses significantly different than predicted
for PP (Wright and Muirhead, 1969; Wright, 1972). Therefore,
these phases are interpreted as asymmetric reflections of PP (Wright
1972), as the result of scattering (King et al., 1975) or can be
seen as upper side reflections from the discontinuities at the receiver side. The ray
path of an upper side reflection (Ppp) is shown in Figure 3.3 b). The wave
is reflected at the free surface near the receiver and, between this surface
reflection point and the receiver, once more at the upper side of the
discontinuity. Ppp phases show slownesses and waveforms similar to P and
However, phases from deeper discontinuities have been found with correct travel times
and slownesses to be interpreted as PP.
These precursors have been used to resolve the structure of the upper mantle
beneath the reflection point (Shearer, 1990; Wajeman, 1988; Neele and
Snieder, 1992; Vasco et al., 1995; Flanagan and Shearer, 1998 and 1999).
Results for stacks of a huge number of seismograms stacked with
respect to the source receiver distance, IASP91 theoretical travel times for
the PP and SS time windows and number of seismograms used to compute the
stacks (after Flanagan and Shearer, 1998 and 1999).
The top panels show travel time curves calculated for IASP91. The major phases
and the reflections at the upper mantle discontinuities are labelled.
The middle panel on the left hand side shows the stacks for SS and precursors,
the right hand side for PP. The same time window as for the theoretical
travel times was chosen. The bottom panels show the number of stacked
seismograms for each distance. The strong horizontal lines at 0 min
travel time mark the SS and PP phase. The precursor of the 410 and the 660
form approximately parallels to PP and SS and are marked. The phase PP
is not visible, as discussed in chapter 2.2.3. Due to the long period nature of
the stacked seismograms, shallow discontinuities (H, G and L) and the fine
structure of the discontinuities can not be resolved.
The stacking of a huge number of globally recorded long period seismograms
impressively shows the existence of PP and SS phases. Stacks for PP
and SS depending on epicentral distance are shown in the mid panel of Figure
3.4 (Flanagan and Shearer, 1998 and 1999). The stacked seismograms
are aligned on the PP (SS) arrival at a travel time of 0 s. The PP
(SS) phases are approximately parallel to PP (SS) indicating similar
slownesses. Due to the longer differential travel times SS - SS, the
SS phases are easier to detect. As described in section 2.2.3, the stacks
for PP lack the reflection from the 660, although the theoretical travel time
for the reflection from the 660, computed for IASP91, is marked. The top
panels show the theoretical travel times for IASP91. The bottom panels show
the number of seismograms used to compute the stacks.
The globally recorded seismograms and the stacking methods used to generate
the stacks of Figure 3.4 can be used to generate maps of the 410 and 660 to
infer regional differences. For this purpose events with reflection points in
a similar region are stacked. These ''topography'' maps of the discontinuities may
reflect the movements of cold and hot material in the mantle (Shearer,
In the stacks, the shallower discontinuities (H, G and L) discussed in chapter 2 are
not detected, partly due to the long period data used.
The inversion of PP - PP (SS - SS) differential travel times to discontinuity
depth may contain gross errors, because of the use of geometrical optics for
the inversion (Neele et al., 1997).
The global studies of the underside reflections give a good overview on the
structure of the discontinuities. However, as a result of the use of long period waves
and the correlated huge Fresnel zones (PP: 10 x 15,
SS 18 x 23 ), the resolution is poor. But these
studies are well suited to constrain velocity and density jumps across the
discontinuities (Shearer and Flanagan, 1999).
Up: Seismic investigation of upper | <urn:uuid:b93365fe-b141-42c1-968f-f42fec3be1f1> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://homepages.see.leeds.ac.uk/~earsro/diss_01/node19.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397873.63/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00067-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.842157 | 1,070 | 3.046875 | 3 |
The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said the results of its first phase of water quality tests at 318 tap water treatment plants across the nation had a pass rate of 99.97 percent.
The administration said it commissioned local environmental protection bureaus to conduct water quality tests using more difficult criteria this year.
Out of the total of 357 tap water treatment plants across the nation, the test results from 318 plants and 38 small water treatment facilities, finished before last month, showed a high qualification rate, an agency official said.
A total of 7,723 water samples were collected and tested for certain substances, said Tung Hsiao-yin (董曉音), a section chief at the Department of Environmental Sanitation and Toxic Substances.
There were only two unqualified water samples, one from a water treatment plant in Hsinyi (信義), Nantou County, which contained an excessive amount of trihalomethanes at 0.0868 milligrams per liter, while the maximum contamination level is set at 0.08mg/L, Tung said.
The other sample came from the Guguan (谷關) water treatment plant in Greater Taichung, which contained excessive levels of bromate at 0.02mg/L, while the permitted level is only 0.1mg/L, she said.
Both plants were fined between NT$60,000 and NT$600,000 and instructed to improve the situation within a given time period, under the Drinking Water Management Act (飲用水管理條例), she said.
It was speculated that the excessive trihalomethanes level resulted from organic substances such as leaves that fell into the water during the chlorine disinfection process, and the excessive level of bromate may be caused by miscalculation of added chlorine, department Director-General Yuan Shao-ying (袁紹英) said.
The EPA has already listed several substances as first-priority test items for a draft filtering test for drinking water — aluminum, DEHP (a plasticizer) and haloacetic acids — while second-priority items include four types of microorganisms such as E. coli and 26 types of chemical substances, such as formaldehyde.
“Although most of the aluminum intake in the human body is from food, not from drinking water, we still list it as a prioritized substance for examination,” Yuan said.
“Many vendors in night markets still use aluminum cooking pots to hold soup or other foods, which may increase consumers’ aluminum intake, so we must enforce stricter standards on drinking water to reduce the public’s health risks,” he said.
Management of DEHP is emphasized in international standards because it does not readily decompose in water, he said.
The draft filtering test is scheduled to be proposed for government approval between late this year and next year, and will guarantee the safe quality of drinking water, he said. | <urn:uuid:8fcf170d-d1ce-4963-9900-b04219e438d8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2012/08/29/2003541475 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396875.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00065-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950998 | 636 | 2.578125 | 3 |
A-level Biology/Biology Foundation/nuclear division
All living organisms, grow, repair themselves and reproduce. Chapter 1 told us that all cells arise from pre-existing cells, and we are going to see how in this chapter. The nucleus is responsible for the cells activities and does so through DNA. All cells in an organism are genetically identical.
- 1 Chromosomes
- 2 Nuclear Division
- 3 Mitosis
- 4 Cancer
Chromosomes are thread-like structures found within the nucleus, and the number of chromosomes in a cell is characteristic of the species - for example, we humans have 46 of them. A photograph of chromosomes taken from an electron microscope is known as a karyotype. Animals have two sets of matching chromosomes, and as such their cells (except for reproductive cells, gametes) are called diploid. Gametes, which only have one set of chromosomes are described as haploid cells. In humans, a diploid cell has 46 chromosomes and a haploid cell has 23.
Look at the image to the right - it is a simplified drawing of chromosomal structure - and it can be seen that a chromosome is a double structure, made from two identical structures called chromatids (1). This is so because during interphase, a period between nuclear divisions, each DNA molecule makes an identical copy of itself contained in a chromatid - these chromatids are held together by a centromere (2). The gene for a particular characteristic is always located at the same place on a chromosome.
Every chromosome is part of a matching pair known as a homologous (because they are the same) pair. Each member of a pair posses genes for the same characteristic, known as an allele - they may differ in how they code for those characteristics. Eye colour, for example is coded for by one allele that may be different, but there are dominant and recessive alleles and that is how the eye colour is 'presented'. There are two separate chromosomes which determine the sex of the individual, known as sex chromosomes, all others are known as autosomes. Females have a double X chromosome, whereas males have a X-Y chromosome.
Cystic fibrosis is caused by a faulty allele in a gene that codes for a chloride channel protein that produces normal mucus, and the mutated allele causes very thick mucus to be produced indeed, leading to cystic fibrosis. Only when both homologous chromosomes have a copy of the faulty allele will the person be a victim of the disease - if not, the person will simply be a carrier.
Nuclear division is used for three things, growth, asexual production or sexual reproduction - and two different types are used - mitosis and meiosis respectively.
Growth and Asexual Reproduction
When a diploid cell divides, it must maintain the same number of chromosomes as the original cell, this is known as mitosis
Meiosis is used for sexual reproduction, and the resultant cell is a gamete - a haploid cell with half the full number of chromosomes.
Mitosis is the type of nuclear division used for growth and repair within organisms - it produces genetically identical cells with the full number of chromosomes (diploid cells). It is a precisely controlled process known as the cell cycle.
The cell cycle is the period between one cell division and the next - it's three phases are interphase, nuclear division and cell division. During interphase, the cell regrows to its normal size following cell division and then carries on its normal processes, whatever its task may be. When a signal is received to divide, the DNA replicates so that each chromosome consists of two identical chromatids. Nuclear division then follows, and the whole cell then divides. In animals cells, cell division also involves construction of cytoplasm - known as cytokinesis - between the two new nuclei.
Interphase is stage I of the diagram
- Prophase, Stage II,III- The chromatin condenses into a highly ordered structure called chromosomes and the nuclear membrane begins to breakup. The nucleus also breaks up and forms part of several chromosomes. Centrioles move to opposite poles of nucleus.
- Metaphase, Stage IV - Condensed chromosomes, carrying genetic information, align in the middle of the cell at their centromeres before being separated into each of the two daughter cells.
- Anaphase - Stage V, VI Chromatids (identical copies of chromosomes) separate at their centromeres as they are pulled towards opposite poles within the cell. They are pulled because the microtubule fibres begin to shorten, pulling them along.
- Telophase - Nucleus, nucleolus reforms and chromosomes unravel into longer chromatin structures for reentry into interphase. Cytokinesis also occurs - the division of cytoplasm and cell into two by constriction from edges of cell.
This section is called the IPMAT section as it is an easy way to remember the stages of mitosis (Interphase-Prophase-Metaphase-Anaphase-Telophase)
- Replacement of cells and repair of tissues is done via mitosis - cells are constantly being replaced by mitosis. In some animals mitosis can regenerate entire sections of their bodies.
- Mitosis is also the basis for asexual reproduction. This is more prevalent in unicelluar organisms and plants. Plants bud off of their stem which simply grows into a new plant, becoming detached from the parent and then living independently.
- The nuclei of the two new cells have the same number of chromosomes as the parent nucleus and are genetically identical.
Cancer is a common disease in developed countries, with over 140,000 deaths in the UK alone in 2005. There are many different forms of cancer. Cancer is a result of uncontrolled mitosis, that is to say that they divide repeatedly and are out of control. This uncontrolled mitosis produces an irregular mass of cells known as a tumour, and these cells are usually abnormal in shape.
Cancers are as a result of mutation to the genes that control cell division, and divide continuously from there, passing the mutated gene to all its descendants. There are many different reasons that a gene may mutate, and any factor that may cause it to do so is known as a mutagen - several of them at once are thought to have to happen in one cell. A carcinogen is an agent that causes cancer, and some mutagens are carcinogenic.
X-rays, radioactive decay elements and gamma rays can all form damaging ions inside cells which can break dna strands. UV light can damage genes, potentially causing skin cancer.
Chemicals in tar from cigarettes or cigars is an extremely common killer - 25% of all cancer deaths are due to tar carcinogens. These chemicals can damage DNA molecules.
More rarely, cancers can be caused by viruses, including Pallipoma, a virus that can be transmitted sexually and has been linked to cervical cancer.
You do not inherit cancer, but you can inherit faulty genes that cause it, or simply a great susceptibility to developing cancer.
Primary growths are small groups of tumour cells. Both tumour types place a huge drain on the body's resources because of the constant cell division.
- Do not spread from origin
- Compress and displace surrounding tissues
- Far more dangerous
- Spread through body, invade tissues and destroy them.
- Distributed around the body via blood stream
- Interfere with the functioning of the area where they started to grow.
- Cancerous cells can break off and spread through the blood and lymphatic system to other parts of the body to form secondary growths. | <urn:uuid:32e36747-25e0-47b6-93f7-95e07cb44876> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/A-level_Biology/Biology_Foundation/nuclear_division | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392069.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00172-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942845 | 1,591 | 3.921875 | 4 |
A design for an experimental cruise missile (EKR) with a cruising speed of Mach 3 and a range of 1,300km was developed at the OKB of S. Korolev in 1951-53. It was to consist of a booster with [liquid-fueled rocket engines (derived from the R-11 rocket with storable fuel) and a cruising stage with a supersonic ramjet engine (SPVRD) developed by the OKB of M. Bondaryuk. The technical challenges of intercontinental cruise missiles (MKRs) were not as great as those for ballistic missiles of such long range. A celestial navigation system could provide adequate accuracy for hitting targets.
On 20 May 1954 a ministerial decree authorized the development of two parallel projects. The Burya was assigned to the OKB of S. Lavochkin [which had experience in supersonic fighters], and the Buran was the project of the OKB of V. Myasishchev [which was established to develop long-range bombers]. Myasishchev's Buran was designed for a larger warhead than the Burya, and had a large takeoff mass and thrust. The work of the Lavochkin on the Burya OKB moved quickly, and by 1956, when the Myasishchev OKB was finishing the design engineering of the Buran, the first models of Lavochkin's Burya had already been created.
The flights of the Burya began in July 1957, at the same time as the flight testing of the R-7 ICBM developed by the Korolev OKB. The Soviet leadership decided soon afterward to curtail the work on the Buran. The final flight of the Burya was conducted on 16 December 1960, following which further work was discontinued.
Although the source of the information is uncertain, American publications beginning around 1960 made reference to a "large winged antipodal T-4A bomber under development in the USSR," and even included drawings. However, by the mid-1960s all references in the open literature to such projects vanished, suggesting that such projects were merely Cold War rumors. The fact of the existence of these projects was not confirmed in the open literature until the end of the Cold War, and the provenance of the early reports remains obscure.
|Launch mass, tonnes||66.2||96||125|
|Mass of warhead, tonnes||2.25||2.19||3.50|
|Total length of system, meters||25.1||19.9||24.0|
|Diameter of body, meters||1.83||1.45||1.20|
|Thrust at launch, tonnes of force||128.45||2 x 68.61||4 x 55|
|oxidizer||liquid oxygen||nitric acid||liquid oxygen|
|Diameter of body, meters||1.83||2.20||2.40|
|Wing area, meters2||38.9||60||98|
|Number of SPVRDs||2||1||1|
|Diameter of SPVRDs, meters||1.22||1.70||2.00|
|Cruising thrust, tonnes of force||2 x 3.94||7.65||10.6|
|Maximum range of flight, km||5,400||8,500||8,500|
|Cruising altitude of flight, km||22-24||18-20||18-20|
|Cruising speed of flight, Mach||3.25||3.10||3.10|
|Start of development||1950||1954||1954|
|Date of start of flight testing||6 Nov 56||1 Jul 57|
|Total number of launches||11||17|
|of which, failed||10||3|
|Date of end of flight testing||18 Oct 58||16 Dec 60|
|Shutdown of project||July 1957||December 1960| | <urn:uuid:9b0c3d7c-f5c6-45c3-82d1-cf6e873f6765> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://fas.org/nuke/guide/russia/icbm/burya.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395560.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00163-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92902 | 838 | 2.953125 | 3 |
Beauty—of a sort—beat out brains among Neanderthals, report researchers analyzing a 430,000-year-old cache of skulls collected from the "Pit of Bones" cave site in Spain.
The Neanderthals were a prehistoric species of early humans, famously stumpy looking, thick boned, and big nosed, who lived in Europe and western Asia before disappearing from the fossil record by about 28,000 years ago. (Related: "Neanderthals ... They're Just Like Us?")
The 17 skulls discovered in Spain's Sima de los Huesos (Pit of Bones) cave and reported in the journal Science show that early Neanderthals sported their telltale "beetle brows" and heavy jaws about 430,000 years ago, long before they evolved Neanderthal features in their crania, including larger brains.
"These are the earliest Neanderthals," says study leader Juan Luis Arsuaga at the Centro Mixto UCM-ISCIII de Evolución y Comportamiento Humanos in Madrid. "They can tell us a great deal about the evolution of Neanderthals, and by comparison, about modern humans."
The new study adds to evidence that the Neanderthals developed their characteristic looks slowly, and patchily, over hundreds of thousands of years, Arsuaga says. The ancient world likely was filled with a potpourri of archaic humans that included these early Neanderthals, he suggests, their numbers waxing and waning between ancient ice ages that arrived every hundred thousand years or so.
"What I have been telling people is that it was like Game of Thrones," says Arsuaga, referring to the popular fantasy book and cable television series. "There were a few spread-out populations, some related, some not, emigrating or going extinct over time. And winter was always coming."
Game of Bones
At the end of a 1,640-foot-long (500 meter) cave in northern Spain, the Sima de los Huesos pit is a deep depression, more than 46 feet (14 meters) below a shaft from the surface. Underneath a layer of dirt filled with cave bear bones, the pit holds an "astonishing, and even beautiful, collection of human fossils," says paleontologist Chris Stringer of London's Natural History Museum by email.
Some 6,500 human bones belonging to at least 28 individuals—the world's largest collection in any one place of ancient human fossils—have turned up in excavations there since 1976. "There are tons of bones," Arsuaga says.
The skulls in the study, seven of them newly described, bear about two dozen facial features, among them the enlarged flat molars, heavy jaws, protruding snout, thick cheekbones, and heavy brows that typify more recent Neanderthals, ones less than 200,000 years old.
While Stringer views the Sima de los Huesos skulls as belonging to early Neanderthals, paleontologist Ian Tattersall of the American Museum of Natural History in New York views them as a separate group of early humans. "The Sima hominids [members of the human family] have a number of Neanderthal features, mainly in the face, but are clearly not full-blown Neanderthals," Tattersall says. (The study itself leaves this open as a possibility, suggesting the Sima skulls may belong to a subspecies of Neanderthals or to a related earlier species.)
Every Face Tells a Story
The evolution of Neanderthal's doughty looks has been tied to surmounting Arctic conditions during the ice ages. However, the cave site 430,000 years ago was only a little cooler and drier than today, Arsuaga says, arguing against this explanation.
But if the Sima's ancestors had become isolated from other early humans, their distinctive Neanderthal facial features could have evolved randomly through "genetic drift" and become fixed in the population, suggests paleontologist Jean-Jacques Hublin of Germany's Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, in a commentary accompanying the study.
Arsuaga instead suggests that strong Neanderthal jaws may have evolved to maximize bite force in their front teeth, pointing to some change in diet or habits among them more than 400,000 years ago. Only one stone tool, a hand ax, has been found among the fossils at the site, however, so there is nothing to suggest new hunting techniques flourished among the Sima humans.
While they have Neanderthal faces, the skulls in the cave lack the cranial development of later Neanderthals, Hublin notes. (Some had bigger brains than those of modern people, but most didn't.) Later Neanderthals evolved even larger brains than the Sima ones.
Arsuaga suggests the combination of Neanderthal facial features alongside smaller crania in the Sima de los Huesos skulls argues for a branching, bumpy pattern in early human evolution across prehistoric Europe—what he calls the accretion model—rather than a smooth development of the species. There's no guarantee that the Sima Neanderthals were even ancestors of later Neanderthals, he says. They might have belonged to a branch that eventually died out.
Evidence for that sort of bumpy early human evolution came in December, when a team led by Matthias Meyer, also of the Max Planck Institute, reported that maternally inherited "mitochondrial" DNA found in a fossil thighbone at the Spanish cave matched that of a different early human group from Neanderthals. (See: "Discovery of Oldest DNA Scrambles Human Origins Picture.")
Instead, the mitochondrial genes matched those seen in a group called the Denisovans, known only from a Siberian cave. (Read how they were discovered in "The Case of the Missing Ancestor" in National Geographic magazine.) That raised the question of what Russian early human DNA was doing in Spanish fossils.
The Sima team now argues that those genes likely were an inherited leftover from a more ancient human species that lingered in the Spanish Neanderthals, something that Meyer agrees is "very plausible." More recent studies also point to Neanderthals and Denisovans both sharing DNA with more ancient human species.
Modern people of European and Asian descent also share some Neanderthal and Denisovan genes, about 2 percent for the former. That points to interbreeding among modern humans and early human species within the last 60,000 years, when our ancestors left Africa to spread worldwide. (See: "Neanderthal Genes Hold Surprises for Modern People.")
What is really fascinating, Meyer says, is that the Sima de los Huesos site, which has the most complete record of early human fossils from prehistory, is also the only known site with DNA preserved from that earlier period of human evolution.
"This is an amazing coincidence and fortunate for science," Meyer says, by email. "It also means that some of the hypotheses derived from morphological [physical characteristics] analyses may ultimately be testable by means of genetics."
So how did the pit of bones end up full of so many early human fossils? That, says Arsuaga, "is the biggest mystery in paleontology." Some observers have suggested the cave was a death trap, where foolhardy Neanderthals fell to their deaths.
But Arsuaga says the simplest answer is that their fellows deposited them there. "There are still a lot of bones. We may find 50 skulls before we are done."
Follow Dan Vergano on Twitter. | <urn:uuid:154d3c5b-31ca-4e7a-91f4-59850c07ddf0> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/06/140619-neanderthal-spain-skulls-bones-pit-science-heidelbergensis/?sf3366059=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395620.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00139-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947817 | 1,567 | 3.671875 | 4 |
In an extended survival situation, you could easily run out of known clean water that you set aside in your food storage program.
Having commercial water filters and an external source of water is a great way to extend your drinkable water supply – but it can get expensive, especially since filters can and will get clogged quickly if there is sediment in the water you are filtering.
An alternative solution is to learn how to build your own water filter and stockpile the few simple supplies you need – supplies that can be flushed clean and reused over and over again.
Let’s look at what is involved in building your own water filter.
Supplies you will need:
- A clean two liter soda bottle or other similar shaped food safe plastic container.
- Cheesecloth or clean cotton
- Activated Charcol
- Gravel – both fine and coarse grains
- Sand – both fine and coarse grains
- A regular paper coffee filter
- A catch container for the clean water to drip into.
Steps to build the water filter:
- Cut off the bottom of the soda bottle. (This is the wide part, not the part where you pour soda from.)
- Position the soda bottle with the mouth of it in your catch container. This will give you a stable platform to work with while you are filling it with the filtration supplies.
- Take your clean cotton batting or cheesecloth and stuff it into the very bottom of the bottle. This will give your water a final stage of cleaning AND it will prevent the other materials from falling out of the soda bottle into your catch container.
- Layer the filter materials into the bottle, one on top of the other in thin layers in this order.
- Activated Charcol
- Fine Grain Sand
- Coarse Grain Sand
- Fine Grain Gravel
- Coarse Grain Gravel
- Repeat this process until you have filled the soda bottle almost to the point where you cut the bottom off. (The bottle should have several sets of thin layers of filter material at this point.)
- Place the coffee filter on top of the layers and add water. The filter will work to remove the sediments and other harmful materials and give you clean water in your catch basin.
That’s really all there is to it.
You might be wondering why we suggest doing multiple sets of thin layers instead of one set of all the layers with each layer being thick.
The reason we recommend it is that it gives each layer multiple times to work on the water. And it acts as an additional safeguard if you are working with particularly dirty water. If you have only one layer of each material, if a layer becomes ineffective, your water filter becomes ineffective. If you have each layer repeated multiple times, each layer set makes the water cleaner and cleaner. And if the top layer starts getting clogged with sediments, etc., the remaining layers will still be operating at 100% efficiency.
A filter of this design is inexpensive to build and will do as good a job as most commercial filters.
For those interested, an excellent book on water filtration is Harvesting H2o: A Prepper’s Guide to the Collection, Treatment, and Storage of Drinking Water While Living Off the Grid.
Other Articles You May Enjoy:
- The Katadyn Base Camp Water Filter
- How To Make Homemade Apple Cider
- How to Chemically Disinfect Water
- Water Purification On The Go: 4 Great Solutions
- Tips On Caring For Chicks
Keep In Touch
Click Here to Follow The Weekend Prepper on Twitter | <urn:uuid:fa181e03-da81-4e26-931c-ac5556aef7d1> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://theweekendprepper.com/water/how-to-build-a-homemade-water-filter/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783400031.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155000-00139-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.909918 | 741 | 2.6875 | 3 |
The Laptop's BIOS Setup Program
All modern PCs, laptops included, have a special Startup or Setup program. This program is not a part of your computer's operating system (Windows). Instead, it's built in to the computer's circuitry, or chipset, and it might also be referred to as the BIOS Setup program.
What the setup program does is configure your laptop's hardware. It keeps track of such things as how much memory (RAM) is installed, the type of hard drive, whether or not you have a CD-ROM or DVD drive, plus other hardware options. The Setup program also keeps track of the time with the computer's internal clock as well as other random things.
Be sure that you know how to get into your laptop's Setup program. The method used to access it differs from computer to computer. Commonly, to get into the Setup program, you press a specific key or key combination on the keyboard when the computer first starts (and before Windows starts). On most laptops, the special key is Del or F1. If your laptop uses a different key, be sure to make a note of it.
One important item to know about in the Setup program is the security system, which usually includes a password. You shouldn’t set that password when you're just getting used to your laptop. Instead, wait until you’re more familiar with it. If you do use a password, make sure you write it down, or you will not be able to access your computer. | <urn:uuid:6027743d-125e-4e6b-aa92-be467c508afd> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/the-laptops-bios-setup-program.navId-323007.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396459.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00048-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931306 | 309 | 2.90625 | 3 |
How common is colorectal cancer?
Excluding skin cancers, colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer diagnosed in both men and women in the United States. The American Cancer Society’s estimates for the number of colorectal cancer cases in the United States for 2016 are:
- 95,270 new cases of colon cancer
- 39,220 new cases of rectal cancer
Lifetime risk of colorectal cancer
Overall, the lifetime risk of developing colorectal cancer is: about 1 in 21 (4.7%) for men and 1 in 23 (4.4%) for women. This risk is slightly lower in women than in men. A number of other factors (described in Colorectal cancer risk factors) can also affect your risk for developing colorectal cancer.
Deaths from colorectal cancer
Colorectal cancer is the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States when men and women are considered separately, and the second leading cause when both sexes are combined. It is expected to cause about 49,190 deaths during 2016.
The death rate (the number of deaths per 100,000 people per year) from colorectal cancer has been dropping in both men and women for several decades. There are a number of likely reasons for this. One is that colorectal polyps are now being found more often by screening and removed before they can develop into cancers or are being found earlier when the disease is easier to treat. In addition, treatment for colorectal cancer has improved over the last few decades. As a result, there are now more than 1 million survivors of colorectal cancer in the United States.
Statistics related to survival among people with colorectal cancer are discussed in What are the survival rates for colorectal cancer, by stage?
Visit the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Statistics Center for more key statistics.
Last Revised: 01/20/2016 | <urn:uuid:744edff5-6d5d-4438-9855-5a1d73698bed> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.cancer.org/cancer/colonandrectumcancer/colorectal-cancer-key-statistics | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397213.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00182-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959584 | 415 | 2.734375 | 3 |
With the Federation of Australia in 1901, six self-governing colonies became a unified nation. The previous two decades had been a time of change in Australian art and artists began to talk about an Australian tradition. They sought to establish the validity of local subjects. The 1880s onwards saw a desire to create a national school of art and to develop a local market. Two key themes prevailed during the period of Federation: grand, nationalist pastoral landscapes and figure painting.
The Australian landscape played an important role in the formation of a national identity around the time of Federation. The depiction of honest labour and the majestic eucalypt standing sentinel over an expansive pastoral landscape became a key motif for Federation painters and photographers, including Walter Withers, Frederick McCubbin, Hans Heysen and Florence Fuller. Europe also beckoned Australian artists, who travelled to London and Paris in the hope of establishing a reputation there. Rupert Bunny, George W. Lambert, Hugh Ramsay, Ethel Carrick and E. Phillips Fox were among the many.
They aspired to be hung ‘on the line’ at the Royal Academy and the Paris Salon or to show their work in one of the growing number of more modern exhibition societies. They painted works in a variety of contemporary European approaches. Many, like their French and British colleagues, such as Manet and Whistler, paid homage to Velasquez. Others looked at the work of the French Impressionists and absorbed aspects of their concern with colour and light. | <urn:uuid:81ac53cd-be35-4cb1-a810-3adb8be41f09> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://nga.gov.au/COLLECTIONS/EUROPEAMERICA/GALLERY.cfm?DISPLAYGAL=2D | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783400031.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155000-00079-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962899 | 307 | 3.515625 | 4 |
Seawalls are hard engineered structures with a primary function to prevent further erosion of the shoreline. They are built parallel to the shore and aim to hold or prevent sliding of the soil, while providing protection from wave action (UNFCCC, 1999). Although their primary function is erosion reduction, they have a secondary function as coastal flood defences.
The physical form of these structures is highly variable; seawalls can be vertical or sloping and constructed from a wide variety of materials. They may also be referred to as revetments.
The description of this technology originates from Linham and Nicholls (2010).
Seawalls are very widespread around the world’s coasts and many ad-hoc seawalls are found in developing countries. Here, we emphasise best practice guidance, although these principles could be used for more ad-hoc structures.
Seawalls form a defining line between sea and land. They are frequently used in locations where further shore erosion will result in excessive damage, e.g. when roads and buildings are about to fall into the sea. However, while they prevent further shoreline erosion, they do not deal with the causes of erosion (French, 2001). Seawalls range in type and may include steel sheetpile walls, monolithic concrete barriers, rubble mound structures, brick or block walls or gabions (wire baskets filled with rocks) (Kamphuis, 2000). Some typical seawall designs are shown in Figure 1. Seawalls are typically, heavily engineered, inflexible structures and are generally expensive to construct and require proper design and construction supervision (UNFCCC, 1999).
The shape of the seaward face is important in the deflection of incoming wave energy; smooth surfaces reflect wave energy while irregular surfaces scatter the direction of wave reflection (French, 2001). Waves are likely to impact the structure with high forces and are also likely to move sand off- and along-shore, away from the structure (Kamphuis, 2000). Since seawalls are often built as a last resort, most are continually under severe wave stress.
Seawalls usually have a deep foundation for stability. Also, to overcome the earth pressure on the landward side of the structure, ‘deadmen’ or earth anchors can be buried upland and connected to the wall by rods (Dean & Dalrymple, 2002).
The main advantage of a seawall is that it provides a high degree of protection against coastal flooding and erosion. A well maintained and appropriately designed seawall will also fix the boundary between the sea and land to ensure no further erosion will occur – this is beneficial if the shoreline is home to important infrastructure or other buildings of importance.
As well as fixing the boundary between land and sea, seawalls also provide coastal flood protection against extreme water levels. Provided they are appropriately designed to withstand the additional forces, seawalls will provide protection against water levels up to the seawall design height. In the past the design height of many seawalls was based on the highest known flood level (van der Meer, 1998).
Seawalls also have a much lower space requirement than other coastal defences such as dikes, especially if vertical seawall designs are selected. In many areas land in the coastal zone is highly sought-after; by reducing the space requirements for coastal defence the overall costs of construction may fall. The increased security provided by seawall construction also maintains hinterland values and may promote investment and development of the area (Nicholls et al., 2007b). Moreover, if appropriately designed, seawalls have a high amenity value – in many countries, seawalls incorporate promenades which encourage recreation and tourism.
When considering adaptation to climate change, another advantage of seawalls is that it is possible to progressively upgrade these structures by increasing the structure height in response to SLR. It is important however, that seawall upgrade does not compromise the integrity of the structure. Upgrading defences will leave a ‘construction joint’ between the new section and the pre-existing seawall. Upgrades need to account for this weakened section and reinforce it appropriately.
Provided they are adequately maintained, seawalls are potentially long-lived structures. The seawall in Galveston, Texas was constructed in 1903 and continues to provide coastal flood and erosion protection to the city to this day (Dean & Dalrymple, 2002).
Seawalls are subjected to significant loadings, as a result of wave impact. These loadings increase with water depth in front of the structure because this enables larger waves close to the shoreline. Seawalls are designed to dissipate or reflect incoming wave energy and as such, must be designed to remain stable under extreme wave loadings. The effects of SLR, increased wave heights and increased storminess caused by climate change must all be taken into account.
Smooth, vertical seawalls are the least effective at dissipating wave energy; instead, the structures reflect wave energy seawards. Reflection creates turbulence, capable of suspending sediments (Bush et al., 2004), thus making them more susceptible to erosion. In a worst-case scenario, reflected energy can interact with incoming waves to set up a standing wave which causes intense scouring of the shoreline (French, 2001).
Scour at the foot of a seawall is a particular problem with vertical seawall designs. This phenomenon is caused by the process shown in Figure 2. Incoming waves impact the structure, causing water to shoot upwards. When the water falls back down, the force on the seabed causes a scour hole to develop in front of the structure. This can cause structural instability and is an important factor leading to the failure of many seawalls. As a result, seawall maintenance costs can be high (Pilarczyk, 1990a). A similar process occurs on inclined seawalls but in this case scour will occur away from the foot of the structure.
The problems of wave reflection and scour can be reduced to some degree by incorporating slopes and irregular surfaces into the structure design. Slopes encourage wave breaking and therefore energy dissipation while irregular surfaces scatter the direction of wave reflection (French, 2001). Pilarczyk (1990a) recommends the use of maximum seawall slopes of 1:3 to minimise scour due to wave reflection.
Sediment availability is also affected by seawall construction. The problem is caused by replacing soft, erodible shorelines with hard, non-erodible ones. While this protects the valuable hinterland, it causes problems in terms of sediment starvation; erosion in front of the seawall will continue at historic or faster rates but the sediment is not replaced through the erosion of the hinterland (French, 2001). This can cause beach lowering, which reduces beach amenity value and increases wave loadings on the seawall by allowing larger waves close to the shore.
In the absence of a seawall, natural shoreline erosion would supply adjacent stretches of coastline with sediment, through a process known as longshore drift. Once a seawall is constructed however, the shoreline is protected from erosion and the supply of sediment is halted. This causes sediment starvation at sites located alongshore, in the direction of longshore drift and this has the capacity to induce erosion at these sites.
Although seawalls prevent erosion of protected shorelines, where the seawall ends, the coast remains free to respond to natural conditions. This means that undefended areas adjacent to the wall could move inland causing a stepped appearance to the coast (French, 2001). The downdrift end of the seawall is also typically subjected to increased erosion as a result of natural processes (see Figure 3). This flanking effect can cause undermining and instability of the wall in extreme cases.
Because seawalls are immovable defences, they can also interfere with natural processes such as habitat migration which is naturally induced by sea level change. Seawalls obstruct the natural inland migration of coastal systems in response to SLR, therefore causing coastal squeeze. This process causes a reduction in the area of intertidal habitats such as sandy beaches and saltmarshes because these environments are trapped between a rising sea level and unmoving, hard defences.
In estuaries, seawalls also cause changes to the area inundated by the tides thus, reducing the available area for occupation by water on a high tide. With the same volume of water flowing into the estuary, the level of the water after seawall construction will be higher. This may mean areas in front of the defence remain submerged longer and by greater depths. In turn, this is likely to affect the distribution of vegetation and could increase tidal range upstream of the defence (French, 2001).
Another potential problem is overtopping. This occurs when water levels exceed the height of the seawall, resulting in water flow into areas behind the structure. Overtopping is not a continuous process but usually occurs when individual high waves attack the seawall, causing a temporary increase in water level which exceeds the structure height (Goda, 2000). If the structure is too low, excessive overtopping can remove considerable amounts of soil or sand from behind the wall, thus weakening it. Further, overtopping water saturates and weakens the soil, increasing pressures from the landward side, which can cause the foot of the structure to ‘kick out’ and collapse (Dean & Dalrymple, 2002). Overtopping will become increasingly problematic with SLR, increased wave heights and increased storminess.
As mentioned in the advantages section, seawalls increase security by reducing the risk of flooding and erosion. However, the coastal zone remains a high risk location not least due to the presence of residual risk. To combat unwise development of the coastal zone, future developments need to be carefully planned.
Additionally, by encouraging development, hard defences necessitate continued investment in maintenance and upgrades, effectively limiting future coastal management options. Although authorities may not have a responsibility to continue providing protection, the removal of defences is likely to be both costly and politically controversial (Nicholls et al., 2007b).
Seawalls also reduce beach access for handicapped people and for emergency services. This can be problematic if the beach fronting such structures is to be used for recreation. The appearance of seawalls can be aesthetically displeasing which can further negatively affect beaches dependent upon a tourist economy.
A study by Linham et al. (2010) indicates that the unit cost of constructing 1 km of vertical seawall is in the range of US$0.4 to 27.5 million. The study found seawall costs for around ten countries. Most were developed country examples, although a number of newly developed and developing countries, such as Egypt, Singapore and South Africa were also found. Problems arise in the reporting of unit costs for vertical seawalls as the effect of height on unit costs is rarely considered. As such, these costs are likely to relate to seawalls of various heights; this explains some of the significant variation in costs between projects.
Some of the best unit cost information is given by the English Environment Agency (2007), for unit costs relevant to the UK. This source gives an average construction cost for seawalls of US$2.65 million (at 2009 price levels). This cost includes direct construction costs, direct overheads, costs of associated construction works, minor associated work, temporary works, compensation events and delay costs. This does not include Value Added Tax (VAT) or external costs such as consultants, land and compensation payments.
Variation in costs between projects is a result of numerous factors, such as:
- Design height is a major factor affecting costs per unit length of seawall. Height affects the volume of materials required for construction and the build time
- Anticipated wave loadings will affect how resilient the structure needs to be; deeper waters and exposed coasts cause higher wave loadings which will mean the structure needs to be more robust, thus higher costs
- Single or multi stage construction; costs are lower for single stage (Nicholls & Leatherman, 1995)
- Selected seawall design and the standard of protection desired. Certain design features will increase costs and more robust seawalls will be more costly
- Construction materials (e.g. rubble blocks, pre-cast concrete elements, metal, soil, etc.)
- Proximity to and availability of raw construction materials
- Availability and cost of human resources including expertise
Maintenance costs are another significant and ongoing expense when a hard defence is selected. These costs are ongoing for the life of the structure and are therefore likely to result in significant levels of investment through a project’s lifetime. Continued investment in maintenance is highly recommended to ensure defences continue to provide design levels of protection (Linham et al., 2010).
It has been noted that construction and maintenance costs are likely to increase into the future in response to SLR (Burgess & Townend, 2004; Townend & Burgess, 2004). This is caused by increases in water depth in front of the structure which, in turn cause increased wave heights and wave loadings on the structure.
Maintenance costs are also likely to be higher when seawalls are poorly designed or constructed of inappropriate materials. In many cases, design can be of secondary importance to the availability of raw materials, especially in locations where appropriate construction materials are scare. This was found to be the case in a study of shoreline protection in rural Fiji by Mimura and Nunn (1998). Their study highlights the problem that inappropriate design often leads to unfavourable effects, such as wave reflection and toe scour. In the absence of improper design, it is not unusual for designs from one location to be blindly copied at another. Such an approach is likely to result in exaggerated socio-economic and environmental costs (UNFCCC, 1999). The provision of even, basic design guidance would improve project performance in many cases.
Seawall construction is possible on a community scale. There are many examples of ad-hoc construction to protect individual properties and communities. However, ad-hoc seawalls are likely to give much less consideration to the water levels, wave heights and wave loadings during an extreme event. This is largely because these events are hard to foresee without a well-developed science and technology base. For example, traditional seawall construction methods in Fiji involved poking sticks into the ground to create a fence, behind which logs, sand and refuse would be piled to pose a barrier to the sea. This type of traditional construction has shown to have low effectiveness against significant events, however, and in many cases, these defences are washed away during extreme events (Mimura & Nunn, 1998).
A degree of technical guidance would be of benefit in the design and construction of effective seawalls. This would improve their effectiveness during extreme events and would also help to reduce adverse impacts on adjacent coastlines.
Although it is clearly possible to construct ad-hoc, or traditional, low technology seawalls at a community level, these structures have been shown to afford lower levels of protection against extreme events than designs with a solid science and technology base. They have also been known to exacerbate existing problems.
At present, the advice given in developing countries for modern seawall construction appears to be informal, if given at all. If effective design and construction is to occur, local communities must be given at least basic design guidance. This may come from government or voluntary organisations.
Seawall maintenance is likely to be possible at a community level when given appropriate training. This may include educating maintenance engineers on the likely failure mechanisms, how often to survey the structure, what to look for and how to identify weaknesses in the design. If major weaknesses are found, it may be necessary to employ a professional organisation to repair the structure in the most effective manner.
One of the main barriers to the implementation of a well designed seawall is cost. The design of an effective seawall requires good quality, long-term environmental data such as wave heights and extreme sea levels. This is frequently unavailable in developing countries and can be costly to collect. Secondly, because seawalls are frequently exposed to high wave loadings, their design must be highly robust, requiring good design, significant quantities of raw materials and potentially complicated construction methods. In locations of high energy waves, additional cost must be expended on protective measures such as rip-rap (Wide-graded quarry stone normally used as a protective layer to prevent erosion (Coastal Research, 2010)) to protect the structure’s toe.
A case study from the Pacific island of Fiji (Mimura & Nunn, 1998) shows seawall construction to be very costly even when local materials were utilised in conjunction with other materials supplied by the government. Seawall construction in Fiji consumed the villagers’ time and also required significant time and money to be spent on the provision of catering services for workers.
The availability of experience, materials, labour and specialised machinery for the construction of seawalls may also pose a barrier to the implementation of this technology.
French (2001) recommends proactive construction of seawalls at some distance inland. This reduces interference with coastal processes and creates a buffer zone to protect against coastal flooding and erosion. A key barrier to this type of approach lies in convincing and educating landowners of the necessity for, and benefits of, these measures (Mimura & Nunn, 1998).
Seawall construction is one of several options available when high value land cannot be protected in other ways. The approach provides a high level of protection to valuable coastal areas although the long-term sustainability of the approach should also be taken into account.
Less technologically advanced designs can be implemented at local levels, utilising local knowledge and craftsmanship. This requires less investment and a reduced need for involvement of large organisational bodies such as national or sub-national government or non-governmental organisations (NGOs). While ad-hoc implementation is possible, technological guidance from expert organisations is desirable to ensure sufficient levels of protection.
Seawalls can also be implemented as part of a wider coastal zone management plan which employs other technologies such as beach nourishment and managed realignment. Placement of seawalls inland, following managed retreat, reduces interference with coastal zone processes and creates a buffer zone to protect against coastal flooding and erosion (French, 2001). The seawall therefore acts as a last line of defence. Use of seawalls in conjunction with beach nourishment can also address some of the negative impacts of seawall construction, such as beach lowering and downdrift erosion.
Burgess, K. and Townend, I. (2004) The impact of climate change upon coastal defence structures. 39th DEFRA Flood and Coastal Management Conference, University of York, UK, 29 June-1 July, 2004.
Bush, D.M., Neal, W.J., Longo, N.J., Lindeman, K.C., Pilkey, D.F., Esteves, L.S., Congleton, J.D. and Pilkey, O.H (2004) Living with Florida’s Atlantic Beaches: Coastal Hazards from Amelia Island to Key West. USA: Duke University Press.
Dean, R.G. and Dalrymple, R.A. (2002) Coastal Processes with Engineering Applications. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Environment Agency (2007) Flood Risk Management Estimating Guide. Unit Cost Database 2007. Environment Agency: Bristol.
French, P.W. (2001) Coastal defences: Processes, Problems and Solutions. London: Routledge.
Goda, Y. (2000) Random Seas and Design of Maritime Structures. Singapore: World Scientific Publishing.
Kamphuis, J.W. (2000) Introduction to Coastal Engineering and Management. Singapore: World Scientific Publishing.
Linham, M.M., Green, C.H. and Nicholls, R.J. (2010) AVOID Report on the Costs of adaptation to the effects of climate change in the world’s large port cities. AV/WS2/D1/R14, www.avoid.uk.net .
Linham, M. and Nicholls, R.J. (2010) Technologies for Climate Change Adaptation: Coastal erosion and flooding. TNA Guidebook Series. UNEP/GEF. Available from: http://tech-action.org/Guidebooks/TNAhandbook_CoastalErosionFlooding.pdf
McDougal, W.G., Sturtvant, M.A. and Komar, P.D. (1987) Laboratory and field investigations of the impact of shoreline stabilisation structures on adjacent properties in Kraus, N.C. (ed.). Coastal Sediments ’87, Louisiana. New York: ASCE, 961-973.
Mimura, N. and Nunn, P.D. (1998) Trends of beach erosion and shoreline protection in rural Fiji. Journal of Coastal Research, 14 (1), 37-46.
Moser, S.C. (2000) Community responses to coastal erosion: implications of potential policy changes to the National Flood Insurance Programme. Appendix F. In Evaluation of Erosion Hazards. A project of the H. John Heinz II Centre for Science, Economics and the Environment. Prepared for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Washington DC. Available from: http://tiny.cc/af9kx [Accessed: 17/08/10].
Nicholls, R.J., Cooper, N. and Townend, I.H. (2007b) The management of coastal flooding and erosion in Thorne, C.R. et al. (Eds.). Future Flood and Coastal Erosion Risks. London: Thomas Telford, 392-413.
Nordstrom, K.F. and Arens, S.M. (1998) The role of human actions in evolution and management of foredunes in The Netherlands and New Jersey, USA. Journal of Coastal Conservation, 4, 169-180.
Nordstrom, K.F., Jackson, N.L., Bruno, M.S. and de Butts, H.A. (2002) Municipal initiatives for managing dunes in coastal residential areas: a case study of Avalon, New Jersey, USA. Geomorphology, 47 (2-4), 137-152.
Nordstrom, K.F., Lampe, R. and Vandemark, L.M. (2000) Re-establishing naturally functioning dunes on developed coasts. Environmental Management, 25 (1), 37-51.
Pilarczyk, K.W. (1990a) Design of seawalls and dikes – Including overview of revetments in Pilarczyk, K.W. (ed.). Coastal Protection. Rotterdam: A.A. Balkema, 197-288.
Townend, I. and Burgess, K. (2004) Methodology for assessing the impact of climate change upon coastal defence structures in McKee Smith, J. International Coastal Engineering Conference 2004, Lisbon, 19-24 Sept 2004. London: World Scientific.
UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) (1999) Coastal Adaptation Technologies. Bonn: UNFCCC. Available from: http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/tp/tp0199.pdf [Accessed 01/07/10].
USACE (United States Army Corps of Engineers) (2003) Coastal Engineering Manual – Part V. Washington DC: USACE. Available from: http://18.104.22.168/publications/eng-manuals/em1110-2-1100/PartI/PartI.htm [Accessed: 27/08/10].
van der Meer, J. (1998) Geometrical design of coastal structures in Pilarczyk, K.W. (ed.). Dikes and Revetments: Design, Maintenance and Safety Assessment. Rotterdam: A.A. Balkema, 161-176.
Vellinga, P. (1983) Predictive Computational Model for Beach and Dune Erosion during Storm Surges. Delft Hydraulics Laboratory, Publication No. 294.
Matthew M. Linham, School of Civil Engineering and the Environment, University of Southampton, UK
Robert J. Nicholls, School of Civil Engineering and the Environment and Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Southampton, UK | <urn:uuid:c0a5dfb4-e18a-44e8-b7ae-6e25a6566537> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.climatetechwiki.org/print/content/seawalls | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399425.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00062-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922562 | 5,044 | 4.125 | 4 |
The Vast Majority of Parents Think Violent Games Make Children Violent, Along With Movies, TV
Common Sense Media recently concluded surveying over 1000 parents about whether they believe certain influences are likely to push, or contribute towards, violent actions in children.
Here are the relevant findings of their survey:
- 84% of parents thought an advertisement (that was shown to them) of Hitman: Absolution was inappropriate to air on TV during times children may be watching.
- 89% think violence in today’s video games is a problem.
- 75% think violent video games contribute to violence.
The last statistic is what’s going to really test gamers’ nerves. After all, there’s never been a conclusive, accepted study that has found a correlation between violent video games and violent behaviors. To help contextualize this number, it’s worth noting that 77% of parents thought violent TV and movies contribute to violent behavior. This is surprising, since video games have easily come under much more heat in the past for displaying edgy content than TV, or movies. But, instead of ending this article on a relaxed note, I’d like to point out that an equal amount of parents (75%) thought that the easy availability of guns contributes to violent behavior in children. So, essentially, if Pops leaves a DualShock 3, and a loaded handgun on the living room table, then it doesn’t really matter which one Timmy the toddler reaches for, because violent gaming is obviously just as potentially dangerous as easily accessible weapons.
Do you think violent video games are making children more violent? Sound off in the comments below by punching a baby. | <urn:uuid:856dbeee-6ac4-48c8-9c40-99b87a799cfa> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2013/01/12/the-majority-of-parents-think-violent-games-cause-violence/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397111.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00113-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951763 | 344 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Zack - what does Zack surname mean?
Recorded in over sixty forms including Zach, Zack, Zachary, Zacharias, Zacheri, Tzadik, and Zadickovicz, this is a famous surname which is both Jewish and Christian in about equal numbers. It is one of the many biblical and Hebrew names which was introduced into Europe by knights returning from the many expeditions to `free` the Holy Land from the Muslim grip in the 11th and 12th centuries. These knights, whose most famous leader was probably Richard, the Lionheart, king of England (1189 - 1199), on their return gave their children biblical names in commemoration of the father`s exploits. The fact that every Crusade was a military failure does not seem to reduced the enthusiasm for the Christian revival, and within two centuries these names which include Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, had replaced over eighty percent of the original native names. This name, originally a personal name, and then after about the year 1400 a surname, derives from the Hebrew `Zacharya` meaning `in memory of god`, a literal translation which no doubt contributed to its international popularity. It was also the name not only of a prophet but that of the father of St John, the Baptist. Early examples of the surname recording taken from surviving church registers in the diocese of Greater London include Isabell Zachary, the daughter of Thomas Zachary, christened at St James Clerkenwell, on October 6th 1586, Johanis Zacharias, a witness at the church of St Peter le Poer, in the city of London, on October 14th 1599, and Francis Zack, a witness at St Johns Westminster, on December 8th 1745.
Get the Zack surname meaning widget for your website!
Select and copy the text below in your website's code. | <urn:uuid:12af2894-3a54-4b7d-a6ec-4636e6ec58d2> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://mysurna.me/surname.php?s=Zack | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404826.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00200-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96762 | 385 | 2.984375 | 3 |
Climate Change Not So Sweet For Maple Syrup
Maple trees could be in trouble in the Northeast U.S. in the coming decades. Federal climate models have predicted the region will lose most of its maples by next century. But producers don't seem worried: maple syrup prices are high, and with technology, the sap is flowing just fine.
Jason Blocher’s livelihood each year largely depends on the weather in February and March. He’s the third generation in his family to run Milroy Maple Farms in Somerset County, on Pennsylvania’s southern border, just a few miles from Maryland.
“You can’t outguess Mother Nature, and she controls everything in this business,” he says.
It takes warm days and cold nights to get sap flowing through a sugar maple.
They start drilling tap holes in the trees when daytime temperatures get in the 40s, and nights are still below freezing. When Blocher was a kid, they would tap in late February and early March. But he says that’s changed in the past ten years. Now, they usually tap earlier - as much as month earlier. And the timing is more erratic.
Like most producers, Blocher remembers the winter of 2012: there was a thick layer of snow in his maple forest, and then, right as syruping was starting, temperatures shot up into the 80s. It was the warmest March on record.
“So we went from fighting our way through three or four feet of snow, and anticipation of a very good season, because of that heavy snow pack, to one of our poorest seasons we have on record because we had such a drastic change in the weather from cold, deep snow to too warm and in a matter of two weeks to three weeks, it ruined our season.”
Milroy Farms wasn’t alone. Syrup production around the Northeast U.S. was down as much as 40 percent in 2012.
Erratic years like that aren’t a surprise to Dave Cleaves. He’s the climate change advisor at the U.S. Forest Service, which means he’s often the bearer of bad news.
“God, in this job I’m in, people hate to see me coming. They run like hell.”
About fifteen years ago, the Forest Service published what’s called the Climate Change Tree Atlas. And what it found didn’t look good for sugar maples in the Northeast.
“We will see it gradually disappear. Or become less prominent.”
Cleaves says southern Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Maryland are on the southern edge of large scale maple syrup production. He says as the climate changes, they’re the first places that will have troubles with maple trees.
“Because there are other more aggressive and adaptive southern species that are always there ready to take off and regenerate.”
Milroy Farms owner Jason Blocher says his maple grove grows along Mt. Davis, the highest point in Pennsylvania, which gives trees the colder temperatures they like, so he doesn’t get too worked up about climate change.
“Oh you hear about that all the time. And the global warming. But I think the sugar maple is a very hearty tree, and very adaptable. So I think under slight changes and so forth, it will adapt.”
And some of the top maple syrup researchers in Vermont and New York agree with him. Temperatures in the northeast already have risen an average of 2 degrees Fahrenheit since 1970, and they say maple syrup production is going gangbusters.
Blocher is like most producers these days, he uses vacuum tubing to pull sap from the maple trees. This, coupled with other technologies, allows him to double production in half the time it took his parents.
Michael Farrell is a maple syrup expert at Cornell University, and runs a sugar bush in northern New York. In his book, The Sugarmaker’s Companion, he says newer forest models, which take factors other than climate into account, show that things don’t look as bad as the Forest Service predictions.
Farrell says his own Ph.D. research, looking at maple trees in the forest mix, backs that up.
“We’re not getting replaced by oaks and hickories up here in the Northeast, it’s very unlikely that that’s going to happen. And the foresters down in the Mid Atlantic and Midwest, where there’s a lot of oak and hickory, they’re concerned that they’re not getting the regeneration of oak and hickory, and a lot of them consider sugar and red maple invasive species down there.”
But that’s not what the Forest Service is seeing in the the long term, 85 years from now, in the time frame of a tree’s life. Dave Cleaves says maple producers and researchers may be experiencing good times now, trees aren’t falling over and dying. But forest service studies, that look at changes in the woodlands every few years don’t find many maple saplings in the Northeast.
“When the actually get down on the ground and count the seedlings by species, then they get an idea of what is the future forest likely to look like, because then we’re looking at the babies here.”
Cornell researcher Michael Farrell says the biggest danger to young sugar maples is deer, which can eat at the saplings. And syrup producers, like Jason Blocher, are more concerned about invasive insects, like the Asian Longhorned Beetle, than warming temperatures.
But the Forest Service’s Dave Cleaves says problems like these are intertwined with climate change.
“It’s not just the changing climate, itself, that impacts, it works through these stressors that are already there. Say it’s moisture stress on the forest if it gets too dry, or if it gets wetter and moister, and that’s more conducive to insect and disease proliferation, then it’s working through insect and disease.”
At Milroy Farms, Jason Blocher says there’s nothing he can do about global warming, so he doesn’t worry about it. But some forest researchers go so far as to call the maple tree a poster child for climate change in the Northeast because they say it’s a resilient tree, that might not make it, unless efforts to cut greenhouse gases take root. | <urn:uuid:3d7d6936-0cd7-4edd-a971-3d5e8cf97a2c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://wesa.fm/post/climate-change-not-so-sweet-maple-syrup | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399106.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00172-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956963 | 1,374 | 3.046875 | 3 |
PARIS, Oct. 19 (UPI) -- The European Space Agency says a small satellite mission will study so-called super-Earths, targeting nearby bright stars known to have planets orbiting them.
The Cheops mission -- for CHaracterising ExOPlanets Satellite -- will launch in 2017, a release from ESA headquarters in Paris said Friday.
The satellite will monitor stars' brightness for telltale signs of a "transit" as a planet passes briefly across a star's face.
This will allow an accurate measurement of the radius of the planet and help scientists understand more about the formation of planets from a few times the mass of Earth -- "super-Earths" -- up to Neptune-sized worlds, the ESA said.
It will also identify planets with significant atmospheres, it said.
"By concentrating on specific known exoplanet host stars, Cheops will enable scientists to conduct comparative studies of planets down to the mass of Earth with a precision that simply cannot be achieved from the ground," said Professor Alvaro Gimenez-Canete, ESA Director of Science and Robotic Exploration.
Cheops will operate in low-Earth orbit at an altitude of 500 miles, with a planned mission lifetime of 3.5 years, the ESA said. | <urn:uuid:3f985700-a39e-4091-bb4d-ff379968ea47> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2012/10/19/European-satellite-set-for-planet-hunt/UPI-57051350680111/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396459.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00025-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.906251 | 260 | 3.171875 | 3 |
Many parent-involvement programs focus on preschoolers, but parents continue to play an important role in supporting their children’s reading and writing development through elementary and high school. Parents implement home-literacy activities as well as support their children’s in-school literacy development through activities such as these:
- Reading aloud to children
- Listening to children read aloud and reading along with them
- Making time for children to read books independently a priority
- Providing books and other reading materials in the home
- Talking with children about books they’re reading
- Asking children what they’re learning at school
- Providing the materials and opportunities for children to write at home
- Taking children to the library to check out books and multimedia materials
- Giving books and magazine subscriptions as gifts
- Monitoring children as they complete homework assignments
- Emphasizing the value of literacy and the importance of school success
Teachers who work with older students expand parent–teacher partnerships by showing parents how to talk with their children about books they’re reading, respond to their writing, and monitor their completion of homework assignments.
Teachers have developed a variety of innovative home-literacy activities for K–8 students that involve opportunities for parents and their children to read and write together. Here’s a list of seven recommended activities:
- Interactive Read-Alouds. Teachers not only encourage parents to read aloud to their children every day, but they also demonstrate how to read aloud effectively using interactive read-alouds (Enz, 2003). They teach parents how to choose appropriate books and use techniques to boost their children’s engagement with the book, such as making predictions, asking questions, and talking about illustrations. Teachers also explain the benefit of rereading books and suggest that parents promote children’s response after reading through role-playing, using puppets to retell the story, drawing pictures, and other activities.
- Traveling Book Bags. Teachers put together traveling bags of books that beginning readers take home to read with their parents (Vukelich, Christie, & Enz, 2001). For each bag, they collect three or four books, usually on a single topic; a stuffed animal, puppet, or artifact; and a response journal. If parents have low-level literacy or don’t speak English, teachers also include cassette-tape recordings of the books and a small tape player so that the whole family can enjoy the books. Children take the book bags home and spend a week reading and talking about the books and writing responses in the journal. Then they exchange the book bags for new ones. Teachers who work with older students make more sophisticated book bags, loaded with maps, brochures, charts and diagrams, magazines, lists of related website addresses, and books related to a thematic unit, for students to take home and explore.
- Family Book Clubs. Parents and their children read and discuss books together, and sometimes they invite other families to join the book club. Parents and children choose a book that interests them (and is appropriate for the children’s age and reading level) that everyone will read and discuss. After parents and children finish reading, everyone gets together to talk about the book. This activity, based on the book club popularized in The Mother-Daughter Book Club: How Ten Busy Mothers and Daughters Came Together to Talk, Laugh, and Learn Through Their Love of Reading (Dodson, 2007), is a great way for parents to foster their children’s love of reading.
- Online Reading and Writing. Computers are rapidly becoming part of everyday life, and parents and children can use computers together to search the Internet for information, read articles posted on websites, play literacy games, and use e-mail and instant messaging to stay in touch with relatives and friends (Rasinski & Padak, 2008).
- Family Journals. Children and their parents write back and forth in special family journals (Wollman-Bonilla, 2000). At school, children write entries, explaining what’s going on in their classroom and what they’re learning, and then they take their journals home to share with their parents. Next, parents write back, commenting on children’s entries, asking questions, and offering praise and encouragement.
- Family Reading/Writing Nights. Parents and their children come to school for a special evening of reading or writing books together (Hutchins, Greenfeld, & Epstein, 2008). Individual teachers, a grade-level group of teachers, or an entire school can organize these programs. At a family reading night, children and parents read books together and participate in reading-related presentations and activities. Sometimes children dress up as book characters, perform a readers theatre script, or give book talks about favorite books. Teachers also give away books that children add to their home library. At a family writing night, children and parents write books together, usually about family events. Teachers also have opportunities at these events to share tips with parents about ways to support their children’s literacy development.
- Family Literacy Portfolios. Parents save samples of their children’s reading and writing and collect them in large folders or portfolios, and then they share the portfolios with teachers during parent–teacher conferences (Krol-Sinclair, Hindin, Emig, & McClure, 2003). Samples of children’s reading and writing can include drawings with captions, notes, stories and poems, handmade birthday cards, craft projects, lists of books read, and photocopies of the covers of favorite books. Parents also include observation notes about the ways their children use literacy. When parents bring portfolios to parent–teacher conferences, they assume a more active role in talking about their children’s literacy development, and teachers gain valuable insights about their students’ home-literacy activities.
These home-literacy activities are effective because teachers set specific goals, provide clear directions, and value parents’ collaboration.
© ______ 2010, Allyn & Bacon, an imprint of Pearson Education Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The reproduction, duplication, or distribution of this material by any means including but not limited to email and blogs is strictly prohibited without the explicit permission of the publisher. | <urn:uuid:577f077b-5010-4892-add0-263e9ad86cff> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.education.com/reference/article/home-literacy-activities/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403823.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00041-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951658 | 1,296 | 4.15625 | 4 |
You may have seen some people with boots wading in local runs or streams. Some carry nets and others vials for collecting water samples. Their samples will be examined in a lab under a microscope where biologists will inspect the contents and count organisms including those affectionately known as macroinvertebrates. Microinvertebrates are large enough to see with the naked eye and include insects, crustaceans, molluscs, arachnids and annelids. These living things have no backbones. Some are more sensitive to water quality than others. Determining what is present is one way to assess the condition of our various waterways.
“The Office of Sustainability and Environmental Management coordinates the Volunteer Stream Monitoring Program. After participating in County-sponsored training, stream monitors wade into Arlington’s streams and report back important environmental data that we use to monitor long-term trends of our streams. The resident-collected data is also reported to the state as a part of our municipal separate storm sewer system (MS4) permit.”
One thing that got this reporter’s attention is that we have an Office of Sustainability and Environmental Management.” That’s impressive because economic sustainability is a top priority concern and it is integrated by correlating the way we live with our effect on our environment.
Hiking around our county, you might wonder what it was like before we all crowded into this small space that was carved out as half of a square by Pierre Charles L’Enfant. In the earliest pioneer days, the Potomac River was renowned by Native Americans for its bountiful fishing. Captain John Smith observed this too. The water was clean and sufficiently cold to support trout and sturgeon among a variety of other species.
Progress did the the fishes in as agriculture and industry polluted the watershed that includes the feeders from other states where mining and industrial pollution combined with farming to lower the water quality. Here in Virginia, we are victims of theirs as well as our own practices.
Upstream, Maryland and West Virginia are trying with some success to clean up the water and to bring back the trout, for instance. They have strengthened laws governing mining and have done things like adding doses of lime to the streams. That has brought back some of the desirable fishes.
Yet, between here and there, we have a whole lot of work to do. Some thought should be given to enlarging our open waterways and marshes. That would require removing some of the underground storm sewers to create more green space. That would require investing in some bridge building and public property acquisition. Commercial developers should be encouraged to build up, not out, and to create more green space and canopy in their plans. It all begins with citizens expressing their desires and expectations.
There truly is no reason to accept dirty waterways when the alternative is just keeping them clean and taking care of our precious air and water.
Beauty is in the Eye of the Monitor
Arlington County is very lucky to have an amazing cadre of dedicated stream volunteers. Our volunteers come from a variety of backgrounds, but they all share a curiosity about our environment and a passion for learning more about it. Our volunteers recently completed their spring sampling at the macroinvertebrate stations. Amongst the many talents that our volunteers have, we have some photographers amongst us! Enjoy these shots taken during our spring season." | <urn:uuid:b47fdb1e-1b92-41c0-b0bd-4420fac5976e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.examiner.com/article/testing-water-quality-arlington-rivers-and-runs?cid=rss | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396959.83/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00182-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961094 | 699 | 3.4375 | 3 |
| Latin Name
| Conservation Status
||Black & White
||2.2 - 2.5 m (7.25 - 8.25 ft)
||47 - 56 cm (18.5 - 22 inches)
||175 - 385 kgs (390 - 850 lbs)
| Life Expectancy
||Up to 40 Yrs (in Captivity)
The Plains Zebra is the most common and widespread species of zebra. They have a body length between 2.2 and 2.5 m (7.25 - 8.25 ft), a tail length between 47 and 56 cms (18.5 - 22 inches) and they weigh between 175 and 385 kgs (390 - 850 lbs).
They have a distinctive black and white striped pattern that is unique to each individual. Their mane stands upright and they have a striped tail with a black tassel on the end.
Plains Zebra can be found on the savannahs and grasslands of east Africa.
Plains Zebras feed on a variety of grasses.
After a gestation period of 370 days, Plains Zebra give birth to a single foal. Within an hour of being born the foal is able to stand and suckle and within a few weeks it begins to graze. The youngster is weaned between 8 and 13 months old and they become sexually mature at 3 years of age, although males aren't usually dominant enough to defend a harem until they are at least 6 years old.
Predators of Plains Zebras include lions, hyenas, leopards, cheetahs and african wild dogs.
Subspecies of the Plains Zebra include:
(Equus quagga quagga)
Conservation Status: Extinct 1883
(Equus quagga burchellii)
(Equus quagga boehmi)
(Equus quagga borensis)
(Equus quagga champmani)
(Equus quagga crawshayi)
Plains Zebra are also known as:
African Wild Ass | <urn:uuid:77d29592-f550-4d4a-813c-b762fee6e826> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.theanimalfiles.com/mammals/hoofed_mammals/zebra_plains.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402699.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00081-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.860398 | 438 | 3.1875 | 3 |
This article was published in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 2, (MUP), 1967
Elizabeth Macarthur (1766-1850), was born on 14 August 1766 in Devon, England, daughter of Richard Veale, farmer, and his wife Grace, who were apparently of some education and affluence. Elizabeth received an education which allowed her to write letters of eighteenth-century style and grace and which equipped her to manage the complicated affairs of her husband's business in later life. She married John Macarthur in October 1788. In June 1789 he joined the New South Wales Corps and Elizabeth accompanied him when he sailed to take up his position in the colony. Her letters to her family written during the journey to New South Wales are one of the outstanding records of early voyages on convict transports. A daughter born on the voyage did not survive, and Elizabeth landed in Sydney Cove on 28 June 1790 with her ailing eldest son Edward, born in Bath in 1789, to face the rigors of the foundation years of New South Wales.
As the first woman of education and sensitivity to reach the colony Elizabeth Macarthur had a specially privileged position in colonial life. From her arrival in the colony until her husband's departure in 1809 she held court amongst officers of the New South Wales Corps, naval officers and members of the colonial administration. The only governor who was free to enjoy her society was Arthur Phillip, for in later years her husband's political position was too controversial for any governor to seek the company of the Macarthur family. In these years four more sons, James (1793-1794), John (1794-1831), James (1798-1867) and William (1800-1882), were born and three daughters, Elizabeth (1792-1842), Mary (Mrs Bowman, b.1795) and Emmeline (b.1808). The cares of her increasing family and the anxieties of her husband's political role in no way dampened her spirits. Her letters to her family in England display an acute feminine intelligence quickly adapting to the circumstances of colonial life; through her husband and children she experienced remarkable happiness in the colony from the first years of her arrival. By 1794 the Macarthurs had their own house at Parramatta, Elizabeth Farm, 'a very excellent brick building'. The country, she wrote in 1798, held 'numerous advantages to persons holding appointments under Government … We enjoy here one of the finest climates in the world. The necessaries of life are abundant, and a fruitful soil affords us many luxuries. Nothing induces me to wish for a change but the difficulty of educating our children … Our gardens with fruit and vegetables are extensive; and produce abundantly. It is now spring, and the eye is delighted with a most beautiful variegated landscape; almonds, apricots, pear and apple trees are in full bloom; the native shrubs are also in flower, and the whole country gives a grateful perfume … The greater part of the country is like an English park, and the trees give to it the appearance of a wilderness, or shrubbery commonly attached to the habitations of people of fortune'.
Elizabeth Farm, though small, was one of the few in the colony in which the dignity of family life was maintained despite the extreme stresses of the colonial environment. The children received careful and painstaking education, both secular and religious, and the style of life was as near possible that of minor country gentry as they had known it in England. Within the Macarthur home order and harmony prevailed to an extent which equalled the chaos and violence of John Macarthur's public life. The rarity and the beauty of this family life within the context of the colonial situation so impressed even John's most extreme political enemies that it purchased immunity for his family. Elizabeth Macarthur, her ordered home, her carefully nurtured children always escaped any criticism which could be levelled against John, as they escaped from any possible reprisal for his part in the rebellion against Governor William Bligh. The impressive achievement of feminine strength which this family life conveyed was enlivened by Mrs Macarthur's wit, high spirits and by her extremely charming personality. Her letters to Captain John Piper, a lifelong friend of the family, display this aspect of her personality, her delight in social occasions, her intelligent interest in the development of colonial society, and her humorous and uncomplaining acceptance of the deprivations of colonial life.
After her husband's enforced departure from the colony in 1809 Elizabeth's relatively carefree existence changed. Business partners administered the wide range of John's mercantile affairs during his absence, but his wife was responsible for the care of the valuable merino flocks, the Camden Park estate and the direction of its convict labourers, with the assistance only of her nephew, Hannibal Macarthur, who was less experienced than she in colonial affairs. For eight years she managed the Camden Park establishment with conspicuous success. She visited it regularly, although this involved going to the limits of the known colonial world and placing herself in danger of the sporadic violence which occurred between settlers and Aboriginals. Without feminine company she travelled to visit the various merino flocks and to discuss the choice of rams, sales of sheep, the improvement of fleeces, and the care of all the valuable Macarthur stock with her one reliable convict overseer. After these journeys she wrote detailed reports of her inspections to her husband in England and on receiving his replies carried out to the letter his directions for the development of the flocks.
In these years, because of her remarkable ability in the management of the sheep, John Macarthur's enforced absence was converted into an advantage in the development of his plans for the colonial pastoral industry. His presence in England and Elizabeth's in the colony surmounted the otherwise almost insurmountable problem of communications in developing the colonial flocks at precisely the most delicate point in their growth. During these eight years under their joint direction the wool of the Macarthur merino flocks managed to enter competitively into the British market and to establish the reputation of the colony of New South Wales as a centre for wool-growing. A great part of the achievement was that of John, with his flair for publicity, his astute direction and his unfailing economic vision, but a significant proportion of it was Elizabeth's, since her determination and administrative ability overcame the first and most formidable practical obstacles, which were within the colony, to the export of wool. Her letters are neutral about the degree of pleasure she derived from the care of 'Mr. Macarthur's affairs'. If they were an insufferable burden of anxiety she never complained. If she enjoyed her masculine role she did not speak of it. She occasionally mentioned fatigue and apologized for her failures with stock records, but the emotional centre of her letters was always her concern for her children, the health and beauty of her daughters in the colony, and the well-being of her sons being educated under the care of their father in England.
The Macarthurs' marriage had a kind of eighteenth-century tone about it. The devotion of husband and wife for one another was of deep and moving intensity, yet Mrs Macarthur was able to endure the long years of separation from John without the stress which might have troubled a woman of less aristocratic temperament. She was an Anglican of more than formal piety and much comforted by faith. She had an energetic and educated appreciation of nature and took endless pleasure in describing the beauties of the colonial landscape, beauties which she perceived though few of her fellow colonists did, and she must have played a substantial role in making the country of their birth the centre of the affections of her sons James and William. During John's absence from the colony between 1809 and 1817 he frequently questioned the advisability of committing the family fortunes permanently to the colony, but though Elizabeth's letters to him have not survived it seems evident from his correspondence with her that she played an important role in reassuring him about his eventual return to the colony and about the success of their fortunes there.
After John's return to New South Wales in 1817 Elizabeth retired from active concern with the management of the family affairs. Her influence was, however, still very powerful. When the financial success of their grazing ventures seemed assured John Macarthur began to devote his energies to the building of a suitable family mansion on the Camden Park estate. It expressed his own vision of his family and its grandeur more than it was designed to please and delight his wife. During the mid-1820s Elizabeth spent more and more time in Sydney and Parramatta enjoying again a quiet social round now centred about the lives of her children. She was saddened by her husband's deep fits of melancholia and his obsessive and utterly unfounded fears that she had been unfaithful to him. His feelings of persecution became so violent that he could not bear to see his wife, and they lived the last few years of his life in virtual separation; though she suffered deeply from this rejection, her strength of character and extreme good sense kept the family together. She remained devoted to her husband until his death and encouraged her sons to deal with the difficult situation of caring for their father without allowing them to experience any sense of conflict in their relations with her. She died on 9 February 1850, having survived John by sixteen years, during which she lived to see the final amazing success of Australian wool exports in the mid-1830s and the fulfilment of every one of her husband's predictions concerning the economic development of the colony. Her influence on her sons cannot be overestimated. Both James and William were deeply devoted to her, and both owed their conservative and aristocratic temperaments less to their father's driving economic ambition than to their education and the influence and example of their mother.
Her portrait in the Dixson Gallery, Sydney, shows her to have been a woman of unusual beauty and taste in dress and deportment. In a small colonial society which delighted in petty gossip she was not touched by any. Scarcely another woman in the colonial world escaped criticism for some breach of taste in dress, manners or propriety. Impossible though it may seem she does not appear to have been mentioned by contemporaries except in praise. She did not use her undoubted position in the colony to mitigate any of its harshness. Though a sensitive and delicate woman, she did not leave any record of outrage at the brutality of the colonial world; perhaps she saw little of its extreme harshness since the Macarthur servants were always well housed and fed and not sternly punished by colonial standards. She chose instead to exercise her undoubted talents within the range of family and business life and was not provoked to efforts outside this sphere by the stimulus of the new and strange environment to which she became so deeply attached.
Jill Conway, 'Macarthur, Elizabeth (1766–1850)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/macarthur-elizabeth-2387/text3147, published first in hardcopy 1967, accessed online 27 June 2016.
This article was first published in hardcopy in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 2, (MUP), 1967 | <urn:uuid:a5554051-cb20-40a1-ba41-f1fd60bc855c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/macarthur-elizabeth-2387 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395620.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00034-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982826 | 2,318 | 3 | 3 |
Researchers at MIT have successfully flown an autonomous, robotic plane in a confined space and around obstacles without the use of GPS. The flight by the MIT Robust Robotics Group paves the way for the development of aircraft that can fly without pilots, even in remote areas where GPS may not be available.
MIT’s Robust Robotics Group flew a fixed-wing vehicle around the parking garage under a university building, navigating pillars safely, with only the use of onboard sensors to direct the path of the plane, according to the university.
Researchers at MIT flew an autonomous robotic plane in an enclosed area around obstacles, demonstrating that it is possible to build a self-navigational, fixed-wing vehicle that can fly at high speeds safely without the use of GPS. (Source: MIT)
The flight was achieved through the use of custom algorithms the team developed to determine trajectory and state, or the location, physical orientation, velocity, and acceleration of the aircraft.
The plane, which MIT researchers designed and built from the ground up, also had an accurate digital map of its environment to help it safely avoid obstacles. However, it had to determine in real time its location on the map and where it had to go during the flight, researchers said, using the algorithms to interpret data from laser rangefinder and inertial sensors such as accelerometers and gyroscopes carried onboard.
MIT’s work is similar to research being done at the Defense Research Projects Agency to design a new miniature atomic sensor system for missiles that would eliminate GPS dependence for navigation. And new research in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is always a subject of interest for the military, which makes broad use of unmanned crafts. The Air Force and NASA, for example, have been testing a new lightweight unmanned plane to explore innovations in both supersonic and subsonic flight and wing stability.
MIT’s specific work was born out of plans to create control algorithms for autonomous helicopters, which researchers eventually abandoned because “the fixed-wing vehicle is a more complicated and interesting problem, but also that it has a much longer flight time,” said Nick Roy, an associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics and head of the Robust Robotics Group, in a press release. “The helicopter is working very hard just to keep itself in the air, and we wanted to be able to fly longer distances for longer periods of time.”
MIT graduate student Adam Bry worked with AeroAstro professor Mark Drela to design the body of the plane, which has shorter and broader wings than a normal aircraft. This modified design allows the plane to fly at low speeds and make tight turns, which was necessary to avoid obstacles, according to researchers. It also made the plane stable enough under a fair amount of weight so it could carry the electronic sensors running the flight’s control algorithms.
The next step for MIT researchers will be to develop algorithms that will let the plane sense its environment and design a map of it on the fly, precluding the need for a preloaded outline of the flight environment, according to the university.
It would be interesting to see how the algorithm would respond to a change in the environment - such as if a new structure were added (or somebody's head for that matter). Would it know enough to just avoid the obstacle or would it think it is in another location of the map?
Good question, Jack. The new object might need to be programmed in. On their next stage, this team is going to try to get the plane to map its own environment on the run. I would think that would require GPS. But maybe not.
Robots that make maps--and that update them continuously for navigation purposes, which it's not clear that this one does--are a topic we've covered before: http://www.designnews.com/document.asp?doc_id=240288
That one is also MIT, and also from a group in its CSAIL lab.
Thanks for the link, Ann. I find it amusing that this robot uses technology from the Xbox 360. Computer games have led a number of technology developments. In the automation and control world, they're using game technology for training and simulation. The miltary is also using game technology for training.
TJ--My thoughts exactly. I don't know what changes might need to be made to adapt the systems to this use but I do think that could be accomplished with some effort now that the work that has been done already. I do see the great advantage for in-flight systems where GPS is not available or has been disabled. This is great work by MIT and contributing agencies of our government.
One way to keep a Formula One racing team moving at breakneck speed in the pit and at the test facility is to bring CAD drawings of the racing vehicle’s parts down to the test facility and even out to the track.
Most of us would just as soon step on a cockroach rather than study it, but that’s just what researchers at UC Berkeley did in the pursuit of building small, nimble robots suitable for disaster-recovery and search-and-rescue missions.
Design engineers need to prepare for a future in which their electronic products will use not just one or two, but possibly many user interfaces that involve touch, vision, gestures, and even eye movements.
Focus on Fundamentals consists of 45-minute on-line classes that cover a host of technologies.
You learn without leaving the comfort of your desk. All classes are taught by subject-matter experts and all are archived.
So if you can't attend live, attend at your convenience. | <urn:uuid:9708d7c5-d83f-4f29-9f90-aa998ae2cf1b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.designnews.com/document.asp?doc_id=250698&piddl_msgorder=asc&piddl_msgpage=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391634.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00024-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965413 | 1,162 | 3.109375 | 3 |
What is American Studies? In 1957, literary scholar Henry Nash Smith described the field as “the study of American culture, past and present, as a whole,” and defined culture as “the way in which subjective experience is organized.” The Reed catalog from 1968–69 specified that the American Studies senior “will apply the tools of his [sic] discipline to an examination of some problem in the study of American culture.”
There has never been a single method, theory, or problematic of American Studies, only key definitional questions. What was or is “American”? How might scholars delineate national, regional, and local cultures, subcultures, and communities, or even find the shifting borders of America? What kinds of texts or evidence are representative of which “American” cultures: high or elite cultural texts (paintings, sculpture, literature, drama), popular or folk cultural artifacts (ballads, quilts, folktales, nursery rhymes), and/or the products and media of mass culture (consumer goods, films, radio, television, advertising)? How should scholars consider material culture (architecture and the built environment) that exemplifies American styles?
In short, American Studies scholars consider how best to understand the social and material processes through which people have produced (and consumed) “American” cultures, identities, and politics over time. They use the disciplinary methods best suited to help them answer particular queries.
American Studies has also been political—and politicized—from its beginning. It has been a field influenced by struggles within and outside the academy. Its academic roots can be traced to the establishment of an American literary canon in the 1920s and 1930s. There was then no category of “American literature”; arguments for a distinct, democratic American literary tradition had to be made to distinguish it from the sovereignty of British work. Progressive historians played a part in revitalizing the study of United States history, in part to recuperate and champion American culture during the Great Depression. During that prolonged economic and social crisis, scholars and government officials alike focused on what values, ideals, and experiences Americans had in common. Hence writers and ethnographers employed by universities and by the Works Progress Administration documented the experiences of immigrants and indigenous Americans and interviewed octogenarian ex-slaves.
My initial question when I started my thesis was: “Why did churches
start to look like spaceships after WWII?”
The consensus and conflicts produced by World War II, and the post-war nationalism of what Henry Luce termed “the American Century,” also shaped American Studies. The first issue of the scholarly journal American Quarterly appeared in 1949, and the American Studies Association was founded in 1951. As programs were established in universities and colleges, some officials (and donors) promoted the field as a way to help wage the new Cold War against Communism. Academics once again sought to capture what they thought was exceptional and democratic in the American experience, with a focus on ideological consensus and shared symbols. Scholars looked inward at American mass culture, and outward at America’s role in the nuclear age.
In the midst of the social and political movements of the 1960s and 1970s—and at the very moment when American Studies was being established at Reed—scholars around the country began to turn a more critical eye on venerable American institutions, earning the field the nickname “anti-American Studies” from detractors. In the struggles against discrimination and for civil rights by African Americans, women, Latinos, and Native Americans, activists’ claims to citizenship and a place in American history became research topics for academics. As the long war in Vietnam came to a protracted end, scholars researched earlier American entanglements and peace movements. As President Nixon resigned in the wake of revelations of secret White House tapes, American Studies students pondered the history and rhetoric of political scandal and constitutional crisis. | <urn:uuid:a71906e0-5449-47d6-b00e-0e8c04cf603a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.reed.edu/reed_magazine/summer2007/features/america/2.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396538.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00198-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955712 | 808 | 2.921875 | 3 |
Passive restoration activities were implemented within the Laguna Grande sector of the High Andean Ramsar site “Lagunas Altoandinas y Puneñas de Catamarca”. Activities consisted of re-routing the track between El Peñón and Volcán Galán, and the installation of informative and educational signage. The initiative, designed and coordinated jointly by the High Andean Flamingo Conservation Group, the conservation NGO, Fundación Yuchan and the Catamarca environmental authorities, was aimed at reducing impacts at fragile sites by concentrating visitors at three points and by providing adequate information on best practices while visiting the wetlands.
Laguna Grande is one of 20 wetlands making up the Ramsar site of “Lagunas Altoandinas y Puneñas de Catamarca”. The saline wetland, located at 4300 m above sea level, hosts up to 19,000 Puna Flamingos Phoenicoparrus jamesi each summer, representing almost 18% of its global population and also acts as a regular nesting site for the species. Other species present include Andean Flamingo Phoenicoparrus andinus, Chilean Flamingo Phoenicopterus chilensis, and Neotropical migratory shorebirds, such as Baird’s Sandpiper Calidris bairdii and Wilson’s Phalarope Steganopus tricolor.
Due to its spectacular landscape, Laguna Grande is a tourist destination for 4x4 vehicles; however, the activity lacks regulation and has directly affected waterbirds, especially the nesting of Puna Flamingos and Puna Plover Charadrius alticola. This pressure is further exacerbated by off-roading competitions and rallies, in particular, the last six editions of the Dakar Rally in South America, which have crossed the Puna ecosystem of Catamarca.
Priority activities to facilitate the passive restoration of the Laguna Grande sector were focused on:
Related Case Studies in other sections
BirdLife International (2013) Restoration activities at Laguna Grande IBA in Argentina are helping to reduce the impact of tourism. Presented as part of the BirdLife State of the world's birds website. Available from: http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/sowb/casestudy/574. Checked: 27/06/2016
|Key message: There are many different ways to keep Important Bird Areas safe| | <urn:uuid:992b8ac0-7240-4d46-aa04-f496475be44b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/sowb/casestudy/574 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395620.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00095-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.892111 | 520 | 2.84375 | 3 |
Prior to the Tuskegee Airmen all combat pilots had been white. However a series of legislative moves by the United States Congress in 1941 forced the Air Corps to form an all-black combat unit, much to the War Department's chagrin. In response they set up a system to accept only those with flight experience or higher education that they expected to be hard to fill, a half-hearted effort to eliminate the unit before it could begin. This policy backfired, and soon the Air Corps was receiving applications from men who clearly met the grade.
In June 1941 the program was officially started with the formation of the 99th Fighter Squadron[?], formed up at the Tuskegee Institute, a famous school founded by Booker T. Washington in Tuskegee, Alabama. The unit included an entire service arm, not just pilots. After basic training they were moved to the nearby Tuskegee Army Air Field for conversion training onto operational types. They were put under the command of General Benjamin O. Davis Jr., a West Point graduate.
The 99th was ready for combat duty during the USA's first actions and was deployed to North Africa to operate against the Luftwaffe. For a time they were attached to the 33rd Fighter Group[?], whose commander left them out of most missions. Things changed when they were moved to Sicily and attached to the 79th Fighter Group[?], whose commander involved them fully. Here they quickly racked up an impressive combat record. Time after time they would enter combat against greater numbers of superior planes, and come out victorious. The Luftwaffe soon awarded them the name "Schwartze Vogelmenschen," or Black Birdmen, and started to avoid them when possible.
By this point more graduates were ready for combat, and the 322nd Fighter Group[?] was created from three new squadrons, the 100th, 301st and 302nd. These were moved to mainland Italy, where they were eventually joined by the 99th. The 477th, a bomber group, was also forming in the US, but completed training too late to see action.
By the end of the war the 322nd had claimed over 400 Luftwaffe aircraft, a destroyer, and numerous fuel dumps, trucks and trains. Meanwhile they didn't lose a single bomber under escort to enemy action. The unit received recognition through official channels, and won two Presidential Unit Citations, 744 Air Medals[?], 150 Distinguished Flying Crosses, fourteen Bronze Stars[?] and several Silver Stars.
Far from failing as originally expected, a combination of pre-war experience and the personal drive of those accepted for training had resulted in some of the best pilots in the Air Corps. Nevertheless they continued to have to fight racism. Their combat record did much to quiet those directly involved with the group (notably bomber crews who often requested them for escort), but other units were less than interested and continued to harass them. In one event 100 of the men attempted to enter an officer's mess in the US and were refused, eventually receiving official reprimands for doing something that was illegal to deny them.
All of these events appear to have simply stiffened their resolve to fight for their own rights in the US. After the war the Tuskegee Airmen once again found themselves isolated, but a series of events over the next few years would end this. Perhaps the most important changes occurred when the 322nd entered the 1949 gunnery competition and won, while at the same time commanders across the US were looking for experienced pilots and crew. The result was the official end of segregation, ordered in 1948, and the Tuskegee Airmen found themselves in high demand throughout the newly formed United States Air Force. | <urn:uuid:310ffea6-fe12-4818-b235-614df4d8ecb5> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://encyclopedia.kids.net.au/page/tu/Tuskegee_Airmen | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399117.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00104-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982869 | 761 | 3.203125 | 3 |
Expert Commentator: Dr. Murad Alam 11/18/2009
From a scientific standpoint, melanoma happens when the melanocytes, the cells that give our skin color, become abnormal and develop into cancer. Normal skin can become melanoma, or moles that were previously normal can change into melanoma over time. Ultraviolet sun rays can cause this change in normal melanocytes. Sunscreen and sun avoidance reduce the risk of melanoma. The bad news is that melanoma is a very serious disease, and if detected late, is often not curable by surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation. The very good news is that melanoma is over 90% curable if it is found early. This is why it is important to have your skin checked regularly. Getting checked by a dermatologist could literally save your life. In the meantime, if you have a spouse or significant other, they can help keep an eye on parts of your body you cannot see yourself.
Women get melanoma more often on the backs and legs, and men on the back. In African-Americans, melanoma is less likely, but most commonly occurs on the soles of the feet. Moles sometimes change appearance during pregnancy, and these should be checked promptly by a doctor.
In recent years, the rates of melanoma have been increasing in the US. Some believe this is because people are spending more time outdoors, swimming, playing sports, and sunbathing. A complete sun-safety program includes also a wide-brimmed hat, sunglasses, and sun-protective clothing.
Sunscreen can also help, but it is important to use enough and reapply it. It is also important to understand that if you are outside in the sun for many hours day after day, no sunscreen will be able to protect you completely. Indeed, there are cases where people using sunscreen have been found to have a high chance of getting melanoma; there is nothing wrong with the sunscreen they are using, but since sunblock is really only “sunslow,” too much sun will overwhelm the protective benefit of even the most effective sunscreen. Finally, it is important to use sunscreen year-round because even on cloudy, rainy days, ultraviolet rays are damaging our skin. Areas that should get sunscreen include the areas that are usually exposed to the sun, including the head, neck, v-neck of the chest, and backs of arms and hands. | <urn:uuid:9a6df122-9d27-4f7b-af08-a5dccaf22fe6> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.empowereddoctor.com/expert-commentator-dr-murad-alam-11182009 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399428.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00093-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97199 | 494 | 3.359375 | 3 |
Loveday L Conquest
Overview of generalized linear models (GLMs), their use in forestry, fisheries, wildlife ecology, and environmental monitoring. Analysis of the statistical tests that fall under GLMS: chi-square tests on contingency tables, t-tests, analysis of variances, etc. Statistical software S+/R used throughout. Offered: Sp.
COURSE OBJECTIVE: The main objective of this course is to become familiar with a large class of statistical models known as Generalized Linear Models, or GLMs, and their use in forestry, fisheries, wildlife, ecology, and environmental monitoring. These statistical models form an umbrella under which fall many familiar statistical tests: chi-square tests on contingency tables, t-tests, analysis of variance, etc. Additionally, using GLMs allows one to drop the normal distribution assumption and substitute other error distributions, wuch as the binomial (e.g., mortality data), Poisson (e.g., animal or event count data), Weibull (e.g., survival data). Thus one can do parameter based testing and model building using distributions other than the normal. The statistical software R is used throughout the course. Examples from fisheries, forestry, wildlife, and other environmental or ecological scenarios are emphasized.
Student learning goals
Be able to identify linear models, generalized linear models, generalized additive models.
Be able to run these models and do model-checking along the way to move to a "best" final model.
Be aware of the limitations of these types of models.
General method of instruction
Class meets MWF 10:30-11:20; "R" computer labs are Friday 11:30-1:20, with formal lab instruction in the first hour and an "office hour" during the 2nd hour to learn "R" and to apply the techniques learned in class. Instruction in class will be traditional lecture format.
Prerequisites: concepts of likelihood ratio tests (STAT 512-13 or STAT 516-17 or STAT 341-342 or STAT 481), matrix algebra, calculus. QERM 514 is different from the QSCI 482-483-480-486 series in that it is NOT a "service course" and it is taught at the graduate level. It is a required course for 1st-year QERM students and is part of the QERM MS/Ph.D. qualifying exams each June. There is a prerequisite of one course in mathematical statistics, which can be fulfilled by having had STAT 512, or STAT 341-342, or STAT 481, Intro to Mathematical Statistics. In addition, knowledge of calculus and matrix algebra are required. It is assumed that the student knows the THEORY behind likelihood ratio tests; pages from a chapter in a standard mathematical statistics textbook can be made available. While the course is not overly theoretical, it definitely helps to be one who enjoys the ins and outs of mathematical statistics and likelihood ratio tests. A key concept that we will be making use of all quarter is, "-2 times the log of the likelihood ratio has an asymptotic chi-square distribution."
Class assignments and grading
There will be weekly homework assignments, many of which require use of the computer to analyze data sets. There will be a take-home final exam. For students in the QERM program, the take-home final exam acts as a precursor to the statistics portion of the QERM Applied Qualifying Exam.
Grades are assigned based on the weekly HW assignments, the project, the take-home final, and to some extent class participation. | <urn:uuid:77e6061e-52e0-45dd-ba24-62300320737f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.washington.edu/students/icd/S/quante/514conquest.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395621.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00133-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.906224 | 737 | 3.125 | 3 |
- Dietary Supplements
- Health Conditions
- Healthy Nutrition
- Cardiovascular Health
- Skin Care
- Natural Remedies
Trace Mineral Complex Needed for Human Body
- Minerals play a crucial part in healthy nutrition. They play a role in metabolic and immune functions
- Trace mineral complex is a compound intended to provide a balance of each of the key minerals thought to be important for the body. Because food is becoming more deficient in many important minerals, implementing a trace mineral complex is increasingly necessary
- These complexes usually include minerals like copper, manganese, potassium, iodine and zinc minerals
Minerals play a crucial part in healthy nutrition. Without minerals, vitamins cannot be absorbed properly and cannot be assimilated by bodily systems.
Minerals also have a critical role to play in metabolic and immune functions. In fact, according to Linus Pauling, Ph.D., who won the Nobel Prize twice, was quoted as asserting that “You can trace every sickness, every disease, and every ailment to a mineral deficiency.”
Scientific research has recorded that a large proportion of the American population is significantly deficient in essential minerals. That may not be a surprise to many people given the intensity of modern farming methods, and the lack of time given to soil to recover minerals utilized in growing plant naturally. It is also widely known that the substances used in intensive farming, tend to deplete or destroy natural soil nutrients and organisms. The consequence is that food is left deficient in essential micro organisms, which further reduces human mineral intake. In addition, modern foods undergo processing techniques which tend to further strip away important vitamins and minerals such as potassium, magnesium and boron.
Trace Mineral Complex is a compound intended to provide a balance of each of the key minerals that are thought to be important to the human body. The minerals in trace mineral complex are usually found in the soil. The natural process is that the minerals are assimilated by plants and are then ingested by humans in the form of the food we ingest. There is evidence to suggest that intensive and industrial farming methods have caused the resulted in the nutrients within the soil being utilized and diminished with only a few of the minerals being replenished e.g. phosphorus, nitrogen and potassium. Modern fertilizers used in industrial farming do not tend to replace lost minerals. Research has shown that, on average, fresh food contains 48% less essential minerals than there was in similar foods 50yrs ago. An Earth Summit report recorded that there was evidence of depletion of minerals of soil in Europe of 76%.
The consequence of this is that food becoming is becoming progressively more deficient in a wide large range of important minerals. Taking a supplement may help to ensure that the body gets essential minerals and maintain the body’s mineral balance.
Trace mineral complex can be provided in a “food state”. That means the trace minerals will be presented to and accepted by your bodily systems in the same form as they are found in food.
Scientific research conducted into food state nutrients has shown that they are longer retained and much better absorbed, than standard chemical supplements. Research has also found that food state trace mineral complex does not have to be ingested with food because it contains all the food factors necessary for absorption. There are no known side effects to taking trace mineral complex, and there are varieties available which are suitable for vegetarians and vegans.
Trace mineral complexes usually include the following minerals (but they often include additional substances as well): molybdenum, chromium, selenium, copper, vanadium, silicon, manganese, boron, potassium, iodine and Zinc minerals.Click here to discuss this article on forum
The information supplied in this article is not to be considered as medical advice and is for educational purposes only. | <urn:uuid:3cc83a06-6a53-446d-904e-240e25085254> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.nutralegacy.com/blog/general-healthcare/trace-mineral-complex-needed-for-human-body/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392159.3/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00084-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954125 | 779 | 3.328125 | 3 |
Using science and medicine to stop human rights violations
Bangladeshi policy discriminates against persecuted Burmese Muslims
Persecuted Rohingya Muslims seeking refuge in Bangladesh face a new grave threat to their safety and security: institutional discrimination in the form of a mandatory, country-wide ID card policy. The Rohingya population is the most persecuted ethnic minority of Burma. Rohingya individuals, fleeing their country from widespread and systematic persecution, do not deserve the inhumane treatment they receive in Bangladesh today.As the United Nations highlighted this week, Bangladesh’s new ID card policy will make it illegal for a person of Rohingya descent to hold employment in Bangladesh. This policy will create harsher living conditions for these persons deserving of protection, not discrimination. Under the existing system of identification in Bangladesh, over 200,000 unregistered Rohingyas were unable to enroll their children in school.PHR’s March 2010 emergency report, Stateless and Starving: Persecuted Rohingya Flee Burma and Starve in Bangladesh, assessed dire conditions faced by persecuted Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, including arbitrary arrest and forced expulsion by Bangladeshi authorities. PHR is concerned that these new, harsh identification policies may further infringe upon their basic human rights.According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, only 28,000 out of some 400,000 Rohingyas in Bangladesh are recognized refugees. PHR strongly urges the Bangladeshi government to end arbitrary arrests and forced expulsions of these individuals, and to begin individual status determination of these legitimate refugees. | <urn:uuid:c64e4c82-8aa9-4606-a9aa-4e195f84e558> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://physiciansforhumanrights.org/blog/bangladesh-discriminates-burmese-muslims.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396029.85/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923212 | 307 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Late Neandertals and Modern Human Contact in Southeastern Iberia
Source Newsroom: Washington University in St. Louis
Newswise — It is widely accepted that Upper Paleolithic early modern humans spread westward across Europe about 42,000 years ago, variably displacing and absorbing Neandertal populations in the process.
However, Middle Paleolithic, presumably Neandertal, assemblages persisted for another 8,000 years in Iberia. It has been unclear whether these late Middle Paleolithic Iberian assemblages were made by Neandertals, and what the nature of those humans might have been.
New research, published Dec. 8 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is now shedding some light on what were probably the last Neandertals.
The research is based on a study of human fossils found during the past decade at the Sima de la Palomas, Murcia, Spain by Michael Walker, professor at Universidad de Murcia, and colleagues, and published by Michael Walker, Erik Trinkaus, professor of Anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis, and colleagues.
The human fossils from the upper levels of the Sima de las Palomas are anatomically clearly Neandertals, and they are now securely dated to 40,000 years ago. They therefore establish the late persistence of Neandertals in this southwestern cul-de-sac of Europe. This reinforces the conclusion that the Neandertals were not merely swept away by advancing modern humans. The behavioral differences between these human groups must have been more subtle than the Middle-to-Upper Paleolithic technological contrasts might imply.
In addition, the Palomas Neandertals variably exhibit a series of modern human features rare or absent in earlier Neandertals. Either they were evolving on their own towards the modern human pattern, or more likely, they had contact with early modern humans around the Pyrenees. If the latter, it implies that the persistence of the Middle Paleolithic in Iberia was a matter of choice, and not cultural retardation.
From the Sima de las Palomas, other late Neandertal sites, and recent discoveries of the earliest modern humans across Europe, a complex picture is emerging of shifting contact between behaviorally similar, if culturally and biologically different, human populations. We are coming to see them all more as people, flexibly making a living through the changing human and natural landscapes of the Late Pleistocene. | <urn:uuid:a0f6d516-c5fd-4194-8135-85308e51242d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://newswise.com/articles/view/547207/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395679.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00016-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937896 | 514 | 3.546875 | 4 |
Lesson 1 (from Octopussy)
Smythe shows greed when he sees an opportunity for hidden gold. The objective is to analyze greed and what it can do to a person such as Smythe.
1- Pair Share: In partners, write a list of activities that show Smythe's greed for anything. Examples are his actions for gold, his lifestyle, drink, etc.
2- Groups: In small groups, discuss how Smythe's greed causes him to do certain things. What does he do because of greed? Are these things he does do anyway? How does greed make him blind to some things? What are some things Smythe is blind to because of greed for something else?
3- Class Discussion: As a class, discuss the consequences of Smythe's greed. Are these inevitable? Are they preventable? How does Smythe react to these consequences? Does he care? Is there a show of remorse or regret?
4- Homework: Write...
This section contains 5,921 words
(approx. 20 pages at 300 words per page) | <urn:uuid:228a5cc1-a057-4b65-82e9-17c7c6cfd28c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.bookrags.com/lessonplan/octopussy/lessons.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397696.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00156-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959198 | 224 | 3.84375 | 4 |
Vitamin D supplementation in pregnant women
This guideline provides global, evidence-informed recommendations on vitamin D supplementation during pregnancy as a public health intervention for the purpose of improving maternal and infant health outcomes.
Vitamin D deficiency is thought to be common among pregnant women, particularly during the winter months, and has been found to be associated with an increased risk of pre-eclampsia, gestational diabetes mellitus, preterm birth, and other tissue-specific conditions. Recent scientific literature has reported the effects of vitamin D supplementation on adverse maternal and infant outcomes.
Member States have requested guidance from the World Health Organization (WHO) on the efficacy and safety of vitamin D supplementation in pregnant women as a public health strategy, in support of their efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and the global targets set in the maternal, infant and child nutrition comprehensive implementation plan.
The guideline is intended for a wide audience including policy-makers, their expert advisers, and technical and programme staff at organizations involved in the design, implementation and scaling-up of nutrition actions for public health. | <urn:uuid:3f45c6f0-b1dd-4e60-9bcb-8d368d027202> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.who.int/nutrition/publications/micronutrients/guidelines/vit_d_supp_pregnant_women/en/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395166.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00153-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925132 | 215 | 2.921875 | 3 |
WASHINGTON, May 12 (UPI) -- An updraft of solar winds ripped a hole in the sun's outer atmosphere with remarkable geometric precision, creating a nearly perfect square.
The dark spot, seen in the video and picture, is known as a "coronal hole." It is the gap made when solar winds rip up, out and away from the sun's surface at astonishing speeds -- the solar winds taking advantage of a cooler, weakened spot in the sun's magnetic field.
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory -- a satellite that focuses its gaze on the sun while orbiting Earth, capturing high resolution imagery of the mother star -- recorded a video of the square hole last week. Officials released the video over the weekend.
"Inside the coronal hole you can see bright loops where the hot plasma outlines little pieces of the solar magnetic field sticking above the surface," SDO officials wrote in a news release. "Because it is positioned so far south on the sun, there is less chance that the solar wind stream will impact us here on Earth." | <urn:uuid:51dc3ed5-46f3-4e67-85e5-cef915073f78> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2014/05/12/NASA-spacecraft-spies-square-hole-in-suns-sphere/6361399913803/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398075.47/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00150-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911693 | 210 | 3.265625 | 3 |
The speaker in "To a Skylark" doesn't give us many hints about who exactly he is, in the most basic sense. (Actually, we don't even learn if it's a man or a woman who's talking. To keep things simple, we'll stick with the tradition of referring to the speaker as if he or she is the same gender as the poet.) We don't learn much, for example, about how old he is, or what he's wearing, or if he's rich or poor, etc.
We do know that he's a poet, or an artist of some sort. We also get a ton of info about how he's feeling. Our speaker is one sensitive dude. (Being poetry lovers, we should point out that we here at Shmoop are big fans of sensitive guys.) He feels and sees and thinks about things deeply and intensely. He tends to be a little melancholy, a bit of a pessimist about his life and his art.
But he's also full of passion and love and hope, very much alive to the world. That's important because this poem is all about feeling, about the way that the natural world can create joy or sorrow in us. Our speaker's job is to talk about what he sees and hears, but also to try to make us feel exactly what he feels. | <urn:uuid:720d3535-111b-48a1-a464-3201ffcd74c2> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.shmoop.com/to-a-skylark/speaker.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395546.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00200-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983223 | 274 | 2.859375 | 3 |
The solar power tower Jülich – a solar thermal power plant for test and demonstration of air receiver
Hennecke, Klaus and Schwarzbözl, Peter and Hoffschmidt, Bernhard and Göttsche, Joachim and Koll, Gerrit and Beuter, Matthias and Hartz, Thomas
The solar power tower Jülich – a solar thermal power plant for test and demonstration of air receiver.
In: 2007 ISES Solar World Congress, Beijing, pp. 1749-1753.
ISES Solar World Congress, 2007-09-18 - 2007-09-21, Beijing, China.
The paper explains the fundamentals of the open volumetric receiver technology and shows the history of its development. It gives technical information about the system definition and the engineering of the Solar Power Tower Jülich.
The open volumetric receiver technology allows the use of air as heat transfer medium at high temperatures in solar thermal power tower plants. It combines porous ceramic or metallic absorber structures with a strictly modular receiver design. Highly concentrated solar radiation is used to produce hot air as ‘firing’ for a steam rankine cycle. The advantages of this technology are simplicity and scalability, the ability to include a thermal storage, the low thermal capacity and a high efficiency potential. This receiver technology was developed in various joint projects of research and industry over the past years. It was tested and qualified in the worlds largest test center for concentrating solar power, the Plataforma Solar de Almería (PSA) in Southern Spain with a nominal power of 3 MW incident radiation. In June 2006 it was decided to build a tower power plant with thermal storage in Jülich, Germany, with a design power of 1,5 MWe. The objectives of this plant are to test and demonstrate the solar air technology as a complete system, to develop control and plant management strategies and to improve the overall performance and reliability. The location in Germany was chosen as it is close to the research institutions involved and it allows the investigation of the system performance under fluctuating irradiation conditions. The Solar Power Tower Jülich is scheduled to start operation by the end of 2008. The five year project comprises design, construction and a two year test operation phase, accompanied by an intensive R&D program. The experiences of this project will be a vital step towards a successful market introduction.
|Document Type:||Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)|
|Title:||The solar power tower Jülich – a solar thermal power plant for test and demonstration of air receiver|
|Authors||Institution or Email of Authors|
|Hoffschmidt, Bernhard||FH-Aachen / Solarinstitut Jülich|
|Göttsche, Joachim||FH-Aachen / Solarinstitut Jülich|
|Koll, Gerrit||Kraftanlagen München|
|Beuter, Matthias||Kraftanlagen München|
|Hartz, Thomas||Stadtwerke Jülich|
|Journal or Publication Title:||2007 ISES Solar World Congress, Beijing|
|In ISI Web of Science:||No|
|Page Range:||pp. 1749-1753|
|Keywords:||Solar thermal power plant, open volumetric receiver|
|Event Title:||ISES Solar World Congress|
|Event Location:||Beijing, China|
|Event Type:||international Conference|
|Event Dates:||2007-09-18 - 2007-09-21|
|Organizer:||International Solar Energy Society|
|HGF - Research field:||Energy|
|HGF - Program:||Renewable Energies|
|HGF - Program Themes:||E SF - Solar research (old)|
|DLR - Research area:||Energy|
|DLR - Program:||E SF - Solar research|
|DLR - Research theme (Project):||E - Applikationsentwicklung (old)|
|Institutes and Institutions:||Institute of Technical Thermodynamics > Solar Research|
|Deposited On:||18 Feb 2008|
|Last Modified:||12 Dec 2013 20:29|
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The following information was excerpted from the Nevada Revised Statutes, Title 19, Chapter 235, Section 235.075.
TITLE 19--MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS RELATED TO GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS.
CHAPTER 235-STATE EMBLEMS; GIFTS AND ENDOWMENTS, STATE SEAL AND MOTTO.
NRS 235.075 State fish. The fish known as the Lahontan Cutthroat Trout (Salmo clarki henshawi) is hereby designated as the official state fish of the State of Nevada.
(Added to NRS by 1981, 684)
Nevada Revised Statutes. Nevada Legislature. 2009. 9 March 2009 <http://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/Index.cfm>
Shearer, Benjamin F. and Barbara S. State Names, Seals, Flags and Symbols: A Historical Guide Third Edition, Revised and Expanded. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 3 Sub edition, 2001.
Lahontan Cutthroat: Western Native Trout Initiative.
Lahontan cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii henshawi): U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service: Nevada Fish & Wildlife Office.
Lahontan Cutthroat Trout Oncorhynchus clarkii henshawi: U.S Fish & Wildlife Service: Lahontan National Fish Hatchery Complex.
Lahontan cutthroat trout: Species description from Discover the Outdoors.
Oncorhynchus clarkii henshawi (Gill and Jordan, 1878): Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) Here you will find authoritative taxonomic information on plants, animals, fungi, and microbes of North America and the world.
Bringing back the Lahontan cutthroat trout: by Jason Dunham. Article from Trout Unlimited, Spring, 1998.
Lahontan cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarki henshawi): U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Status Report.
Lahontan cutthroat trout: Species locator from Discover the Outdoors.
State Fish: Complete list of official state Fish.
More symbols & emblems: Complete list of official Nevada state symbols.
Guide to Fly Fishing Pyramid Lake, by Terry Barron. 31 pages. California Bill's Automotive Handbooks; 1st edition (October 1, 1998) This is the first and only fly fishing guidebook to this huge high desert lake. Author Terry Barron has fished the lake for 28 years and sets the record straight. A brief history of the lake, Lahontan Cutthroat trout, efforts to save these huge fish , trout food, feeding habits, how to tie the effective flies developed by locals. Two color maps, illustrations, charts, photos show preparations and the spots for 16-30" trout! Web sites, fishing resources, fly shops and other important information.
Guide to Fly Fishing in Nevada, by Dave Stanley, Jeff Cavender. 48 pages. California Bill's Automotive Handbooks; 2nd edition (January 1, 2005) This guidebook gives you a quick, clear understanding of the essential information you'll need to fly fish Nevada and the Northeastern Sierra's most outstanding waters. How to fly fish the most enjoyable and rewarding waters in this uncrowded, yet to be discovered region. Detailed maps, annotated by the author, show you how to get there and where to fish. Use this guide to plan your Nevada fly fishing trip or take this guide along for ready reference.
The Desert Lake: The Story of Nevada's Pyramid Lake, by Sessions S. Wheeler. 144 pages. Caxton Press; Revised edition (May 1, 2001) National park officials have called the Pyramid Lake "the most beautiful desert lake in North America." Here is the pre-history and history of the basin, including its famous Indian battles. Early white exploration and settlement, the decline and restoration of the lake's giant cutthroat trout, and shore fishing.
Trout and Salmon of North America, by Robert J. Behnke. 384 pages. Free Press (September 24, 2002) Behnke, professor emeritus of fishery and wildlife biology at Colorado State University, has brought his more than 50 years of studying, and fishing for salmon and trout, to wonderful effect. He provides readers with an authoritative compendium of the evolution, biology, ecology, habitats and behaviors of these prized game fish. A capsule legend that includes scientific name, other common names, habitat, size, life span and diet accompanies each entry, amazingly illustrated by Tomelleri, whose fish seem to shimmer on the pages. Habitat maps, which include coastal waters, rivers, streams and lakes, are detailed and specific enough to be taken on fishing excursions. The book includes a good deal of fishing lore, as in the notations that describe the best flies, bait and lures for specific types of fish and locales.
Native Trout of Western North America , by Robert J. Behnke. 275 pages. American Fisheries Society (December 1992) This book results from almost four decades of research and practical experience with this group of fishes. This work addresses the evolution, taxonomy, and present distributions of members of this group of fishes (cutthroat, rainbow, Gila, and related indigenous trout of the West), and proposes a conservation philosophy to sustain them.
About Trout: The Best of Robert Behnke from Trout Magazine, by Robert J. Behnke. 272 pages. The Lyons Press (September 1, 2007) Behnke brings scientific expertise, a sense of humor and a flair for drama to this collection of 43 essays previously published as his About Trout column in conservation organization Trout Unlimited's Trout magazine. Behnke considers the evolution, historic and current distribution, biological characteristics and defining physical traits of various species of trout and salmon-from the common brown trout and well-known Atlantic salmon to the rare Apache trout and the once-presumed extinct, now-endangered Alvord cutthroat trout.
Trout, by Ray Bergman. 576 pages. The Derrydale Press (October 25, 2000) Trout is arguably the finest single volume ever produced on how, why, and where to catch trout. In spite of being originally published in 1938 (Penn Publishing Company), it remains utterly relevant.
Trout Rigs & Methods, by Dave Hughes. 322 pages. Stackpole Books (January 10, 2007) Clear and simple instruction and explanation describes 18 trout rigs and 81 methods to fish them. In moving water: rigs and methods for dry flies and emergers, nymphs, wet flies, streamers, and dry flies and droppers. In stillwater: dry flies and sunk flies.Fly fishers learn the specifics of the rig--types of fly line, lengths and tapers of leader and tippet, the flies, and split shot, putty weight, strike indicators, droppers, point flies, and indicators--and the full array of methods to present the rig to the trout.
Essential Trout Flies, by Dave Hughes. 92 pages. Stackpole Books (April 2000) A core list of flies that will catch trout anywhere, in every season, this collection includes the most important patterns in a wide range of styles, from dry flies to streamers. The tying steps for each pattern are illustrated in step-by-step photos with detailed captions, followed by photos and recipes for the six most useful variations-217 patterns in all. Each chapter features a description of the insect the pattern imitates as well as expert information on how and when to fish the fly.
Trout & Salmon, [ Magazine Subscription ] Features, news on all aspects of game fishing.
Complete line of fishing equipment including rods, reels, rod and reel combinations, fly fishing gear, bait and spin casting rods and reels, ice fishing equipment, lures and flies, and other accessories. All major brands. | <urn:uuid:879e08b2-b80e-4d73-81fc-ad9cf1415584> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.netstate.com/states/symb/fish/nv_lahontan_cutthroat_trout.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398516.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00117-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.879359 | 1,655 | 2.65625 | 3 |
I am going to instead present one piece of evidence that the earth's lower age limit is greater than 15,000 years, then, without invoking radiometric dating. This would effectively demonstrate that the earth is indeed at least this old. I recognize that this doesn't show the earth is 4.55 billion years old, but demonstrates that it is older than 6,000.
I don't think to many Creationist's are going to be upset if the earth was 10k, or even 15k years old..... Honestly, if it was even 100k years old I don't think too many people are going to keel over.
I humbly request that we carefully go over each piece of evidence individually before we move on to evidence of a young earth or more evidence of an old earth so as to honor the quality over quantity philosophy of this establishment.
The a sample taken from the core of Lake Suigetsu measuring 75 meters deep reveals over 60,000 alternating layers; dark and light. The light layers have been observed to form annually due to Spring diatom growth. That is all.
1st off, don't you think it would be pretty amazing that the conditions in that lake remained constant for 70k years?
2nd, you simply don't know what it was like 5000 years ago, and there may have been condistions where the plants blossomed 5 or 6 times a year, and now they only blossom once a year.
So, we really just don't know, but you certainly connot claim any date based on the formation rates of the varves today. You can just say that if things have been the same for so many years then that lake is such and such old, But its still an if, maybe it is, maybe it isnt.
Finally, Guy Berthault has done some experimention shown that you can create these types of sediments with flowing water.
SEDIMENTOLOGYâ€â€Experiments on lamination of sediments, resulting from a periodic graded-bedding subsequent to depositionâ€â€a contribution to the explanation of lamination of various sediments and sedimentary rocks.
These sedimentation experiments have been conducted in still water with a continuous supply of heterogranular material. A deposit is obtained, giving the illusion of successive beds or laminae. These laminae are the result of a spontaneous, periodic and continuous grading process, which takes place immediately, following the deposition of the heterogranular mixture.
The thickness of the laminae appears to be independent of the speed of sedimentation but increases with extreme differences in the size of the particles in the mixture. Where a horizontal current is involved, thin laminated superposed layers developing laterally in the direction of the current, are observed.
The mixture was fed from the distributor into the test tube of water at three successive speeds of 50, 100 and 150g per hour for identical periods of time. Lamination appeared in the deposit and the thickness did not vary with the sedimentation speed. The original lamination was reproduced with virtually the same thickness (see Figure 6).
You can read about that here:
Lamination with water flow | <urn:uuid:07903835-4225-49d1-b2dc-446174fb12c8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://evolutionfairytale.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=1322 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399425.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00125-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966005 | 663 | 3.125 | 3 |
Talking only about 3D printers and guns is like watching a movie in fast forward, slowing down only to watch the bits where people die.
But in the whole story of 3D printing, guns are only one short scene - the rest of the story is far more uplifting. A whole research industry has flourished with advancements in medicine, manufacturing and architecture - breakthroughs which have actually been developed for decades.
You might be surprised to find out 3D printers have been around since the mid-1980s, but the devices themselves and the material they consumed were so expensive (with small, simple structures costing hundreds of dollars) that the idea of a consumer-level 3D printer was ludicrous. Over the past couple of decades, though, the cost of these consumer level printers has plummeted from more than US$110,000 to as low as US$350.
This resulted in a burgeoning interest from the “hacker” community: not a shadowy bunch of cybercriminals, but groups of very clever and motivated people who like to pull things apart and put them back together better, such as Melbourne’s Connected Community HackerSpace. HackerSpace runs community-operated workshops, where people can meet and work on technology projects like 3D printing.
The message is simple: 3D printing will save far more lives than it will ever take - and here’s why.
One of the very few non-gun-related 3D printing stories to make the mass media this year was about Australian researchers who developed a technique which may lead to the production of human tissues, and even organs.
A 3D printer can create a scaffold from implantable biomaterials that degrade safely in the body, allowing new tissues to grow.
New developments also allow printing of living cells or tiny pieces of tissue harvested from a patient biopsy and grown in the laboratory to engineer new functional tissues. Because in the ideal situation this tissue originates from the patient’s own cells, the chance of rejection is almost nil. And the technique is not limited to a specific tissue – it is a generic approach.
Custom medical implants are produced by 3D printing techniques to replace damaged or missing tissues, such as sections of the skull after road trauma. We could take this a step further: imagine if you could print and store your whole skeleton so you have spare parts ready to go, if necessary!
Surgical 3D printed models produced from CT scan data can also help surgeons to plan and navigate difficult procedures.
While significant research challenges must still be overcome to generate viable human-sized 3D organs, this could eventually eliminate organ donor waiting lists. Simply replacing a diseased organ might one day solve diseases we are struggling to control.
Medical applications for 3D printing seem almost endless.
Moving to manufacturing
There are as many stories about how we can improve not only the life of an individual, but the lives of everyone on the planet. From freeing artistic expression to creating better house designs, 3D printing allows a new level of creativity to influence design.
3D printing food may even help alleviate the growing global demand for meat and consequent environmental impacts. NASA has already started looking into a food printer for the International Space Station.
In this brave new world, the traditional manufacturing limits are lifted. Shared designs online will enable rapid refinements and bring the iterative design process into the hands of the layperson.
And perhaps the most exciting prospect is putting this potential in the hands of children, whose minds are not yet so constrained by traditional methods.
Back to the guns
Recent media attention on 3D printing has focused on the printing of guns. But 3D printers can print pretty much any shape you can imagine - guns just happen to be one of those shapes.
They can also produce objects in a wide range of materials, including metals. See titanium and aluminium-printed objects in the video below.
The simple truth is six months ago, you couldn’t print your own working gun. Today, you can, and in another six months, there will have been more than a year of innovation in the printing of guns and each iteration will solve some small problem.
This will mean that at some point in the near future, a 3D printed gun is likely to be every bit as capable as a “real” gun. It is almost inevitable that we will read about the first homicide with a 3D printed gun, and unfortunately, it will probably be sooner rather than later.
What is clear from recent events is that 3D printing, like many technologies before it, will need effective laws and regulation. And while it sounds obvious, regulation will need to balance people’s freedom to use the technology, with prosecuting those who abuse it and also to protect others from the consequences of that abuse.
While the wonderful thing about 3D printers is they enable innovation in so many aspects of our lives, the flip side of the coin is this could also involve hurting other people. To strike this balance will be difficult, complex and a continual work in progress. But the reality is in 3D printing’s history, a 3D printed gun has killed no one, but numerous lives have already been saved. | <urn:uuid:fece6db6-0e5c-4de1-8d76-23c5f523661b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://theconversation.com/dont-shun-3d-printers-they-might-save-your-life-one-day-15127 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395992.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00040-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956011 | 1,064 | 2.921875 | 3 |
|Schjerning's first projection, or the north polar equidistant conic with cone constant 1/2. A rare case of conic map designed for the whole world.|
Historically, only three fundamental types of conic projection have gained substantial adoption. They are defined by:
As a customary compromise in cartography, once a main feature is designated, projection parameters — in this case, one or two standard parallels — may be determined in order to reduce overall deformation. Mainly this means:
Optimal selection of parallels may be obtained by analytical or numerical methods like least squares; sometimes criteria can be distilled into rules of thumb — e.g., set standard parallels at 1/6 and 5/6 between the minimum and maximum latitudes of interest (Deetz and Adams).
|Equidistant conic map, standard parallels 30°N and 45°S.|
The conic projection with the easiest construction method is the simple or equidistant conic, with uniformly spaced parallels. Neither equal-area nor conformal, except along the standard parallels, but an acceptable compromise for most temperate countries, it is the general case of both azimuthal equidistant and equidistant cylindrical projections.
Its origins can be traced back at least to Claudius Ptolemy's first partial world map, which is purely conic only north of the Equator. It has been applied since at least the 17th century to Earth and star maps, occasionally with modifications, some of which are perhaps due to the difficulty of drafting arcs of large diameter, which frequently occur with small cone constants. Usage persists today in local and regional maps.
|Equidistant conic map, central meridian 90°E. Standard parallels 90°N and 55°N, after Mendeleev. Cone constant 0.939.|
|Equidistant conic map, central meridian 95°E. Given limiting parallels 70°N and 40°N, Euler's constraints set the cone constant to 0.810.|
|Equidistant conic map, standard parallels 62°N and 47°N after Kavraiskiy. Central meridian 95°E, cone constant 0.812.|
Some equidistant conic maps credit the projection to "Delisle" (or "de L'isle", or other variants). Ironically, although Joseph Nicholas de L'Isle did employ the (true) equidistant conic in many maps published by his family business, the projection he actually created (ca. 1745) is not a strictly conic modification, because its meridians connect points equally spaced along two limiting straight lines instead of parallels; therefore they do not in general converge at a point.
Another modification, by Mead (1717), was based on trapezoidal cells or quadrangles, each 1°-wide. In each cell the limiting parallels and the central meridians are standard lines. The map, no longer conic, would resemble part of a spider web. Both Mead's and the proper "De L'isle" projection are completely obsolete today.
The first projection suggested by Wilhelm Schjerning (first published in 1882, then again in 1904 with his elliptic and cordiform/oblique proposals) is a north polar equidistant conic with constant 1/2.
The distinguished mathematician Leonhard Euler presented in 1777 criteria for choosing the cone constant given two limiting parallels: in the result, sometimes called Euler's projection, given a longitudinal range, the distance error along the extreme latitudes is the same but opposite magnitude as the error along the central parallel.
Russia, like the former Soviet Union, encompasses a vast east-west range with intermediate to high latitudes, an ideal subject for conic maps. Accordingly, several Russian and Soviet cartographers have explored criteria for optimizing the placement of standard parallels; notable examples include Vitkovskiy (1907), Mendeleev (1907), Mikhaylov (1911-2), Krasovskiy (1922-5) and Kavrayskiy (1934). Dmitri I. Mendeleev, more famous after his contributions to chemistry, preferred standard latitudes 90°N and 55°N. Vladimir V. Kavrayskiy, author of various other projections, favored 62°N and 47°N.
|Top and above, equal-area conic maps with identical cone constant 0.707; top: Lambert's projection, standard parallels 90°N and 24°28'11"N; above: Albers projection, standard parallel 45°N.|
Below, Lambert's equal-area conic projection applied to the whole world, standard parallels 90°N and 18°25'S, central meridian 10°E as proposed by O.S.Adams.
Among several other topics, Johann Lambert's extensive monograph of 1772 considered what happens when meridians are represented as straight lines separated by a constant angle other than real — as in azimuthal projections — but not parallel as in cylindrical projections: the outcome can incidentally be wrapped over a cone. Lambert, born in Alsace (then part of Switzerland), applied calculus to solve the case of preserving the fidelity of areal relationships with either 90°N or 90°S as a standard parallel — i.e., one pole is a point and the cone ends at an apex; the resulting proposal, his conic equal-area, or Lambert's isospherical stenoteric (the name used by Adrien Germain and O.S.Adams, probably because it preserves the sphere's area while narrowing meridian spacing) projection, was later generalized by Albers.
Lambert's paper was illustrated with a small map of Europe, for which he conjectured a range of latitudes of 30°N to 70°N would be enough, and the second standard parallel, with no shape distortion, could be placed about 50°N. For easier calculation, a cone constant of 7/8 was chosen, determining the actual standard latitude to be 48°35'25"N, somewhere between Paris and Munich. Another simple choice is 0°, which yields a semicircular world map.
For a whole-world equal-area conic map, Oscar S.Adams (1945) suggested 90°N and 18°25'S as standard parallels, in order to minimize shape distortion between the north pole and the 50°S parallel, considered regions of human importance. However, he preferred a transverse interrupted version in two hemispheres.
A German, Heinrich C.Albers published his conic equal-area projection in 1805 as a general case of Lambert's conic, with one or two standard parallels not necessarily on a pole. If the standard parallels are equidistant from the Equator or coincide with it, the design degenerates into Lambert's equal-area cylindrical projection, or one of its rescaled variants.
Not much is known about Albers, and for a long time his design received little attention from the cartographic literature; only relatively recently it became a common choice for equal-area (i.e., usually small-scale and statistical) maps of U.S. government agencies and elsewhere. An influential proponent was Adams, who developed criteria for minimizing distortion and equations for the ellipsoidal case (ca.1927).
|Areal v. Angular Distortion|
|Tissot's indicatrices enable to compare the distortion in maps of Australia drawn with Albers's equal-area (top) and Lambert's conformal (bottom) conic projections. Points along green standard parallels — 15°S and 35°S (left) and 25°S (right) — suffer from no distortion, areal or angular. Notice in the equal-area conic how the direction of shape distortion is orthogonal between the standard parallels and elsewhere; notice how areal distortion changes from compression to expansion between the parallels and elsewhere in the conformal conic.|
|Approximate reconstruction of Lambert's conformal conic projection applied to Europe. Standard parallels are exact, but Lambert's prime meridian was not based on Greenwich.|
On the same monograph of 1772, Lambert created the bridge between the polar azimuthal stereographic and the equatorial Mercator's projections, again using calculus, this time to ensure angles are locally preserved. Developed for both spherical and ellipsoidal cases, the conic conformal projection, also known as the conical orthomorphic, is today the most important and commonly employed of all of Lambert's original proposals, comparable to the transverse Mercator. He illustrated it with a small map of Europe, with the same choice of limiting and standard parallels as of the equal-area version; in the conformal case, the cone constant is 3/4 instead of 7/8. The stereographic and Mercator's are the conformal conic's limiting cases, respectively when a pole is the single standard latitude and when both standard parallels are symmetrically spaced around the Equator (with a suitable rescaling if not coinciding).
Surprisingly, this projection scarcely saw practical usage and its true authorship remained virtually unrecognized until World War I, when it was adopted in French battle maps (not to be confused with the French military Système Lambert of 1918, a grid standard based on the nonconformal, non-equivalent minimum error projection by Tissot) and by the American USGS. Apparently it was independently developed by Charles L.Harding in the spherical case and applied to star atlases from 1808 to 1822. The great mathematician J.Carl F.Gauss — himself an important contributor to the field of conformal mapping and author of the fundamental theorem which implies that no flat map can represent a sphere without distortion — acknowledged Harding's work, but not Lambert. John Herschel reinvented Lambert's spherical equations and proposed a world map with cone constant 1/3 (1859); he also offered criteria for choosing standard parallels in order to reduce global scale variation. George Boole, the forerunner of modern digital computer logic, extended Herschel's equations to the ellipsoid (ca. 1860). Harding, Gauss, Herschel have been variously credited as creators of the projection, even in specialized treatises like Thomas Craig's (1882).
|Lambert's conformal conic projection applied to a world map, with cone constant 1/3 as suggested by Herschel. Conformal everywhere, except at the North Pole (where the sum of meridian spacings comprises 120° instead of 360°) and the South Pole, which cannot be shown. Large scale distortion is obvious near the visible pole and in the (arbitrarily clipped) hemisphere opposite it.|
As usual in conformal projections, Lambert's conic is better used in large-scale topographic mapping; uninterrupted world maps present too large a range of scales. It can be constructed with either one or two standard parallels; at almost every point the scale, due to conformality, is uniform at every direction, less than true between the standard parallels, greater elsewhere; only the standard parallels are free of any distortion. Conformality fails at both poles: around one, the sum of all meridian angles is less than 360°, while the other one lies at infinity.
More recently, the conformal conic has become a standard of many official mapping agencies; in the USGS, it superseded the American polyconic. It is also the base for the bipolar oblique conic, a compound of two circular sectors using oblique projections focused on the Americas; in each section, the original parallels lie roughly aligned with the continental "crescents": concave towards the Northeast in North America, to the Southwest in the South. A narrow compromise strip across Central America and the Caribbean where the components meet is nonconformal, although the two standard parallels are skillfully chosen to connect exactly. Published in 1941 and the base for several other works, the bipolar oblique conic map was developed by Osborn Miller and William Briesemeister; although released in several sheets, the relatively small scale meant only spherical equations were needed. | <urn:uuid:53a0d77e-aed5-4f89-8be3-d798700fc9b8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.progonos.com/furuti/MapProj/Normal/ProjCon/ProjConNP/projConNP.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396455.95/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00147-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.914851 | 2,538 | 3.484375 | 3 |
In the heart of the modern metropolis of Cairo is one of the greatest historical treasures in the world, the Egyptian Museum. The ‘Museum of Egyptian Antiquities’ was founded in 1835 by Mohammed Ali and was created to prevent the further plundering and destruction of Egypt’s ancient treasures.
The museum was built in 1900 by the French architect, Marcel Dourgnon. Its Neo-Classical design still guards the priceless heritage of ancient Egypt and today more than 155,000 impressive archaeological discoveries that cover 4,500 years of Egyptian history are on display.
The museum’s unique collection of jewelery contains rings once worn by high priests and also amulets that belonged to Ramses the Second.
The fantastic grave offerings of Tutankhamen, who died at the age of 19, cover almost half a floor of the museum and its importance is due to precious objects such as the 'Gold Mask' of the young pharaoh that have assured its place among the world’s greatest museums.
Global Treasures - History's Most Protected Monuments - Heritage is our legacy from the past, what we live today, and what we pass on to future generations. Our cultural and natural heritage are both irreplaceable sources of life and inspiration. Places as unique and diverse as the wilds of East Africa's Serengeti, the Pyramids of Egypt, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and the Baroque cathedrals of Latin America make up our world's heritage. Join us as we explore one of these protected monuments. | <urn:uuid:646d58f1-a01c-4c10-b346-8838a86c2520> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.travelvideostore.com/special-interest/global-treasures-egyptian-museum-cairo-egypt/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397111.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00058-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938796 | 320 | 2.796875 | 3 |
Any system of TUNING in which the OCTAVE is divided into a number of equal INTERVALs. In western music, the octave is divided into twelve exactly equal intervals called semitones. The semitone represents an interval between two tones whose frequency ratio is the 12th root of 2. This ratio is further subdivided into 100 cents.
Tuning in equal temperament alters the traditional intervals of JUST INTONATION, except the octave, which remains the same. The FIFTH is lowered by 2 cents, which cannot be perceived, but the major THIRD is raised by 14 cents, to which most people are now accustomed. See INTERVAL for a comparison of intervals expressed in equal temperament and other tunings; see also Appendix C.
Interval Frequency ratio from starting point Cents from starting point
Semitone or minor second
Whole tone or major second
Augmented fourth/Diminished fifth
1,200Scale of equal temperament.
Although clearly formulated by Mersenne in 1635, equal temperament did not become generally established in practice until 1800 in Germany and later in England and France. Its historical importance is that the major and minor SCALEs being used became transposable for all twelve semitones; that is, the scale could begin on any semitone and still consist of the same frequency ratios in the scale. This system allowed musicians to modulate from one key or tonality to any other without sounding out of tune, that process not being practical in a system of just intonation.
Compare: INTONATION, JUST INTONATION, PYTHAGOREAN SCALE, TEMPERAMENT, TEMPERED TUNING. See: FLAT, QUARTER TONE, SHARP.
Sound Example: Scale of 12-tone equal temperament. | <urn:uuid:72416304-6c5c-4166-a845-631c08923339> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.sfu.ca/sonic-studio/handbook/Equal_Temperament.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398873.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00096-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917643 | 374 | 3.859375 | 4 |
Students in Clark County pay for meals with the aid of a computerized student identification number at the cashier.
What does SID stand for?
SID stands for Student Identification Number
This definition appears frequently and is found in the following Acronym Finder categories:
- Organizations, NGOs, schools, universities, etc.
See other definitions of SID
We have 283 other meanings of SID in our Acronym Attic
- Station Identifier
- Stitch in the Ditch (quilts)
- Strategic Intelligence Digests
- Strategies for International Development (Arlington, VA)
- Street Improvement District
- Strip Interior Diffraction
- Strip of Initial Definition
- Strong Ion Difference (medical interpretation of complex acid base problems)
- Structural Interior Design (US Army Corps of Engineers)
- Structure Identifier
Samples in periodicals archive:
New Mexico is one of 21 states following students from the ninth to the 12th grades, using unique student identification numbers first assigned to all enrolled public-school students in 2004.
On the day her friend was due to leave Joanna, a second year student who is studying photography at Coventry University, gave Boots a letter with her student identification number but it was still declined.
Haberman said CPEC will provide an encryption tool that will allow the universities to generate a student identification number from each student's Social Security number.
A new law designed to prevent identity theft is affecting California's community colleges, which are required between now and 2007 to eliminate the use of Social Security numbers as student identification numbers.
The scholastic information included student identification number, college class level, cumulative grade point average, academic major, and length of enrollment.
College students nationwide can be especially vulnerable to identity theft because they often give out PII; some universities have even been known to use a student's Social Security number (SSN) as their student identification number, sometimes displayed on a student ID card.
To take part in the survey, parents will need their children’s student identification numbers. | <urn:uuid:c2d3bbd3-5497-45b7-8b4b-3b4474a47e90> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.acronymfinder.com/Student-Identification-Number-(SID).html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398216.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00074-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928499 | 425 | 2.625 | 3 |
Your Emotional Riot — Or Why ADHD Makes You Feel So Much
The volatile (and sometimes destructive) emotions associated with ADHD can manifest as frustration, sensitivity, or tendency to depression. Here’s what you should know to control it.
Sensitive to Criticism
Nearly everyone with ADHD answers an emphatic yes to the question: “Have you always been more sensitive than others to rejection, teasing, criticism, or your own perception that you have failed or fallen short?” This is the definition of a condition called rejection-sensitive dysphoria (RSD), which many ADDers experience. | <urn:uuid:4879279a-0a00-403a-864b-0c2e1c33b638> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.additudemag.com/slideshow/40/slide-2.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395621.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00132-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938845 | 123 | 2.84375 | 3 |
From Uncyclopedia, the content-free encyclopedia
The early web was a surprisingly safe environment, one in which a parent could allow their child to roam as free as Adam. Acting in response to this, the Java computer virus was created to annoy and mentally disturb Internet viewers. Java, however, was limited in its ability to wreak havoc, being more or less restricted to slowing down the loading of a web page; not a particularly effective means of annoying people.
will return a non-real number roughly indicating the current speaker volume.
Objects whose orientation is negative don't have normal vectors at all (although in some rare instances it was observed that the length of all such vectors was no longer than the cord of the mouse). Although using negatively-oriented objects is sometimes not advised, if used properly they could greatly add to the number of bugs in the code - the technique called Proper Object Syntax (POS) or as formally defined in ECMAScript specification: Proper Unorientable Syntax Interface (PUSI).Calling
Object.getUnorientation()on a negatively oriented surface is a way, using a single call, to give a Segmentation Fault followed by a Blue Screen of Death.
|Internet - Internets - World Wide Web|
|Browsers||Internet Explorer - Safari - Maozilla - Mozilla Firefox - Google Chrome| | <urn:uuid:89b8478f-e3bd-4569-9159-d205cd8b7f52> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/JavaScript | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402746.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00102-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952689 | 276 | 2.90625 | 3 |
Osakis was first settled by Euro-americans in 1859. The town of Osakis was established June 15, 1866, this and Alexandria being the oldest townships of Douglas county.
The town was built on the south shore of Osakis lake. The word Osakis is derived from an Ojibwe word, "Sakis," meaning "place of danger." This area was once along a dividing line between territory controlled by the Dakota and Ojibwe nations.
In 1859 the stages running to Fort Ambercrombie had a station on the site of Osakis village, and the earliest settlers took claims; but the Sioux outbreak in 1862 caused these claims to be abandoned.
During the Outbreak, the maintenance of this line of communication was vitally important, and the route was constantly patrolled by troops.
The Minnesota Stage Company, owned by James C. Burbank, had begun as a stage and mail delivery company in the early 1850s, and by 1865 had gained a statewide monopoly, operating over 1,600 miles of routes. The 1856 legislature had authorized the opening of the St. Cloud to Fort Ambercrombie (near Breckenridge) Road, on which Osakis was located, but by 1859 it had yet to be developed. The route, which began at St. Cloud and traveled up the Sauk River Valley to Fort Ambercrombie on the Red River, was developed by crews of the stage company under the general management of Captain Russell Blakely. For the next ten years, this route was used by the military and the Red River stagecoaches.
The village was founded in 1866, and was incorporated February 21, 1881. The date of the first passenger train was November 1, 1878.
The Worland Family in America and Beyond
I began my life in the Puget Sound area of Washington State, on an island filled with forests and wild rhododendrons. I was separated from my Worland family there at an early age. Recently, I was reunited with my family and learned of my heritage. And so, this journey to know my ancestors began. The Worlands, Gideons, Newtons, Conards... they were the colonists, the settlers, the pioneers. They fought in the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the Civil War. This is their story, and the story of a nation. -Deci Worland MacKinnon | <urn:uuid:0f06f732-c3d5-461b-8fe7-7cabd88abebe> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://wildrhodes.blogspot.com/2009/06/osakis-douglas-county-minnesota.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393146.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00144-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983955 | 500 | 2.8125 | 3 |
This animation shows the magnetic field of a permanent
magnet suspended by a spring in the TeachSpinTM
apparatus (see TeachSpin visualization), plus
the magnetic field due to current in the two coils (here
we see a "cutaway" cross-section of the apparatus).
The magnet is fixed so that its north pole points upward,
and the current in the two coils is sinusoidal and in
phase. When the effective dipole moment of the top coil
points upwards, the dipole moment of the bottom coil
points upwards as well. Thus, the magnet the magnet
is attracted to both coils, and as a result feels no
net force (although it does feel a torque, not shown
here since the direction of the magnet is fixed to point
upwards). When the dipole moments are reversed during
the second half of the cycle, the magnet is repelled
by both coils, again resulting in no net force.
This process can also be described in terms of tension
along, and pressure perpendicular to, the fieldlines
of the resulting field. When the dipole moment of the
coils is aligned with that of the magnet, there is a
tension along the fieldlines as they are "pulled"
from both sides. Conversely, when their moments are
anti-aligned, there is a pressure perpendicular to the
fieldlines as they are "squeezed" from both | <urn:uuid:ff16a896-3e0a-42bb-8b12-cf5ec6332ea3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://web.mit.edu/8.02t/www/802TEAL3D/visualizations/magnetostatics/teachspinnoforce/tsnoforce.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395620.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00042-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93261 | 300 | 3.859375 | 4 |
|The Regional Impacts of Climate Change|
|Other reports in this collection|
9.3.2. Terrestrial Ecosystems
Although significant land clearance has been a feature of many small island
states over decades of settlement, extensive areas of some islands still are
covered by forests and other woodlands. For instance, forest and woodland cover
in the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Dominica, and Fiji is more than 60% of the
total land area (see Table 9-2 and Annex
D, Table D-7).
It is possible that tropical forests will be affected more by anthropogenic forces than by climate change per se, as long as deforestation continues at its current rate (IPCC 1996, WG II, Box 1-5). Tropical forests are likely to be affected more by changes in soil water availability (caused by the combined effects of changes in temperature and rainfall) than by changes in temperature alone. Forests are particularly vulnerable to extremes of water availability (drought or flooding) and will decline rapidly if conditions move toward one of these extremes. Increasing temperature and extreme events also may increase the incidence of pests and pathogens, as well as the frequency and intensity of fires.
On the other hand, increasing amounts of CO2 may enable some forest species to use water and nutrients more efficiently (IPCC 1996, WG II, Section 1.3.7). CO2 fertilization may have the greatest effect in the tropics, where it may lead to a gain in net carbon storage in undisturbed forests, especially in the absence of nutrient limitations (IPCC 1996, WG II, Section 1.4.3).
Other reports in this collection | <urn:uuid:fa92761d-342a-43fe-8bea-1b7cacb8b323> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/sres/regional/249.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395160.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00188-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933091 | 347 | 3.84375 | 4 |
In a study published online by the journal Breast Cancer Research and Treatment , a team led by Liza Makowski, assistant professor in the Department of Nutrition with the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and member of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, and Sneha Sundaram, PhD, a post-doctoral fellow in the Makowski Lab, outlined the biological mechanisms where obesity can create a favorable environment for the growth of basal-like breast cancer tumors.
“Obesity is widespread and is one of the few risk factors for breast cancer that we may be able to control, hence our intention in this study was to better understand the molecular mechanisms and/or biomarkers of obesity-related basal like breast cancer that could impact disease prevention,” said Dr. Makowski.
Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease made up of several distinct subtypes. The basal-like subtype, an aggressive form of breast cancer, is found in 15 to 20 percent of women diagnosed with breast cancer, with a high percentage of cases found among young and African-American women. Women diagnosed with the basal-like subtype often have a poor prognosis and cannot be treated with hormonal and targeted therapies.
Using a mouse model developed to study the basal-like subtype, the research team discovered that obesity radically alters the cellular microenvironment of mammary glands in ways favorable to the growth of basal-like tumors. One major change is that obesity promotes a growth factor signaling pathway between the hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) protein and an oncogene known as c-Met that is linked with basal-like cancer formation. In animals with elevated levels of HGF, the development of basal-like tumors increased.
“Our study was fairly unique in that we focused on the role that the surrounding tissue in the breast, known as the stroma, plays in breast cancer onset. Many scientists study the tumor alone, but the stroma ‘soil’ where the cancer ‘seed’ grows is important in helping that tumor grow,” said Makowski.
Since HGF levels are increased with obesity, the study indicates that public health efforts to prevent obesity in at-risk populations may be a clinically useful way of preventing the disease. Makowski said that whether weight loss can minimize breast cancer risk in already obese patients is an area that needs further investigation. | <urn:uuid:ec5618c6-42a1-4194-927a-fd3aaaeca089> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://unclineberger.org/news/obesity-found-to-be-major-risk-factor-in-developing-basal-like-breast-cancer | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00126-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954596 | 482 | 2.890625 | 3 |
Vikings, Redcoats, and the Frost Legacy
By Clare Coppa
The Frosts are always in the thick of things, laughs ASTM member
Stephen Frost, who says his ancestors are linked to Viking invasions,
Mayflower crossings, and kings tax rebellions.
Frost says the American Revolutions Battle of Bunker Hill took
place on his forefathers land: The revolting colonists were
trying to find a defensive position to threaten the British. They
came to Breeds Hill next to Bunker Hill, and said, This is easier
to defend, whose is it? The drummer, David Frost, said, Its
mine, you can use it. He was a grandfather, many generations
back. Misnamed, Breeds was the site of the 1775 revolt.
His older brother John Frost was an aide to George Washington
for two years, he continues. He was an attorney and was strongly
opinionated, like all the Frosts. His diary shows that he greatly
influenced Thomas Paines pamphlet, Common Sense [Philadelphia,
1776] that chastised the British government. The pamphlet provoked
debate that resulted in the Declaration of Independence. Frost
says the diary is being investigated.
A project engineer with Jacobs Engineering Group, Houston, Texas,
Frost is researching ancestors David, John, and their brother,
Elijah who was a catcher of spies. Their grandparents were
Elizabeth Gray and William, the son of Edmund Frost. Edmund came
to America on either the Great Hope or the Defense in 1635. His
son William married Elizabeth Gray who came over as a child on
the Mayflower. When the Mayflower sailed, three boats started
to go out. Edmund and his son were on one, but it sank before
it got out of London harbor. So they had to wait until the next
year to come over, he laughs.
Our name, we discovered, was used in ancient form in Denmark
as early as the fifth century. It was brought to England in approximately
the eighth century during the period of resettlement, or what
is known in the U.S. as the Viking Invasions. My grandchildren
have the white blond hair and blue eyes of the Vikings, he adds,
saying the English surname Frost stems from the old English term
meaning one with white hair. The earliest recording that we have
is in the Doomsday Book of England of 1086 of a man named Aluuin
Frost. And later, the Abbey of Bury St. Edmunds, England, notes
Lefstan Frost residing in Suffolk in 1095. We know they were farmers
and landowners with tenants.
Like his ancestors, Frost fought in armed combat. A retired U.S.
Marine colonel, he is one of three survivors in a reconnaissance
class of 186 marines who fought in Vietnam. That was a very tough
war. Based on that experience, Im going to make my life count
for something. Today he supervises 80 employees who build oil
refineries and chemical plants for Jacobs.
In ASTM Committee E48 on Biotechnology, he chairs Subcommittee
E48.04 on Environmental Issues. My involvement at ASTM is to
be part of an activity that helps society along. You have a lot
of benefits and education; dont be selfish, share it.
Frost and his wife, Tommie, an executive assistant, have six children.
Their large, extended family is globally-based. One of the things
that weve always been taught is families last longer than nations,
so we better build on them, he concludes. Family relationships
are very precious. Youve got a commonality of heritage and thought
pattern that you want to carry forward. | <urn:uuid:37510d64-5dc2-4628-b2a2-920bcf740d70> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.astm.org/SNEWS/APRIL_2000/people_apr.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393518.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00159-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959208 | 786 | 3.078125 | 3 |
Article first published as Nutritional Protection Against Radiation on Technorati.
High levels of ionizing radiation, such as those released from nuclear reactors in Japan, can lead to cancer and immune suppression. This article will discuss nutritional strategies to prevent or mitigate the DNA damage, cancer development, and decreases in immunity that radiation can cause.
The recent release of radiation from nuclear reactors in Japan has prompted many to purchase iodine supplements to try to prevent thyroid cancer. But that isn’t the only cancer that can be caused by radiation. Iodine supplements, as potassium iodide, can only prevent thyroid cancers, as it blocks specific receptors on this gland. The radioactive iodine isotopes released from the nuclear reactors are thus prevented from binding to the thyroid gland’s iodine receptors because they are filled with iodine obtained from the supplements. You should only use these iodine supplements if medical authorities direct you to do so. To protect the rest of the body, other supplements, nutrients and compounds are required to stop the oxidative damage caused by radiation that leads to DNA damage and eventually to cancer.
Melatonin has recently been described as a strong radioprotective agent by researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio in the journal TAF Preventive Medicine Bulletin. The authors describe this inexpensive neuroendocrine hormone’s protective effects on DNA against ionizing radiation. Melatonin is also more efficient at protecting DNA than amifostine, an anti-radiation drug used in a clinical setting. Long term low-dose supplementation is effective but the authors of the paper also cite research that showed that a one-time dose of 300 mg of melatonin before radiation is effective, although the optimum dosage hasn't been definitely determined. It quickly passes into the blood after ingestion, as well as to other bodily fluids. The supplement is also reported as being safe during pregnancy and also protects against preeclampsia, a condition that is partially cause by reactive oxygen species (ROS). Although it shows beneficial effects on pregnancy, please consult your doctor if you intend to use it when pregnant. Radiation also induces ROS and melatonin is an effective antioxidant against this toxic effect. Melatonin also protects human lymphocytes, important immune system cells, from genetic damage caused by radiation. Don’t use it before tasks requiring concentration, as it’s usually used to induce sleep, and will cause drowsiness.
Research on animals has shown radioprotective effects of various ginseng formulations. A recent study using lymphocytes extracted from humans and treated with North American Ginseng extract 90 minutes after irradiation of the lymphocytes, showed that the extract protected the immune cells from irradiation with Cesium-137. Cesium-137 is the radioactive isotope that’s being spewed out from the Japanese nuclear reactors. The extract used in the above study contained a total ginsenoside (the bioactive component) content of 11.7 percent, with Rb1 as the major ginsenoside. Asian ginseng has also shown protective effects by the same researchers when human lymphocytes were treated with the compound before radiation. Furthermore, ginseng extracts enhance immune function in healthy and immune-compromised humans.
Curcumin has been shown to protect normal tissues from radiation by enhancing antioxidant enzymes and quenching free radicals. Recent research published in Radiation Research also shows that curcumin dose-dependently decreases radiation-induced lung fibrosis, and improves survival after irradiation. Doses from 3.6 grams to 8 grams per day have been used. This spice is hard to absorb, so use some black pepper to enhance absorption or supplements with highly bio-available curcumin. Don’t use this spice if you’re pregnant.
A study published in the International Journal of Radiation Biology shows that Vitamin E, as alpha-tocopherol succinate, has been shown to protect against total-body irradiation. Furthermore, a diet of high combined amounts of specific vitamins from food sources has been shown to protect pilots’ DNA from ionizing radiation. Pilots are exposed to radiation every time they fly. The best combination was vitamin E and C, beta-carotene, beta-cryptoxanthin, and lutein-zeaxanthin, (good sources are green leafy veggies, carrots, and pumpkins),as reported in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
This year, the British Journal of Nutrition also reported that high niacin intake from food, or lots of whole grains but low levels of red and processed meats, might confer protection from ionizing radiation.
There are several other compounds that can be used to protect against radiation, but the above nutrients are the main ones. Always consult your doctor before you use supplements, especially if you’re pregnant. Although no supplement can completely protect you from radiation, you can mitigate its toxic effects with judicious use of specific nutrients and hormones. | <urn:uuid:9b8da236-3766-4ca9-bacf-7452c31d1034> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://nutritionmedicinedisease.typepad.com/nutrition-medicine-and-d/2011/03/vitamins-and-nutrients-that-protect-against-radiation.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397213.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00017-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940031 | 1,006 | 3.28125 | 3 |
Smartphones are designed to make life easier, giving users instant access both to the world around them and the world at large, but experts warn that they could also negatively affect our brains.
"When people ask me the question, you know, 'What is our technology, our phones, doing? Are they making us smarter or dumber?' I say, 'Yes, they are. They're making us smarter, and they're making us dumber,'" said Dr. Sandy Chapman, chief director for the Center for Brain Health in Dallas.
Chapman, who has studied the effects of technology on the brain, said she believes smartphones help our brains work differently and are valuable tools. For instance, people don't have to remember phone numbers if they're stored in a contact list -- and that's a good thing.
"The more phone numbers you store in your brain, the less likely you are to really think deeper thoughts, so that's when I say more isn't always better. This is very superficial information," said Chapman, adding that less phone-number memorization frees the brain to think deeper.
But, on the flip side, the unrelenting pings, buzzes and beeps may throw the brain into overdrive.
"It's making us dumber because, what it is impacting, it's really keeping us at this distracted level, so everything that we're thinking about tends to be more quick, more minute, less synthesized, and that's what's making us dumber," Chapman said.
According to Nielsen research, 55.5 percent of mobile phone subscribers in the United States own smartphones. Adults ages 25 to 34 lead the pack at 74 percent. Teens ages 13 to 17 show the most dramatic increase in smartphone adoption, at 58 percent.
But the lure of technology on the brain can be most devastating in the teen years, Chapman said.
Southern Methodist University freshman Kyle Waldrep is of the smartphone generation. He got his first one when he was 14, for Christmas.
"Immediately, I was addicted," he said.
Like other college students, Waldrep uses his phone to text and email friends, take photos, keep his busy social calendar in check and look at headlines, stocks and sports statistics.
"I'm a big sports guy, so I am on my phone looking at tennis match updates or the Mavericks, the Rangers, the Cowboys," he said. "I've now set my phone to get alerts, so it goes off even more when a game is going on. It's kind of become a part of me."
Learning to manage usage of his smartphone became a necessity. This summer, when he was rigorously training to make the university's tennis team, he contracted West Nile virus and encephalitis, or swelling of the brain.
"I wasn't able to think," he said. "I wasn't able to memorize anything or remember what was going on."
Little things, such as where he parked his car, became difficult. Studying grew impossible, and he slept most of the day.
Desperate to get focused and keep up in school, Waldrep had to change his relationship with his phone, putting it away for periods of time and turning it off while studying or in class.
"I need all the focus I can get," he said.
Most people can learn from his lesson, Chapman said.
"If you will let your brain quiet down, it actually rejuvenates and works harder for you to solve problems that you didn't even know you could solve," she said. "If you keep it in this constant state of interruption -- 'any moment now' -- it never goes deep."
Chapman advises Center for Brain Health clients to train themselves to put their phones away -- even if it's only for a few minutes at a time. She tells people to turn their phone off at night and use it as a tool when appropriate, but not to multitask with it.
"Our technology tricks us into thinking that we're doing two things at once, but our brain quickly toggles back and forth between one or the other, and it's doing one," she said. "And it's doing everything at a worse level -- more errors, more risks, more shallow thinking."
Waldrep said he realized that he was more productive when he was mindful of his smartphone usage and that his world was still waiting for him when he reconnected to his phone."
"I do feel like an exception," he said. "But I feel like I'm an exception because of West Nile, almost because I have to have this extra focus. I can't get away with the outside interruption at all. It would severely affect my, you know, grades and my performance and schoolwork." | <urn:uuid:5e57754a-ad44-40eb-9830-15785c02e46b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Are-Smartphones-Making-Us-Dumb-178258381.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395992.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00124-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984592 | 976 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Missoula native Jeannette Rankin became the first woman elected to the U.S. Congress in 1916. That was two years after Montana women were given equal suffrage, and four years before the Nineteenth Amendment gave women across the United States the right to vote. “I may be the first woman member of Congress,” Rankin said after being elected. “But I won’t be the last.”
Since Rankin’s election, 276 women have served in Congress (compared to about 12,000 men). But Rankin, a Republican who was voted again to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1940 and became, in 1941, the only member to vote against entering World War II, remains the only Montana woman to represent the state in Washington, D.C.
Seven decades later, Kim Gillan is gunning to be the second. The Democratic state senator from Billings is campaigning for Montana’s lone seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Her bid comes during the so-called “War on Women,” the political catch phrase used to describe efforts by conservatives to restrict reproductive rights and government funding for women’s health care.
The chance at being Montana’s second woman in Congress is one reason Gillan’s campaign would figure to stand out. Another reason is that, after serving 16 years in the Montana Legislature—eight in the House and eight in the Senate, with leadership positions in both chambers—Gillan brings a lawmaking prowess and penchant for bipartisanship; only twice in her eight sessions were Democrats in the majority. Yet another reason is that, with “jobs” being the election year’s most discussed topic, Gillan is a workforce development and training coordinator at Montana State University-Billings.
But it turns out that many Montanans—perhaps as many as 59 percent, according to one poll conducted in September—don’t know who Kim Gillan is.
Gillan’s relative anonymity can be blamed partly on the fact that she ran against six other candidates in the Democratic primary, diluting her name recognition. She emerged from the June primary with 32 percent of the vote to face Republican candidate Steve Daines, a deep-pocketed businessman from Bozeman with no lawmaking experience. Daines won 72 percent of the vote in his party’s three-way primary, but he had been the presumptive nominee long before that, allowing him to build on the name recognition he established while campaigning for lieutenant governor in 2008, and mount a significant fundraising advantage over his Democratic challenger. In July, his $853,000 in cash on hand was nearly 10 times the $88,000 Gillan had in the bank.
All of which makes Gillan, despite her legislative record, the decided underdog. The polls, the candidates’ fundraising disparity and an unpopular Democratic president all point to a Daines victory. But there are enough undecided voters—nearly 38 percent, according to an MSU-Billings poll released Oct. 10—to suggest that the race could go either way. To lure those voters before Election Day on Nov. 6, Gillan knows she needs to get her message out—and fast.
Steve Daines has distilled his campaign down to four words: “More jobs, less government.” The slogan resonates with many disaffected voters in the state. All the Daines campaign signs that dot Montana neighborhoods and highways display those words. It has become his political identity. When wavering voters walk into the ballot booth, Daines’ consistent messaging might stick.
Daines, 50, is a former executive at Bozeman-based RightNow Technologies Inc., a software company. A year ago, Oracle Corp. acquired RightNow for $1.5 billion. Daines’ 28-year business career doesn’t quite fit with the traditional way prominent Montana politicians sell themselves. He can’t pull off Gov. Brian Schweitzer’s signature down-home, bolo-tie folksiness. He isn’t a third-generation flat-topped farmer who lost three fingers in a meat grinder like U.S. Sen. Jon Tester. Nor did he formerly raise cattle and cashmere goats like U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg, the man whose seat Daines is trying to fill. Daines fills none of those roles, but he is handsome, likable and polished.
In late August, he spoke at the Republican National Convention, in Tampa, Fla. In his short speech he touched on the jobs he created through RightNow, his 25-year marriage and four children, his great-great grandmother from Norway who homesteaded in Montana, Ronald Reagan and the “out-of-control spending, crushing debt and job-destroying regulations” that “threaten our children’s future.” He’s running on basic themes few Republicans in a Republican-leaning state would disagree with. They’re repeated in all of his campaign commercials.
“Nobody’s going to look at Steve Daines and think he’s some terrible guy,” says Robert Saldin, a political science professor at the University of Montana. “He appears like he’s a nice guy. He has a nice family. He has an honorable background.” All of which, Saldin says, overshadows Daines’ support for controversial legislation such as U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget. “But still, he’s not offensive in the same way that we can imagine some candidates perhaps being,” Saldin says.
Daines declined to be interviewed by the Independent for this story.
Kim Gillan’s message isn’t nearly as succinct. In an interview with the Independent in August, Gillan said, “You know, honestly, sometimes I don’t know how to label myself.” She was quick to rattle off accomplishments, but struggled to boil her professional and legislative careers down to a simple message to introduce herself to Montana voters. She said her campaign needed to do a better job of building on her image as a “proven problem solver.”
“My track record, not just in the legislature, but in the community, is that of a problem solver—bringing collaboration instead of endless stalemates,” she said. “It’s Kim Gillan who will sit down, listen, try to figure out whether there is an opportunity for collaboration, and if there is, figure out how we can get it done.” She describes herself as a “pit bull” and a “policy wonk.”
Pat Williams, Montana’s last Democratic representative in the U.S. House, serving from 1979 to 1997, says Republicans have been much better over the last 20 years at “sloganeering” than have Democrats. “The Gillan-Daines race is no exception,” he says.
It’s easier to sloganeer, Williams says, when, like Daines, you don’t have a legislative record. “When you have a record, interestingly, you’re a little more hazy to people than if you have no record and you’re a clean slate, because you can identify yourself, and people don’t have opinions yet,” he says.
Williams believes Gillan needs to starkly contrast her experience with Daines’ lack of it, and talk up the significance of Montana finally sending another woman to Congress.
“If I was Kim,” Williams says, “I would wind up and throw those two fastballs—experience and the need for at least some gender equity in Congress.”
Gillan’s first big ball game occurred at the race’s opening debate in Missoula on Sept. 25, an event broadcast throughout Montana. Saldin put the event in perspective, saying it was “really about these candidates trying to introduce themselves to the state, in many cases for the first time.”
About an hour before the candidates took the stage, the University of Montana’s Performing Arts/Radio TV Center was bustling like the backstage of a theater before a play. Daines, tall and fit and wearing a dark suit, left the makeup room and retreated to a small office with one of his aides to rehearse talking points. He declined to let this reporter listen in.
Gillan went to the makeup room and sat in front of a mirror framed by light bulbs while a makeup artist prepared her for high-definition television. The room was silent until Gillan defused the tension.
“Everyone’s so quiet,” she said, “like they’re waiting for the new and improved Kim Gillan.”
It was an interesting statement considering the long legislative resume Gillan’s running on. Voters in the Billings Heights area sent Gillan to the Montana House in 1996, making her the first Democrat to represent the district; former Republican U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns was one of her constituents. She served four terms in the House and then, beginning in 2004, four terms in the Senate. She’s been the House minority leader and Senate minority whip. She’s chaired or vice-chaired several committees. Term limits prevent her from running again.
In 2001, when Gillan was the House minority leader, a profile of her in the Billings Gazette said she “defies the GOP-driven stereotype that Democrats are anti-business. She has a reputation of being one of the House’s best strategic thinkers on economic and education issues.” (The article also described her as a “Volvo-driving soccer mom.”)
Among her proudest achievements, she says, is ushering through legislation that required insurance companies to cover those with diabetes and autism. The autism bill became law in 2009, the height of the national debate over the Affordable Care Act. “You don’t pass insurance reform in 2009 unless you can get Democrats and Republicans to find some way to collaborate,” Gillan says.
“She’s been a big figure in the legislature for a long time,” says Saldin. The fact that many Montanans don’t know her well, he says, “may indicate that a lot of people tune out the legislature.”
Gillan’s hoping people tune in for the debate. Back in the makeup room, as a photographer snapped photos of her, she faced him, stuck her thumb in her ears, wagged her fingers and stuck her tongue out. “If you can’t do this with some humor,” she said, “then you can’t do it.” She joked about her mother “always admonishing me for not wearing enough makeup.” When the makeup artist finished, Gillan said, “Now that I’m all dolled up, it’s time to go party.”
During the debate, Gillan and Daines sparred over “Obamacare.” Gillan said she’d “go to work on fixing what we need to fix, and preserve what we like.” Daines said he’d vote to repeal the law altogether.
Gillan framed Daines as an extremist who supports Paul Ryan’s budget, which includes turning Medicare into a “voucher program.” She described herself as a pragmatist. “We need to start from the center,” she said.
Daines called for a “flatter and simpler” tax code with lower rates on corporations. In closing statements, Gillan said she would work with both Democrats and Republicans in Congress “because the issues are too important to let this gridlock continue.” Daines touched on jobs, burdensome regulations and “exploding debt.”
Pat Williams watched the debate a building away from the TV studio, in a room in UM’s law school. The Democrat audibly sighed after some of Daines’ answers, but gave the candidate some credit.
“He impressed me,” Williams would say later. “He’s smart. He’s very presentable. A good debater. But frankly, his no-experience shows.”
But Williams’ sentiment isn’t showing up in the polls.
About a week after the first debate, Gillan opened a new line of attack against Daines and his “more jobs, less government” message. The AP reported that RightNow Technologies secured more than $15 million in government contracts over the last decade. About $13.7 million of that came from the Department of Defense, according to USAspending.gov. That database shows 57 total federal contracts, though more than 170 public agencies reportedly use RightNow’s software.
Gillan says it’s hypocritical to campaign on “less government” while having benefited from those contracts. In the second debate, on Oct. 2 in Billings, Gillan asked, “Why is it okay for government spending if it benefits your bottom line...but not okay for those important and crucial programs for Montana?” Daines’ response is that RightNow’s software has made government more efficient.
She hoped the revelation of Daines’ hypocrisy would be a game-changer, but that hasn’t been the case. Just days after the AP story ran in papers across the state, the Billings Gazette, Gillan’s hometown paper, endorsed Daines.
Gillan has “served her Heights constituents well in the Legislature,” the paper’s editorial board wrote on Oct. 7. “She has [a] strong record of community service and many years of experience working with local businesses. But Daines has the executive business experience America needs to find federal cost savings and new ideas to stimulate the economy.”
It’s an example of how Gillan has appeared to gain momentum in recent months, but not to the point of altering the underlying dynamics of the race.
In mid-September, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the official campaign arm of the Democrats in the House of Representatives, added Gillan’s campaign to its “Red to Blue” program. The program targets 53 House seats around the country currently held by Republicans that the committee thinks have a good chance to flip. The DCCC provides those campaigns with guidance and financial backing. Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., who chairs the committee, said in a statement that Gillan’s campaign has “incredible grassroots energy that has put this race on the map. She is tough, smart and can get things done for her state while protecting Medicare and Social Security, and standing up for women’s health.”
The national attention helps to explain how Gillan’s campaign raised $375,000 in the third quarter, half of what it had raised in the previous quarters combined. But that haul is still less than the $490,000 Daines brought in during the same period. Overall, he’s winning the fundraising race $1.6 million to $750,000.
Like the fundraising figures, Gillan also faces an uphill battle in the most recent polls. On Oct. 5, the Gillan camp released the results of a campaign-commissioned poll conducted by the Washington, D.C.-based Mellman Group that gave Daines a 36-34 lead. Gillan called it a statistical dead heat, with 25 percent of those surveyed still undecided. But for every poll that encourages Gillan supporters, there are two that show Daines with a clear advantage. On Oct. 10, Public Policy Polling survey results gave Daines a 43-34 lead, with only 12 percent undecided.
“Steve Daines is a credible candidate with an honorable background, and you’ve got President Obama at the top of the ticket,” says Saldin, the UM political science professor. “That’s such a tough environment this cycle. If this was 2014, it could be a totally different story. [With the] exact same candidates, we’d see a real different situation.”
It’s early evening on Oct. 11, and Kim Gillan is standing in the foyer of a home in Missoula’s South Hills greeting a line of women making their way inside. She’s sucking on the straw of a Dairy Queen soda cup. When her drink’s finished, she pops off the lid and shakes the ice into her mouth. She’s her characteristic upbeat, high-energy self, shaking everyone’s hand and thanking each one for coming.
Gillan’s logged some 60,000 miles on her car during the course of the campaign. She jokes that she’s on her “15th wind.”
Tonight’s campaign event is called “Wine, Women, and Kim Gillan,” a meet-and-greet during which the couple of dozen women in attendance are penning handwritten postcards to fellow female voters around the state. After a few minutes of mingling, Gillan addresses the entire group.
“I’m Kim Gillan, and I’m running to be Montana’s next congresswoman,” she says. “We need to get down to brass tacks because we don’t have that much longer. Almost only three weeks. And one of the most important messages that I can communicate tonight is that we can get this done, the race is very close, and the women in this room, and the women in this state, are going to be the deciding factor in who is going to be elected to this congressional seat.”
Gillan goes on to give a wide-ranging stump speech, touching on her record in the legislature, in her Billings community and in workforce development, and how she’s from a blue-collar family, with parents raised during the Great Depression. She talks about the importance of education, Medicare, Social Security and not extending tax breaks for the wealthy. She says she’ll be a champion for women in Congress.
Then she goes on the offensive, a departure from her positive campaign commercials and largely civil debates with Daines. She rips into him, saying he’ll be a “rubber stamp” for Republicans, evidenced by the fact House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, visited Montana in August for a Daines campaign event.
“We need someone who’s going to stand up for Montanans,” she says. “I have a track record. And even though my opponent has a lot more money, you cannot buy a track record. Agreed?”
The audience responds with perfunctory yeses and nods.
She turns to the “audacity” of Daines to campaign on “More jobs, less government” after his company benefited from so many government contracts. “To go and basically campaign on the motto of less government is like, ‘Do as I say, but not as I do,’” she says. “And if he does that now, in Montana, what’s going to happen when he’s 2,000 miles away?”
Gillan is on a roll, but none of what she says resonates quite like the words offered by Carol Williams, who walks into the room about halfway through Gillan’s speech. Williams is the matriarch of Missoula Democrats, having served eight years in the Montana Senate—the same eight years as Gillan—and one session as the state’s first female Senate majority leader. She’s married to Pat Williams.
Gillan turns to her at the end of her speech and asks, “Carol, any words of wisdom?”
Williams recounts Gillan’s difficult primary race. “People said, ‘Oh, she can’t do it. Nobody knows who she is.’ But she did [win],” Williams says.
“And so it’s out there, and it’s possible, and we think she can do it,” she says. “And as Pat always says, I think 72 years…”
Williams pauses and her eyes well up.
“...72 years is long enough to wait for another woman…It’s time—really time—that women say, ‘Enough with the men and all their ideas in Washington that are starting to really hurt Montana women.’ It’s time that we tell our friends that we need to do this. We aren’t going to get a better chance.”
The women give Williams boisterous applause.
And then Gillan announces a new messaging effort: a commercial featuring a 72-year-old woman talking about the opportunity for Gillan to be the first Montana congresswoman since Jeannette Rankin. It hit the airwaves Oct. 16, a week after roughly 60 percent of Montanans who vote absentee received their ballot in the mail.
The file on Steve Daines
Education: Montana State University
Political experience: Failed lieutenant governor run in 2008; shared ticket with Roy Brown of Billings
Family: Married father of four
Big endorsers: NRA, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Right to Life Committee
Big-name supporters: John Boehner, Rick Santorum
Facebook “likes”: 1,829
What he’s Tweeting: “Had a great meeting last week with our next Vice President, Paul Ryan.”
Random number: $1.5 billon—amount Oracle paid to acquire Daines’ former company, RightNow Technologies, in 2011
Fun fact: Daines attended the 1984 GOP National Convention in Dallas as one of the youngest delegates for President Ronald Reagan
Quote of the campaign: “More jobs, less government.”
The file on Kim Gillan
Education: UCLA, Cornell University
Political experience: Sixteen years in Montana Legislature
Family: Divorced mother of two
Big endorsers: About 20 labor leaders
Big-name supporters: Gov. Brian Schweitzer
Facebook “likes”: 1,266
What she’s Tweeting: “@DainesforHouse got $15 million from tax payers for his business. Doesn’t sound like ‘less gov’t’ to me.”
Random number: 60,000—miles driven during campaign
Fun fact: Gillan’s father, a union longshoreman in San Francisco, voted for the famous strike of 1934
Quote of the campaign: “I say, ‘Less rhetoric, more results.’” | <urn:uuid:2dc2966e-8dee-4a7e-b58c-d2df174b3af8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://missoulanews.bigskypress.com/missoula/do-you-know-who-this-is/Content?oid=1684656&showFullText=true | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396872.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00111-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959772 | 4,921 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Instead of the traditional stick-built, on-site construction methods, most of the work is pre-fabricated at an off-site climate controlled factory. As each sub-section is finished it is transported to the building site and constructed together using the same methods the current stick built homes use.
Everyonegoeshome.com Learning Media Center.
A recent informational video was produced and developed on Residential Modular Construction Fires -Lessons Learned. This video discusses the hazards and lessons learned from fighting fires in modular construction homes. Chief Kevin A. Gallagher, Acushnet Fire & EMS Department, MA presented an informative session on operational issues an insights on construction methods and practices.
- Everyonegoeshome.com Training Program HERE
Based upon the information presented in the EGH video, here’s some additional information to increase your awareness on this construction system and process.
- The question is this; “Are you aware of Modular Construction taking place in your response district, first-due area, greater alarm locations or mutual-aid districts?”
- Operational strategies, tactics and task assignments at buildings constructed of modular construction will perform differently than those of engineered, conventional or legecy construction, continuing the challenages in identifying building construction features, occupany risk and selecting the appropriate operational deployment profile and tactics.
- Remember, Building Knowledge=Firefighter Safety. | <urn:uuid:6ba8145d-250e-4879-b6e0-356967c0e05f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://thekitchentable.firerescue1.com/2011_01_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00168-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.91079 | 284 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Mar. 27, 2002
Listen (RealAudio) | How to listen
Poem: "April 4," by David Lehman from The Evening Sun (Scribner Poetry).
The exodus from Egypt takes place
tonight this is the bread
of affliction this the wine
like the water of the Nile turned
into blood, the first plague
visited upon Pharaoh this is
the lamb of the feast the blood
of the lamb smeared on the doorposts
so the angel of death would know
which houses to pass over as he
came to slay the first-born sons
of the Egyptian ruling class these
are the bitter herbs fresh horse-
radish the sharpest most pungent
my mother served the tears
of many centuries and my father
poured the wine in Elijah's cup
that the prophet invisibly sipped
let all who are hungry join us
The Jewish festival of Passover, or Pesach, begins today at nightfall. The eight-day festival commemorates the birth of the Jewish people as a nation when Moses led them out of Egypt, over three thousand years ago. Passover is celebrated with a special meal, called the Seder, at which special foods are eaten, special prayers are recited, and the story of the flight from Egypt is told.
It's the birthday of the great African-American dancer and choreographer Arthur Mitchell, born in New York City (1934). He started out studying tap dancing, majored in modern dance at New York City's High School for the Performing Arts and took up ballet at the age of eighteen. Three years later, in 1955, he was called in by George Balanchine to take the lead in the ballet Western Symphony at the New York City Ballet. At the time, the debut of a black dancer in the part was considered a "casting novelty." Mitchell was soon made a principal with the company, and Balanchine created memorable roles for him in A Midsummer's Night Dream (1962), Agon (1967), and other ballets. In 1969, Mitchell founded the all-black dance company, the Dance Theater of Harlem.
It's the birthday of Russian cellist and conductor Mstislav
Rostropovich, born in Baku, Russia (1927). In 1969, his support of dissident
author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn brought him into conflict with the Soviet authorities,
who kept him under wraps for nearly five years. Finally, in 1974, he was allowed
to travel to the United States, where he made a stunning debut as guest conductor
of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. His outspoken criticism
of the Soviet Union while he was on the tour caused the Soviet authorities to
strip him of his citizenship and brand him an "ideological renegade."
In 1990, as the Soviet Union was crumbling, he made a triumphant return to his
homeland as the music director of the National Symphony Orchestra.
It's the birthday of poet Louis (Aston Marantz) Simpson, born in Jamaica (1923). In 1964, he won the Pulitzer Prize for his collection At the End of the Open Road (1963). He said: "I want a poem to leave the reader wondering. I want it to be open. When a poem is written in a regular form that closes, click, with a rhyme-I don't like that."
It's the birthday of Japanese novelist Shusaku Endo, born in Tokyo (1923). Ten of his novels have been translated into English, including Silence (1969) and Wonderful Fool (1983), both about European missionaries in Japan.
It's the birthday of American photographer Edward Steichen, born in Luxembourg (1879). In 1902, he joined photographer Alfred Stieglitz in founding the Photo-Secession Group, whose mission was to establish photography as a fine art. They opened a gallery at 291 Fifth Avenue in New York City.
It's the birthday of French writer Henri
Murger, born in Paris (1822). His autobiographical novel Scènes
de la vie bohème (Scenes of the Bohemian Life, 1849) became
the basis for Puccini's famous opera La Bohème.
Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.® | <urn:uuid:bd4e66ac-0163-445c-a13a-95e1ad71667c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php?date=2002/03/27 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399106.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00065-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960375 | 899 | 2.625 | 3 |
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor gave a shout out to Latina girl power when she visited the set of Sesame Street recently to talk about careers.
“A career is a job that you train for and prepare for and plan on doing for a long time,” explained the Puerto Rican Judge to Abby Cadabby. Even though Prince Harry remains on the market, the Sesame Street character must have still been a bit confused about what a career is when she expressed her interest in starting a career as a princess.
Don’t worry though, Sotomayor set the record straight about life as an adult without crushing the fairytale clarifying, “Pretending to be a princess is fun, but it is definitely not a career.”
The judge then informed Abby Cadabby of the many opportunities that offer females the chance to make a difference, “Well, you can go to school and train to be a teacher, a lawyer, a doctor, an engineer, and even a scientist.” Sotomayor then explained about her incredible career as a United States Supreme Court Justice in an effort to inspire young girls to dream outside of the clichéd make believe box when imagining their futures.
Sotomayor’s speech did the trick, because by the end of her visit Abby Cadabby had new aspirations of the Supreme Court Justice variety. Let’s hope other young girls out there understand the same message. | <urn:uuid:6ff6cd50-f3de-46ca-adc9-dcb2ab8aaf21> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.latina.com/entertainment/tv/sonia-sotomayor-stops-sesame-street-cuteness-ensues?source=suggested | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396875.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00003-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962625 | 301 | 2.546875 | 3 |
- freely available
Sustainability 2013, 5(4), 1443-1460; doi:10.3390/su5041443
Abstract: Graduates of university programs addressing sustainable resource management are likely to shape strategies for natural resource use in the future. Their academic training needs to foster student knowledge of the multiple dimensions of natural resource management. This paper investigates university student understanding of such challenges. We differentiated situational, conceptual, and procedural types of knowledge, and three domains of knowledge (ecological, socio-economic and institutional knowledge), and sampled beginners (third semester) and seniors (seventh semester) of seven natural resource related programs at the leading Indonesian institution of higher education in the field of natural resource management (IPB Bogor; n = 882). The questionnaire consisted of multiple choice and rating scale items covering ‘locally’ relevant open-access resource use issues. With a confirmatory tau-equivalent LISREL model, construct validity was assessed. The ability to extract relevant information from problem descriptions provided (situational knowledge) did not differ between third and seventh semester students. While it was high for ecological and socio-economic items, it was markedly lower for institutional knowledge. Knowledge of relevant scientific concepts (conceptual knowledge) increased in the ecological and socio-economic domains but the effect was small. Conceptual knowledge in the socio-economical and institutional domains tended to be lower than ecological knowledge. Although there was certain improvement, student judgments on the efficacy of resource management options (procedural knowledge) differed strongly from expert judgments for beginners as well as for senior students. We conclude that many of the university students in the sampled programs displayed substantial gaps in their capacity to solve complex, real-world natural resource management problems. Specifically, the socio-economic and institutional knowledge domains—and their integration with ecological knowledge—may require attention by educational planners.
International agreements, such as the Agenda 21 and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), highlight the pivotal role of education in the conservation of biological diversity and in natural resource management at large [1,2,3]. One key aspect is the education of well-informed decision makers [4,5,6] who are qualified to apply specialized knowledge taught by higher education institutions including universities. Many university graduates from natural resource management programs become educators or decision makers that influence future resource use decisions . To adequately prepare these students, we must foster an understanding of the interdisciplinary challenges of natural resource management [8,9].
During the past fifteen years, several studies investigated the perception, awareness, attitudes, and knowledge of university students regarding environmental problems (e.g., [6,10,11,12,13,14]). However, there are virtually no studies that investigate the formation of the cognitive skills necessary to meet the challenges of natural resource management cf. . Real-world issues of the sustainable utilization of natural resources typically involve complexities, e.g., socio-economic resource use dilemmas. One prominent set of socio-economic dilemmas consists of the (over-) exploitation of open-access goods . Even if environmental knowledge was addressed, none of the cited studies examined the cognitive skills necessary for solving more complex environmental problems in real-world settings.
Instead, the studies cited above merely focus on the assessment of learner knowledge of definitions and concepts in the environmental sciences. It is well known that this type of knowledge hardly influences pro-environmental action cf. [17,18]. Knowing the definition of ‘ecosystem’ or ‘endemic species’, for example, neither helps a low-income country smallholder nor a high-income country consumer in making more ecologically sound production or consumption choices. In contrast, knowledge more directly informing decision-making and action does influence pro-conservation choices e.g., [19,20]. With respect to complex resource use dilemmas, this means that learners need to know, (1) how to detect an imminent socio-ecological resource use problem, (2) how to learn about them, and (3) how to judge potential solutions for the problem class at hand.
Unfortunately, there is reason to surmise that there are severe gaps in both, high school and university education, with respect to the socio-economic and institutional dimensions of natural resource management. The term “institutional” is used with reference to North’s definition of institutions as the “rules of the game” by which humans restrict, facilitate and guide social action . For example, key documents of the United Nations “Decade on Education for Sustainable Development” (2005–2014) virtually ignore the body of knowledge in environmental and institutional economics on the socio-economic and institutional dimensions of sustainable resource management. Likewise, empirical studies have documented low rates of socio-economic and institutional knowledge among upper secondary school students from countries as diverse as Chile, Turkey and Germany [22,23] with respect to natural resource management issues.
A lack of the respective socio-economic and institutional expertise on the part of citizens, professionals and decision-makers can be particularly problematic in countries such as Indonesia that harbor several severely threatened biodiversity hotspots [24,25]. Typical problems include over-exploitation of forest and marine resources, the expansion and intensification of agriculture, and oil and gas operations [26,27]. A recent qualitative interview study surveyed biology education students and agronomy students from Indonesia. It suggests that future educators and decision-makers in Indonesia may in fact be insufficiently prepared to deal with typical natural resource management issues . For example, students were aware of the importance of rattan extraction for rural livelihoods. They did not recognize the typical socio-ecological dilemmas of de facto open access with respect to this non-timber forest resource, however. While the exercise of state authority and ecological “education” were regularly called for as potential solutions, solutions based on local resource management and/or informal institutions were hardly mentioned.
Against this background, we investigate different types of knowledge attained by university students of natural resources management at different points in their program. The paper aims at providing a contribution to the small knowledgebase on educational outcomes in natural resource management including biodiversity conservation, and will pinpoint specific educational challenges based on the detailed analysis of these educational outcomes. We use the insights gained to make recommendation for improvements to Indonesian university curricula with respect to sustainable resource management.
2.1. Instrument Development
We used results from a qualitative in-depth interview study of the subjective theories of Indonesian university students on resource use dilemmas to design a quantitative questionnaire. The initial development of the item pool for situational and conceptual knowledge focused primarily on the creation of items that were similar in language and complexity across knowledge domains. The questionnaire was piloted with fifth semester students from the Institut Pertanian Bogor (IPB, Indonesia) (n = 409). Those items were selected for the main study that displayed high reliability while eschewing floor and ceiling effects. The final questionnaire consisted of 33 multiple-choice questions, 12 rating scale items and socio-demographic as well as general education-related questions, e.g., on Grade Point Average (GPA), motivation and career aspirations. The full questionnaire was translated from English into Indonesian, then back-translated into English by an independent researcher and revised if necessary.
2.2. Knowledge Model
The design of the survey questionnaire was based on the knowledge model (see Figure 1) by de Jong and Ferguson-Hessler . In this model, Situational knowledge represents information that must be extracted from a given problem description to (re-) construct the problem on behalf of the learner. Conceptual knowledge comprises additional knowledge not given in the problem description, but necessary to assign the problem to a suitable scientific problem class. Procedural knowledge is the knowledge that, then, enables learners to identify and evaluate potential solutions to the problem. The problem descriptions used in the survey questionnaire consist to non-technical narratives on real-world resource management dilemmas relevant for Indonesia.
2.3. Situational and Conceptual Knowledge
33 multiple-choice items were designed according to a 2*3 factorial design (see Figure 2). The items evaluate situational knowledge (18 items) and conceptual knowledge (15 items). Another eleven items address each of the three knowledge domains. The domains reflect main problem dimensions encountered in biodiversity conservation: ecological, socio-economic, and institutional knowledge.
The 18 situational knowledge items refer to problem descriptions of resource over-utilization in resource use dilemmas characterized by open-access resource appropriation. The problem descriptions provided to students consist of short and hypothetical but science-based narratives addressing actions and options of local households (for an example, see Figure 3). The problem descriptions avoid technical language and were written in a non-technical style. The first narrative concerns the over-exploitation of rattan (Calamus spp.), an internationally traded non-timber forest resource found in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia . The second problem describes near-shore dynamite fishing in the Sunda Sea, Indonesia . The 15 conceptual knowledge items cover the additional knowledge that allows students to reconstruct the ecological, socio-economic and institutional settings of the two problem descriptions in more abstract terms. Specifically, conceptual knowledge enables students to recognize that both problem descriptions address the utilization of limited, renewable resources (ecological domain) in de facto open-access situations. In both cases, poor governance results in over-exploitation of the resource (institutional domain). The appropriators of the resources are poor villagers with limited alternative income sources (socio-economic domain) competing for the resource.
2.4. Procedural Knowledge
In our study, procedural knowledge refers to the cognitive skill of identifying and judging potential solutions (“strategies”) to the two resource management problems presented. All items on procedural knowledge refer to an institutional context either provided in the narrative and/or specified in the items. Consequently, judgments on the effectiveness of a potential solution require at least an implicit judgment of institutional effectiveness. Thus, all respective responses refer to knowledge in the institutional domain.
The effectiveness of the proposed solutions can be judged with respect to the different dimensions of sustainable development:
Is the strategy effective for the protection of rattan or fish stocks (ecological dimension)?
Will the strategy improve or stabilize livelihoods of the concerned villagers (social dimension)?
Is the strategy effective with respect to the general economic development in Indonesia (economic dimension)?
Students judged 12 potential solution strategies using a four-point rating scale (“absolutely ineffective” to “very effective”). Student judgments were compared to judgments of academics and professionals in the field (see Analysis section) to assess the quality of student responses.
2.5. Survey Administration
We administered the survey to university students of IPB, the leading Indonesian institution of higher education in the field of agronomy, forestry and rural land use. “Managing utilization of biodiversity” is one of IPB’s four “thematic pillars”. The survey sample consists of nearly all IPB students in the departments of Forest Management, Forest Resource Conservation and Ecotourism, Biology, Fishing Resource Utilization, Living Aquatic Resource Management, Environmental and Resource Economics, and Communication and Community Development. Many of the students are expected to become decision-makers or educators in natural resource management.
In the first two semesters, IPB students attend general education classes without scientific specialization. In the third semester, students begin a specific program. In the eighth semester, the students typically perform field research and prepare a thesis. We sampled the entire population of third and seventh semester students, excluding absentees due to illness or similar reasons, enrolled in the seven natural resource-related programs mentioned above. Roughly, the questionnaire took between 45 and 60 min to complete.
The main study sample consists of 882 university students. The average age of students in the third semester (n = 447) was 19.0 years (SD = 0.675), and 21.0 years (SD = 0.522) in the seventh semester (n = 405). Two-thirds (66.4%) of the total sample were female students, which reflects an over-representation of women in the sampled programs.
3.1. Situational Knowledge and Conceptual Knowledge
To demonstrate construct validity in the situational and conceptual knowledge measures, the multiple-choice answers were coded as either incorrect (zero) or correct (one) and then analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). For the proposed tau-equivalent measurement model, see Figure 2. Data were entered into a tetrachoric correlation matrix for binary data generated by TETMAT , and the model was run with LISREL 8.80 . We used the Goodness of Fit Index (GFI), the Adjusted Goodness of Fit Index (AGFI; target value: >0.8, ), the Parsimony Goodness of Fit Index (PGFI), and the Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA; target value: <0.08; ) as fit statistics.
CFA apportioned the variance of the items into the type of knowledge and the domain of knowledge (see Figure 2). The variance of the two latent variables for situational and conceptual knowledge was restricted to be equal. Likewise, the variance of the three latent knowledge domain variables was restricted to be equal. In addition, a general factor (general knowledge) was assumed to affect all items equally. With the model estimating only three estimators (general knowledge, type specificity, domain specificity), we expect the goodness of fit statistics to be lower than the convention, whereas the PGFI should be at least 0.50 .
The CFA of the measurement model shows small but consistent variance sources. General knowledge was the source of 4.3% of item variance (SE = 0.0042; t = 10.24; p < 0.001). The type of knowledge accounts for 0.7% of the variance (SE = 0.0031; t = 2.15; p < 0.05), and the knowledge domain accounts for 1.2% of the variance (SE = 0.0033; t = 3.49; p < 0.001). Due to the binary character of the data, the estimators were small (4.3%, 1.2%, and 0.7%). According to Cohen , this corresponds to small effects. The three-parameter tau-equivalent model generates reasonable global fit indices (df = 525; GFI = 0.821, AGFI = 0.801, RMSEA = 0.0757, and PGFI = 0.768). With all fit statistics with conventionally accepted values, we conclude that we adequately assess the variance of the types and the domains of knowledge.
PASW 18 was used to test for an increase in knowledge between the third and seventh semester university students. A repeated measures Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) with repeated measures on knowledge type and domain was conducted to compare the semester (2) * knowledge type (2) * knowledge domain (3) design. Cohen’s d values were calculated to indicate effect sizes for the semester effect.
The surveyed data for the Grade Point Average (GPA) were significantly but weakly correlated with the female sex (r = 0.121, n = 848; p < 0.01). GPA was also significantly correlated with the general knowledge score (r = 0.258, n = 848; p < 0.01). No correlation emerged between the general knowledge score and gender. Therefore, the gender variable was dropped from further analyses.
3.2. Procedural Knowledge
The rating scale judgments on the effectiveness of potential solutions were given to nine experts from Indonesia and Germany. The experts have been engaged in tropical research projects on sustainable resource utilization and biodiversity loss for several years. A reliability analysis was performed comparing the effectiveness judgments of the experts for each of the three sustainable development dimensions (ecological, social, and economic). Reliability analysis yields Cronbach’s α values across the 12 solution strategies. The Cronbach’s α values (0.738 for the ecological dimension, 0.754 for the social dimension, and 0.751 for the economic dimension) indicate substantial homogeneity among expert judgments. As expected, expert judgments are considerably more consistent than the student judgments (see Appendix A).
Expert judgments were averaged for each the three dimensions across 12 solutions strategies per dimension (see Appendix B). This mean expert answer profile served as a standard to assess the quality of student procedural knowledge. For this assessment, the individual answer profile for each student was correlated with the expert profile. A repeated measures ANOVA with domain as the repeated factor was applied to the Z-transformed correlations to examine the changes in procedural knowledge between the third and seventh semester.
4.1. Assessing Increases in Situational and Conceptual Knowledge
A repeated measures ANOVA, where the types and domains of knowledge were the repeated measures factors and semester was the group factor (third vs. seventh semester), was performed. Significant effects were observed for the three main variables and between the two-way and three-way interactions (see Table 1).
Figure 4a shows that situational knowledge–specifically in the ecological and socio-economic domains—was already reasonably high in the third semester with between 64% and 65% correct responses. Departing from a substantially lower score in the third semester, the mean scores for institutional knowledge increased from 0.455 to 0.484.
|Source of Variance||dfw||dfb||F||p||eta²|
|Type * Domain||2||1760||316.67||0.001||.265|
|Type * Semester||1||880||20.54||0.001||.023|
|Domain * Semester||2||1760||3.01||0.049||.003|
|Type * Domain * Semester||2||1760||6.97||0.001||.008|
The conceptual knowledge (see Figure 4b) increased the most with respect to the ecological knowledge domain (56.1% to 66.3% correct; near to medium effect size; Cohen’s d = 0.456). The socio-economic knowledge domain also showed a significant increase from 38.9% to 44.0% (small effect size; Cohen’s d = 0.241). Institutional knowledge, in both knowledge types, increased the least of all.
4.2. Procedural Knowledge
Procedural knowledge differs with respect to the sustainable development dimension, the semester as well as the interaction between the sustainable development dimension and semester (see Table 2). The solution judgments of seventh semester students were more in line with expert judgments than with judgments of third semester students. Concerning the social dimension, the judgments of third semester students were only weakly correlated with expert judgments (r = 0.157), whereas judgments of the seventh semester students were more highly correlated (r = 0.317; see Figure 5). In the ecological and economic dimension, judgments of 3rd semester students had virtually no correlation with expert judgments (ecological: r = 0.067; economic: r = 0.080). In the seventh semester, student judgments became slightly more correlated to expert judgments (r = 0.172; r = 0.165).
|Source of Variance||dfw||dfb||F||p||eta²|
|Sust Dev Dimension||2||1756||75.27||0.001||.079|
|Sust Dev Dimension*Semester||2||1756||6.43||0.002||.007|
This study advances over previous work by presenting elaborated and validated scales for measuring situational and conceptual knowledge. The items on the respective scales refer to ecologically, socio-economically and institutionally contextualized descriptions of resource management issues given in non-technical language. In comparison to assessing textbook definitions of environmental knowledge, this approach is likely to yield more reliable results by focusing on contextualised knowledge that closely reflects “locally” relevant challenges of sustainable resource management including biodiversity conservation cf. [ 41].
We observed high scores in ecological and socio-economic situational knowledge. This result reflects the student’s ability to extract the relevant information from the non-scientific problem descriptions of typical real-world problems of sustainable development. These scores did not substantially increase from the third to the seventh semester. The knowledge score was considerably lower for the institutional domain with less than 50% of the items answered correctly. Obviously, these items were more difficult to answer. Although a bias in the construction of the knowledge items cannot be excluded (see below), the magnitude of the effect suggests that the students’ ability to abstract institutional knowledge form the narratives may have actually been lower. In the ecological domain, scores were also relatively high for conceptual knowledge. There was also substantial knowledge of institutional concepts. However, only ecological and socio-economic knowledge increased from the third to the seventh semester, whereas institutional knowledge merely remained stable. With respect to procedural knowledge, student judgments of the effectiveness of solutions converged somewhat with expert judgments from the third to the seventh semester. However, the starting point for the convergence was very low. Even in the best performing judgments on social effectiveness, the correlation between student judgments and expert judgments remained rather low.
The numerical differences in knowledge scores across domains are substantial. How valid are these differences? For situational and conceptual knowledge, the initial development of the item pool focused primarily on the creation of small groups of items that are similar in language and complexity across knowledge domains. Several items were deleted during the design process of the test instrument due to low reliability, or because of floor or ceiling effects in the pilot study. Thus, the inherent difficulty of the items used in the main study may differ from the inherent difficulty of the set of initial items. Consequently, the comparability of knowledge scores across domains cannot be taken for granted. For this pioneering study, we accomplished an explicit normative standard only with respect to the analysis of the procedural knowledge. Here, we assessed student performance in relation to expert judgments. Consequently, we regard the measurement of educational outcomes (third vs. seventh semester) and the results on procedural knowledge as a priori more valid than the absolute knowledge scores for the situational and conceptual knowledge types. While the validity of performance results should be little affected, we have to caution against interpreting the absolute knowledge scores at face value for situational and conceptual knowledge. Thus, we mainly restrict the following discussion to differences between third and seventh semester students.
We summarize our empirical results as follows: It was obviously difficult for students to identify relevant institutional aspects from the resource management problem descriptions, and there was little evidence for a better performance of seventh semester students compared to third semester students. Given that more than 50% of the multiple choice questions were answered correctly, conceptual knowledge appears satisfactory in the institutional and ecological domains. While there were improvements from the third to the seventh semester in the ecological and socio-economical domains, small numerical improvements in the institutional domain were not significant. Thus, the IPB curriculum has little impact here.
For procedural knowledge, student and expert judgments continued to differ widely, even for seventh semester students. This knowledge type integrates situational and conceptual knowledge: The effectiveness of potential institutional solutions to the contextualised resource management issues had to be judged. Specifically this finding shows that the sampled university students do not appear to be well prepared for solving complex, real-world natural resource management problems that include a substantial institutional component. It is in line with the low ability to extract institutional information from the resource use narratives, and the absent improvement of conceptual knowledge in the institutional domain from the third to the seventh semester.
The results are in line with the small number of studies that investigate learning outcomes with respect to the socio-economic and institutional dimensions of natural resource use problems. For example, Menzel and Bögeholz found that German and Chilean high school students had problems identifying the social and economical dimensions of the extraction of wild Boldo (Peumus boldus) leaves in Chile and bulbs of Devil’s claw (Harpagophytum procumbens) in Namibia. With respect to Turkish students, the same result was observed concerning the exploitation of wild Salep (Orchis mascula) in Anatolia . Likewise, but with a much broader thematic focus, Tuncer evaluated a sample of university students from Turkey, and showed that there is an insufficient cognitive background concerning issues of sustainable development in many students.
For the qualitative precursor-study , students from Universitas Tadulako in Central Sulawesi, i.e., at a public Indonesian university located on an ‘outer island’, were interviewed. The rattan problem used in the study is situated near Palu, the capital city of Central Sulawesi. Although we used the more interactive form of semi-structured interviews here, local agronomy and biology education students did not recognize the specific institutional characteristics of the rattan problem including its open-access and commons dilemma aspects. The sample investigated in this contribution is enrolled in the leading institution of higher education in Indonesia that educates future natural resource management professionals and decision-makers. Thus, it is unlikely that Indonesian students with substantially better performance scores can be found elsewhere in Indonesia. However, the results of the two studies are similar in pointing at low educational outcomes regarding the institutional aspects of some highly relevant biodiversity conservation and natural resource management issues.
National and international high-level documents on educational policies display clear deficits in the socio-economic and institutional dimensions of the conservation and utilization of natural resources. Relevant examples from UNESCO and Indonesian documents were examined in detail by the Authors (unpublished). Although the number of empirical studies in the field is still limited, a troubling pattern emerges: The disregard for the state-of-the-art in institutional and ecological economics by such documents is mirrored by low educational achievements in this highly relevant field.
The low performance is likely related to an overly strong focus on ecological knowledge in teaching natural resource use issues and/or sustainable development [22,42]. Even the broad interdisciplinary concept of sustainable development is taught mostly in the natural sciences. Socio-economic, institutional or political aspects are rarely included cf. . Indonesia strives to include environmental education in university curricula. However, while the integration of general environmental education and education for sustainable development topics into the official curriculum is progressing, the applied principles of environmental education have still been based on teaching mainly ecological knowledge .
Improvements may have to overcome the embedded characteristics of the Indonesian and similarly structured educational systems. For example, teacher-centered approaches dominate science education in many developing and emerging economy countries. Teachers tend to teach ex cathedra while only little time is appropriated to critical discussion [45,46]. These teaching approaches, textbooks that do not focus on local resource management issues and on analyzing potential institutional solutions as well as a low general standard of post-secondary education – including many universities, are widespread. In part, these problems depend on low per capita spending on education. Indonesia, however, has traditionally featured one of the lowest per capita spending on education in Asia and Oceania . Thus, progress will to some degree depend on a thorough improvement of the educational system. Our study suggests that this should include curricula and educational practice even at the leading institutions of research and education in natural resource management in Indonesia.
6. Implications for Practice
We cannot formally extrapolate the results of our study to other universities in Indonesia or beyond. Nevertheless, the following suggestions for improvements regarding natural resource management are likely to be useful also for similar institutions. First, fostering cognitive skills to analyze and – if possible – to solve problems of the conservation and sustainable utilization of biological resources should be a prime task of all university programs that educate future professionals, educational multipliers or decision-makers in the field. An understanding of the institutional core issues of resource dilemmas in open-access situations requires factual knowledge beyond striving for a “balanced view” of the social, economic, and environmental dimensions of sustainable development cf. [48,49]. Particularly, students need to learn about the underlying socio-economic mechanisms and the institutional restrictions of individual and collective action. Even the identification of the institutional issues at the level of reading comprehension (cf. situational knowledge) may have to be addressed. The educational systems of countries with a rural population relying on natural resources should reconsider university curricula in these respects.
Second, the curriculum should focus on examples that consider local livelihoods and local cultural contexts [48,50]. Addressing real-life human-environment interactions should be essential . Conflicts between local communities and the state or provincial administrations over natural resources are frequent, and such conflicts could be analyzed . Furthermore, students could generate local and socially relevant knowledge themselves to analyze the scope of potential solutions addressing conservation and human needs. If real-world case studies cannot be integrated into a program cf. , working with a number of contextualized, authentic descriptions of real-world biological resource use issues may be an alternative. Ultimately, students need to be able to appropriately interact with policy makers and affected stakeholders to facilitate improvements to urgent conservation problems cf. .
Finally, the low procedural knowledge of Indonesian university students on the sustainable management of biological resources is indicative of a widespread deficit of the educational systems to adequately address the institutional and related socio-economic dimensions of biological resource management. In this respect, we highlight the call by Saberwal and Kothari for a more thorough integration of the “human dimension” into curricula for conservation biology. A sufficiently large body of applicable scientific knowledge and detailed suggestions for educational improvements are, however, available to achieve this ambitious task cf. [52,53]. Considering the structural challenges of the educational systems in countries such as Indonesia, it would be particularly helpful if international organizations such as UNESCO updated their respective policy documents and policy practice. Otherwise, the emerging field of “biodiversity education” is unlikely to live up to the expectations placed upon it by the Agenda 21 and by the CBD.
We would like to thank Institut Pertanian Bogor (IPB), Kebijakan Kehutanan at IPB, our Indonesian assistants, especially I. Satyasari, and all university students who participated in the study. Also, we thank German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) for additional funding. We acknowledge support by the Open Access Publication Funds of Georg-August-Universität Göttingen.
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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|Ecological dimension||Social dimension||Economic dimension|
|1. The central government should provide more Rangers/Forest Police to prevent rattan collectors from illegal harvesting.||2.11||1.67||1.44|
|2. The Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (or another organization which is responsible) should develop a strategy for the sustainable near-shore fishing closely related to community interests.||3.44||2.89||3.11|
|3. The government should strictly implement monitoring and punishments of using illegal fishing techniques.||3.22||2.78||2.67|
|4. Certification schemes (“ecolabels”) should be developed to support sustainable fish harvesting practices.||2.44||2.44||2.22|
|5. Penalties from the Lembaga Adat* should be strictly applied if a villager extracts too much rattan or unnecessarily damages forest vegetation and wild animals.||3.78||3.00||2.67|
|6. Tenure rights should be given to local communities because traditional forest dwellers have successfully managed rattan and other Non-Timber-Forest Products (NTFP) as common property for centuries.||3.22||3.22||2.78|
|7. Fishing village meetings should be arranged where all habitants develop rules how to manage local fish stocks.||3.44||3.56||3.11|
|8. The government (i.e., The Ministry of Forestry) should make a plan to strictly enforce a permit system for all NTFP. The permits would only be valid for a specific area.||2.33||2.00||2.11|
|9. The government should strictly implement a ban on the export of unprocessed rattan.||3.00||2.33||2.89|
|10. The government should implement and strictly monitor fishing quotas for the Indonesian near-shore fisheries.||3.56||2.75||2.75|
|11. The government should implement and monitor national and international fish-trade regulations.||2.89||2.66||2.55|
|12. Regional cooperations should be established concerning NTFP management.||3.00||2.89||2.89|
*Lembaga Adad is the traditional customary organization in village communities in Indonesia.
To further test the internal validity of the expert judgments, we require that the expert judgments are more homogeneous than the student judgments. Cronbach’s α is sensitive to the number of experts (or students) in this specific analysis, so we use an alternative measure, profile correlations, to compare homogeneity between the experts and the students. Profile correlations measure the correlation between the answers of an individual expert (student) and the answers of the other experts (students). In this appendix, we present the results of the profile correlation analysis.
The mean correlations for the students were 0.115 (SD = 0.283) for the ecological sustainable development dimension, 0.229 (SD = 0.320) for the social sustainable development dimension, and 0.119 (SD = 0.307) for the economic sustainable development dimension. The mean correlations for the experts were 0.438 (ecological), 0.466 (social), and 0.437 (economic). Thus, the mean values of the student profile correlations were above zero but were smaller than the profile correlations of the experts. As was required for using the expert judgments as a standard against which to assess the quality of student judgments, the expert judgments were much more homogeneous than the student judgments.
© 2013 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/). | <urn:uuid:d4ce7643-3d9f-48b6-8de0-34d46be3f857> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/5/4/1443/htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395620.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00171-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.888834 | 9,900 | 2.71875 | 3 |
In her day it was said that Chiyo-ni's style was true to Basho's. Although Chiyo-ni acquired her own unique voice, eventually, she was surely influenced in her early period by the prevalence of Basho's teachings in the Kaga region. Ranko, author of the afterword to Chiyo-ni Kusho, wrote that Kihaku, the editor, had originally decided to collect Chiyo-ni's haiku because she was true to Basho's shofu, or style. Basho's style of haiku was formulated by others over the years. His well known fundamentals usually include: sabi (detached loneliness), wabi (poverty of spirit), hosomi (slenderness, sparseness), shiori (tenderness), sokkyo (spontaneity), makoto (sincerity), fuga (elegance), karumi (simplicity), kyakkan byosha (objectivity), and shiZen to hitotsu ni naru (oneness with nature).
"Oneness with nature" seems especially resonant in Chiyo-ni's haiku. Basho's theory of oneness with nature was that the poet should make a faithful or honest sketch of nature. In the Sanzohi (1702), Basho's disciple, Doho, explains his teacher's theory: "Learn about the pine from the pine and the bamboo from the bamboo--the poet should detach his mind from self . . . and enter into the object . . . so the poem forms itself when poet and object become one." This experience is analogous to the Buddhist idea of satori, or enlightenment, what Kenneth Yasuda called the "haiku moment." When writing haiku, Chiyo-ni immersed herself in nature, honestly observing what she saw, as in the following haiku:
sound of things
a single spider's
Roughly ninety percent of her haiku are about things in nature rather than the social realm. This kind of haiku practice emphasizing seeing things clearly, becoming one with nature, and living the Way of Haikai, co-emerged with her Buddhist practice.
Purity and clarity . . . are central to Chiyo-ni's poetry. The haiku poet, Shoin, who wrote the preface to Chiyo-ni Kushu, stated:
"Chiyo-ni's style is pure, like white jade, without ornament, without carving, natural. Both her life and writing style are clear/pure. She lives simply, as if with a stone for a pillow, and spring water to brush her teeth. She is like a small pine, embodying a female style that is subtle, fresh, and beautiful. Chiyo-ni knows the Way, is in harmony with Nature. One can better know the universe, through each thing in the Phenomena, as in Chiyo-ni's haiku, than through her books."
Her clear writing style went hand in hand with her Buddhist practice. In her haiku, water can be a symbol for clear perception. She saw the world clearly and expressed her words clearly, using the image of water, of her most frequently used images, to reflect nature. For example:
on the road
And this haiku, perhaps more than any other, epitomizes her clear perception:
Yet, the most important thing about Chiyo-ni's haiku, which epitomizes her being true to Basho's style, is how she actually lived the Way of Haikai, or fuga no michi (the way of refinement in one's own life and art). With the emphasis on poetry as a way of life, poetry could be a source of awakening. One famous Edo story attests to this. Kaya Shirao (1738-91), an arrogant young male poet, visited Chiyo-ni for the first time when she was sixty-seven, and wept after meeting such a great haiku poet who was so humble, living the Way of Haikai. Although she never set up a "Chiyo-ni school," many people of her time admired her lifestyle, following the way of haiku, and felt that, 'even though' she was a woman, she shared something in common with Basho.
Reprinted with her permission, the excerpts are by Patricia Donegan from her book [with Yoshi Ishibashi], Chiyo-ni: Woman Haiku Master, Charles E Tuttle Co, September 1998, ISBN: 0804820538.
This is the first book written in English about Chiyo-ni, a Buddhist nun and haiku master who lived in Japan in 1703-1775.
Paticial Donegan is the author of a number of haiku and poetry related books including:
Copyright 2003/2004 Simply Haiku | <urn:uuid:03a67304-e48d-4bea-ade8-5a3085f6a200> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://simplyhaiku.com/SHv2n3/reprints/Patricia_Donegan.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396875.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00017-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964949 | 1,026 | 3.09375 | 3 |
We have endeavored in the preceding chapter to give some of the foods used and the methods of providing and preparing these foods as well as clothing for the family, perhaps more from the household base. Now we will detail more the methods of farming and the implements used. Everything began on a small scale, as we mentioned before. The first crops were hand planted after clearing the land from the forest. First they were planted with the hoe, and cut with the Sickle or scythe, as their clearings grew they were able to use a plow and harrows to prepare the land, these of course were made in the blacksmith shop. After cutting and drying their grain, whether oats, wheat, barley or buckwheat, it was threshed with the flail on the barn floor or other solid platform. The flail was made from two round pieces of wood a bit bigger than a mans cane or staff. The two pieces of wood were fastened together near the top by threading a leather thong through them so as to make a swivel. The grain was spread on the floor, with there men threshing one on each side with the flail, turn about they beat the grain out by swinging the flail over their heads, and coming down, thump, thump in rhythm on the grain, then it was turned and beat some more. The straw was then lifted off with a fork and the grain gathered up, then more grain was laid down and work was continued untie all their grain was threshed.
In my early days, the men often liked to get the buckwheat threshed before the regular threshing was done. It was an early crop - and the sunny fall days were ideal to cut, dry and gather in the buckwheat. I can still remember coming home from school on a nice sunny afternoon, and when still afar off would hear the whack, whack, and thump, thump of the flails, and knew the buckwheat was being threshed.
As time went on the Harvest Reaper came into use, with a cutter bar the grain was cut, rakes on the machine raked the grain off the table into loose sheaves to the ground. Some years later the grain hinder came into use, this was a great improvement as the grain was tied into sheaves. Hay making was also a strenuous season, the hay was cut with a hand scythe and raked with a hand rake and a drag rake, a wide wooden rake pulled by hand, this was also made at home. This was all heavy work. The hay was then forked on to a cart or two wheeled wagon for one horse, then at the barn it was all forked off by hand from the wagon into the barn.
In course of time the horse drawn mowing machine came into use, and the horse drawn rake, still for years it was still all forked by hand, to the now larger team drawn wagon, Later a big hay fork in the barn saved a lot of the heavy work. A long track was built, stretched all along near the peak of the barn inside. The large fork with two large prongs were stuck into the hay, locked and drawn up by a horse, hitched to the rope end, so that the hay was drawn from the wanton, struck a stop block at the carriage over the wagons and carried alone the track and tripped and dropped where needed by pulling the rope and releasing the prongs.
Plowing was a major job in the fall of the years first of course, oxen would be used, until they were able to buy a horse. Plowing was all done with a one furrow walking plow, later the two furrow gang plow was used, this required a good team of horses.
The manure had to be forked by hand to a cart or wanton and spread on the field with a fork by hand.
As time went on machinery was used for threshing, first tread mills were built, and the horse was used for power, ( small sized tread mid were used sometimes to churn the butter, using dog power). Then after some years larger threshing machines were used. Some person would get a machine and go from barn to barn in the fall threshing farmers crops. But this proved expensive and wasn't always convenient to get the machine when needed. So in Rockfield plans were set in motion to buy a threshing machine for the Rockfield farmers.
In 1915 the men met and formed a company, then made inquiries from different sources and people. Finally they decided to do business with a Mr. Pope in Pictou. From they bought a 4 H.P. kerosene engine of the International Harvester Company. This was bought and set up, also a sawing mill outfit was ordered and 56 feet of 5 inch belting from Thompson and Sutherland for the sum of $269.00. It was agreed the shareholders pay 32.00 each. Later 1.00 was paid as dues each year for up keep. The first members were: William Carson, George Carson, Wm. T. Adamson, George Hilslop, A.E. Graham, Andrew Graham, Charles Graham and James Y. Graham, some others joined later.
William Carson reported he had bought a threshing machine from George Grant, Six Mile Brook for $11.00 and repaired it, until now it was in good condition. The Company agreed to share the expenses for this machine. This arrangement was carried on for several years, then the company seemed to be dissolved about 1940.
Albert Graham bought a threshing machine from Alvin Graham later, and this was used for many years. Eventually the grain combine came into use and the grain was cut and threshed in one operation.
Until the combine came along the threshing and sawing wood was a community affair, every man who had shares in the company outfit made the rounds with the threshing outfit from barn to barn until all the grain was threshed, likewise with the wood cutter or saw mill.
Every family had their wood stoves and went to the woods every fall after freeze up, and the fall work was done, they then cut and hauled home a seasons wood of hardwood if available. When all were ready, and the days got a bit warmer and longer, the wood saw started on its rounds until it had their wood sawed ready for splitting into stove sized pieces.
The house wife had to prepare meals for the grain threshing as well as for the sawing crew.
Then there was the in between season work, the farms had to be kept drained, these drains and ditches were all done by hand with pick and shovel, many were built with flag stones and covered over. Many of the fences and dyked were built up with the many stones they cleaned of the stony land on their farms.
The winter season gave them time to repair and make their tools, such as hand hoes, shovels, rakes iron and wooden, plows ,wooden rollers for rolling the ground after seeding, harrows were made at home, also stanchions for the cattle barn, the list could be endless.
This was also a chance to make many pieces of furniture for the house, there might be a request for a table, bench, chairs, stools, wash stands, beds as well as small things such as spoons, pot sticks, churn, kneading troughs for making bread, wash tubs and the scrubbing board and so many things needed around the house.
As the days became longer and warmer the men began to prepare for crop time. The grain seed was cleaned and prepared for seeding, this took several days.
Another important item was taking care of the harness for the teams, the harness must be in good condition for the crop season, hey must be repaired, and hen when a warm sunny day came then preparations were made for greasing and oiling the harness, a table or boards were set up, he harness taken out and well oiled and greased and hung over a fence to dry.
Of course fencing had to be finished up before crop time, posts has to be cut, peeled and sharpened and made ready. Many fences were pole fences, which took a lot of time. With the passing of time wire was used more.
I must note here the important role the women played in these early days. There was more team work in sharing the farm work. The farm wife more or less did the milking of the cows, attending to feeding the calves, looked the milk and by products. Of course most every farm had their hens for eggs and meat, geese or turkeys were commonly kept.
The farm wife helped in the hay field, raking and gathering hay with the hand and drag rake. Many times the baby or young child was taken out and laid on a quilt under a shady tree where the mother could keep a watchful eye on the child as she worked near by. In many ways the women worked and helped until the family grew and became helpful.
Pictou County Reminiscences
Stanley Graham, Scotsburn, Nova Scotia
Compiled by: John Broderick | <urn:uuid:013f1a52-2cc7-42d8-9f0d-d553e638242f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~pictou/farmsg.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399385.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00090-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.991008 | 1,914 | 3.234375 | 3 |
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Criminal procedure involves a set of rules through which a government enforces criminal laws. In the United States, the federal government, states, and municipalities each have respective criminal codes regarding what does and does not constitute a crime. The overall criminal procedure process includes booking, arraignment, bail, a preliminary hearing, a trial, sentencing, punishment, and appeal.
When it has been determined that crimes have been committed, an arrest is made. The accused person begins the criminal procedure by undergoing the booking process. During this process, administrative information is gathered from him or her. This information, which is used for legal purposes, typically documents the crime that the person is charged with. Other information is also usually collected, such as the telephone number, fingerprints, name, age, and address of the accused.
Once the booking has been completed, the next step in criminal procedure is to schedule a date for arraignment. During arraignment, the accused appears in court and enters a "not guilty" or "guilty" plea. A trial date will be set if the accused pleas that he or she is "not guilty."
Setting bail is usually an important part of the criminal procedure process. With a trial date set, the accused may be released on bail, which is a certain amount of money. The amount typically depends on the crime that was committed. The more serious the crime, the higher the bail amount might be, or bail might be revoked altogether. Some people remain in jail until their trial date.
Before the actual trial, a preliminary hearing is often given for the accused. The presiding judge at the hearing determines whether or not the person should actually have a trial. Prosecutors usually must provide the judge with enough evidence against the accused to build a case that can go to trial. If the prosecutors do not appear with enough evidence, then the judge usually has the right to forgo a trial and select another disciplinary procedure for the accused, such as probation.
The trial in a criminal procedure generally contains opening statements, witness testimonies, and evidence. All of this information is usually brought before a jury, who then determine a verdict. If the accused is found guilty, he or she then is sentenced, or given a punishment. This punishment might include fines, community service, or imprisonment.
Criminal procedure usually allows the accused the right to appeal their sentence. In many cases, an appeal may only be allowed on certain grounds, such as new evidence coming to light or misconduct on the part of a trial participant. Such a situation would then require another court date to be set.
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:c5decf1d-326b-4f66-a22e-c1ecf537ec8e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-criminal-procedure.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396872.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00076-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958956 | 581 | 3.53125 | 4 |
Many children engage in recreational sports. Bumps and bruises are expected on occasion, but what if your child suffers a more serious injury that can cause a concussion? How can you tell a minor head bump from a more serious one that has the potential for causing a concussion? What should you do if you suspect your child may be suffering from a concussion? If your child participates in youth sports, it is important to be able to recognize the signs of a concussion and understand what you can do to protect your child from a head injury.
What Is A Concussion?
A concussion is a brain injury, and one of the most common ways to sustain a concussion is through a sports injury. A simple blow to the head can cause a concussion, even if the signs and symptoms don’t appear right away. When a person suffers a bang on the head, the brain can be jostled, resulting in bruising or damage to the blood vessels. This temporary deficit to normal brain function is known as a concussion.
There are certain factors that may increase the likelihood of your child suffering a concussion if he or she is involved in youth sports:
- Participating in high-contact, organized sports like football, hockey, soccer and boxing
- Participating in high-contact sports, regardless of the use of protective head wear
- Having had a prior concussion or other head injury
High Risk Sports
In recent years, the number of visits to the emergency room for children who were suspected of suffering a concussion has increased. This may be partially due to an increased awareness in parents and their ability to recognize the signs and symptoms of a concussion.
Among high school students who participate in sports, concussions occur most often in those who participate in contact sports. Concussions most commonly occur in contact sports due to direct contact with an opponent, the head hitting the ground, contact with a piece of sports equipment, or contact with an object that is on the playing field.
Football carries the highest risk for concussions of all high school sports in males. In females, the highest risk sport for concussions in high school is soccer. For younger children ages, the sports or activities that carry the highest risk for concussion are:
- Playground activities
Other high risk sports for children of all ages include:
- Ice hockey
- Field hockey
How Young Is Too Young For Contact Sports
Many parents wonder when their child is at the appropriate age to participate in contact sports. Some parents believe it is best to wait until children are at least 7 or 8 years old, when their balance and coordination have improved and they are better able to understand the concept of team play.
Other parents see no harm in starting children out a bit younger, as early as 4 years old. There are some tots sports programs designed for children as young as 3 years old, whose main purpose is to introduce the child to team play and provide instruction in the rules of the game.
While there is no clearly defined age that is considered safe and appropriate for a child to participate in contact sports, most physicians and professional agree that by the age of 8, many children are able to handle the physical demands of participating in a contact sport.
Signs And Symptoms To Watch Out For
Concussions can be mild to severe, and are not visible to the eye. In some cases it can take several hours, even days for symptoms to arise. Any child that suffers a blow to the head during a game or sports practice should be removed from play and observed for signs of concussion. Common signs and symptoms of a concussion include:
- Feeling dizzy or lightheaded following a blow to the head
- Having difficulty remembering what happened just prior to the injury
- Has trouble remembering position or assignment in game play
- Can’t remember game score or opponent
- Has difficulty answering questions
- Seems to move about clumsily
- Experiences nausea or vomiting
- Has a headache
- Is sensitive to light
- Has difficulty remembering anything that took place after the injury
- Experiences blurred vision
- Coordination is off, cannot catch a ball
- Seems irritable
- Seems very tired
What to Do if Your Child Suffers a Concussion
If you suspect that your child may have a concussion, it is important to contact your doctor immediately. The doctor will want to know how the head injury occurred and what symptoms your child is exhibiting. In addition, your doctor will test your child’s memory by asking such questions as “who is the president?” or “what year is it?” A thorough physical and neurological exam will also likely be performed. Your doctor will test skills such as:
- Reaction time
Your doctor may also order an imaging test be done to rule out any bleeding within the brain. Imaging tests include:
- CT Scan
If the concussion appears to be serious, hospitalization may be required. If the concussion does not require hospitalization, your child will need to be monitored at home for any worsening symptoms. Contact the doctor immediately if any of the following symptoms occur while at home:
- The child is not easily woken up; the child should be aroused from sleep each hour
- Is vomiting
- Has become more disoriented
In addition to close monitoring, a child who has a concussion may be given acetaminophen for headaches and will need to get plenty of rest. If symptoms persist for longer than one-week, further evaluation by a neurologist may be necessary. A child with a concussion should avoid the following:
- Busy, loud or brightly lit environments
- Activities that require concentration or thinking
- Physical activities and sports
Concussions require time to mend. Even if your child says he feels better, it is imperative that you keep him out of sports and activities until the doctor’s clearance is given. Additionally, notify your child’s current and subsequent coaches that there is a history of concussion. If your child gets reinjured while he is not fully healed, this could pose long-term problems and result in permanent brain damage. | <urn:uuid:e8ebaa3e-f912-42ed-9cde-6aa98ef4ebb1> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.symptomfind.com/health/concussions-in-youth-sports/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395546.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00031-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956177 | 1,243 | 3.609375 | 4 |
Capybaras are the largest of rodents, weighing from 35 to 66 kg and standing up to 0.6 meters at the shoulder, with a length of about 1.2 meters. Females of this species are slightly larger than males. Their fur is coarse and thin, and is reddish brown over most of the body, turning yellowish brown on the belly and sometimes black on the face. The body is barrel-shaped, sturdy, and tailless. The front legs are slightly shorter than the hind legs, and the feet are partially webbed. This, in addition to the location of the eyes, ears, and nostrils on top of the head, make capybaras well-suited to semi-aquatic life.
Range mass: 35 to 66 kg.
Range length: 106 to 134 cm.
Other Physical Features: endothermic ; homoiothermic; bilateral symmetry
Sexual Dimorphism: female larger | <urn:uuid:ed77ac7b-0ad8-40ef-8c3f-cc5d3d920ce7> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://eol.org/data_objects/18651502 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395346.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00006-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913134 | 193 | 3.546875 | 4 |
The Potato Remedy for Tooth Abscess
Home remedies and treatments for abscessed teeth are abundant in online forums and groups. A number of things, from oils to
The Potato Tooth Abscess Remedy
The potato remedy for tooth abscess states that a slice of raw, plain, white potato placed against an abscess and left there will help drain the pus and reduce the swelling from the abscess. The remedy claims that the potato should be left on the abscessed area for at least one hour, and could be left on overnight. This process could be done just once, or it could be done as needed. The potato could also be put into a warm poultice (a soft, damp, and usually warm application that often consists of herbs or other substances. The ingredients are placed in between layers of cloth and applied to the irritated area). This gives added heat to help draw out inflammation faster. When the slice of potato is pulled off of the inflamed area, there may be discoloration from the pus that has been drawn out. The swelling should also have reduced significantly. This will often lead to less pain.
How does the Potato Remedy Work
Many of the potato remedies that have been passed along do not state why the potato works in these ways. Interestingly, potato does seem to have some mixed properties that can be considered antiseptic and help accelerate healing. The alkaline nature of potato juice tends to have an antiseptic effect on abscesses. It can clean the infected area. The acidic property of the potato pulp will help slough off of dead cells and infected material. These two processes together tend to make potato an effective cleanser for an infected area. Once the area is cleaned and drained, the abscess can be covered for prevention of further irritation.
A potato’s potassium content also plays a role in healing an abscess. Many people do not realize that the potato has as much potassium (if not more) than a banana peel. The potassium received from a potato can do several things in the body. It creates chemical reactions within cells, and helps regulate nutrient transport to those cells. It also works with magnesium to prevent blood from becoming too acidic; thus, preventing leaching of calcium from the bones. Potassium is also important for proper nerve healing and function. With enough potassium, the nerves and cells can repair and begin to function properly.
How A Dentist Treats a Tooth Abscess
Potato can be an effective home treatment for tooth abscess. Typically a dentist will recommend a root canal, or extraction for a tooth abscess. | <urn:uuid:33847d1e-154a-4929-a1a6-86c1e645083f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://curetoothdecay.com/blog/the-potato-remedy-for-tooth-abscess/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396459.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00020-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951479 | 529 | 2.53125 | 3 |
In article <email@example.com>, WM <firstname.lastname@example.org> wrote:
> On 26 Jan., 23:10, Virgil <vir...@ligriv.com> wrote: > > In article > > <054da2be-2f0a-4290-b356-10eb0a5e1...@r14g2000yqe.googlegroups.com>, > > > > WM <mueck...@rz.fh-augsburg.de> wrote: > > > On 26 Jan., 01:46, Virgil <vir...@ligriv.com> wrote: > > > > > > > Of interest is this: If the same set of > > > > > nodes has to describe both, the Binary Tree with finite paths and that > > > > > with infinite paths, then it is impossible to discern, alone by nodes, > > > > > whether we work in the former or the latter. > > > > > > There is no such thing as a Complete Infinite Binary Tree with finite > > > > paths. > > > > > So you agree that there is a level omega? > > > > Why should I agree to add another level to the infinitely many finite > > levels that must already exist in order to have a COMPLETE INFINITE > > BINARY TREE at all? > > These levels exist already after constructing all finite initial > segments of all paths, abbreviated by "all finite paths". Or can you > determine a node or level of the complete infinite Binary Tree that > does not exist?
The standard definition of a path in the kind of binary trees we are talking about is that it is a MAXIMAL sequence of parent-child nodes.
In other words a path's 'first' node in parent-child order cannot be the child of any node of the tree outside that path and its 'last' node, if any, cannot have any child node outside that path.
Since in a Complete Infinite Binary Tree every node has two child nodes, any finite set of nodes must have some last node with no child node in the set, but that node must have two child nodes.
Thus no finite set of nodes can be a maximal sequence of parent-child nodes in a Complete Infinite Binary Tree.
Thus no finite set of nodes can be a PATH in a Complete Infinite Binary Tree.
This proof should be simple enough and straightforward enough for even WM to understand:
In any COMPLETE INFINITE BINARY TREE any sequence of parent-child linked nodes that has a last (most childish) node cannot be a maximal such sequence and thus cannot be a path in any CIBT.
Thus no finite set of nodes in a Complete Infinite Binary Tree can be a path in such a tree.
And it is easily proved, a la Cantor, that there cannot be any surjection from |N to the set of all paths in a Complete Infinite Binary Tree, at least outside of Wolkenmuekenheim. -- | <urn:uuid:978efae0-6cf7-483a-93d0-05ca7adee37a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://mathforum.org/kb/message.jspa?messageID=8167400 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396949.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00142-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.855622 | 679 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Wolfram|Alpha already contains many extensive collections of mathematical data, including curves, surfaces, graphs, knots, and polyhedra. However, one type of object we had not systematically incorporated until recently was the class of plane geometric figures technically known as laminae:
Most people (including the subset of small people who play with sorting toys such as the one illustrated below) are familiar with a number of laminae. A lamina is simply a bounded (and usually connected) region of the Euclidean plane. In the most general case, it has a surface density function ?(x, y) as a function of x- and y-coordinates, but with ?(x, y) = 1 in the simplest case.
Examples of laminae, some of which are illustrated above, therefore include the disk (i.e., filled circle), equilateral triangle, square, trapezoid, and 5-point star. In the interest of completeness, it might be worth mentioning that laminae are always “filled” objects, so the ambiguity about whether the terms “polygon”, “square”, etc. refer to closed sets of line segments or those segments plus their interiors does not arise for laminae. | <urn:uuid:c6eb1b36-1c14-40d0-940e-e972b5dcb0bd> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blog.wolframalpha.com/page/2/?s=lamina&x=0&y=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394937.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00018-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957753 | 262 | 3.546875 | 4 |
When many young South Koreans are asked why they need to study English, they’ll respond that they need it to find a good job. They won’t mention specifically how it could be useful to their potential careers, such as for business emails, international sales calls or for online research.
What they are referring to is the need to study English to get a good Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) score–the most widely accepted measure of English ability in South Korea. Having worked in the recruitment section of a Korean company I can say with certainty that TOEIC scores are a critical metric used in hiring decisions.
Most in recruitment will tell you that a TOEIC score above 800 is needed for employment with one of the first or second tier Korean companies. Even those employed by other companies will still have a TOEIC score and accompanying certificate on their job application.
However, once in the workforce, many Koreans will never use their English ability to its full potential. Unless they are hired for a specific “global” role, many staff will not get the opportunity to use English to benefit their work other than for some online research.
It can be argued that current standard and compulsory English education from elementary level education through university is adequate for the reading comprehension skills needed for the vast majority of jobs in Korea. Yet many young Koreans and their families continue to invest tens of thousands of dollars for additional English education for a skill that will never be fully utilized.
A 2013 report on Korea by McKinsey & Company found that a typical middle class family shells out up to $100,000 per child on education fees, even before the costs of extra English education at one of the many English academies prevalent in Korea.
Despite this staggering investment, Korea has a relatively high rate of unemployment among those aged under 30. A major reason for this is that that although around 70% of Koreans enroll in tertiary education, major corporations only provide up about 10% of jobs available, making competition incredibly fierce for these positions.
More In Education
- Koreans Get More Bang For Buck Learning English in Philippines
- In South Korea, Studying for Life, Not Just a Career
- Inside South Korea’s U.S. College Prep Industry
- 'Calculus Chocolates’ Sweeten Korea’s College Entrance Exams
- Seoul Eyes Later School Starts to Help Students’ Health, Performance
- What Ails South Korea’s Education System? Private Tutoring, Says World Bank Chief
Many young Koreans who apply but fail for such jobs are actively choosing unemployment to pursue postgraduate study options and prepare for English tests to strengthen their applications the following year. Such youngsters are referred to as “chuiupjunbiseng” or “students preparing for work”. It is not uncommon for Koreans to apply for three or four job application seasons in a row to the same group of large companies, each time with newer and presumably better TOEIC scores.
The most damning fact from the McKinsey report was the revelation that high school graduates will earn more over their work life compared with college graduates because of the late entry of the latter group into the workforce. A 2012 survey conducted by the Korea Employment Information Service, found that the average age of new office workers in Korea was a staggering 33.2 years old for men (up from 27.3 in 2008) and 28.6 for females.
While many are spending thousands of dollars on essentially “buying” an entrance requirement to a Korean conglomerate, some new hires will be assigned to overseas jobs that require English. Those workers will often join in-house English training programs or attend classes sponsored by their employers in their own time, however. If new recruits have the opportunity to improve their language skills at the workplace, why are they placing such high expectations for TOEIC scores on the entire new graduate workforce?
Finding a solution to the financial and societal pressures associated with English test scores in South Korea isn’t easy. Should companies abolish English test requirements completely from the application process, other than for “globally” defined jobs?
That would be a bold step, but this much is certain: allowing recruits to enter the workforce at an earlier age and reducing the amount of money invested in their education would give young Koreans and their parents a much more balanced return-on-investment for their education outlays. A byproduct of such a policy would surely be a reduction of youth stress and depression.
Without doubt, excellent English skills are vital for a portion of the Korean workforce and will benefit any young worker entering the workforce. But to expect all prospective rookie workers to go beyond English training provided during school and essentially force them to seek private education and certification seems to be costing young Koreans and their families much more than they anticipated.
Michael Kocken is the founder of Kocken Consulting, a Korea-focused business consulting service based in Australia. Mr. Kocken has lived and worked in South Korea for four years.
Also popular on Korea Real Time now: | <urn:uuid:71b27f4e-f5cb-46d3-bf5f-cb09017b14e6> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blogs.wsj.com/korearealtime/2014/07/09/south-koreas-costly-obsession-with-english/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402516.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00107-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958869 | 1,041 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Book Review: Black Valor: Buffalo Soldiers and the Medal of Honor, 1870-1898 (Frank N. Schubert) : MH
Two new books focus on different cross sections of Americans who received the Medal of Honor.
By Cheryl Stringer
Heroism, like cowardice, has always been colorblind and ob-livious not only to race but also to class, gender, creed, nationality and ethnicity. But that fact has been only grudgingly admitted, even by the more enlightened segments of the American population.
It is good, therefore, to discover a book that gives credit where credit is long overdue. Black Valor: Buffalo Soldiers and the Medal of Honor, 1870-1898 (Scholarly Resources, Inc., Wilmington, Del., 1997, $19.95), by Frank N. Schubert, is a well-written, informative account of the individual military careers of 23 black American soldiers who were presented with the Medal of Honor between the end of the Civil War and the start of World War I–the majority being men who served in the 18701891 Indian wars. The book deals frankly with the dehumanization of the black soldiers during the Civil War and in other wars that followed, despite which black men, most of whom were illiterate former slaves, still wanted to join the Army as a means of advancement.
The Civil War saw the first black Americans accepted into the U.S. Army. The Medal of Honor was presented to 12 soldiers from the five then-existing regiments of U.S. Colored Troops on April 6, 1865; four others were awarded medals shortly after the war ended.
During the postwar years, six Regular Army regiments were set aside for black enlisted men. Those men came to be called “buffalo soldiers” by the Plains Indians, who admired their courage and thought their hair resembled the buffalo’s. In addition, some former slaves married into the Seminole tribe, and many of their progeny became scouts for the Army. Known as the Seminole Negro Scouts, they had a considerable impact on Indian warfare.
One all-black regiment was the 9th Cavalry, in which Emanuel Stance, an educated free farmer, had enlisted on October 2, 1866. In the autumn of 1869, Stance fought in two major battles with the Kiowa and the Comanche. In a later expedition, Stance and his comrades battled 500 Indians between the Clear Mountain Fork and Double Mountain Fork of the Middle Brazos River on May 20 and 21, 1870. His company commander, Captain Henry Carroll, wrote, “The gallantry displayed by the sergeant and his party, as well as good judgment used on both occasions, deserves much praise.” With Carroll’s recommendation, Stance became the first postCivil War black Regular to be awarded the Medal of Honor on June 28, 1870.
The son of a white Frenchman and a black American woman, Sgt. Maj. Edward L. Baker, Jr., kept a journal of his more than 28 years of service with the 10th Cavalry, including service during the Spanish-American War. On July 1, 1898, Baker had taken cover under heavy Spanish fire when he heard a groan and saw Private Lewis Marshall lying wounded in the San Juan River. Ignoring the advice of others, Baker ran through shells that passed so close beside him that he could feel their heat, reached Marshall, dragged him to safety and went for a surgeon. Less than 30 minutes later, Baker helped cut the barbed wire the Spaniards had strung around their positions; then he and the rest of the 10th Cavalry joined the advance that drove the enemy from San Juan Hill. On July 3, 1902, Baker received the Medal of Honor for the gallantry he displayed there.
Black Valor gives a vivid description of fron-tier warfare and the special challenges black troops had to face–and of 23 cases when the buffalo soldiers won recognition for valor from a society that previously had not acknowledged their achievements.
Another cross section of American Medal of Honor recipients is recognized in Men of Honor: Thirty-Eight Highly Decorated Marines of World War II, Korea and Vietnam (Schiffer Publishing Ltd., Atglen, Pa., 1997, $29.95), by Kenneth N. Jordan, Sr. Men of Honor selectively highlights several U.S. Marine heroes from the past half century. In a manner similar to Black Valor, Jordan’s book concentrates on a single service and a selected time period–in this case the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II, Korea and Vietnam.
During World War II, General David M. Shoup supervised the landings on Tarawa Island from November 20 to 22, 1943. Although in a state of shock from the near-miss of an exploding shell and suffering from a serious, infected leg wound, Shoup gallantly led his troops through relentless artillery, machine-gun and rifle fire to reinforce the hard-pressed, thinly held American positions. For this heroism, Shoup was awarded the Medal of Honor and two Legion of Merit medals, and his unit, the 2nd Marine Division (Reinforced), earned a Presidential Unit Citation.
During the Korean War, a posthumous Medal of Honor was presented to the widow and daughter of 1st Lt. Frank N. Mitchell. On November 26, 1950, Mitchell sacrificed his life by single-handedly covering the withdrawal of wounded fellow Marines, despite his own multiple wounds. For prior gallantry in action near Hamhung, Lieutenant Mitchell was also awarded the Silver Star.
The chapter on Vietnam features several eyewitness accounts of heroism, such as that of Maj. Gen. James E. Livingston, a veteran of 33 years of outstanding service. During assaults on the village of Dai Do on May 2, 1968, Livingston was wounded twice, but he continued to direct his men. Later, at Dinh To, Livingston was wounded so badly that he could not walk; nevertheless, he supervised the evacuation of wounded Marines before allowing himself to be evacuated. Livingston’s awards include the Medal of Honor, the Silver Star and the Bronze Star.
Although Schubert writes about black soldiers and Jordan writes about Marines, all these fighting men had “the medal” in common, and the accounts of their valor are equally compelling. | <urn:uuid:da37e29f-2866-4f70-897e-e835ebb8741d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.historynet.com/book-review-black-valor-buffalo-soldiers-and-the-medal-of-honor-1870-1898-frank-n-schubert-mh.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404382.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00069-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973501 | 1,304 | 3.09375 | 3 |
Archives and Manuscript Collections
Records of the Herbarium (RG4)
ARTHUR CRONQUIST RECORDS (1939-1992)
25.4 linear feet (32 boxes)
Cronquist (1919-1992), an internationally renowned systematic botanist,
was born on March 19, 1919, in San Jose, California. His boyhood was spent
in Portland, Oregon and in Pocatello, Idaho, where he became interested
in the natural history of the mountain regions of the west. Cronquist entered
the University of Idaho (now Idaho State University) where Professor Ray
J. Davis became an influential mentor. He gained a B.S. (1938) and M.S.
(1940) from Utah State University. Here he met Dr. Bassett Maguire, who
directed his course of study on the Aster foliaceus complex and
who later became a colleague at The New York Botanical Garden. Cronquist
gained his Ph.D. (1944) at the University of Minnesota under Dr. C. O.
Rosenthal and came to the Garden in 1943. He left for a short period to
teach botany at the University of Georgia (1946-1948) and at Washington
State University (1948-1951), then returned to the Garden in 1952.
At the Garden, Henry A. Gleason nurtured Cronquist's interest in floristics,
which led to a collaboration between the two men that resulted in publications
that remain botanical classics to this day. The first was Gleason's New
Britton and Brown Illustrated Flora (1952), to which Cronquist contributed
the section on the Asteraceae; the second was their Manual of
Vascular Plants of Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada (1963),
known to botany students as "the Green Bible." The manual is an encyclopedic
reference and field book, whose intellectual genealogy can be traced to
Nathaniel Lord Britton and Addison Brown's original Illustrated Flora
of 1896-1898. A third co-authorship with Henry Gleason was The Natural
Geography of Plants (1964).
Through his career Cronquist conducted fieldwork throughout North America,
with a concentration on the study and collection of plants of the intermountain
regions of the western United States. These studies resulted in the publication
of Intermountain Flora (1972, volume one), co-authored with Arthur
H. Holmgren, Noel H. Holmgren, and James L. Reveal. Cronquist was an authority
on the family Compositae and authored three textbooks on introductory
botany. In the later 1950's he began a correspondence and collaboration
with the Armenian botanist, Armen Takhtajan, of the Komarov Institute in
Leningrad, U.S.S.R. His work with Takhtajan and associate biologists at
the Komarov proved a critical stimulus in the development of his synthetic
projects in general botanic systems. During his association and friendship
with Takhtajan, Cronquist studied and became proficient in Russian, visited
the (then) Soviet Union on several occasions, and promoted scientific exchanges
between the two countries.
As Director of Botany (1971-74) and Senior Scientist (1974-92), Cronquist
carried important administrative duties at the Garden and at its satellite
facility, the Cary Arboretum. During this time he also held faculty appointments
at Columbia University and the City University of New York, where he served
on the Executive Committee on Biology. His many professional affiliations
included the American Society of Plant Taxonomists (president, 1962), the
Botanical Society of America (president, 1973), the International Association
of Plant Taxonomy (council member), and the Torrey Botanical Club (president,
1976). Professional awards and honors included the Leidy Medal of the Academy
of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia (1970), honorary vice-president of the
XII International Botanical Congress, Leningrad (1975), the Asa Gray Award
(American Society of Plant Taxonomists, 1985), and the Medal for Botany,
Linnean Society of London (1986).
Arthur Cronquist was known for his towering physical stature, tall tales,
and congeniality as well as for his commanding position as a botanist and
educator. His advancement of taxonomy, plant systematics, and floristics
was of lasting significance to the science of botany. He died on March
22, 1992 while, studying plant specimens in the herbarium of Brigham Young
University in Utah.
SCOPE AND CONTENT
The Arthur Cronquist collection consists of correspondence, manuscripts
and typescripts, research papers, institutional and legal records, photographs,
and artwork spanning Dr. Cronquist's forty-year career at The New York
Botanical Garden (1952-1992). Artwork has been removed to The New York
Botanical Garden Art and Illustration Collection #15, and field notebooks
are located in the Collectors' Field Notebook collection. Records pertaining
to the American Society of Plant Taxonomists (ASPT) have been removed to
the Garden's repository collection.
Series 1: Correspondence
(a): General Correspondence
(b): New York Botanical Garden Correspondence
(c): Russian Correspondence
Series 2: New York Botanical Garden Administration
Series 3: Scientific Affiliations
Series 4: Research Grants
Series 5: Education
Series 6: Manuscripts and Typescripts
Series 7: Publishing Companies
Series 8: Photography and Illustration
Series 9: Research Papers and Projects
Series 10: Cannabis Cases
Series 1 Correspondence, 1950-1992
6.3 lin. ft. Arranged alphabetically.
The correspondence is indexed by correspondent's last name (or organization
name) and organized into three sub-series as follows. Correspondence is
also located in other series where appropriate.
Subseries 1a General Correspondence
Here are included letters from professional associates, occasional writers,
friends, and graduate students. The collection also includes carbon
copies of outgoing correspondence. Significant correspondents include Rolf
Dahlgren, Leo C. Hitchcock, Arthur H. Holmgren, Ernst Mayr, James Reveal,
Ernest Small, Frans Stafleu, and William C. Steere.
Subseries 1b New York Botanical Garden Correspondence
This collection includes outgoing and incoming correspondence and memoranda
of Garden staff relating to scientific and administrative work. Of special
interest are communications with Bassett Maguire and the correspondence
of Julius Cohn regarding a letter of Dr. Henry Gleason, dated November
15, 1952, in which Gleason details the history of his work as an ecologist.
This letter was published as "A Letter from Dr. Gleason" in Brittonia,
39(2), 1987, pp.205-209, with a short preface by Cronquist. The original
copy of Gleason's six-page letter to Cohn is attached to the Cohn-Cronquist
Subseries 1c Russian Correspondence
Here can be found outgoing and incoming correspondence with colleagues
in the former Soviet Union, some of which is typewritten in Russian (Cyrillic).
There are 7 files of Cronquist's correspondence with Armen Takhtajan (1957
to 1992), including 4 pertaining to specific projects or publications undertaken
in collaboration. One file pertains to the Soviet physicist and dissident
Andrei Sakharov relating to constituent opinions of the Botanical Society
of America members regarding a position statement of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science on the Sakharov case in 1973.
Series 2 New York Botanical Garden Administration,
1.6 lin. ft. Arranged alphabetically.
This series includes records pertaining to Cronquist's administrative
duties, e.g., employment (applications, resumes, curriculum vitae), accounting
(budget and salary records), publications (meeting minutes), policy, general
affairs, and administration of the Cary Arboretum.
Series 3 Scientific Affiliations, 1953-1992
2.1 lin. ft. Arranged alphabetically.
Series 3 consists of meeting minutes, correspondence, and notices relating
to the administration and publications in the several organizations represented.
Affiliations include the American Association for the Advancement of Science
(AAAS), the American Institute for Biological Sciences (IABS), the Botanical
Society of America (BSA), Flora North America (FNA), the Torrey Botanical
Club (TBC), and three International Botanical Congresses. As council member
of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists (ASPT), Cronquist received
documents relating to the founding of the organization in 1936 and correspondence
of the first 25 years of the society's existence. These files, all prior
to Cronquist's ASPT stewardship, have been removed from the collection
and placed with the records of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists
(Repository Archives, New York Botanical Garden).
Series 4 Research Grants, 1955-1992
1.0 lin. ft. Arranged by subject.
This collection comprises grant proposals and related materials relate
primarily to National Science Foundation (NSF) grants. The material consists
of reports, correspondence, and notes relating to grant proposals by Dr.
Cronquist for his own research and/or on behalf of others. In some cases,
proposals have several authors to fund joint projects. Notable proposals
include the Flora of the Pacific Northwest (Cronquist and Hitchcock)
and Intermountain Flora (Cronquist, et al).
Series 5 Education, 1967-1978
1.0 lin. ft. Arranged alphabetically.
This series consists of administrative records relating to faculty and
administrative appointments Cronquist held at Columbia University and at
the City University of New York (CUNY). The records largely pertain to
doctoral review committees and the CUNY Executive Committee on Biology
and contain information relating to New York Botanical Garden affiliations
with the 2 universities.
Series 6 Manuscripts and Typescripts, 1939-1992
2.0 lin. ft. Arranged alphabetically by author.
This series contains scientific articles in draft form (some in press),
many of which were directed to Cronquist for his review and advice. All
manuscripts and typescripts are indexed alphabetically by author. There
are 8 manuscripts authored by Cronquist himself, and 2 with T. Barkley
as co-author. Photographs and/or illustrations supporting the texts are
located in Series 8: Photography and Illustration.
Series 7 Publishing Companies, 1957-1992
0.3 lin. ft. Arranged alphabetically.
Correspondence, contracts, sample pages, tear sheets, and lists of author's
corrections form the bulk of material in this series. While publishers
of scientific periodicals also appear here, most files pertain to publishing
houses that handle book-length works, especially university presses. Notable
here is Columbia University Press, publisher of Evolution and Classification
of Flowering Plants.
Series 8 Photography and Illustration, 1962-1991
3.75 lin. ft. Arranged by subject.
This series consists of loose and mounted photos, two-tone prints, mock-ups,
sketches, and other illustrations relating to book publications, especially
to the textbooks Introductory Botany, Basic Botany, and An Integrated
System of Classification of Flowering Plants. Illustrators of the latter
are Bobbi Angell and Robin Jess, whose work has been removed to The New
York Botanical Garden Art and Illustration Collection #15. There are also
several photo portraits of botanists, including Russian and Armenian scholars
from the Soviet Union.
Series 9 Research Papers and Projects, 1936-1990
6.2 lin. ft. Arranged alphabetically.
12 boxes of index cards of plant specimens collected in the field, organized
alphabetically by genus, make up a large part of this series. Each card
provides data on specimens collected in the field and include species name,
location and state, collection date, and collector's name. Additional information
on specimens appears in Dr. Cronquist's field notebooks located in The
New York Botanical Garden Collectors' Field Notebook Collection. There
are also notes and records of legal cases for which Cronquist was consulted,
notably the Cache Creek-Bear Thrust Environmental Impact Statement relating
to a legal battle to prevent land development near Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
Another involved information on a "creationism" case. The series also contains
5 files relating to Dr. Cronquist's death in 1992 and an unfinished research
project. Included are commemorative presentations delivered at the Arthur
Cronquist Memorial at The New York Botanical Garden on May 2, 1992.
Series 10 Cannabis Cases, 1972-1983
1.1 lin. ft. Arranged by subject.
This series consists of legal documents (testimonies, opinions, orders,
and summaries) of several criminal cases involving the prosecution of individuals
for possession of marijuana. Called upon for his taxonomic expertise, Cronquist
supplied information on the analysis and history of Cannabis taxonomy;
he held that the genus consists of only one species, Cannabis sativa.
There is also correspondence with Ernest Small, a Canadian colleague and
expert on Cannabis taxonomy, and its legal dimensions in American
The New York Botanical Garden
ART Collection #15
CFN Numbers 503-611
RG4 Records of the Herbarium Office (1933-1964)
RA American Society of Plant Taxonomists
Processed June 1999 by David Rose under a grant from the
National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) PA-23141-98 and a grant from
the Harriet Ford Dickenson Foundation.
For more information and a complete description contact:
Susan Fraser, NYBG
The LuEsther T. Mertz Library
The New York Botanical Garden
Bronx, NY 10458-5126
Back to Top | <urn:uuid:709e3849-42e0-4e9b-9498-cbec52220393> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://sciweb.nybg.org/science2/libr/finding_guide/cronweb3.asp.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395620.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00145-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.884263 | 3,014 | 2.53125 | 3 |
1897 – Birth of John Joseph Seerley, Jr., American World War I flying ace who also served in World War II.
1916 – First flight of the Breguet 14, a French biplane bomber and reconnaissance aircraft; it is the first aircraft in mass production to use large amounts of metal rather than wood in its structure.
1943 – No. 1426 (Enemy Aircraft) Flight RAF, nicknamed “the Rafwaffe” (shown above), is formed to evaluate captured enemy aircraft and demonstrate their characteristics to other Allied units.
1981 – Aeroflot is banned from flying to the U.S., after an earlier Aeroflot flight that overflew American military installations, straying from its supposed flight path.
2004 – China Eastern Airlines Flight 5210, a Bombardier CRJ200, stalls and crashes near Baotou, China, shortly after takeoff because of frost contamination; all 53 on board and two people on the ground are killed.
2008 – Death of Alexander John “Al” Lilly, Canadian airliner pilot, chief test pilot of the Royal Air Force Ferry Command during World War II and vice president of Canadair; Lilly also was the first Canadian to break the sound barrier. | <urn:uuid:b0aeceed-abcb-423f-bfb2-ee1e9b5f0264> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.flightjournal.com/blog/2013/11/21/on-this-day-in-aviation-history-192/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402516.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00060-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941187 | 255 | 2.96875 | 3 |
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